Astral Projections – Free RPG Day 2021: The Loot! (Part 2)

Welcome to Part 2 of my quick glances at some of the goodies given away at this annual event. Thanks again to my husband, Mark, for sharing these with us.

Dave Taylor Miniatures, Mantic, and The Army Painter collaborated on “How to Build a Boss-Fight Final Chamber.” Mark says this guide to building a miniatures set is aimed at gamers who are new to modeling and miniatures painting. The pictures of the final product are beautiful. It makes a great looking set piece for you game.

“VastGrimm: Into the Wurmhole” from Infinite Black/Creature Creation is a short quickstart horror-SF module. Having a biology type degree, I did like the clever physiology-inspired monsters. Mechanic is a d20 roll plus mods, and booklet says rolls are mostly done by players, including NPC rolls with GM only setting difficulty. Horror-SF isn’t my thing but maybe it’s yours.

Level 1 is an “anthology” of indie games compiled by 9th Level Games and sponsored by a number of entities, many that you’ll recognize (Roll20, Evil Hat, R.Talsorian, etc.). The booklet showcases a bunch of small rules-light games of all kinds. These games are very LGBTQ+ supportive. There are also several pages on various safe gaming tips and aids, which I feel is important. Even if you don’t use all, or any of the suggestions, just reading this will help give you a better perspective on making the gaming table a safe, supportive location for everyone. I did raise my eyebrows at one game that used a card draw mechanic, but with a Tarot deck instead of standard playing cards. I don’t know a lot about tarot cards but I do know many people who use them don’t care for others handling their deck except during readings.

Mōdiphiüs Entertainment offered up a sneak preview of its new version of the Weird War classic Achtung! Cthulu, using their 2d20 system. Achtung! Cthulu takes the historical facts that Hitler’s regime sought to use magic, merges it with the Cthulu mythos and runs with it. This book has a bit more than the usual pregens, adventure (“A Quick Trip to France”), and basic rules. There is some background and Secret War organizations included, for example. The rules section also includes the sidebars, not often included in quickstart rules. As the daughter of a World War II vet, I was touched that Chris Burch’s introduction (another plus) included a short tribute to Allied soliders and resistance fighters. This is a game I may need to take a closer look at.

Privateer Press gave a new adventure for Iron Kingdoms, “An Echo in the Darkness.” It’s set during a village festival and PCs can play games during the event for prizes, a nice touch. This one isn’t a quickstart, just a standalone module with no pregens. Your group will need to have the game in order to play it.

Goodman Games, of Dungeon Crawl Classics fame, also makes D&D 5e supplements. This year, GG presented a 5e re-write of the classic Dark Tower module from Dragon magazine. The layout even reminds me of the old Advanced Dungeons and Dragons modules. (Yes, as a matter of fact, AD&D was my gateway RPG.) There are also a couple online goodies inside. Page 1 has a coupon code to get a free PDF of the sourcebook at Drive Thru RPG. Page 2 has the webpage to download pregen characters. (GG had two modules out for Free RPG Day this year, but Mark was only able to get this one.)

Next week, I will conclude this loot look. If you weren’t able to attend Free RPG Day, don’t despair. Most FLGS’s will give away the freebies as long as they last, so don’t hesitate to ask the staff at yours. Many publishers put their gifts on their websites shortly after the event, too. Paizo, for one, is great about this. If you got some freebies that Mark and I missed, please tell me about them in the comments.