Free OSR - Guidebook to the Duchy of Valnwall (OSR Setting)

 

Note - this matches well with Dolmvay, which I highlighted earlier.

Guidebook to the Duchy of Valnwall

The Guidebook to the Duchy of Valnwall is a FREE Labyrinth Lord™ supplement that expands on the critically acclaimed Guidebook to the City of Dolmvay and details the people, layout, and government of the Duchy of Valnwall. The Duchy is presented in broad strokes and is open to customization. It was specifically designed to give Labyrinth Lords a convenient and familiar fantasy setting to place their adventures.

The Guidebook to the Duchy of Valnwall is largely open content. Small Niche Games would like to encourage professional and amateur publishers to use the Guidebook as a shared fantasy setting and set their commercial adventures within the Duchy of Valnwall. Labyrinth Lords (and publishers) should feel free to change, add, or remove any of the information in this book to better suit his or her own game.

The Guidebook to the Duchy of Valnwall contains:

-A breakdown of Valnwall adventure themes

-History of the Duchy of Valnwall

-Detailed overview of the Duchy of Valnwall including government, religion, commerce, and laws and punishment

-Descriptions of over a dozen major festivals

-An overview of the citizens of the Duchy including a breakdown of social classes, daily life for commoners and nobles, style of dress, arms and armor, rumors and gossip, and common gestures, curses, and phrases

-Geography of the Duchy including details on cities, towns, mountains, forests, other terrain features, and more. . .along with an amazingly detailed set of maps by cartographer Tom Fayen

-Descriptions of numerous factions and stat blocks for NPCs

-Descriptions of different types of settlements

-Over a dozen unique Valnwall random encounters

-Over two dozen new plants and monsters native to the Duchy

-More information about the massive seawall and megadungeon known as the Great Valnwall

The Guidebook to the Duchy of Valnwall is available now for FREE so check it out!

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Free OSR - The Fantasy Trip: Melee

Yep! The Fantasy Trip: Melee is quite possibly the Pocket Game that proved the popularity of pocket games.The seeds that turned into GURPS in the end. If you want a quick game of physical fighting, here's your opportunity. Grab some d6 and have at it!

A classic game of fantasy combat. Create characters in just a few minutes – then send them into the arena. Winners become stronger and faster for the next battle. Losers die.

Each counter in this fast-moving game is a single warrior. Players choose weapons and tactics for their fighters, and send them into combat against men, beasts, or monsters – to victory, or death.

This is the basic combat system for The Fantasy. Trip For the basic magic system, pick up Wizard. For ready-to-use adventures perfect for solo or group play, check out Death Test. And for 40 – yes, forty! – postcard adventures, download The Fantasy Trip 2019 Postcard Contest collection absolutely FREE!

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#FreeOSR - Dyson's Dodecahedron - Vol 1 Issue 1

Say what you want about Dyson (and I probably have), but few come close to Dyson's skill when it comes to maps suitable for fantasy adventures (and occasionally beyond). Matt Jackson might exceed by a tad, but Dyson is by far the most prolific dungeon mapper I've seen.

Dyson's Dodecahedron—Vol 1 Issue 1—is offered at PWYW pricing, as are many of Dyson's other OSR releases.

Dyson's Dodecahedron is an irregularly scheduled 12-page digest-sized OSR zine for the Labyrinth Lord RPG with content easily adaptable to just about any OSR style system.

The very first issue of the Dodecahedron presents an eclectic mix of material for old school play drawn from the early days of the blog:

• Pain, Wounds & The Death Spiral presents a system whereby serious injuries to a character are easily tracked and accounted for, reducing a character's abilities over time as they become more and more injured.
• Obscene Eyes are horrid subterranean monsters of strange alien intelligence and disgusting appearance.
• 2d6 Thief Skills rewrites the classic thief abilities into a simple 2d6 chart and three core abilities - the thief's favoured skill, other skills, and climbing walls. This both makes thief abilities simpler in play and in book-keeping.
• Atarin's Delve is a small dungeon adventure that can be played on it's own or inserted into any other dungeon or megadungeon. It features a bandit camp, some magical traps, and of course Atarin Darkhunter.
• Polearms! explores the many varieties of "pointy and/or bladed bits on the end of a long stick" that can be covered by the basic polearm - from the classic Bardiche to the Reticulated Earspoon-Guisarme. All of course have exactly the same stats and handled by random tables.

