Sun 17 Dec 2017, 08:04
I would say that Year Zero games (which Forbidden Lands will also be) are indeed Low Prep. They are built to be played in a sandbox and have random tables and all sorts of ideas to help the GM get going fairly quickly. You would of course still need to read the book and maybe familiarise yourself with (or create) an overall metaplot, but once that's done, sessions can usually be planned fairly quickly.
However, there are definitely other systems out there which are "Lower Prep" (like Apocalypse World), so your basis for comparison might be different to mine. I come from a D&D / WFRP / Shadow of the Demon Lord / Star Wars / FATE / Savage Worlds background, all of which "normally" require significant prep time in comparison.
That said, there is a fairly big GM movement these days to run sandbox campaigns using ANY system, and there is plenty of advice on the interwebs to help. However, a system which has built in tools to aid sandbox play (like the Year Zero games) is always going to make this easier.
Anyway, we Kickstarter backers are expecting a PDF Alpha of the game book any day now, so we may have a better answer for you after the holidays.
I make YZE games (https://drivethrurpg.com/browse.php?author=Matt%20Kay) and produce predominately Free League content on my YouTube channel (https://youtube.com/@3skulls)