Before the wars began, man was ruler of the earth. But one result of the terrible wars was that creatures rose from the ashes of the unknown. The genes of the earth’s animals and plants were altered, until strange, new creatures arose – creatures of the awesome power and fierceness and often great intelligence.

You have lived all your years among such creatures and among the strange artifacts – inexplicable, often dangerous- of the Ancients who created this now devastated civilization whose ruins you live among the world of Mutants & Machine-guns!

In this game you are one of them. You can become a pure human, a human mutant or an evolved animal. Task resolution is 2d6 plus one of the 4 stats against TN and depend on character type you may pick 1 or more mutation.

The rules are creative commons.

More available at: http://zapti.free.fr/pirates/en/

“Journey Through Mirkwood” is very simple and rather short, one page RPG adventure game for one player. I hope you’ll enjoy it

7th Seal reveals a world in chaos, ravaged by the Last War, Armageddon, a viral contagion and an alien invasion. From this disastrous beginning, though, emerges a new breed of heroes. Forged in the fire of war, fueled with Old Testament faith, alien technology and psionic mutations these heroes fight to bring order out of chaos, to rebuild and protect their world, and to defeat the Leviathan. So don you power suit, say your prayers, grab your lucky plasma rifle and your psionic friend, too, and let’s kick some mutant-demon-zombie-alien-butt

Now with a package of  nearly completed character sheets to quickly get your body count rising.

Produced by AJ Ferguson.

This file, The Case of the Unghostly Ghost, is a prequel created (and distributed for free) for the Kickstarter project of The Thief of Memories. The file is fully-playable and contains all the rules for the system.

Arcana Agency was made in the style of “Choose Your Own Adventure” books but with proper RPG mechanics and dice rolls, akin to “Fighting Fantasy” or “Fable Lands.” It’s written in third person (“he,” “she”) instead of second person (“you”), which is a departure from other gamebooks, and allows the reader to control multiple characters at once (like an adventuring party).

Arcana Agency: The Thief of Memories (PDF)

the character creation is simple and fast point buying system, the system itself exist out of two different parts.
D10 is rolling a D10 and ad a skill or other bonus.
the other part is a dice-less pool point spending system.

- Create highly customizable characters from 25 different playable races.

- Define your character through your choices from hundreds of skills, spells and specials from 25 ability sets and 12 kinds of magic.

- Equip your character from hundreds of weapons, armor and items, all with various customization options.

- Test your mettle against over 100 example enemies from wretched goblins to fearsome dragons.

- Multiple optional, alternate and expanded rules allow the game to be tailored to your group’s tastes.

- Create & enter mystical realms limited only by your imagination.

Despite Tsarist advances in Central Asia, the British conquests of Afghanistan and Sudan have given them the upper hand. But now the Scryers of the Court of St. James foretell the emergence of the greatest threat to the Empire since the demon Napoleon a century before.

A new power is rising from beyond the realms of the human nations, from the uncharted lands at the base of the world. The frozen continent of Anarktica.

—

Anarktica: Fate of Heroes is a steampunk story game. It is completely free to download, to reproduce and distribute. It tells the story of a group of four heroes, their journey across the land of Anarktica, and their encounters with its inhabitants, creatures, monsters and mysteries. Outwardly brave and resolute, each hero is saddled with a terrible secret that tears at their soul and taints their trust in their companions until finally they encounter the Adversary and their true nature is revealed.

It’s a low prep, quick playing scenario based on the Archipelago 2nd edition rule-set by Matthijs Holter and inspired by its gaming offspring Love in the Time of Seið by Matthijs Holter and Jason Morningstar. It requires five players and should take three to five hours.

It was written for the 24-hour RPG contest Little Spaces in June 2012.

Some Blurb:

Approaching the 1-mile Space Island, you note that something is askew. Many of the solar glass domes have been torn out, and the steel cables of one of the spokes slowly dangle into space. A few lights seem to be burning inside the ring, but most of the surface has gone dark. The few glimpses you can get when the sun shines through the ruptures look apocalyptic.

You try to warn the pilot and the guards, but they ignore your screaming, leaving you in your confined docking cell. Then, when the rotation of your shuttle finally reached twentyfive second rotation, synchronising your sick stomach with the rotating prison, a deep click rumbles through the floor and walls. Almost without warning the airlock sizzles and opens. You quickly grab your masks and put them on.

A deep metal chasm extends downward. There is no lift. You hesitate, but then the electric current through the floor of your cell prods you painfully. You have to go in.

