Free OSR - Machinations of the Space Princess QUICKSTART

I always reveal my connections with products or projects I highlight, and the Machinations of the Space Princess QUICKSTART! is no exception. James 'Grim' Desborough, the author and main man behind MSO, is both a friend and a creative partner, as we do a monthly livestream together (along with Ryan David) over on Rumble (Inappropriate Characters: Rerolled).

I actually playtested the new Machinations of the Space Princess rules, and they ran fast, were fun, and I would definitely play again? Did I mention the Quickstart is free?

Welcome Spacefreaks!

We're relaunching our successful Machinations of the Space Princess old-school swords-and-scifi game, and you're invited!

For the timebeing this is FREE and includes a psychedelic and surreal space adventure of time-loops and cosmic pizza, as well as quickstart rules so you can try out the game for yourself, as well as pregenerated characters in case you want to start some trouble right away!

This is also the start of our forthcoming Machinations-Media project, which will present a monthly 'zine supporting the worlds of Machinations of the Space Princess over the course of a year. More details on that forthcoming soon!

Lastly, this is our first full attempt at finding ethical ways to use AI, strong human oversight that aims to use AI to assist the disabled and neurodivergent in completing projects and achieving a little independence, or helping older creators to keep working and earning.

We hope people will be supportive of this aim, and the use of AI in this context, helping, rather than replacing human beings.

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Free RPG - Call of Cthulhu Quickstart and Alone Against the Flames (Solo)

You say you want to play a scary RPG and have no one to play with? Well, with the Call of Cthulhu Quickstart and the Alone Against the Flames solo adventure, you can get the full CoC experience by yourself for the price of free. No, no one else will see you lose points of sanity, and only you will know if you cheat on your dice rolls, but your experience will be truthful to the CoC genre.

Alone Against the Flames: An Introductory Solitaire Adventure for Call of Cthulhu

This is a solo adventure for the Call of Cthulhu game. It is a horror story set in the 1920s where you are the main character, and your choices determine the outcome. It is also designed to lead you through the basic rules of the game in a gradual and entertaining fashion. Although most such adventures are played with your friends, this one is just for you. 

Before you begin to play, make sure you have a copy of the Call of Cthulhu Seventh Edition Quick-Start Rules. You’ll also need a pencil, an eraser, and some roleplaying dice. 

You don’t need to read the rules before you start playing. Just settle in a comfortable chair before a roaring fire. Then read on and follow the instructions. 

…On second thought, don’t sit too close to the fire.

 

Welcome to Chaosium’s Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition Quick-Start Rules, a booklet that collects the essential rules for Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition and presents them in abbreviated form.

This book comprises a complete basic roleplaying game system, a framework of rules aimed at allowing players to enact a sort of improvisational radio theater—only without microphones—and with dice determining whe­ther the characters succeed or fail at what they attempt to do. In roleplaying games, one player takes on the role of the gamemaster (or Keeper, in Call of Cthulhu), while the other player(s) assume the roles of player characters (investigators, in Call of Cthulhu) in the game. The gamemaster also acts out the roles of characters who aren’t being guided by players: these are called non-player characters (NPCs).

From its origin, Call of Cthulhu was designed to be intuitive and easy to play. Character attributes follow a 3D6 curve, and the other Call of Cthulhu mechanics are even simpler. Virtually all rolls determining success or failure of a task are determined via the roll of percentile dice. This means that there’s less fiddling with dice of different types, and the concept of a percentile chance of success is extremely easy for beginners and experienced players to grasp.

Use this booklet to play  Call of Cthulhu immediately, and to discover the improvements to the system. Games rules, an updated character sheet, and a classic adventure are included.

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern. 

You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on YouTube - Tenkar

Quickstart - Against the Darkmaster (PWYW)

I'm a big fan of Quickstarts, as they break systems down to their basics and it's not easy to strip down a system heavily influenced by MERP & RoleMaster to its basics. In the case of Against the Darkmaster, the basics are still well over 100 pages. The fact that Against the Darkmaster Quickstart is offered at PWYW pricing is amazing.

Return to the Classic Game of Fantasy Adventure!

