Free OSR Product of the Week - The Mini Manor: Faces Without Screams (S&W Appreciation Day)

+Tim Shorts released The Mini Manor: Faces Without Screams in conjunction with the Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day Blogest. If you haven't checked out previous Manor releases, you really should, as they are top notch pieces of OSR goodness.

I was going to try to give a good synopsis of the adventure, but this quote from the setup says it better than I ever could:

The player starts out at half hit points, no stuff and shackled to a dead guy while another guy is cutting the face off another dead guy. If this doesn’t sound fun to your player then you need to find another player.

Try and beat that ;)

(dont' forget to add your thoughts on the best posts of the S&W Appreciation Day Blogfest here)

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.

Free RPG Product of the Week - TrollZine! #7 (Tunnels & Trolls)

Like Tunnels & Trolls, but can't seem to find an adventure suitable for group play?

Looking for more solo adventures?

Homebrewed rules perhaps?

Look no further than TrollZine #7!

(the earlier 6 issues are good too, just so you know)

Oh, and it's free. As in "not costing you a cent".

Grap a copy. You won't be disappointed.

(on the off chance you are disappointed, remember the pricing above ;)

Free RPG of the Week: Hulks and Horrors

I realize that my Free RPG of the Week feature doesn't really update on a weekly basis. It updates when there is something worthy to add to the list.

Hulks and Horrors looks to be a worthy addition to the list of free games. It's an OSR space game. With horror. I like horror as a spice, not as the main course, and this look to be a nice amount of spice. Heck, it even uses THAC0! It's gotta be good! ;)

From the blurb:

We are not alone in the Universe, but we have few friends. As we emerged on the galactic stage, we found a universe stripped bare of sentient life by a great Plague, leaving only the wild beasts and twisted plague horrors wandering the ruined hulks of lost civilizations.

We are the Surveyors. We explore the uncharted sectors of space and hunt these ruins for the treasures they contain and the riches they might bring to what sentient life remains. We are not brave, merely foolhardy and desperate. Those who survive become rich beyond dreams. Very few survive. Hulks & Horrors is a science-fiction roleplaying game of galactic exploration and adventure for 2 or more players ages 13 and up. Inside you will find:

• Complete rules for characters up to Level 6 and beyond

• 7 character classes: Pilot, Scientist, Soldier, Psyker, Hovering Squid, Omega Reticulan, and Bearman.

• Easy to learn old-school inspired game rules and combat system

• Weapons, armor, and equipment inspired by classic science-fiction

• Spaceship construction and combat rules

• Random tables for creating whole sectors of space

• Loot generation rules

• Dozens of alien monsters as well as guides for designing your own

• Dungeon-mastering advice for sandbox space exploration

• Optional rules for customizing Hulks & Horrors

Free Game of the Week - The Thing in the Chimney (DCC Adventure)

Looking to run a Christmas themed "One-Shot" for your gaming group that is heavy on the weird and awesome on the atmosphere? Look no further than "The Thing in the Chimney", A Yuletide Adventure by Daniel J. Bishop.

This sucker is a damn good read and should be even more fun to run and play. Christmas is a week away! What are you waiting for? Grab your DCC RPG (or an other OSR ruleset with little conversion needed) and get to work!

Free RPG Product of the Week - Decahedron Magazine #1

Yeah, I know I don't always update this weekly - sometimes it lasts over 2 weeks. What can i say? I'm not a very good calendar watcher ;)

Today we swap in a new freebie into the Free RPG Product of the Week slot - Decahedron Magazine #1 for BareBones Fantasy RPG.

Bill Logan and Larry Moore put together an excellent RPG and now they've put together an excellent magazine to support it.

From the blurb:


Decahedron is a magazine designed to support the BareBones Fantasy RPG.  It contains articles written by gamers like you. Originally, this was intended to be a paid-for publication containing material DwD Studios produced, along with some fan-generated content in a profit-sharing model. However, due to the popularity of the game and the ever-growing community, we wanted to continue our roots of community development like we have done with our other fan-based products and sites.

This magazine is something we can all develop together and be proud of. Designed to be small, lite, but full of fun content, we hope you enjoy this issue, as we plan on many more to come. As long as gamers are contributing content they’ll have a place within the pages of Decahedron.


