Free RPG Roleplaying Game Day 2007

on Thursday, 19th July, a carton 2/3rds-3/4s full of a fairly random-looking selection of rpg "stuff" arrived, including:

• a bright & cheerful-looking intro to Tunnels & Trolls RPG from Flying Buffalo, including a short, but fully playable version of the T&T System, plus "Riverboat Adventure" & "Goblin Lake" by Ken St. Andre (2 Solo adventures):
  as well as being a fine, small system - perhaps the single best for "hack & slay" dungeon-delving and wilderness-adventuring for the pure fun of things, T&T is also the rpg system with most solo-play adventures available;
• stapled Quick Start Rules for the rpg of eldritch creeping horror, Call of Cthulhu RPG from Chaosium, complete with a 9pp ready-to-run classic adventure, "The Haunting" (aka "The Haunted House");
• White Wolf's intro for their forthcoming Changeling: the Lost RPG, which includes System Rules, World Background Info, & Adventure:
  see Changeling: the Lost RPG for further details
• and also the intro for their very recently-released Scion: Hero RPG,
• the similar intro to Mage: the Awakening RPG &
• that to Exalted 2nd edition RPG are also available;
• Beginner's Guide, the Quick-Start Rules for Green Ronin's super-hero rpg, Mutants & Masterminds RPG by Steve Kenson, complete with "Into the Doom Room", a ready-to-run solo adventure, and "Super-School Slug-Fest", a short group adventure (and not a tale of super-slime);
• the current GURPS Lite RPG
• (and i still keep freebie copies of the previous edition, GURPS Lite RPG 3rd Edition, for those who aren't impressed with GURPS 4th edn.);
• "The Pig, the Witch and her Lover", an anonymous adventure for Warhammer Fantasy 2nd edition RPG
  n.b. this requires possession of the core "WHFRP" rpg rulebook, as no skeleton of the system rules is included;
• Quick Start Rules for Castles & Crusades RPG from Troll Lord Games, complete with a 4pp ready-to-run adventure, "Castle Zagyg";
• and also Imperial Town of Tell Qa by James Misher, Wilderlands of High Adventure "Sourcepamphlet" (though there's as much here, as in many a 48pp paid-for supplement): "official gaming and approved for use with Castles & Crusades" (from Troll Lord Games), from Adventure Games & Judges Guild: 14pp of closely-printed explication of a two-page centre-fold-plan of the Tell Qa bastion; usable in its designed setting, with the history detailed, or in any other appropriate campaign setting
  n.b. this requires possession of the core C&C Players Handbook rpg rulebook, as no skeleton of the system rules is included); or else the Quck Start Rules above; or your own personal rules system of choice for running within your game
• "Fisticuffs at O'Leary's Place", a folded A3 scenario for RuneQuest RPG
  n.b.this requires possession of the core "RuneQuest" rpg rulebook, as no skeleton of the system rules is included;
• Rifter #38, the quarterly house sourcebook, overall mostly for Rifts RPG, but may include a majority of articles for any and all of Palladium's rpgs, which share a common system, so that characters from one setting may travel into any other Palladium System rpg (albeit sometimes with a little shoe-horning); this issue also contains material for:
  Palladium Fantasy RPG
  Splicers RPG,
  Systems Failure RPG,
  and for Rifts: Chaos Earth RPG;
• and a choice of d20 System adventures; n.b. all require possession of the core D&D 3.5 Players Handbook rpg rulebook, as no skeleton of the system rules is included in any of these:
  • Dirge of the Damned, Bleeding Edge Adventure #3 for Four Characters of 3rd level (or it could be played giving a greater or lesser challenge for more or fewer Characters from 2nd or 3rd, to 4th or 5th level; or an extremely demanding one for 8 First Level Characters at a pinch, with adjustments as indicated within) by Rodney Thompson, from Green Ronin;
    sequant upon Beyond the Towers, but perfectly well playable as a stand-alone, or dropped into a travel interlude between episodes (or as a complicating distraction) in an ongoing campaign, when a party is near a town or city large enough to host Orlen's Opera House, at a large village or small town prosperous enough to be visited by the travelling Players - and by the Magistrate, Dearden, and his wife (and retinue).
  • The Sinister Secret of Whiterock, Dungeon Crawl Classics Adventure #51.5 by Harley Stroh, from Goodman Games, for 1st-3rd level Characters, with a total of from 6 to 12 Character level grades between them; scaling info is given for stronger parties; without a skilled rogue and strong fighters, a party will find the adventure quite a struggle to complete.
    unwary lonely travellers near Cillamar have not been missed when they have disappeared, but it's a different matter when it's Tavernmaster Peter's son; and he has managed to scrape together a couple of dozen gold pieces - mostly of good weight, too - with which he's promised to reward any party that can returmn his son to him, unharmed - or at least, alive. there are clues, indeed one of the party may hold part of one such, and there are rumours a-plenty in the area - has not a weird, black-maned owlbear been sighted on the mountain slopes aboce the town? what might this not portend for the safety of all families? - but at least there's no reason to doubt that the gnomes of the Clockwok Academy succeeded in taking all the orcs who sacked their underground town when they collapsed the tunnels - for none of the Broken Tusk tribe has been seen for nigh-on eight hundred years...
    may be played as the prelude to DCC #51: Castle Whiterock, but stands as a separate adventure and may easily be set elsewhere than the world of Aereth.
  • Hollow's Last Hope, Gamesmastery module #0, a wilderness adventure by Jason Bulmann & F. Wesley Schneider, from Paizo, for Four 1st level Characters; Blackscour Taint has struck, and brave adventurers are needed to transcend the dangers of Darkmoon Vale, a haunted witche's hut and the ruins of an abandoned monastery, to obtain the ingredients needed by the local herbalist, to compound the cure.
    stand-alone, but may be used as the prelude to Crown of the Kobold King [also available, but not a freebie]
  • Temple of Blood, Wicked Fantasy Factory Adventure #0 by Luke Johnson, from Goodman Games, for level 1 Characters: "Don't just [make them] crawl through dungeons... make them sorry they ever met you!"
  • Dungeonrattle Brooklyn, X-Crawl Adventure by Brendan LaSalle, from Goodman Games, for Four-Six 1st level Characters who have the honour (!) of participating in the first Division IV Finals to go Fully Lethal...

some of these're pretty, some of 'em useful - and some of them are both!: worth calling in to look through, at least;
many thanks to the publishers who contributed towards this both from myself and, i will presume, from the recipients of this largesse; and also to the uk games wholesalers, Esdevium, who've undertaken the distribution of the boxing-out, presumably including its sorting - no small task. - ppint.

[that there was a lot lacking by way of promotion of the event's purpose, of any aim or objective beyond a little advertising of their games, to rpg-players & gms who already come into the shop - or to at least one rpg shop owner;
or likewise any visible promotion of the event/day itself, neither diminishes the generousity of those who made it possible, nor the work those involved put into it.
but i do trust that considerably more thought will be put into such details for any and all future similar events.
should this event be repeated next year - and i hope it is - i trust rather greater information & lead-time will be given, and publisher-donated prizes/freebies be distributed in time for them, and the event itself, to be advertised, possibly in co-sponsored ads in the local paid-for & free-sheet press.
it might even prove possible to attract the interest of a proportion of the non-role-playing public in the hobby... - pp.]