Against the Darkmaster is a Epic Fantasy role-playing game of high adventures, eldritch magic and heavy metal combat.

Inspired by the classic fantasy sagas and 80s fantasy movies, Against the Darkmaster is built for heroic action and intense, character driven campaigns.

The Against the Darkmaster Deluxe Quickstart Rules include everything you need to start playing, In fact, it could well be a full RPG! This beautifully illustrated 122-page PDF includes:

• Character creation rules and options;
• Detailed rules for travels, combat and adventuring;
• A complete magic system, with over 100 spells;
• Attack tables and Critical Strikes;
• Dozens of creatures for your heroes to face

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern. 

You can catch the daily Tavern Chat podcast on Anchor, YouTube, or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar 

Quickstart - RuneQuest (Free)

I've mentioned this on The Tavern's YouTube channel, but the best campaign I ever ran was using the RuneQuest 2e rules with the Pavis and Big Rubble boxed sets over 30 years ago. We never called it a sandbox, but it was by far an open-world-style campaign and very driven by player actions.

I recently picked up the RuneQuest Starter Box directly from Chaosium for 30 bucks, and the value is amazing. I'm sure you could snag a copy on Amazon, but the instant gratification you get with the accompanying PDFs for purchasing direct is hard to beat.

Want to take the RuneQuest rules out for a test drive before plunking down a few bucks? Snag the free RuneQuest Quickstart rules.

A mythic world of mortals and gods, myths and cults, monsters and heroes. In Glorantha, the Runes permeate everything, and mastery of Runes allows astonishing feats of bravery and magic.

Glorantha is ancient, and has known many ages, but now it is at the brink of the greatest conflict it has ever known… the Hero Wars.

Glorantha is the setting of RuneQuest, one of the oldest and most influential roleplaying games ever published.

Welcome to Chaosium’s RuneQuest Quickstart Rules, a booklet that collects the essential rules for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and presents them in abbreviated form. Use this booklet to play the new edition of RuneQuest immediately, and to discover the improvements to the system. These game rules and a new adventure—The Broken Tower—preview the new edition of RuneQuest, developed in close consultation with the original designers and creators of RuneQuest and of Glorantha.

The Broken Tower, set in the heart of the Dragon Pass, is suitable for up to 5 adventurers and one gamemaster, complete with all the rules needed to play.

I'll likely record an unboxing video of the RuneQuest Starter Box on the Tenkar's Tavern YouTube Channel this weekend.

Free Quickstart - Dune: Adventures in the Imperium Wormsign

Another thing I want to refocus on in 2022 is the free games and resources that are available to the gaming community. Today, I'm highlighting Dune: Adventures in the Imperium Wormsign.

So, what do you get for the investment of your time and bandwidth?

The Dune: Adventures in the Imperium roleplaying game takes you into a far future beyond anything you have imagined, where fear is the mind killer so be sure to keep your wits about you. The Imperium is a place of deadly duels, feudal politics, and mysterious abilities, noble Houses politic constantly for power, influence, and vengeance in a universe where a blade can change the fortunes of millions. 

Sent out to investigate beyond the shield wall for your House, you know deadly dangers await you on the sands of Arrakis. Can you locate the smugglers stealing your House's spice? Or will you run afoul of the mysterious and territorial Fremen who live out in the deep desert? Out here you only have yourselves to rely on, and there is no power greater than the vast worms who jealously guard the spice.

 Whatever you do, remember that those that control the spice control the universe. 

 ‘Wormsign’, the Dune: Adventures in the Imperium quickstart:

• Introduces you to the byzantine world of the Imperium, putting you in the heart of events set to change the universe.
• Offers you the basic rules you need to play, including both physical and social forms of conflict.
• A complete adventure designed specially to introduce the rules and the incredible science-fiction setting of Frank Herbert's Dune.
• 6 elite agents as pregenerated characters to let you get playing as quickly as possible.

Note: This uses Modiphius' 2D20 System. For some, that's a selling point. For others, that a deal-breaker - Tenkar

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are the affiliate programs that support The Tavern.  

You can catch the daily Tavern Chat podcast on Anchor, YouTube, 

or wherever you listen to your podcast collection.