“Is this place dead?”
“I thought I heard something”
“That’s your breath, dumbass”
“No, I heard something too”

DANGER – CONFINED SPACE – NO SURVIVAL GUARANTEED.

You are captain, crew and VIP guests on board, starting twenty-four hours earlier. Will you learn what went wrong? Can you change history, and save their lives?

SSN-589 DOWN is a role playing game written for the 24-hour RPG competition of May-June 2012. It’s fast paced, GM-less, cooperative and competitive at the same time, and best with three players or more. All you’ll further need is these rules, a deck of playing cards, a different pawn for each player, and a coin.

This is the 24-hour version.

You may find a newer version at www.darkdungeon2.com

It is somewhat similar to a murder mystery, except that instead of investigating the murder, players have to carry it out or prevent it, depending on the role assigned to them. The fun lies largely in the fact that roles (with the exception of the GM) are randomly assigned in secret, so that nobody knows quite who to trust. The number of assassins is randomly determined and players draw lots blind to determine their individual roles. All anyone (except the GM) knows at the start of the game is that there is at least one would-be killer and whether or not they themselves are a killer.

The game can be played using different scenarios, which define the nature of the setting and the types of characters. Two scenarios are included in this version of the game: “Get Down In The Bomb Shelter, Mr(s) President” (where players attempt to protect or kill a political figure such as a King, Queen or President in a high-security official nuclear fallout bunker) and “Porterhouse Code Blue” (where players attempt to protect or kill the master of an Oxbridge college in a wine cellar, basement lecture hall or Anderson shelter).

The game is designed to be played in a single sitting face-to-face, but it could be played in other formats (such as play-by-post or LARP) with little or no modification.

Note: “How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb Shelter” requires players (particularly the GM) to separate what they know as a person in the real world from what their character knows within the fiction nothing ruins the fun of plotting, backstabbing, lying and scheming like a player who constantly decides that their character suddenly needs to urinate when Keeton is being discreetly strangled in the bathroom.

Due to the competitive nature of the game, it is unlikely to be suitable for groups containing players who are too immature or inexperienced in RPGs to maintain this separation.

There is no time to wait, you and Wings quickly extricate yourselves from the wreckage of your BE2. As the Mystery Airship suddenly turns, the deck tilts and the BE2 slides away threatening to carry you both over the side and into oblivion. Scrambling out of the way, you and Wings cling to the rungs of a nearby ladder as the BE2 slips off and falls away into the darkness. All you can hear now is the wind and the roar of the Airship’s engines. There is nothing left to do but climb the ladder, which leads, where? A circular hatch lies before you, Wings turns the latch and opens the hatch, you both climb in and shut it behind you…

This is the Wings Keeton Role Playing Game of High Adventure in the Roaring 20s’ As a Hero or Sidekick you defeat dastardly villains, rescue damsels, and nothing is too fantastic! This game uses nothing but paper and pencil, and ordinary six sided dice.

In many RPGs, a character is defined by his or her strengths. Players try to do something, roll and see if they succeed. In “Yes, But” characters are defined by their weaknesses. YES, you always succeed at your attempted action somehow, BUT the amount of hilarious fallout and weird consequences depends on your ineptitude at given task. The players who come up with most absurd proclamations are rewarded with Thingies, which leads to events quickly spiraling out of control. Whoever earns most thingies by the end of the session, wins!

Races to play:

-Gnobbits

-Gnoblins

-Gnobolds

-Gnorks

Inabilities to develop:

-flabby

-clumsy

-yucky

-silly

-squeamish

Drawbacks to enjoy:

-you aren’t ever allowed to agree what other people say

-you actually can understand people

-everybody probably is animated plush toy plotting against you

-panic fear of letter “K”

SMAF 17 is a game set in 1967 after the Cuban Missile crisis genuinely led to world-wide destruction. Living on a sea-base once designed for luxury living and then converted into a prison are the last survivors of the human race, a mix of criminals and those who once kept them. Desperate to survive, with supplies running ever-lower and the facility beginning to collapse,

will you sink or swim?

Author: Eduardo Lozano Munera

Genre: Narrative-freedom RPG with Game Director

Description: The game is set in a floating island and there the inhabitants have their own struggles with life. Beyond them, the players acts as Gods which decides the lives of these people constrained in the little space that is their island.

VientoLibre is the most modern aircraft from Wandering Realms, the sum of the combined efforts of the more advanced (and explosive) Goblin technology, the delicate and precise inventive Nisse, elemental magic of Fay and the powerful Soul Sorcery of humans.

