Links to Free RPGs

 

If you have played one of these games, please take the time to post a short review of it.  Also see John Kim's index of free RPGs

 

Rules Systems

 

Hypertext Version of D20

Comments:  My hat of D02 knows no bounds . . . 

Review:  This is d20. You've probably heard of it. It's the base system for D&D, your local bog-standard combat-focused somewhat rules-heavy fantasy adventure game. This online version is easy to access, search, and read.

 

CJ Carrella's Witchcraft

Comments:  A pdf version of CJ Carrella's Witchcraft.  

Review: None yet.

 

Free Roleplaying Games--Lost Souls and Legendary Lives

Comments:  Free versions of a couple of RPGs, namely Lost Souls and Legendary Lives, that were published in the 1990s by Marquee Press.

Review: None yet.

 

Final Fantasy Table Top

Comments:  A fan made tabletop game version of Square Enix's Final Fantasy Series.

Review:  I remember this being a fairly good system when I played it a few years ago, but it had a few problems.  I have heard that the writers have fixed many of the problems with it, specifically the summoner class.

 

Spirit of the Centry SRD

Comments: Largely complete rules for Spirit of the Century, a pulp action game based on the FATE 3 system.

Review: Very good for emulating the ever-popular pulp genre. Simple enough to pick up and play quickly, with a very good character creation mechanic. Requires special Fudge dice, however.

 

FUDGE

Comment: The classic free rules toolkit, with 4dF resolution and verbal skill levels.  Actually used for a bunch of free and commercial games.  By the author of GURPS Bunnies and Burrows.  A large body of fan material exists.

Review: None Yet.

 

FATE

Comments: Another free rules toolkit. Light system, similar to FUDGE, currently on its third edition.

Review: Fudge-based, meaning 4dF and verbal descriptors, but Gifts, Faults, and Attributes are all dumped in favor of Aspects.  "Don't touch the hat."  No generic Fate 3.0 toolkit exists yet, so you may want to note the Fate 2.0 PDF, which has various options for combat and magic.  If you let Fate 2 Aspect boxes be refreshed by spending a Fate point, it becomes pretty similar to Fate 3.0

 

RISUS: The Anything RPG

Comments: A very, very rules-light game with a slightly silly bent but a following and a purchasable thickbook of ideas.

Review: None yet.

 

PACE

Comments: About as light as RISUS or Wushu, but diceless.  By Fred Hicks of FATE and Evil Hat Productions fame.

Review: None Yet.

 

Wushu

Comments: Action-oriented RPG with pulp and kung-fu supplements. 

Review: Light like Risus, but a nearly uniquely narrative system.  You don't roll to see if your attempted action succeeds; you describe what you do and it happens, and you roll for the right to narrate victory in the scene or conflict.  And you get dice per detail, like a game built out of Exalted stunting.

 

Mazes and Minotaurs

Comments: An old school fantasy RPG system in the vein of Dungeons & Dragons 1e.

Review: Rules strongly remiscent of old D&D, set in mythic Greece, and with flavor text pretending to be from an alternate universe where M&M was the first RPG, not D&D.  So parodic, but looks like a real playable game nonetheless.  Fun reading; story of creation here.

 

GURPS Lite

Comments: Quick-start version of Steve Jackson's generic RPG system.

Review: None yet.

 

Broomstix

Comment: Harry Potter RPG

Review: None yet.

 

Basic Fantasy

Comment: Free remake of old school D&D.

Review: Basically a remake of the original Dungeons and Dragons for the nostalgia crowd. If you like old-school Gygaxian monster-bashing, henchman-hiring, dungeon-delving, and table-referencing, it'll serve you well in the absence of the real thing.

 

Labyrinth Lord

Comment: another remake of old school D&D

Review: None Yet.

 

Campaign Settings, Rules Supplements, and Other Resources

 

The Shadow of Yesterday

Comment: Fantasy game.  Fudge core with its own Secrets and Keys rules for powers and experience -- the Keys are said to be innovative.  Official site here.

Review: None Yet.

 

Urbis - A World of Cities

Comment: A pure D&D 3.5 setting, with an emphasis on magic industrialization.  Similar intentions to Eberron, done differently.

Review: None yet.

 

Wuxalted Redux (wiki)

Comment: A re-take on Wuxalted (PDF), a variant of the free Wushu system that uses the setting and themes of White Wolf's high fantasy RPG Exalted.

Review: Both are a lot crunchier than pure Wushu, trying to implement a skeleton of Exalted rules, but much lighter than Exalted itself.  (Other people have simply used pure Wushu for their Exalted games.)

 

FATE of the Rings

Comment: SotC meets Middle Earth.

Review: None Yet.

 

The Words of Destruction

Comment: A Dictionary of Mu game done in Fate, by Fred Hicks.

Review: None Yet.

 

Bill King's Sword and Sorcery d20 Toolkit

Comment: what it says

Review: None yet.