Free RPG - The Lost Outpost, The OpenQuest Quick-Start Rules and Adventure

I'm a huge fan of OpenQuest. Were I to run my classic boxed sets of Pavis & Big Rubble again, I'd use OpenQuest for the ruleset. It's, IMHO, the best presentation of the RQ/BRPG d100 system that I've encountered.

The Lost Outpost, The OpenQuest Quick-Start Rules, and Adventure is a free taste of the new edition of the OpenQuest rules. 75 pages, hyperlinked and ready to roll ;)

This pdf is designed to get players and Referees up and playing OpenQuest, with the minimum of preparation.

It contains the following sections.

• Characters. A rundown of what an OpenQuest character is made up of, both in terms of numbers and concepts.
• Quick Rules. A concise version of the OpenQuest rules, enough to play the adventure.
• Combat. The rules for physical combat.
• Magic. The basic approach to magic, known as Personal Magic.
• The Lost Outpost. An introductory adventure set in OpenQuest’s example setting, the Empire of Gatan.
• A set of six pre-made characters. Players should pick one and get ready to play.

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.  You can catch the daily Tavern Chat podcast on Anchor, YouTube,  or wherever you listen to your podcast collection.  

Free RPG Day PDF Release - The Spire of the Hunting Sound Quickstart Adventure (Monte Cook's Numenra)

I've never played Numenera. I backed the Kickstarter way back when and I've heard good things about the setting and the system but I've never had the time to give it a proper read. Maybe with the The Spire of the Hunting Sound Quickstart Adventure for Numenera I might find a reason to pull the core book off the shelf. Heck, for the price of free I may be tempted to run this.

A roiling green desert haunted by invisible beasts. A game that consumes those that play. Faceless automatons from another world, and a tower of living sound. The characters have survived the hijacking of the airship Aelestrian, but can they survive the unknown reaches of the Ninth World in which they find themselves? 

The Spire of the Hunting Sound is a complete adventure—plus complete quickstart rules—for novice and veteran Numenera players. If you’ve never played Numenera, or don’t even own the game rules, you’ll find everything you need (except dice!) to learn, run, and play the adventure. And experienced players will love the adventure itself. It even comes with a set of five characters, fully pregenerated and formatted to make it easy to learn Numenera. 

The Spire of the Hunting Sound includes: 

A complete Numenera adventure, filled with the splendor and wonder of the Ninth World. 

Quick-start rules to get you going, even if you’ve never played Numenera or the Cypher System. 

A set of five pre-generated characters in a beautiful and handy format that’s great for novice players as well as Numenera veterans. 

A mini-bestiary with all the details on the creatures encountered in this adventure. 

The Spire of the Hunting Sound was the 2017 Free RPG Day adventure for Numenera. 

Note: The total page count of 47 pages includes the 19-page adventure and 13-page quickstart rules, plus five double-sided pre-generated characters and a five-page mini-bestiary.

DCC RPG Quick Start Rules Released in PDF for 2 Bucks

Goodman Games has released the DCC RPG Quick Start Rules on RPGNow in PDF for 2 bucks (first released in Print for Free RPG Day and released in print to the general public for 5 bucks last month)

If you ever were intimidated by the shear size of the DCC rulebook, here's you chance to find a slightly lighter version for a whole lot less.

I have this in Print (along with the original rules) and I must say its an awesome distillation of the DCC RPG rules. Well done +Jim Wampler

These starter rules were written specifically to introduce judges and players to the DCC RPG system. In some areas, rules have been condensed and simplified. These rules will serve primarily to get characters through their first level 0 adventure and their first level 1 adventure. Although the rules go up to level 2, for the full DCC experience and play at levels up to 10th, please refer to the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG rulebook! 

This book includes two adventures! You get the enduring classic Portal Under the Stars 0-level adventure for new players, plus in a flip-book format, an all-new level 1 adventure, Gnole House by Michael Curtis, inspired by the works of Lord Dunsany and Margret St. Clair who first wrote of the creature called the “gnole,” which Gary Gygax later evolved into the better-known gnoll!

Purchases made via The Tavern's affiliate links put a small percentage into The Tavern's coffers.