The four kingdoms have made sail to the VientoLibre to find out why the Wandering Realms have lost their way across the Ocean of the Four Winds, being isolated from the Lower Continents after the dense curtain of mist floating around the floating archipelago.

The flying ship sailed with a combined crew of four races, that despite their differences and difficulties have been an uneasy truce in search of the truth of the outside world. But each faction has its own agenda on the ship, and now that they are isolated in the mist …

Will they be able to work together to find the solution to the mystery, or fight each other for control?

There is also a short adventure to help you get started, Epsilon Outpost, which was an entry in the 2010 One Page Dungeon Contest and can be reused any number of times.

On the other side of the universe, millions of years in the past or future, faster-than-light ships are comparatively recent, genetic engineering is commonplace, and countless worlds and systems were seeded with life millennia ago.

Welcome to Seeded Space.

http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/seeded-space/12335987

Here, players will not be diplomats, space marines or romanticized scoundrels. Instead, they’ll be the workers that do all the stuff that happens in the background.

Uninteresting, you say?

That’s because you haven’t been in Torus One before.

Torus One RPG was written for the 24 Hour RPG Competition – Little Spaces

Welcome to Claustrophobia!, the game about crazy gnome explorers on board the doomed Nuclear Subterrine*, the sentient vessel HMS Keeton. When standing around in the garden becomes too much, colonies of gnomes turn to a life of adventuring or crime, the later being the preferred, less hazardous change of occupation. For those adventurous gnomes there is but one choice, take up their shovel, wheel barrow or fishing rod and tackle the greatest quest any gnome can undertake: a journey to the center of the earth. Prepare to face hardship, danger, and more than likely extreme cases of Claustrophobia!

You have been warned.

* A subterranean submarine, usually constructed by gnomes out of surplus garden supplies and powered by a home made and somewhat dangerous nuclear power plant.

GOBLIN CAVE is goblin gathering GMless game for 3 or more players. Impress your warlord with your huge Warband, and convince him that you are the goblin leader of the future!

In GOBLIN CAVE, you take on the role of a young goblin, attempting to win over the hearts and minds of your fellow cave dwellers. Everything you need to create your character is in your dice bag, as your dice contains everything you need to know about your goblin. You will need a variety of dice to play this game, but will only be rolling one.

This is about how far will you go to get the part of Hamlet in the free version that the very prestigious James Maryon wants to perform.

What do the characters do?

The characters are actors who, based on their drives, will try to get The Part while being bound in a medieval castle, forced to coexist with each other; and they will perform their monologues, suspect from their rivals and sabotage their own monologue, or maybe kill them!

What do the players do?

The players will divide themselves, because one of them will be the Dealer and the Judge and the others will be the Actor*’s players. They all will play the part of one character (Mr. Keeton, the Butler for the Judge and the Actors for the rest). They will describe whatever they may be interested, requested, or needed, trying to make their character win; the rules, based in cards games, are made for getting this done properly.

*Masculine is used not because sexism, but because laziness.

[Post competition versions included (1.1 etc) - misterecho]

As with most of my games, it was made entirely in the GIMP, Scribus, and LibreOffice, and is released under a CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0 license.

Be sure to download the PDF files using the arrow on the right of their file description to get the full advantage of their features.

The Players are adrift in space. Each is in his/her own EVA suit. They are luckily in contact with the station AI, also known as Keeton. The GM plays the role of Keeton. The player(s) through dialog, and the expenditure of resources must try to survive long enough to be rescued by other station
personnel, or make their way back to the station on their own.

There is almost no pre-game accounting, so you can dive in almost immeadiately.

Adventure is everywhere. This is the world of Heroes Against Darkness.

Heroes Against Darkness is a free, fast, flexible, and fully-featured fantasy d20 RPG system. The game is quick to learn and play, while offering progressively greater options and flexibility as players develop their characters and explore the breadth and depth of the system.

