will region-free DVDs play on any ol' player?
Sort of. Region-free DVDs simply have no region restrictions on them, so there would be no problem with the region of the player itself. However, it is likely (depending on the source) that the video is in PAL format, which most North-American DVD players are incapable of playing, as the NTSC video standard is used here. If the disk is coming from one of the countries in green at
this link, then you'd be fine. Otherwise, the video format is likely to be incompatible.
There are players that can play both formats, but you'd have to specifically search for one. Also, you can play either PAL or NTSC DVDs on a PC just fine.