DCC RPG Quick Start Rules are On Sale - 5 Bucks plus Shipping

Before you ask - yes, these are the same rules that were given away for Free RPG Day last month (the same day I got rear ended on the way to my FLGS - so THIS is how I'm getting my copy)

The DCC RPG Quickstart Rules cover the DCC RPG rules from Level 0 to Level 2 and includes both a classic funnel and a NEW Level 1 adventure.

+Jim Wampler is the one that took Joe Goodman's original work and whittled it down to something slightly simplified and hopefully not as intimidating as the full DCC RPG rules.

At long last, the DCC RPG quick start rules! Only $5! 

These starter rules were written specifically to introduce judges and players to the DCC RPG system. In some areas, rules have been condensed and simplified. These rules will serve primarily to get characters through their first level 0 adventure and their first level 1 adventure. Although the rules go up to level 2, for the full DCC experience and play at levels up to 10th, please refer to the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG rulebook! 

This book includes two adventures! You get the enduring classic Portal Under the Stars 0-level adventure for new players, plus in a flip-book format, an all-new level 1 adventure, Gnole House by Michael Curtis, inspired by the works of Lord Dunsany and Margret St. Clair who first wrote of the creature called the “gnole,” which Gary Gygax later evolved into the better-known gnoll! 

These quick start rules & intro adventures were originally released on Free RPG Day.

With shipping it came to 10 bucks. Maybe I should have added an adventure or three, but I was just too excited to be able to order the DCC Starter rules (which is more accurate than Quickstart in my opinion, as you get to level and explore what a campaign actually is)

Nope, no affiliate money changes hands here. Goodman publishes excellent products. I expect this to be nothing less than excellent.

A Freebie - Savage Worlds: Test Drive 2015

Since Savage Worlds: Rifts is surging through Kickstarter, I figured it might be a good time to link the Savage Worlds: Test Drive 2015. It's a beautiful piece of work (but don't even dream of printing it out, as you'll use up all your ink) and a fine introduction to the Savage Worlds system.

It also highlights Pinnacle's Lankhmar license, so if you have a soft spot for Lieber, it does a fine job with that too.

Best of all? It's free...

Quickstart: Mindjammer – Dominion (Free)

What better way to start your week off with something that's free ;)

Mindjammer – Dominion has a Quickstart from +Sarah Newton and Modiphius Press.

Sure, it's built off of FATE (free download) which might as well be ancient Greek to me, but there's plenty of inspiration for me to borrow from this free Quickstart. Besides, some of my readers actually use the FATE system, so here you go, FATE in outer space.

From the blurb:

An Ancient War-Ravaged World and a Deadly Foe!

Quickstart primer and introductory adventure for Mindjammer — The Roleplaying Game.

Beyond the borders of the New Commonality of Humankind lies the Sentient Alliance, turbulent worlds where the embers of the Venu War still glow. And yet, stretched thin, the Commonality still tries to keep the light of civilisation alive. Join a team of recruits to SCI Force—the Security and Cultural Integrity Instrumentality—on a mission gone horribly wrong on the cold war frontier with the Venu Successor States. Can you rise to the occasion and save the day before yet another world falls before the encroaching night?

Dominion includes:

-Quickstart rules to enable you to play a Mindjammer game with just this book!
-Four pregenerated characters to get started right away;
-Descriptions, maps, and plans of a strange alien world with an exotic lost colony civilization;
-A complete action-packed adventure showcasing the Mindjammer setting and rules, playable in one or more sessions.

Experience the Mindjammer universe up close and personal as you join in the battle for… Dominion!

Mindjammer — The Roleplaying Game can be used to play in the New Commonality of Humankind, or as a complete and detailed transhuman space opera rules set for any science-fiction setting.

Free - Far Away Land Quick Start

It's here!

Far Away Land (FAL) is a fantasy heartbreaker-esque role-playing game set in a strange and bizarre fantasy heartbreaker-esque world. Players take on the role of a character and adventure and explore in a medieval fantasy world created by the Game Master (GM). The world is quirky and weird and strange and sportive. The mechanics are sandboxy, open, and lite in both form and spirit. And now they are available... for free.