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Free RPG(?) - Deadball: Baseball With Dice

Okay. Technically, Deadball: Baseball With Dice isn't really an RPG. But if you consider yourself a capable couch-sitting baseball manager, Deadball is the game for you. 

Not only is Deadball: Baseball With Dice PWYW, but Print copies are also PWYW. Print copies can be had for as low as 4.99 - maybe less.

I have had this in PDF since it was a Deal of the Day post-Covid, and it is a blast to play, even solo.

Deadball is a fast-paced baseball dice game for one or two players that uses real statistics to bring the ballpark to your tabletop. Its elegantly simple rules are intuitive to die-hards and casual fans alike, allowing you to simulate a game between real or imaginary teams in about twenty minutes. Download the free quick start guide to see how it works.

Deadball uses real statistics that every fan knows and understands, like batting average and ERA, allowing new players to pick it up in minutes. Because the game is based directly on real, freely-available stats, you can play as any team you want.

Any. Team. You. Want.

Pit history's greatest teams against each other. Replay seasons from fifty years before you were born. Watch today's all-stars go head-to-head with the legends of the past. Any match-up you can imagine, Deadball will make real. 

Don't want to play with real players? Deadball's fast, intuitive character creation system generates players, teams and leagues faster than you can say "Play ball!" The game's rules are easy-to-learn and endlessly customizable, allowing you to remake the game however you see fit. 

This book contains:

• Basic rules for ultra-fast play, and advanced rules for a deeper game
• An introduction to baseball scorekeeping
• A random player table that allows you to roll up a new team in minutes
• Guidelines for creating and running your own league, including rules for new prospects, high-stakes trades, catastrophic injuries and player aging
• Detailed rosters for the legendary Southern Circuit, a fictional league whose story begins here
• The revolutionary Five Tool System, which allows you to create custom-designed players and watch them grow, game after game, season after season
• For the dead of winter, for the dead of night, for when your team is dead in the water, Deadball is there.
• A NOTE ABOUT DICE: This book does not come with dice. You can play Deadball with any standard set of RPG dice (d4, d6, d8, d10, d00, d12, d20), or a dice-rolling app.

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Bundle of Holding - Free Trader Beowulf (History of Traveller RPG)

I own a physical copy of Free Trader Beowulf, and it has been a pleasure to peruse. At 7.95 for Free Trader Beowulf in PDF, it is a bargain!

Traveller! For a limited time, Mongoose Publishing is offering This is Free Trader Beowulf, Shannon Appelcline's comprehensive "system history" of the Traveller tabletop science-fiction roleplaying game, for a special promotional price.

From the author of Designers & Dragons, which told the story of the entire roleplaying industry, comes the intimate, detailed history of a single roleplaying game. This is Free Trader Beowulf tracks Traveller from its inspirations in the early '70s to its initial publication and across seven distinct editions of its original 2d6 gaming system. It tells the stories of Traveller's major publishers, its many licensees, its Long Night, and how it rose again like a phoenix. Now you can get a non-watermarked, DRM-free .PDF ebook of the complete full-color 298-page This is Free Trader Beowulf (retail value $30) for just US$7.95!

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Deal of the Day - The Evils of Illmire (OSR Adventure/HexCrawl)

Today's Deal of the Day is The Evils of Illmire, a 120+ page adventure/zine in hexcrawl format. Usually, $10 in PDF, until tomorrow morning, The Evils of Illmire can be had for $5!

The Evils of Illmire is a dark fantasy hexcrawl adventure module for B/X D&D, Old School Essentials, and other OSR systems.

NEWLY UPDATED FOR 2025!

This 126-page zine is 8.5x5.5, with color cover and black/white interior.

A whole classic campaign in your pocket! The Evils of Illmire is a "mini-mega" hexcrawl adventure module designed to provide dozens of sessions of perilous wilderness exploration and dungeon crawling. It features an evil cult, a doomed town, a dangerous wilderness, and a variety of vile monsters. The zine aims to provide plenty of free-roaming adventure content, but with an over-arching threat that looms over the entire region.

