Free RPG - Basic Roleplaying: Universal Game Engine - Quickstart

It was Free RPG Day this past Saturday. I no longer pay as close attention to it as I used to, but some of the releases DO make it into PDF format.

Chaosium has released the Basic Roleplaying: Universal Game Engine - Quickstart for Free RPG Day 2025. This quickstart includes three adventures in different genres to highlight the system's flexibility, and is well worth the price of "free." 

Powering some of the most influential and celebrated roleplaying games of all time, Basic Roleplaying is presented here in an easy-to-use, intuitive, and accessible quickstart. The system is at the heart of Call of Cthulhu, RuneQuest, Pendragon, and many other popular games. This quickstart gives you an easy entry point into the Basic Roleplaying world. 

The Universal Game Engine

Basic Roleplaying is an ideal beginner’s game, but also appeals to those who wish for clear, concise rules that are easy to explain in play. Characters are based on what they can do: defined by skills and abilities rather than abstract roles or classes, and they advance by using their skills successfully in play. 

Inside you’ll find: 

Core rules for adventuring, conflict, and combat.

Rules for creating characters from a variety of settings. 

Three complete adventures spanning three settings: swashbuckling France, a hostile alien planet, and a ruined temple devoted to an evil god.

This standalone product is an excellent introduction to Basic Roleplaying-powered games, and introduces the fundamentals of the system in an easy-to-use format. With this quickstart, worlds of wonder and imagination await!

Free RPG Day

Chaosium’s offering for Free RPG Day 2025, the BRP Quickstart is a quick and easy entry point to Chaosium’s robust line of products, from Call of Cthulhu, RuneQuest, Pendragon, Age of Vikings, and more! Inside these pages are the core of the BRP system and three sample adventures with ready-to-play.

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My Accidental Free RPG Day

Yesterday was my birthday and I spent most of the day out & about, picking myself up a sweet-ass Bday gift that is not at all RPG related. On the way home I decided I should stop by my local Game Store to see about the newest HeroQuest expansion written by Friend of the Tavern Levi Combs. 

As I wandered in I was asked if I was there for Free RPG Day.

I had completely forgotten about Free RPG Day! After choosing a couple of minis that I will 100% most definitely paint....someday, I looked at the freebie table. Lots of stuff to be had, but I really try not to be "that guy" and I picked up two....only two items:

I really wanted to check out the Goodman Games offering and a 10 page (content) 1st level DCC adventure that has a couple pages of player handouts....hell yes!

I also grabbed up the Plague Bearer game offering from...Guillotine Press and CMON Games. As I was grabbing that up the owner of the shop told me someone was running the free adventure and was looking for players......

....I figured, why the hell not. I've got nothing better to do and checking out a new "Dark Fantasy RPG" would be fun. The shopkeep and his Mrs. joined in and he had a party of five. I did what I usually do and grab an archer type (I really try to play an archer when checking out a new system because my 1st D&D PC was an archer type and by doing this I can more easily compare one system against another).

The GM altered the adventure a bit to fit the time allotted and we all had a good time. I got to slay the BBG "single handedly" (not really, the rest of the party figured out just how awesome my PC's new ability was and they rallied around me and had my back. It felt like it was "all me" but it really wasn't). I think calling Plague Bearer a RPG is a bit of a stretch though. It was more of an amalgamation of a RPG, a board game, and a tactical miniatures game. While the GM did a good job running the game as a one-off, it felt like the game really needs a much longer playtime and I think if we created PCs instead of using pregens there might have felt more RPGish.

As a bit of an aside...there were RPG Pencil Dice! Smaller pencils, with erasures and the numbers 1 through 6 on the face of each side of the pencil. Noteworthy because our buddy Ken Whitman, or it is Whit Whitman (?), is still....well his last update on RPG Pencil Dice was nearly six years ago!

At the beginning of the game, the store drew names for some Free RPG Day prizes and I won a set of  The Legends of Drizzt Dice Set.