Here they are, the Far Away Land RPG: Quick Start Rules! Get into the epic world fantasy world of Far Away Land right now. The Quick Start Rules contain...

Conflict Resolution to get you playing in minutes.
Character Creation
Gear
Experience and Levels
Magic and Spells
Combat Rules
Character Sheet
and the FAL adventure module Isle of the Rat Wizard

The Quick Start Rules are a no-risk way for you to pick up and play FAL right now. What are you waiting for?

Talking About Free, Stripped Down but Functional RPGs - Basic Roleplaying Quickstart

Sure, it says it's a "quickstart", but it includes rules for advancing your skill and it doesn't include an adventure, so really, it's a "basic" version of Basic Roleplaying (which is the system that CoC, RuneQuest, Legend, OpenQuest and a few other D100 systems are built from / off of / derivative of. It has it's roots in the original RQ and branched off of CoC if I recall correctly)

The price is right, so why not give the Basic Roleplaying Quickstart (Chaosium Link) Basic Roleplaying Quickstart (RPGNow link)a peek before D&D 5e Basic becomes all of the rage later on this summer ;)

Scarlet Heroes QuickStart is Released for Free - Time to Get Your Significant Other Corrupted!

I'm a big fan of +Kevin Crawford 's Scarlet Heroes. It's the RPG ruleset I'm going to use to corrupt my wife and turn her into a gamer. Well, maybe not turn her into a gamer, but allow for me to introduce her to RPG play via some one on one gaming.

Kevin has just released the Scarlet Heroes QuickStart - an excellent opportunity to try out the Scarlet Heroes ruleset and see if it works for you and yours. Best part - after considering the fact that it allows you to run the classic modules with the "hack" built into the system - is that Kevin released the Scarlet Heroes QuickStart rules for free.

Grab them. Read them. Run them.

I'm going to try and run a session for my wife two weekends hence. I'll be sure to post a play report (waiting on the printed cop as my wife prefers print over PDF).

From the blurb:

Scarlet Heroes is an old-school tabletop role-playing game designed to provide classic sword and sorcery gaming for one player and one gamemaster. Scarlet Heroes is built to support one-on-one play, with no need for a full-fledged party of adventurers to provide an evening's entertainment. Whether for a spouse, kid, curious friend, or just as an alternative to boardgames for those nights when only one or two friends can make it to the gaming session, Scarlet Heroes gives you the tools for good old-fashioned skull-cracking adventure.

And now with the Scarlet Heroes Quickstart you can have a taste of those possibilities, all wrapped up in a crisp 32-page digest-sized booklet. Have a friend interested in the game? Hand them the DRM-free PDF, or pass them a copy of the eminently affordable print booklet. It's everything they'll need to brew up a hero ready to take on classic modules and new home-brewed adventures that might otherwise require a full party of novice adventurers.

The Scarlet Heroes Quickstart has everything you need to get going with an evening's adventure.

A thumbnail sketch of the Red Tide Campaign Setting used in the full Scarlet Heroes core rulebook.
Character creation rules for fashioning first-level solo heroes.

Stand-alone game systems to allow for lone adventurers, including mechanics compatible with most old-school modules and classic adventures.

Monstrous foes suitable for the challenging of even these fearsome warriors.
Treasures fit for whetting the avarice of the daring.

Adventure creation guidelines for building quick, easy dungeon crawls- plus a two-page mini-adventure for instant play!

So seize this new weapon for your armory of game mastering artifice. The full rules await for those who find worth in its pages, with a legion of new tools, tags, and techniques for delivering the kind of sword & sorcery adventure you want!

Free Quickstart - Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition

It's October, and you know what that means - Halloween!

I'm figuring the weekend before or after Halloween I'm going to run some kind of "horror RPG" session for the Saturday Night G+ Hangout group. Call of Cthulhu is probably the first choice on that list.

The CoC 7th Edition QS is 48 pages long and a great introduction to the game. I recently grabbed a copy of the 6th edition, and I have an older boxed set from my college days of roleplaying.

Really, you can't go wrong with the CoC Quickstart and you certainly can't beat the price.