Within issue you'll find:

    a great cover by Joe Calkins.

    A spotlight on Jim Alcala Sales, an active member of the forums at dwdstudios.com.

    The Gaming Table: we all love d100 tables, and this issue gives you 100 imaginative descriptors for when you're stumped during character creation.  Assembled by various authors in the forums at dwdstudios.com.

    Grimoire: a regular article series containing more magical goodness for your game.  In this issue you'll read about the Commune spell, by Bill Logan.

    Game Options: N. Harrison Ripps walks us step-by-step through the process he took to come up with a balanced approach at two-weapon fighting.  It's a great article to give YOU the tools to create more balanced game options.

    Cavern of Kul'Thoru: Matt Jackson takes us on a tour of the lair of a hydra and his lizardman minions.  Complete with three different story hooks in case you're stumped how to drop it into your campaign.

    Creature Corner: our own Larry Moore gives us the Drop Horror, a low-rank creature ready for you to... ahem... drop on your unsuspecting players.

    Character Races: not all campaigns are based on Tolkein's works.  Mike Wikan gives us the Hriffani Nomads, a cat-like constructed race unloved by the gods but surviving despite all odds.

    The Undertemple of Eleroth: one of our goals is to give you a new map on the back cover of every issue of the webzine, a ready tool for able GMs to stock and build a story around.  This issue's map by Bill Logan.

Free OSR Product of the Week - Shane's Delve (Generic Dungeon)

When Matt Jackson asked me if he could use my just posted pic of a chunk of Amethyst last night in a free adventure, I had no idea the adventure was going up the same night. It did.

Matt works damn fast.

Shane's Delve is a nice, short generic OSR adventure that includes a room with rats, coppers and a nice sized chunk of Amethyst. Well done!

Hey, my first professional photography credit ;)

Free Game of the Week - The World Between For Fictive Hack

Yeah, I know I just put up a Free Game of the Week the other day, but that one is long out of print and I assume that anyone that might have been interested in Powers & Perils grabbed it over the weekend.

This one is a keeper. This one will make you lose sleep, as you try to read it in as few sessions as possible. This one is a hack of a hack.

What do you get when you mix Old School Hack with the Gothic setting of The World Between? You get the blessings of Kirin Robinson (OSH) and Jack Shear (TWB) and make something that's even greater than it's already pretty damn good parts - The World Between for Fictive Hack by Andrew Shields.

It's a big book. I've got it on my Nexus for reading in bed and it's fighting my reread of AD&D for my spare time at the moment. I am very much enjoying my trip through it, to the point that I'm considering getting the softcover through Lulu.

I'll review it when I reach the end and I see if it accomplishes the melding of Old School Hack with the Gothic setting of The World Between as well as it expects to. I'll be very surprised if it doesn't. I'd read the originals, but then I'd never finish reading. ;)

Free Game of the Week - Powers & Perils

So, with my acquisition of Lords of Creation, I did some further internet searching and stumbles upon another Avalon Hill game of the era - Power & Perils. I had never even peeked at this back int he day, and there it was staring at me on Ebay.

Thankfully, I found the Powers & Perils site online, a fan site devoted to, what else? Powers & Perils.

Here you can find original scans and corrected (or uncorrected) redone PDFs. If it was published for P&P, you can find it here.

The site has been up in one form or another since 1998 - 14 years. It took me until now to find it and I'm going to gorge on some Powers & Perils over the next week or so.

Old games never die - not so long as someone shows them love.

(BTW - Just found a copy of the P&P boxed set on Amazon for $14.90. There might be more)

Delving Deeper Offers Original Flavored D&D For Free

It's been a heck of a wait, but if you are looking for some Original Flavored D&D, Delving Deeper might just be your game.

Did I mention it's free in PDF?

Three booklets are in the release

The Adventurer's Handbook - which is where the classes reside

The Referee's Guide - where you find the rules for running the game

The Monster & Treasure Reference - where you find monsters and treasure. What, were you expecting a tricky type of answer? heh

You can grab all three together at the link above.

From the blurb:


What is the Delving Deeper RPG?

Delving Deeper is an emulation of the original fantasy role-playing game.

Meticulously forged over two long years of development, Delving Deeper invites you to recreate the original role-playing experience as it was in its earliest days.