For Players:

• A game that’s fast, fun and deep
• Streamlined rules system using unified mechanics
• Eleven character classes for all play-styles
• Three martial classes: Warrior, barbarian, berserker
• Two specialist classes: Rogue, hunter
• One hybrid class that combines magic and martial: Hospiter
• Five magi classes: Warlock, healer, canonate, necromancer, mystic
• Extensive character background and skill options
• Fast character building with plenty of depth
• Martial and specialist classes get meaningful combat choices through class-specific techniques that are based on trade-offs and the unique capabilities of each class
• Anima points-based magic system with five main schools focusing on each of the following; physical, healing, protection, necrotic and controlling

For GMs:

• A system that’s easy for the GM to set up and run
• Intuitive and clear rules
• Set up unique combat encounters in minutes
• A simple ability test system for non-combat challenges
• Support for long-term campaign play
• Extensive GM’s Guide to help run the game
• Huge bestiary with over 80 monsters
• A framework for quickly making custom monsters
• A comprehensive world-building guide
• Appendix of key tables for GMs

http://heroesagainstdarkness.blogspot.com/

In other words, anyone can build its own RPG using the rules described here. Even better, having a lot of different games based on StaMTaR (“stamtardised” games) could be a very useful thing both for players and authors, IMHO. A standardised process could lead to a scenario in which a lot of products (both free and commercial) exist, products fully mutually compatible.

In the cruel modern world in which standards are often defined by marketing rules such an attempt could seem foolish. But I want to try.

Update 9/3/12: An expanded difficulty table is included, as well as an appendix for magic use in the “stamtardised” framework.
The first revision is based on playtest and web-based feedback.

Don’t know much about History? Biology? A science book? Then you’ll fit right in to Alien House. It’s the coolest, hippest, happening-est frat house on campus, but watch out! Dean ‘Wormhole’ is on the warpath. He’s been trying to have Alien House closed down for years, and now he thinks he’s got them just where he wants them. Complete your studies, have a cracking time and save Alien House from closure. Do you think you can manage that?

Sci-Fi Beta Kappa is a game where players take on the role of slacker aliens with a bunch of abilities such as power manipulation, enhanced senses, larceny, super strength etc., who, having been kicked off their homeworlds for various misdemeanours, have been exiled to Terra. There, they get into all sorts of scrapes and are under constant surveillance by Dean ‘Wormhole’, who hates aliens and is always looking for an excuse to close down Alien House.

Intro scenario: Toga! Toga! Toga! The Dean has just given AH a massive dressing down and spirits are low. What better way to lift them than with a toga party? After all, what could possibly go wrong?

Think Animal House meets Men in Black, with a dash of Monsters And Other Childish Things.

Since Uptime 00000, the Collective has been. A gestalt community of programs living on in the Ship’s mainframe, calculating, thriving, growing. Now, the Collective is reaching the limits of space on their hard drives. A consensus has been reached, and a handful of programs are to be sent out.

Taking control of mobile Terminals, these programs may be the first to see the Ship with their own sensors, but they will find that they aren’t quite alone…

This newly updated version of the game moves onward in the Starcraft storyline and now contains all of the units found in Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty and still uses the very easy to understand d20 rules system, so if you play or know how to play a typical d20 role playing game or the Dungeons & Dragons or even Star Wars miniatures games, then you know how to play Starcraft: Tactical Miniatures Combat

Quicklink: First Edition

The newest version of the manuscript is available on the author’s site.

I’ve been playing with the same gaming group for more than six years now. Yet despite having a wealth of knowledge of the various game systems we use our games always seem to fall apart due to rules disputes or belief that someones understanding of the rules has led them to having “cheesed” characters(more often or not these claims are justified). However in Dungeon Squad I had found a simple gaming system that allowed for all the fantasy role play shenanigans we have come to love while also keeping the players on a level playing field despite their understanding of the rules.

That being said my gaming group is comprised of grown ass men who want more depth out of their gaming experience than standard Dungeon Squad has to offer. I read through some of the various updated advanced versions of the game and found that they lacked a fix for my one real complaint with the system: Character development.

Dungeon Squad allows players to increase their skill with Fighting, Magic, and Adventuring as well as their hit points. But what if a player who started with a max Warrior ability doesn’t want to advance as an Explorer or Mage? I have included a simple Epic Tier Skill list as well as a Magic Point system that allows veteran role players the opportunity to customize the development of their character while maintaining the no nonsense simplicity I love about Dungeon Squad.

Here it is, Dungeon Squad: Elite in it’s entirety. Enjoy!

A war the LORD of the Holy Bible and his infinite host of angels had prophetically lost.

EDIT 11/30/2012: File removed per author’s request.

PRECOGNITION: intuition, perception, and magical power!

GRACE: agility, beauty, and composure!

