“Try Before You Buy” is an occasional segment of Astral Projections. It spotlights free (or nearly free) supplements, quick-start rules, and modules for various RPGs. Today I look at 2019’s Free RPG Day goodies, at least the ones available at the local game shop.
Alas, this year I didn’t actually make it into the FLGS–I had my regularly scheduled weekly game that was going to overlap. However, my husband was kind enough to bring home a pile of goodies, mostly the modules or module/quickstart rules, from his foray. My husband had a very good time, playing in at least 2 games, although he did note, a bit sadly, that there weren’t very many non-booklet freebies (dice, etc.) or door prize drawings (a staple of our FLGS’s special events) this year. Overall, though, it sounds like it was a great event for store and patrons alike.
Right now, we have 9 more booklets, from 7 companies, added to our gaming collection. Two of these I will do individual pieces on: R. Talsorian’s The Witcher Tabletop RPG (Easy Mode) and Official Intro Manual for Outbreak: Undead 2e. Outbreak is available for download at that link currently, and Witcher Easy Mode should be available by the time you read this. (ETA as of this writing was July 1, 2019.)
Dungeon Crawl Classics is one of the Old School Revival/Renaissance retro fantasy RPGs. Goodman Games provided a quickstart ruleset and intro adventure (actually two, an L0/1 and an L1). The booklet has a lot of good black & white line illustrations, including a handful of funny cartoons accompanying some of the tables. Unfortunately, the module part of the booklet is hard to read. It’s designed so that you flip the booklet to the back cover to read the larger, L1 module–but it shares a page with the L0/1 one, so each adventure has an upside down page. There is a code inside the booklet to get a free copy of the adventure (I am presuming the longer one) at Drive Thru RPG’s site, but I didn’t find the adventure there.
“The House on Poplar Court” is an official supplement for Hunters Entertainment/Renegade Game Studios’ Kids on Bikes RPG, set in the 1980s. It’s another game inspired by Stranger Things, ET, The Goonies and similar shows and movies. It does require the Kids on Bikes rulebook to play the module. Although the setting, a small Illinois town, and characters were well-drawn, I didn’t think there was enough information for me to run the module, even with the rules. I couldn’t even figure out what the NPCs were doing that had the PCs and key NPC worried–scaring locals? Mindless rampaging? Conjured by someone else?
Green Ronin teases its upcoming (Q3) Modern AGE Threefold setting with a quickstart/module combo about a strange epidemic. I found the setting background information confusing, probably because it was too complex for the small amount of space devoted to it. For example, it read like Organizations A and B were opposed, but the module and pregens made clear their respective agents often worked together. The setting is a science fiction and fantasy mix with gateways to varying worlds, per the blog entry at the link above. I’ve had a good time playing Dragon Age one-shots, and recently discovered I like at least some mixed settings, like Savage World RIFTS®, so I might enjoy this–if I had time to add another system/setting to my groups. Alas…
Paizo wins the prize for Most Free RPG Booklets with three. The first is “Skitter Crash,” a sequel to Free RPG Day 2018’s Starfinder module “Skitter Shot.” You don’t need to have played the previous module to run or play this one. A pirate’s revenge leads to a crash, which leads to–more adventures for the 6-armed PCs.
Paizo’s other 2 goodies are continuations of their popular Free RPG Day tradition of Goblin PC adventures for Pathfinder. (Second edition playtest, although I see no reason why you couldn’t use it for PF 1e, as the introduction says it is usable with other fantasy games.) The 2019 Storybook is “We Be Heroes?” The PCs belong to a small unique goblin tribe, who are trying to help themselves and assorted humans (you read that right) out of some tight spots. It looks like fun, especially the unique “Wolf” companion of the goblin druid PC. Must see the illustration to believe–that’s all I am saying.
The third booklet is an adaptation of “We Be Heroes?” for the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Core Set, required to play this version of the Storybook. Like the RPG Storybook, it has a lot of nice color illustrations. In this case they are in the form of character cards for the PCs, NPCs, and monsters. I am not familiar with the card game, but the linked pages reads like it might be a fusion of a card game and RPG.
The last quickstart/module is for Mythic D6 from Khepera Publishing. The website says Mythic D6 is for “heroic action adventure genres!…from fantasy to science fiction” and it’s a good thing because there is nothing on the cover or in the booklet that tells you this. The module was urban fantasy/mild horror themed. Like the Kids on Bikes module, “Mannequins for Dummies” is short on material for running the scenario, so is best suited for GMs who don’t need a lot of guidance from the module. Kudos for including not only dice rolling mechanics but clear examples in the short quickstart rules.
So that’s all for this year’s Free RPG Day 2019–until I spend some more time reading The Witcher Easy Mode and Intro Manual for Outbreak: 2e. Did you get any other cool freebies that we missed?
Linda Whitson
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