The store owner also brought over a quickstart rules set for the +1 System from Wet Ink Games that was used to run a one-off of Garbage & Glory Trashrun. He played it that morning and loved playing an anthropomorphic raccoon going on a literal trash run.

I'm looking forward to seeing if I like Wet Ink Games' Never Going Home, but I'm not sure if that will use the +1 System of not....

After the Plague Bearer game it was early evening and it felt like things were winding up a bit. I did a stroll by the freebie table and noted that most of the products I looked at were quickstart rules for new game systems....Runescape Kingdoms, Arzium, and Dragonbane. There might have been more, but I didn't look at everything on the table. I suspect there were at least a couple more new systems.

Free RPG Day is Tomorrow, October 16th 2021

Yep, as you may have noticed, Free RPG Day was pushed back this year. Normally held in June, this year, due to the pandemic, it was moved to October.

ENWorld has a surprisingly complete overview of what is available. As usual, the OSR relevant or adjacent are minimal.

Tomb of the Savage Kings for Dungeon Crawl Classics (DCC RPG), a level 2 adventure designed by Stephen Newton.

Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Soulbound: Reap and Sow gives an introductory adventure for players interested in visiting the Mortal Realms in Soulbound. Great for Age of Sigmar fans.

 

 

 

Free RPG Day is June 15th

Yep, June 15th, 2019 is Free RPG Day. So, what o we have for the OSR Gamer?

Aside from the DCC RPG Quickstart and adventure, not much sadly. I will say the Starfinder RPG dice do look cool, and 15 sets per box should mean you have a chance to get some. The Witcher could be fun.

Hmm, Forts & Frontiers is based on D&D. Doesn't say what version. Historical RPG

Your Free RPG Day 2018 Shopping List - I'm Not Overly Impressed

Each year the picks get slimmer and slimmer. Ah well, let us see what Free RPG Day 2018 has to offer...

Unknown Armies: Does anyone still play this?

Pathfinder Adventure Cards: will be left at the bottom of the box

Pathfinder Adventure: 5 bucks a pound!  Oops, that's over. Game is already in the discount bins.

Starfinder: This is not the scifi game you are looking for.

Viking Dice - will never make it past the store employees.

Munchkin Card - first few will get snagged fast, then they will sit at the bottom of the box.

T&T Quick Start Japan Adventure - WTF? Seriously. I want a copy just on the WTF grounds.

Goodman 5e adventure - if 5e is your schtick.

DCC RPG Quickstart - not bad, but I already have sans the new adventure.

Numenera - Still can't read the damn book with all the cluttering watermarking.

Renegade Game Studios - never heard of ya.

CoC adventure: Always cool

Chessex Dice - if you collect...

Eldritch Cock - I'd rather see the new Ref Book and the "shock" has gotten old.

Wrath & Glory - eh?

Delta Green - CC Quickstart - Cool

Troll Lord 5e Adventure - if you are into 5e...

Wyrd Mini - again, won't make it past the employees

Midnight Legion Adventure Book - only one copy per box...

D&D RPG Character Folio - snagged by the owner

That's all folks ;)

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.

Free RPG Day PDF Releases - Past and Present

Yep, there's a whole bunch of releases, going back years for Free RPG Day.

Here's the main link to all of the "Free" Free RPG Day releases in PDF at RPGNow

Some releases from this year:

Conan: Free RPG Day 2017: The Pit of Kutallu - PDF The Pit of Kutallu is a scenario which was part of FREE RPG Day 2017 and is self-contained standalone adventure featuring a cut down version of the 2d20 system for Robert E. Howard’s Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of, a game of dramatic pulp adventure and heroic conflict.

All you need are to play are two twenty-sided dice (2d20), a dozen or so six sided dice (d6), paper pens and some tokens or beads to track momentum, a group of friends and your imagination!



Vaginas are Magic! - Vaginas are Magic! is a book of blasphemous, dangerous magic featuring spells that only women characters can cast. It also includes a new magic system for use with Lamentations of the Flame Princess and all other traditional class-and-level tabletop role-playing games.