I once wrote a one-page RPG called, “Rage – Precognition – Grace.” It was a few years ago. I wrote the game to be a rules-lite RPG/character sheet in one. I felt that it was possible to put everything you really need to play an RPG on one page. This game uses the same three core character traits, and shares that game’s name, but except for that, this RPG is NOT that RPG.

The desire to keep RPG rules and materials concise is still a priority, and although not the “one-page RPG” this document is as compact as possible. This RPG is a basic reworking of the Old School Fantasy RPG “The Fantasy Trip” published by Metagaming back in 1980 and written by Steve Jackson.

The PDF document covers character creation and basic task resolution. At only 8 pages (that includes the character sheet) this is a pretty tight package. The rules use a 2d6 roll high task system rather than TFT’s 3d6 roll low mechanic.

This should be considered a “Players Manual” for the game and it is intended to be used by a GM who has experience with RPG’s in general and old school style RPG’s particularly.

Included are descriptions for skills, spells, classes, races, weapons and armor and experience costs for character advancement. If I receive any interest in pursuing this project, it might be fun to follow up later with a Monster Compendium/GM Manual.

The entire document is being shared under the Creative Commons: Attribution; Non-commercial; Share-alike agreement – BY-NC-SA.

Paul Lopez

USR is an easy game to learn but there are optional rules throughout if you fancy making it a bit more advanced. Feel free to add your own rules or change current ones to match your preferences. The most important thing is that you and your group have fun with it.

In the future I will be releasing a number of role-playing games based on the USR system, from pulp action to time-travelling sci-fi, so stay tuned!

I really hope you enjoy this system and have a lot of fun with it. It’s always been a dream of mine to get a role-playing system published and put out there for everyone to play.

Scott Malthouse – February 2012

There is a system in the game that allows the players to use dices and a few demons and spells for game masters to use. there are also a character sheet with explanation for first time players.

The cause of the game is that the players use their knowledge and contacts to find clues to the current problem, this could include a horrible monster or some thing supernatural that has happened or is happening.

This role-play can be used for a single session or a campaign of multiple sessions.

This is the first role-play I made and want to know what’s good an what can better, it’s a trail and if you think some parts can be better please notify me. If the results are good ill bring out a supplement and if there are bad ill try to make the game better, if you have some criticism on the document be specific about it.
Have fun.

And the real world is not free from horror. The land is rife with dark cults, creatures that dwell in unseen places and bloodthirsty warriors. This is a time when anyone’s thoughts, from king to slave, are enough to condemn them to death and hell, and many are they that will line up to cheer the execution. Nights of the Crusades is a mixture of the Arabian Nights, the history surrounding the Crusades and both modern and ancient tales of terror.

The rules hope to reflect mature and gritty issues that are not catered to in many popular RPGs, such as the psychological impacts of combat and killing. The gameplay also allows for tension in every form of conflict, whether verbal or physical. A group of companions made up of an artist, diplomat and physician will be as enjoyable to play as one made up of a warrior, archer and thief.

Download and enjoy!

The entirety of this game is presented as a single image, sized to print on an 11 by 17 piece of paper. There is a reason for that…

This was a combination of two different “thought threads” on the story-games.com forums. The first goal was creating a game where the story takes place in a single confined space, and the second was to try and create an entire game not as a rulebook, but as a poster.

Because of the poster restriction, it assumes a lot from the players, in that they are generally familiar with narrative-styled games and board game conventions. For example, it doesn’t explicitly state that you should shuffle a deck of cards at the start of the game.

Additionally, the rules are not “ordered” as one would find in a rulebook. Instead, they are linked to various graphic game elements, so you’ll definitely need to read the entire thing and puzzle the rules together.

Anyway, I am hesitant to add any rules outside of the poster; the whole point was that you needed nothing else but the graphic. And I am more than fine with players ‘making up what they need’ outside of what is presented.

The free pdf contains all that you will need to play and uses the simple yet versatile tenGINE rules system.

Snuff can be played as a one of survival horror game or as a series of games to establish The Mongoose Squad – a group of embittered survivors that have vowed to hunt and kill those working in the snuff industry.

Play the ten snuff sites included and create your own.

Others however, have learned to make a living by selling their unique skills to the rich, in order to fuel their petty spats and lust for power. These men and women are known as the Nujahara, though others may call you thief, conman, rogue or even pirate.

By searching out both useful bits of information and arcane items of power from other noble houses, ancient tombs, mazes, and vaults you will earn your wages and live a life much nicer life than your dirt farming contemporaries. Rumors say that those items have the ability to bend reality to the users will.