Return to a time when three alignments were enough, when a handful of character classes ruled, and when magic swords had their own ideas about who's boss.

If you’ve ever read or watched a good fantasy with hungry eyes, then this is the game for you. Right here are all the rules you'll need, none of the rules you won't, and unparalleled room for expansion and growth. Grab your trusty sword, your magic wand, and call the guards to arms! There are treasures in these pages...

Free Game of the Week - Dungeon From a Distant Star (OSR Adventure)

Here's another 1-page adventure offered up by Stuart to the OSR community.

From the blurb:


Buried underground for hundreds of years lies a spaceship from the 3rd planet in the Altair system. While heavily damaged, the ship still has power for many of its systems and doors and lights are still fully operational in most sections. Will you be the first to explore The Dungeon From A Distant Star and uncover it's otherworldly secrets?

An old school one-page dungeon including dungeon map, legend, wandering monsters, random tables and descriptions for 23 separate rooms.

Free Game of the Week - The Ancient Academy (OSR 1-Sheet Adventure)

Stewart Robertson has been putting out a series of 1-Sheet adventures recently, and The Ancient Academy is one of them.

So, why did I pick The Ancient Academy to highlight? It's a classic, low level dungeon set up with Wandering Monsters. You really can't get more Old School than that.

The map is very well done, with lots of choices for the adventuring party to make, which is always nice to see.

Did I mention it's free?

Did I also mention I'll be swapping in Stewart's other 1-Page Adventures as the week goes on? Collect them all, as the price is right ;)

Free Game of the Week: The Manse on Murder Hill (Labyrinth Lord Adventure)

Yep, I'm a bit late swapping out the free game of the week this week. I'm going to blame that on a hectic work schedule this week, allergies and just plain forgetfulness. I'm freely throwing myself on the sword ;)

This week's free game product (and probably next week's too, as this week is almost over) is The Manse on Murder Hill by Taskboy Games. It's a mystery / rescue mission for characters of 1st through 3rd level in Labyrinth Lord. Joe Johnston wrote it (not sure if I've seen any previous work from him, but he does a decent job here) and the art is by Stuart Robertson. Stuart does some fine work here.

The Manse on Murder Hill is billed as the first part of a trilogy. I'm not sure if the rest of the series is going to be free or not, but even at a couple of bucks you'd be getting your money's worth.

A Sample of Stuart's Work

The random rumor table is 40 entries long, so there are enough red herrings and truthful tales to keep you party moving, maybe not in the right direction, but definitely moving.

This isn't a dungeon adventure but a mansion adventure. Well, I guess in the end it still plays out like a dungeon, but that's not the point. It's an abandoned mansion, and that should lead to it's own atmosphere and spookiness.

From the blurb:

Several children of Little Flanders have gone missing near an abandoned house of evil repute. A desperate town has begged your heroes to exorcise the house of evil spirits and rescue the children. Will you brave the dangers of the Manse on Murder Hill?

Free Game of the Week - Ambition & Avarice (OSR Style)

Hey, I can finally freely talk about Ambition and Avarice ;)  See, I game with the game designer of A&A, and he's bounced bits and pieces off me for a few weeks now, and I've played in two play test sessions so far. What can I say about it? Simply that I want to come back for more.

It has the comfort of being the game you know, with the twist that it isn't quite the game you know. Hit Dice size is based on race, not class (except Rangers get to step the die size up by one). The spell list is NOT the one you are sued to from nearly 40 years of D&D playing, but the magic is still pretty much Vancian in nature. The spells themselves? Mostly pure gold. Well, at lest the first level spells that are included. This is the free beta release and there is surely more to come.

I like the idea that everyone can be "thiefly" in nature, but some are just better at it than others. Non-casters (mundanes) get the addition of character points, which can be used to increase HP beyond the rolled HP total, to make one better at dungeon skills or saving throws and even the chance to hit. Customization is a sweet thing. Casters get to customize via their spells, but much like LotFP's Weird Fantasy, they won't be getting better in combat or skills or even saves. Interesting way to work out a balance between the meat shields and their magic casting buddies.

I've played in two sessions thus far - and I have a 2nd level Dwarven Priest and a Hobgoblin Knight. Yep, the humanoids and demi-humans get to mix ;)

There's a crapload more to Ambition & Avarice  than what I just discussed above, but I'll address that in a follow up post.