This is a book of 20 longform spells, a new magic system, and a short essay about magic. Each spell has its description, a half dozen effects if the spell is improperly cast, and a full page illustration accompanying it. Yes, that's 20 pages of art.

Spells are each named after a metal song. Of the twenty spells, three have sexual content, and three of the twenty illustrations could be considered explicit in that way.

RuneQuest Classic Quickstart - free in PDF https://www.chaosium.com/blog/free-rpg-day-is-over-heres-how-to-get-your-copy-of-the-rq-quickstart-if-you-missed-out/ but damned if I can find it at the site.

edit - and here's the RQC link:

https://www.chaosium.com/content/FreePDFs/RuneQuest/CHA4027%20-%20RuneQuest%20Quickstart.pdf


Torg Eternity - Free RPG Day Special - They came from other cosms—other realities—conquerors joined together to steal the Earth's living energy…to consume its possibilities. The Possibility Raiders brought with them their own realities, turning portions of our planet into someplace else.

High Lord Baruk Kaah, a lizard-like humanoid from a world called Takta Ker (which literally translates to "The Living Land"), rules a primeval, mist-shrouded realm that now stretches across wide swaths of North America.

But you were just an ordinary person living an ordinary life on the day the Maelstrom Bridge crashed down and New York began to transform...

Free RPG Day is This Saturday - What Are You Looking to Snag?

So, Free RPG Day is right around the corner. Actually, it's this Saturday, June 17th. I plan to run a game of Swords & Wizardry Light at Legendary Realms in Plainview NY. I should have enough copies of the rules to cover a full table. It will be a short session, about 3 hours. Guessing kick of at 1230 or so - I'll know more after tonight's game.

Now, what freebies are you looking to score?

For me, I'm interested in the RuneQuest Quickstart, the DCC Quickstart and the LotFP release (even if I have no clue what its about). If I had to choose only one, I'd go with the DCC pick - I'm interested in seeing how +Jim Wampler trimmed and cut the DCC rules ;)

What are you looking to snag?

Always a Kerfuffle at The Tavern - Some More Thoughts on Free RPG Day.

So, Gamerati interviewed Aldo Ghiozzi about Free RPG Day and The Tavern got a mention. Now, Aldo may be trying to play down his comment at The Tavern:

but the reality is, he's right - Free RPG Day does nothing to bring anyone into the hobby. Not new gamers, not lapsed gamers, not even gaming spouses (unless they are tagging along to grab more free loot).

Now, here's my question: What value does Free RPG Day have for most publishers? Aldo mentions the free Call of Cthulhu adventure later in the interview. How many brick and mortar stores that had the free adventure actually carry the game? How many carry the DCC RPG? 13th Age? LotFP products? Castles & Crusades? How are you rewarding your customers by giving them free stuff for games you don't even carry?

As a retailer, you know what's coming in the box. Why aren't you at least carrying a product or two that links to the items you are giving away? Because you probably figure they won't sell anyway. If so, what good are the free items? At best, your customers will pick it up as a novelty. At worst, they'll find what they need at an online retailer. Is that really what you want?

I really fail to understand why most publishers kick into this program aside from Paizo. I do understand why Frog God Games didn't release anything this year. It's not even a "loss leader" for most publishers, it's just a loss, especially when the stores in question don't even carry your line of releases.

I'm not knocking "free", I just don't see this as a very effective use of the concept. Not for publishers, not for retailers and not for the customers.

Oh, and I never mentioned "OSRIC". The post title in question was: An Underwhelming Free RPG Day 2016 From an Old School Perspective

I did love the question about "Pencil Dice" ;)

Mutant Crawl Classics is Part of Free RPG Day - Kickstarter Around the Corner

Five Different Covers ?!?

This year's Goodman Games Free RPG Day release has a DCC RPG Lankhmar Adventure and the very first Mutant Crawl Classics Adventure with quickstart.

Oh, and it comes in five different covers.