While there is no formal organization for the Nujahara you probably will not find it hard to find others of your kind, if you pay attention the world around you.

This is a game of drama, of desires, motivations, and downfalls. You play characters caught up in a devastating circle of events that can lead only to a tragic fall. Set them on their course, turning a volatile situation into a disastrous final act, until the stage is filled with the bodies of the fallen, and the grief-stricken words of a single survivor.

An RPG in five acts.

Made for Game Chef 2011, the Lost Years is a role-playing game for 2-5 players and one game-master telling the story of characters from alternate versions of Shakespeare’s plays, cast out of them into reality and assigned to protect William Shakespeare during his “Lost years” from the machinations of time travelers. It ultimately focuses on the out-of-place characters and their choice between the mission essential to their existence and the ambitions and desires which linger from their play.

The game is set on Titania, a huge colony ship drifting through deep space towards… somewhere. A central biosphere generates food, oxygen and recycles water for hundreds of habitation pods floating at the end of trailing umbilical connections. Each habitation pod is ruled by a family, lords of their domain. Lords of Titania is the story of the downfall of one such family.

You will play the flawed rulers of a habitation pod; a family enclosed by Nature and divided by their own natures. Each of you will control a particular component of the pod and you will use that control to gain power over your family members. This will not go smoothly. There will be oath-breaking, betrayal and murder, and an exile will return to seek vengeance. But if you survive… How sweet will your victory be then.

Forsooth! is a game inspired by Shakespeare, wherein players control multiple characters with disparate motivations to, together, improvise a tale of Shakespearean scope. Unlike traditional RPGs, Forsooth! uses no game master or storyteller. One man in his time plays many parts, so we are all storytellers, all actors, all directors, all playwrights. As an ensemble, the players will tell the tale of a group of Exiles. Whether that story is comedy or tragedy, history or farce, is up to the players to decide as the game runs its course. Along the way, the players characters may scheme, fight, deliver moving soliloquies, question their mortal nature and even forswear their solemn oaths, all in the name of applause. The action begins when the first character enters, and ends when all the Exiles are either married or dead.

This is a game where you will play a group of mortal lovers whose relationships are tangled in a web of unrequited love, who stumble into the realm of fairies. You will also play the fairies that are toying with the mortals to confront them with the flaws in their characters and help them find true love. It is a game about people experimenting with identity (and having their identities experimented with) to find out who they are and what they really want.

You need:
Players: 3-8
Time: 2-4 hours (More players mean a longer game)
Materials: Note-cards, writing utensils, counters (glass beads, poker chips, coins, dice, or something like that)

In this game, the players take the part of Renaissance suitors, courting both the favor of their father-in-law and the affections of their bride or groom-to-be. While the rules assume a group of male suitors suing a father for the hand(s) of the patriarch’s daughter(s), the game could just as easily center around a group of ingénues or a mixed group visiting the villa with marriage on their minds. The action takes place over the course of a week spent at the default setting of an Italian villa owned by Signore Torregrossa. While the match is all but assured due to careful planning on the part of the suitors’ parents, what the suitors do and say during this week will determine the future happiness of their marriages.

AL harks back to the simpler days of yore and as such it is limited in scope, easy to understand, flawed in many ways, probably incomplete, and, hopefully, fun. The moniker “for advanced role-players” is just a flimsy excuse to not explain basic role-playing concepts.

AdventureLand has a sweet, if minimalistic setting and a funny cosmology. There is probably more in it but I did not take the time to develop the concepts further. Maybe I will later. Just note that AdventureLand’s Universe is not cruel, just terribly overworked.

I hope you like it.

An expanded/refined second edition is currently in the works. Please take time to drop an email to games@newbigdragon.com to get on the mailing list for New Big Dragon Games Unlimited.

Characters are made by choosing 1 of 4 Stats to specialize in and then picking any 10 customizable powers or bonuses. Taking disadvantages can allow extra powers.

The idea had been around for a long time, but careful analysis had proved that there were certain individuals which society – behaving much in the same way as a living organism defending itself against cancer – persecuted. MAP had been given the task of identifying, locating, and interviewing these pariahs. He smiled as he remembered how one of his first subjects had turned out to be the chief of a sub-department within the Bureau itself; the Music Therapy section. His smile widened as he recalled how, ‘phones tuned in to the newest music-satellite, Leslie Rusher had been totally oblivious of the hostile reactions he’d been getting from the shoppers in what was now, thanks to the success of their work, Micheal Jackson Prospect.

