Pimp other people's free games!

[Rob Lang]

This thread is for pimping other people's games. Please include only that free stuff that you find exciting. Of course, for me, that's a stretch because I 'froth at the facial gash' at most free stuff I come across. Please include a linkage.

What's exciting you at the moment?
Why?
Why will other people like it?
What makes you loins twitch uncontrollably about it?

I'll start:

.
I'll admit that I'm nearly always most excited about the last game I read. The discovery of something new, the joy of peeling back the PDF to be enchanted by novelty. See? Laxing Wyrical already. Fate has shown me that RPGs don't need to be just about stats, skills and all of that. It can be so much more, you can let the system control the story and that's pretty exciting. My review of it is .

Your turn, pimp someone else's game!

[Dyson Logos]

Over the past few years I've downloaded and tried to run a few of the game chef and 24 hr RPG games.

The ones that have stuck well for myself and my players have been:


Very interesting and fun social RPG that can get quite ... adult ... depending on the play group - as it revolves around role-playing during an out of control Bacchanal while escaping the city (but first you have to connect with your companion). Very interesting dice mechanics and props. Played twice.


Phil Reed's game that introduced me to the whole 24 hour RPG challenge when he posted it to RPGnow. I've run two games of this and had a lot of fun with it although the players ended up vetoing the continuation of the game.

and finally,


This is a raw 24 hour RPG that really caught my attention. Like vs. Monsters, the layout is a major part of the flavour, and also like vs. Monsters I have a print copy (got one at GenCon a few years ago). I've run this nearly a dozen times, and am actually running a campaign of it right now. It's violent. It's nasty. It's gory. It kind of reminds me of Violence! without the underlying premise that it's a joke. It handles hitman style games very well. WAY impressed that this came out of the 24 hour RPG challenge.

[Chainsaw Aardvark]

I'd need to check around the net for some - a few of my favorites have disappeared over the year. HA/ARPE and Sacred Steel were good, but aren't around anymore.

is a true standout. It is an attempt by the author to re-imagine the early days of role-playing if D&D was based on Greek Mythology and the movie "Clash of the Titans" Amazingly, the project succeeds on both levels. We receive both a playable game (two actually - the "1972" original, and the "1987" advanced version, though the actual date of writing is 2002 or so) and a very amusing portrait of the zeitgeist - complete with errata supposedly drawn from the companion small pres magazine and editors notes for the "revised edition". Come for the Zerust, stay for the game - and the ability to use cool retro-futurist sociological words.

is fairly polished and manages to be playable despite being based on the mechanics of a computer game. The Fallout PnP was a good tome, but you needed a map and a calculator for combat. (And fallout is a fairly violent world)

is now available in a digitally remastered form, and for free. Its a grand space opera setting with retro sort of feel. (Both in its zerust, and in that the original game is from the early 80s.) However, despite the fact the original game is nearly a quarter century old, the mechanics are quite simple, and character creating is very quick, making it very easy to jump right into the game. Quite a bit of support is provided by the fans as well.

ICAR brings out so many negative emotions in me. I'm jealous of the polished look and actual purpose made artwork. Annoyed that I've never gotten a chance to play it. Furious (at myself) that my space-opera game isn't this complete. And outraged that more people haven't heard of it. It could easily roll with the big published names if we put a bit of advertising behind it. (Ego over inflated yet?) The special character sheet dials that make marking numbers part of the experience, brilliant, just brilliant.

I'm one of those people who prefer specific systems over universal one, and there seems to be a community of its critics, but Fuzion works good one. Simple, flexible, not loaded down with odd math like GURPS or JAGS - its what you want in a free settingless game. n has a great "Aliens" source-book (based on the universe from the Ridly Scott Film and the Dark Horse comics spin-offs) for fuzion, and another wonderful netbook for "Ghost in the Shell" based on d20.

Quite a few of the 24 hour games have made my list as well. Part of it is that such a short time limit leads to a fairly short game that is easy to pick up - but quite a few show a lot of polish and story that has escaped some longer works. Theme really becomes key to complete the challenge.

I'll post those, and the myriad of other good games I've found on 1km1kt later. Or maybe not - just promote this site and let everyone else find an RPG to fall in love with.

[Rob Lang]

Chainsaw, you're too kind. Thanks for the tips on the others, I'll add them to my review list.

[Dyson Logos]

I've been playing the free version of "How To Host A Dungeon".

TOTALLY AWESOME solo dungeon-building game.

[Billi Butcherson]

I posted the link for N/AI at Java Hut, a ReBoot forum I'm on.

. On the thread, I suggested a possibility of adapting the game too ReBoot, or even Tron.

: This is the thread on Java Hut. It includes a home-made character sheet.

[Dyson Logos]

Here's the link for . It's on the right, after the two options to purchase a copy there is a free download version.

It's a fun solo game where you run through the ecology of a dungeon from first civilization to major villains setting up shop and adventurers going in to wipe them out... or failing to. When done, it produces a cool (large) dungeon map that you can use for any dungeon-delving game.

[Rob Lang]

Some great links here, everyone, thanks!

I've just reviewed , which was originally in German and now in English. It's a fine example of a 20 page, excellently produced free RPG. Check it out.

[Dyson Logos]

[Dyson Logos]

AssassinX update: Since I seem to be running my third AssassinX campaign starting this weekend, I just posted a PC I rolled up this afternoon to my blog.

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