Features:

- Tons of content jammed into 126 lavishly illustrated pages

- 19 detailed hexes, each with a unique random encounter table

- Illustrated town map with keyed locations

- Sixteen keyed one-page dungeons illustrated by Dyson Logos

- Easy weather system to tell where its storming on the map

- New for 2025! Complete hexcrawl system with mountaing climbing, weather, and a campaign calendar to track your adventures.

- Full stats provided in bestiary with nearly 100 monsters

- More than 50 new and unique magic artifacts to discover

- Bonus digital content including a custom old-school character sheet

- Artwork provided for visuals during online play or to print out

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Deal of the Day - The Witcher RPG

I'm a huge fan of The Witcher franchise - video games, TV series, and even comics (in digital, of course). While I own The Witcher RPG, I don't expect I'll ever run it (I own WAY too many RPGs). Instead, I read it for the lore.

Today's Deal of the Day is The Witcher RPG. Normally 24.99 in PDF, until tomorrow morning, The Witcher RPG is on sale for 7.50

In the midst of the 3rd Nilfgaardian War Geralt of Rivia, the White Wolf, scours the Continent for traces of his lost love! But this is not the only tale. A million other stories play out across the vast continent and you are right in the middle of one of them!

The Witcher Pen & Paper RPG allows you to tell your own story in the world of The Witcher! Adventure across the Continent, interacting with living legends and influencing the politics of the land! Fight in the brutal and horrific Third Nilfgaardian War. Or play out your own adventure as you avoid death and dismemberment!

Featuring

• 9 Unique Classes: Play as Bards, Craftsmen, Criminals, Doctors, Mages, Men At Arms, Merchants. Priests, & Witchers.
• A Bestiary of Vicious Monsters: Traverse the wild and hunt everything from the troublesome nekker to the hulking, hypnotic fiend.
• Numerous Spells & Invocations: Call upon the chaotic magic of the Witcher world to summon tornadoes, leave hidden messages, and more. 
• A Visceral Combat System: Skill & tactics rule the day, and a wrong move can mean ruptured organs or more.

This digital edition includes both the full-size PDF and a Phone PDF version designed for reading on your smartphone.

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Free OSR - For Gold & Glory (AD&D 2e Clone)

I just finished playing in a 2-year-long AD&D 2e campaign run by JoetheLawyer. I realized mid-campaign that, except for my trip to Gen Con in '94, it was the only time I played 2e as a player. Go figure...

Today's Free OSR Pick is For Gold & Glory, a free clone of the core AD&D 2e rules.

Within these pages lie the keys to open worlds of wonder and adventure! Whether you are exploring dank dungeons, forging mighty kingdoms, or questing to save the world, For Gold & Glory contains all that you need to run a complete game. Inside these covers, you will find rules to:

• Create heroic characters and guide them as they advance in power.
• Equip characters with everything they need to survive the perils of adventure.
• Guide characters through encounters, whether through wits and skill or strength of arms.
• Reward characters with glittering wealth and wondrous treasures.
• Challenge all characters, from novices to veterans, with over 140 creatures both fair and foul.
• For players and game masters alike, For Gold & Glory is compatible with the second edition of the "advanced" version of the world's most popular role-playing game.

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Free OSR - Neon Goons of the Toxic Wasteland Rulez Lite!

Have you heard of Neon Lords of the Toxic Wasteland? You know, Gamma World if Gamma World was cranked up to 11. Well, Neon Goons of the Toxic Wasteland Rules Lite! is Neon Lords, stripped down to its neon colored and bleeding bones. And that's perfect for me!

So grab 2d6 and roll up a Neon Goon or two!

Do you want to play in the Neon Lords of the Toxic Wasteland world but are bogged down with the massive Core Rulez? Well look no further! Neon Goons of the Toxic Wasteland is based off of Tunnel Goons by: Nate Treme! In these 10 pages you will find all the rules lite you will need to enjoy a quick slime-ridden vomit punk over the top good ole game!!!!

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