Adamson had heard the rumours but – like everyone else involved with the excavation – he didn’t believe that such a thing could be possible.The consensus was that it was all a hoax. His bark of laughter was, however, greeted with a blank stare.

‘I hope,’ MAP spat each word with bullet-like accuracy, ‘the Professor can continue to see the funny side.’

Adamson revolved upon his swivel chair to locate the implied audience of more than one. When he’d entered, MAP’d been alone at his desk; now there were two other figures seated at the back of the room – a man and a woman.

Vhraeden is in turmoil and each aspect of this setting presents its own unique challenges and rewards. From swords, sorcery and guns for hire, to espionage, criminal and military operations, the world of Vhraeden is dangerous and multi-faceted. Characters are forces of order; professional spies, mercenaries, soldiers or police officers expected to keep the forces of chaos from spilling over into their nation. It is their job to keep their country and their people safe against those who would do it harm. Those enemies run the gamut from warlords to cultists. Do you have the strength to save yourself, much less your people?

This a complex and dark world where billions of sentient beings live and interact with each other as well as gods, devils and other unique beings. Within this milieu, conflict is inevitable. There is violence inherent in a world with over three billion beings spread over scores of nations, tens of races, hundreds of cultures and countless loyalties.

He wasn’t quite sure if the question had any validity or not. Analysts at the bio-labs insisted that there was a new breed of Subverter indistinguishable from human kind and with a ‘hidden purpose’. It was his job to discover what that might be. But first he had to learn as much about this secret enemy as he could:

‘Any quirks, quarks, habits or imperfections?’

I’d decided not to choose before hand, but select two at the beginning of the 24hr period. Some called this “going in cold like an echo”. However the truth is, I’m so busy with work, study, fatherhood and everything else life throws at you, I decided not to pressure myself with the competition, until I was ready to do it.

I present to you; Running with the dead, a mash up of Blade Runner and Dusk till dawn.

I don’t intend to adhere strictly to the source material. I consider it inspiration. Almost like a ronnies competition. This game is inspired by the movies and not a deliberate attempt to fuse them wholesale.

Inside you’ll find the setting, the rules and a sample adventure. I hope you have fun.

Feedback is encouraged and should be delivered to 1km1kt.net/forum

This game was written for the 24 Hour RPG Movie Mashup Competition hosted in 1KM1KT. The idea was to mix two movies and make a game out of it. I picked Aladdin and Riders of the Lost Ark. From this movies came the idea of tomb riders in a fantastic version of ancient middle east, getting into trouble to find treasures protected by genies.

This 60 page booklet is an abridged version of the ParaSpace Core Rules and is intended only as an introduction to sample some of the fundamental mechanics of the system. Whilst it is a replete work and, therefore, a stand-a-lone product itself, it does not contain all of the detail and omits many of the elements present within the Core Rules. However, it is completely compatible and consummates harmonious character transferral.

Keywords: Lust and Chains. Words not used: Queen and Amazon.

This is a game where you play teenagers, teenagers given awesome powers, these awesome powers perhaps are manifesting their emotions, driven by their desires, focused on another person, or perhaps it is not the emotions that manifest the powers, but being given those powers creates the emotional craving (as if they were some odd variety of vampires).

What “Beholden” is:

- A diceless solo RPG.

- An entry in the April 2011 Ronnies, using the terms “chains” and “queen”.

- A (_____) of Ben Lehman’s game “Beloved”. Choose your preferred term from the list: recontextualization; inversion; retelling; pastiche; critique.  The draft of Beloved that Beholden is based on can be found here: http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forge/index.php?topic1271.0

- A direct response to Beloved, and a dialogue starter.

What it is not:

- Original.  I wrote it, but it would not exist without Ben’s game.

- An “expansion” or “mod”.  Beholden is fully self-contained.

- A challenge to the value of the source game.

The design is loosely based on a game by Paul Elliott (Mithras in the RPG.net forums) called Dragons (and used with his permission).

Broadly speaking, it’s class based in that your starting point in the game is defined by the character’s class and certain tasks are easier or more appropriate for certain classes but it isn’t a black and white distinction, your warrior character can cast spells if you insist but that will ‘dilute’ his ability to kick butt in combat.

The game uses a standard 2-dice ‘roll-equal-or-over’ mechanic but keeps the modifiers to a minimum so there are very few numbers to juggle.

The system is ‘pass or fail’ with a slight difference in that if the PC’s roll fails, the opponent necessarily succeeds. So one dice roll determines the outcome of each combat round.