From the blurb:

The Great Old Ones ruled the earth aeons before the rise of humankind. Originally they came from the gulfs of space and were cast down by even greater beings. Remains of their cyclopean cities and forbidden knowledge can still be found on remote islands in the Pacific, buried amid the shifting sands of vast deserts, and in the frigid recesses of the polar extremes. Now they sleep — some deep within the enveloping earth and others beneath the eternal sea, in the drowned city of R'lyeh, preserved in the waters by the spells of mighty Cthulhu. When the stars are right they will rise, and once again walk this Earth.

Welcome to Chaosium’s Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition Quick-Start Rules, a booklet that collects the essential rules for Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition and presents them in abbreviated form.

This book comprises a complete basic roleplaying game system, a framework of rules aimed at allowing players to enact a sort of improvisational radio theater—only without microphones—and with dice determining whe­ther the characters succeed or fail at what they attempt to do. In roleplaying games, one player takes on the role of the gamemaster (or Keeper, in Call of Cthulhu), while the other player(s) assume the roles of player characters (investigators, in Call of Cthulhu) in the game. The gamemaster also acts out the roles of characters who aren’t being guided by players: these are called non-player characters (NPCs).

From its origin, Call of Cthulhu was designed to be intuitive and easy to play. Character attributes follow a 3D6 curve, and the other Call of Cthulhu mechanics are even simpler. Virtually all rolls determining success or failure of a task are determined via the roll of percentile dice. This means that there’s less fiddling with dice of different types, and the concept of a percentile chance of success is extremely easy for beginners and experienced players to grasp.

Use this booklet to play Call of Cthulhu immediately, and to discover the improvements to the system. Games rules, an updated character sheet, and a classic adventure are included.

Shadows of Esteren - Book 0 Prologue (Free Fantasy / Horror RPG Quickstart "Plus")

The Shadows of Esteren - Book 0 Prologue is more than a quickstart. It's more like a preview of the Shadows of Esteren RPG / Setting that is playable over multiple sessions. (There is currently a funded Kickstarter proceeding for Book 2 in the series)

Why over multiple sessions? This 80 page free prologue includes game system, setting and three adventures for the price of FREE. Hard to beat that. 

It's an excellent way to find out of the game meets your (and your gaming group's) needs and expectation with little investment other than the time to read it and perhaps play it. At first glance the system seems simple enough at it's core.

Production qualities are second to none. If you like high quality artwork in your RPG, you've found a winner here. If I use this for nothing else, I'll be screen capping much of the artwork for use in my Roll20 sessions. It's just too good not to find a use for.

From the blurb:

Shadows of Esteren is a medieval role-playing game with horrific and Gothic overtones. Drawing inspiration from Celtic myths, this universe has a discreetly fantastic side under a bleak, realistic surface. This world is populated by humans who have to cope with a harsh daily life and supernatural threats lurking in the dark. Focused on investigation and survival scenarios, Shadows of Esteren is a game in which the atmosphere and the interactions among the players are paramount.

Prologue will be your first journey into the universe of Shadows of Esteren’s role-playing game, and will prepare you for the first episode of the official campaign. 

You will find:

. An Introduction to the Universe. Familiarize yourself with the main concepts of the game, as well as with a general presentation of the universe.

. A Summary of the Game System. All the necessary elements to grasp Shadows of Esteren’s system and play your first scenarios.

. Six Template Characters. Illustrated and ready-to-play characters: Yldiane the Varigal, Arven the fighter, Ean the fugitive, Liam the scholar, Mòr the Ionnthén, and Urvan the Blade Knight.

. Three Scenarios. The triptych “Omens” offers three scenarios, which are very different, and yet linked by a single red thread. They are meant for players and leaders of all levels.

. Poison: An ideal scenario to discover Esteren and take your first steps in role-playing. The village of Melwan is threatened by a poisoning. Will you be able to discover its source and how to stop it?

. Loch Varn: Dive into the confines of nightmare in an elaborate scenario with original narrative concepts and discover the secrets of Loch Varn’s vale.

. Red Fall: A dead man and a missing woman. Lead an investigation in Dearg and experience an initial overview of the vale in which the first episode of the official campaign will be set.

Free Shadowrun 5th Edition Quickstart

Hey! Are they trying to make
QSR look like OSR?