Whle the Lankhmar stuff is really cool, it's the Mutant Crawl Classics that has me excited. I've listened to +Jim Wampler talk about it on various podcasts an it's something I'm really looking forward to snagging a copy of the free releases and the impending Kickstarter.

How impending is the Mutant Crawl Classics Kickstarter? I don't know and Jim isn't telling, but I'm damn close to giving him my cell phone number to speed dial when it goes live, both so I can back it early and let my readers know ASAP.

In any case, time for a one hour trip to see if I can snag a copy of today's release...

Free RPG Day Online Sales and Specials - Frog God Games and More!

It's a good day to be a gamer even if you can't get to a FLGS that's participating in Free RPG Day.

Let us count the ways:



Mazes & Perils Deluxe Edition is a measly buck for a day only. This best seller on OBS won't stay on sale at this price beyond today, so don't delay.

Frog God Games is running a huge sale at their online store. How huge?

Buy More Save More 20% Off!
Receive 20% Off when you purchase $50 or more!
Offer Expires 06/20/2016. Coupon Code: DAD20

Buy More Save More 30% Off!
Receive 30% Off when you purchase $75 or more! Offer Expires 06/20/2016. Coupon Code: DAD30

Buy More Save More 40% Off!
Receive 40% Off when you purchase $100 or more! Offer Expires 06/20/2016. Coupon Code: DAD40

$5 Off All Hardcover Books!
Take $5 Off any Hardcover Book for Father's Day!
This offer can be combined with any "buy more save more" coupon for even more savings! Offer Expires 06/20/2016. Coupon Code: DAD5

Dont forget the Open Gaming Store. Go to the link for a list of free stuff, but you must use code FreeRPGDay2016 when checking out.

How Can We Make Free RPG Day About Growing the Hobby, Because it Isn't

Aldo Ghiozzi made an eye opening comment on today's earlier post about Free RPG Day, as I always assumed it was about growing the hobby. I was wrong, and certainly not the first time.

The issue isn't just growing the hobby, but getting feet into the FLGS. I'm as guilty as many, as most of my purchases are made from either OneBookShelf or Amazon when it comes to my gaming needs.

So, how does one get low cost or free marketing that will be seen outside the hobby for Free RPG Day? Maybe a poster or 2 per box for advertising the next year's Free RPG Day? Retailers now have their advertising material a year in advance (and it's probably much more effective than flyers at the door that no one reads or are placed in bags that are quickly thrown out)

Aint It Cool and the Escapist would probably run articles for free. Their audience is far larger than just the geeks that habitually play RPGs and are more likely to spark the interest of lapsed gamers.

I'm sure there are blogs and sites like ENWorld that would post about it in the weeks or months prior if they were given details about the releases to be included in the Free RPG Day release. To be honest, I only knew it was this weekend because I realized June was halfway over and it's usually in June, so I did a Google search.

Is there a Facebook group where gamers can talk about Free RPG Day releases, invite their online friends to check it out and basically pimp the potential awesome of Free RPG Day?

Any thoughts from the ranks of the Taverners?

An Underwhelming Free RPG Day 2016 From an Old School Perspective

Let's see, what do I actually have an interest in from the above picture Free RPG Day 2016 releases?

Goodman Games Quickstart, the CoC Adventure and maybe the LotFP release. The C&C release doesn't really catch my attention.

Pencils? Do they at least serve as Pencil Dice?

Ah well. I'll be in the Poconos this weekend, so even the ones I'm interested in will be out of reach...

Free OSR "Kitchen Sink" - From The Vats (Free RPG Day Alternative Picks - Post VI)

As is my usual, I try to find some free RPGs in PDF to highlight for folks that don't have a FLGS participating in Free RPG Day. Or maybe you're like me and just not all that impressed with this years offerings.

I literally just refreshed my RPGNow homepage, saw for the first time and have just downloaded From the Vats.

Holy crap, but there is a lot of old school goodness crammed in here:

54 pages of community-created, bio-sorcery weirdness. 