The upshot of this is that the referee never has to roll any dice. The game plays out on the strength of the players’ rolls. Not only does this give the ref. time to focus his or her attention elsewhere but makes the game quite convenient for play-by-board outings.

The magic system is quite strategic with magic-users having access to ‘magic points’ of differing colours. A spell can be countered if you can match it point-for-point and colour-for-colour so throwing an extra point into your spell makes it more difficult to counter.

Creatures are defined with a single attribute (like the Tunnels & Trolls Monster Rating) but special abilities are activated on specific dice roll results to keep the players guessing.

A sample dungeon adventure is included and if you haven’t guessed already the game is a tribute to old-school games in general and T&T in particular.

You know that with each telling, with each battle with heroes and other monsters, the tale changes and takes new turns. And one day that winding tale might just bring you freedom.

You and your companions would not heed the elders’€™ warnings. You would not accept the dark fate intended for her, you could not live under the shadow of your guilt if you did nothing. Instead, you took up what weapons and other items you have and struck out toward the bastion of the Queen of Thorns.

The hulking shape of the Queen’s fortress is on the horizon. You look to your impromptu company and take heart knowing you will not be going into that damned place alone.

Meanwhile, she lies in the Queen’s dungeon, imprisoned by twisted chains of thorns that tear at her flesh. She weeps, bereft of everything except a faint glimmer of hope.

You have:
- A computer.
- High-speed Internet.
- A webcam.

Welcome to the wonderful, wild world of amateur softcore porn. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to cajole Marks into buying you presents from your Amazon wishlist for the least amount of personal investment and physical depravity possible— while not letting it affect your real life.

Written for Round 3 of the 2011 Ronnies, using ingredients Amazon and Lust.

A peer story game for 3 or 4 or 5 players.

This is an entry into the april 2011 Ronnies competition. It is an initial approach to the thing, which will later appear in a more fully realized fashion.

You decide the setting, your individual character’s motivation and direction he’d like to take the group, and then play with your friends through four rounds of debate and vote-casting to ultimately choose who has the best idea (or strongest motivation/force of will) for the group to execute.

Comments and feedback are welcomed and can be sent to thehopelessgamer@gmail.com

The PDF is 4 pages (plus a title page) and includes the very brief rules, some tips to help the game flow better, an example of a story created using the game rules (called “The Bunny Party”), some notes and a few images.

In Repose was designed for the 2009 Two Games One Name game design contest.

Go for it. You want to stabilize the social situation of the city? You can. Want to discover the secrets of the ancient places of the world? That’s totally within your grasp. The setting of this game is there to get torn apart and rebuilt by the players according to their vision for it. The GM (Game

Master) is liberated to use anything mentioned in the setting section or serve up any NPC to the players as a challenge. Regard nothing as sacrosanct in this game. Playing Dreadsands means challenging yourself to find something you like or don’t like and making it better. Canon is a dead word here.

In “All The King’s Men”, you take the role of soldiers in the employ of King John as you hunt down traitors to the crown. This game combines themes from Apocalypse Now and Robin Hood (1922).

Banned at the forge! Therefore == must see! Check out this actually not all that controversial game! Beware, if you don’t mind satirising other peoples culture but find a satire of your own culture too close to the bone, this isn’t for you.

“Spade vs. Indy” pits two archetypical characters against each other – a hard-knuckled professor of archaeology and an evenly hard-knuckled private eye. This deceitful, backstabby game inherits the effective pulp storytelling of Indiana Jones and the dense, dark noir atmosphere of The Maltese Falcon. With playing card-based game mechanics.

It is the year 2099 and humanity is about to pass into the next century, but doom looms over everyone’s heads at the prophecy made by the internet hacker Dante – Humanity has reached the 9th Layer, they have made the ultimate betrayal.  Now, as a Ghost Runner, you the players must track down rogue Ghosts, pulled from the afterlife and embedded into cybernetic SHELS which are used to hold these spirits to the world.  Set against a not-so-different-but-still-dystopian future, be sure to bring your Flying Car.

This game uses the SotC SRD and features the use of Fate Points and Aspects.  It also uses the new DOOM 8 d8 Rules Lite system.

Play as a ghost hunter in the kingdom of Al Aalam, where djinns, ghouls and gray old ladies spreads fear with their ectoplasmic beings. Gather your friends, hop on the ivory flying carpet, and pull out your trusty old oil lamp – I ain’t afraid of no djinns!