As I post this, there is only one product that is selling better at RPGNow than Ambition & Avarice, and that's the full version of Shadowrun 5th Edition.

You can get a free copy of the Shadowrun 5th Edition Quick Start Rules from this link, that way you can save your cash and pick up Ambition & Avarice for about a 1/3 of the price of the full Shadowrun rules ;)

From the blurb:

Shadowrun, Fifth Edition is here and there's no better way to dive into the Sixth World than with these Shadowrun Quick-Start Rules. Take on the role of a Combat Adept, Decker, Street Shaman, or Street Samurai in a brawl against fast-food goodfellas using this set of streamlined rules perfect for both those new to Shadowrun or long-time players getting back into the game.

Are There Any OSR Quickstarts Besides the Two Swords & Wizardry Ones?

I can only think of two OSR Quickstarts: Frog God's Hall of Bones for this years Free RPG Day and the classic Swords & Wizardry Quickstart.

Am I missing any?

How would you put together an OSR Quickstart (system is fairly irrelevant to this question)?

Even RPGNow Recognizes the Death of Free RPG Day 2013 PDFs

How do I know they recognize it? They sent out an email titled "Hundreds of FREE RPG Quickstarts, Maps, Adventures & more!". Many of the items linked? You guessed it - they are from previous years' Free RPG Day promotions.

I'm not complaining about the links. Free is free. I'm just surprised how little attention was paid to the PDF side of Free RPG Day this year, especially for the gamers outside the states.

Some of the grouped links sent by RPGNow:

Quickstarts

Adventures

Maps

The above links are free all of the time, not just for Free RPG Day.

Free RPG PRODUCTS of the Week: TableTop Day Bundle

OneBookShelf is celebrating International TableTop Day by offering a Free Bundle of games.

Much of it is Quickstarts, which are freely available anyway, but it's nice getting them in one place. However, there are 4 full games for free in the bundle:

Little Fears Nightmare: 


The critically-acclaimed game of childhood terror is back in Little Fears Nightmare Edition!

Monsters are real and they hunt children like you from the shadows. As a child, you have your wits, your belief, and the friends by your side. No adults can help you. No one else can save you. It's just you and the monsters.

Scritch-scratch.

Scritch-scratch.

Shut the door and bolt the latch.

Completely reimagined, with an all-new system, Little Fears Nightmare Edition is the definitive version of the classic game.

You're not scared, are you?

Parsely #1: Action Castle:


> LOOK ACTION CASTLE

Parsely #1: Action Castle is the first in a new line of games called “Parsely Games.” Now you can “GO EAST” and “LIGHT LAMP” with the best of them. Canst thou master Action Castle before death claims thee? Parsely games are inspired by Ye Olde Text Parsers from days of yore, but substituting a live human for the computer parser. Parsely games are small, portable and fun for (almost) all occasions.

• Play them anywhere! On trips, in long lines, camping, at game cons…• Play them with anyone! Young or old, expert or total n00b• Play with a few friends or 100 random strangers at the same time

Scion: Hero

Find your DestinyThe savage Titans have escaped their eternal prison to wage war with the Gods once more.Their battles in the Overworld have spilled over to ours.Armed with abilities and weapons granted by their divine parents, the Scions stand as humanity’s only defense. This book includes: • Six ready–to–play Scions - the offspring of the Gods • Rules to create your own Scion from one of more than 50 gods from six different pantheons • The adventure, “The Long Road to Heaven,” using the Storytelling Adventure System Scion: Hero is the first book in a new Storytelling game series from White Wolf Publishing.

The Esoterrorists


You are elite investigators combating the plots of the Esoterrorists, a loose affiliation of occult terrorists intent on tearing the fabric of the world. The Esoterrorists introduces the GUMSHOE rules system, which revolutionizes investigative scenarios by ensuring that players are never deprived of the crucial clues they need to move the story forward.

With The Esoterrorists you can

Equip your characters with up to 39 fine-grained investigative abilities, ranging from Interrogation and Data Retrieval to the ever-popular Forensic Entomology and always useful Bullshit Detector. Round them out with 13 crucial adventure abilities, which help you fight, run away, and retain your mental stability when the horrors come knocking.