Contains: 

One full adventure: The Submerged Spire of Sarpedon the Shaper, by Ben Laurence.
Two one-page adventures by Alex Schröder and Anders Hedenbjörk Lager.
25 new monsters.
7 new magic items.
6 new spells.

Even some art by my friend +Jim Magnusson

The price is right. This sucker is free. You know you want it.

Free OSR Adventure - RL1 - The Craft Dungeon of Reynaldo Lazendry (Free RPG Day Alternative Picks - Post V)

As is my usual, I try to find some free RPGs in PDF to highlight for folks that don't have a FLGS participating in Free RPG Day. Or maybe you're like me and just not all that impressed with this years offerings.

RL1 - The Craft Dungeon of Reynaldo Lazendry is an adventure module for older versions of the world's first (and still most popular) fantasy role-playing game. It is meant to be a begining adventure and is purely a dungeon crawl, with no plot or story, where the PCs explore the ruins of a dungeon (nearly 80 rooms) where a retired wizard pursued his hobbies.

Also comes with a small village meant to serve as a home base, though this can easily be discarded.

Free OSR RPG - Saga of the Splintered Realm Book 1: Core Rules (Free RPG Day Alternative Picks - Post IV)

As is my usual, I try to find some free RPGs in PDF to highlight for folks that don't have a FLGS participating in Free RPG Day. Or maybe you're like me and just not all that impressed with this years offerings.

I actually did some work on the Saga of the Splintered Realm Kickstarter - I have a small piece of the mega dungeon. It's a solid system that draws heavily on D&D while taking on it's own strengths.

Best part? It's PWYW.

While you're at it, grab Book 2: Adventures and the Map Book. Well worth your time and again, the price is right.

Free RPG - Far Away Land QuickStart - and lots of PWYW Adventures (Free RPG Day Alternative Picks - Post III)

As is my usual, I try to find some free RPGs in PDF to highlight for folks that don't have a FLGS participating in Free RPG Day. Or maybe you're like me and just not all that impressed with this years offerings.

I know. It's almost like I can't stop talking about Far Away Land. Let me put it this way - I've run 4 sessions of FAL with 2 groups and just using the Quickstart, and it has all you need for many evenings of adventure without spending a cent. Even better, if your printer supports duplex and booklet format, you can have your own print copies for the cost of paper and toner.

Dirk does great stuff and the fact that the Far Away Land QuickStart rules includes rules for leveling as well as the first adventure in the series is awesome. Give the FAL rules a try. My groups and I love 'em.

Free OSR RPG - RuneQuest Essentials PDF (Free RPG Day Alternative Picks - Post II)

As is my usual, I try to find some free RPGs in PDF to highlight for folks that don't have a FLGS participating in Free RPG Day. Or maybe you're like me and just not all that impressed with this years offerings.

This time I'm highlighting RuneQuest Essentials, the stripped down version of RuneQuest 6. RuneQuest was one of the early alternatives to Dungeons & Dragons and has gone through nearly as many versions as D&D. BTW, I may call RuneQuest Essentials "stripped down" but it still comes in at over 200 pages for the PDF.

The full version of the RuneQuest 6 rules are 40% off this weekend only, but certainly grab the Essentials version. Can't beat the price.

Free OSR RPG - Iron Falcon (It's Free RPG Day Eve)

As is my usual, I try to find some free RPGs in PDF to highlight for folks that don't have a FLGS participating in Free RPG Day. Or maybe you're like me and just not all that impressed with this years offerings.

Tonight I'm highlighting Iron Falcon by none other than +Chris Gonnerman (of Basic Fantasy RPG Fame)

What is Iron Falcon?

The earliest fantasy campaigns grew directly out of wargames. There was a point in the development of the first commercial role-playing game when the rules shed most of their wargame roots and assumed a form familiar to generations of players to come. Iron Falcon aims to be that game, reproducing its mechanics and style in all its raw and innovative glory, as it was before the advent of more "advanced" rules.

The rules are free in PDF and damn inexpensive in print.

My copy arrives from Amazon on Sunday ;)