BTW, the PDF is formatted for Tablets / onscreen reading and has basic bookmarks, so it's prefect for reading on your iPad or Google Nexus ;)

Free Game of the Week - Mini Six Bare Bones Edition

I'm a day late with updating this week. So I'll try to make this extra special.

Do you remember the D6 version of the Star Wars RPG? The old West End Games version? Well, long after WEG lost the license, and after they tried to migrate the system to other genres, the D6 system went open. Open as in OGL.

AntiPaladin Games took the Open D6 system and boiled it down to Mini Six.

Mini Six is a member of the OpenD6 family of games. It’s cinematic and flexible like its parent, but its goal is to be lighter and faster, keeping the heart of the system’s mechanics but streamlining the rules.

Mini Six is a variant of the OpenD6 system. It's generic, though there are several starter campaign ideas presented including fantasy, science fiction, and a lighthearted take on a 1970's cop action show style game. 

The mechanics of Mini Six revolve around rolling a dice pool made of a number of six side dice, resulting in a total that is compared to a target number set by the game master. 

What you won’t find in this book are a lot of detailed examples, exhaustive rules to cover every possible scenario, or a large list of modifiers. Instead, we are trusting GM’s, with the help of their players, to apply common sense to make the game fun for everyone. Don’t slow the game down by wasting time digging for rules that aren’t there. And most importantly, when the rules conflict with fun, fun wins.

Free Game of the Week - Worlds Apart

Maybe you remember me posting about Worlds Apart over the weekend - I did. It is currently reside in the Free Game of the Week spot on the left side of this page, so consider this a reminder if your haven't already grabbed a copy.

What is is? A fantasy RPG on a water based world with the Traveller OGL rules as the engine. Pretty neat.

From the blurb:

Four islands composed the sultry chain, floating upon a bright blue sea under a tropical sun, each island gradually decreasing size as the eye passed from north to south. They were mountainous, etched with deep valleys, and covered with lush foliage. Greysolt surveyed the chain as best he could with his spyglass, taking the longest time upon the southernmost island, covered in a hazy steam of warm clouds. The crew of The Dromedary remained silent as the Captain surveyed what no other voyagers had ever seen. Each held different thoughts in the silence: thoughts of receptive natives, thoughts of fresh water and fresh fruit, thoughts of spices unknown to the civilized world, thoughts of slaughter and pillage.

The crew was a motley sort, a dozen or so hardened men and women in their late 30’s. Each had another life behind them; some, several different lives. They were unreliable in the mainstay, but rock-solid in a clutch. They bickered and feuded as they worked, helping each other make The Dromedary move, breath, and live. Their ship was not just a thing of wood and artifice, it was a collection of elemental powers: it was a voyager ship.

Greysolt declared the all clear indicating an isolated cove to drop anchor, and the crew jumped into action. Several went into the hull to tend to the elementals bound within eldritch machinery, but most headed towards their cabins, gathering various equipment for the coming landing. The cove beckoned, the unknown called.

The Dromedary calmly pulled into the bay and slowed to drop anchor. Two dinghies plopped into the water, and their crew descended into the rocking ships. Crossbows ready, the small craft rowed to the black sand shores. Behind the shores a seemingly impenetrable wall of vegetation dazzled in a multi-colored display. Now, to heed the call…

Welcome, traveler, to Worlds Apart! Brave the Forever Sea in a fantasy game of trade and exploration. Take the role of soldier or sailor, entertainer or scholar, dweomercraefter or drifter. A thousand thousand islands populate the world and riches, adventure, and danger lurks upon every shore!

New Feature - Free Game of the Week - Star Frontiers (Remastered)

After passing some emails back and forth between Larry Moore and myself, I kinda realized that my link list on the left side of this blog is lacking any kind of highlighting - it's a fine list, but lists can be boring.

So, every week I'm going to showcase "The Free Game of the Week", although sometimes it may more accurately be a game supplement or adventure (but that wouldn't all fit as a title).

This week, it's the remastered Star Frontiers, a much loved game from my teen years right through High School.

So there you go Larry, this link's for you!  :)

As for the rest of you - feel free to add suggestions for later weeks in the comments section of this post, or send me a message on G+. This should turn into a decent resource for all of us with your help.