Free Gaming Systems

[Sigurd]

I just discovered 'Dungeons-Daring' and it looks really ineresting. Free OGL game based in Germany and put together with Open Office.

Dungeons Daring™


I was just wondering A) if anyone here had played it to give me a review b) if there were other RPGs with a similar outlook that people recommended.

Whats the state of OSRIC?
?
?


Any Response appreciated.



Sigurd

 

[Khuxan]

I've done some work on the list of Open Game Systems over at the RPGnet Wiki. Most (not all) of the games on that page are free - there is another page, Free RPGs which has some details as well.

 

[Shades of Green]

A few games I recommend:

1) Basic Fantasy RPG (BFRPG). A D&D-like game with a strong old-school feel; quite rules-light and extremely fun in play (I'm using it now as my main gaming system).

2) Labyrinth Lord. A good retro-clone of older D&D (pre-1E).

3) OSRIC. A retro-clone of 1E D&D.

4) GORE. A retro-clone of the older Chaosium games (such as Call of Cthulhu).

5) Mutant Future. A retro-clone of Gamma World and similar 1970's/1980's science-fantasy post-apocalyptic games.

6) Mazes and Minotaurs. Started off as part thought-experiment ("how would D&D look like if it would have used classical Greek mythology as its foundation rather than Tolkien-type fantasy") and part parody of D&D's history, this is actually a real, serious fantasy RPG which looks quite fun to play.

7) FUDGE. A rules-light toolkit for creating RPG rules in multiple genres, having some interesting mechanics. The older version is available for free for non-commercial use; the newer version is for sale BUT has an SRD under an OGL agreement.

8) Fast And Dirty (FAD). While not an RPG per se, this is a free modern/sci-fi skirmish wargame, quite rules-light and very cool.

 

[Shades of Green]

Bump

 

[Wik]

Also, check out the RPG Design tournie, ongoing in ENWorld. By the 28th, there should be at least a few free RPGs posted... one is already posted, and mine will be posted some time friday night. We've had a few dropouts, but I'd guess there'll be five or so entries. It's going to be a lot of fun.

Savage Worlds also has a site that links to many free "expansions" to their ruleset. Since you can buy SW for ten bucks, and there are literally DOZENS of fairly good quality freebie games out there, it's a pretty good deal. There's even a very nice conversion of 1e D&D to SW rules.

 

[meomwt]

I came across the free sci-fi game Icar the other day at work - accidentally, I was searching for a company by the same name. I haven't played it, or read the rules, but it might be a change of pace from all the retro-clones we're seeing now.

There's also a site which links a few of these: Chris's Compendium of Free Role Playing Games. One line descriptions and links to the rules, etc. Some may be broken links, so beware.

 

[Mythmere1]

Swords & Wizardry (link to free download page) is a free retro-clone of 0e. Link is to the Core Rules, which use some material from the later 0e supplements. The pure first-three-books version, called Swords & Wizardry WhiteBox, can be downloaded HERE. Both are also available in .doc format for cutting and pasting house rules into the document. The project's website is Swords & Wizardry home page

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

Whats the state of OSRIC?

The 2.0 OSRIC document is available, now (which greatly expands on the content of the 1.0 document -- 2.0 is kinda like a Rules Cyclopedia for 1e).

There's also a lot of retro-clone support activity, right now. Knockspell and Fight On! magazines are both excellent. Brave Halfling Publishing is putting out some cool stuff. Expeditious Retreat Press has a whole line of OSRIC modules, and is having a sale right now, until 03/09 (20% from their website and 40% off PDFs from www.yourgamesnow.com). Lots of fan/hobbyist activity on the various forums, too.

 

[Thondor]

You can download a free version of Star Frontiers (an old space/sci-fi game by TSR) at starfrontiersman.com

Havn't read through all of it myself but it seems interesting.

There's also a number of 'currently' supported games that have 'quickstart' rules that you can download and get a fair bit of playability out of them.

Castles and Crusades (basically AD&D with a Unified system called SIEGE) It only features the classic 4 classes. http://www.trolllord.com/cnc/ccqs.html I actually found that there is a fair bit of errors/inconsistencies in these rules, but with a discerning eye quite playable.

Lightspeed (a FUSION based sci-fi game. The quickstart rules try to corner you into playing space-rangers, there are a couple other options you could also download to expand that.) Lightspeed is menat to cover all the tropes of space games and I think it does it quite well. Lightspeed

HARP (High Adventure RolePlaying) also has some kind of quickstart rules. I really havn't looked at them though. HARP check the 'free downloads' menu and look for HarpLite

Speaking of Lite

MicroLite d20 is pretty awesome if all you want to do is play a really simple version of D&D 3e ish (that eliminates Vancian magic by the way) recommend downloading the Microlite d20 Purest Essence www.microlited20.net (just scroll down)

 

[Nagol]

Ars Magica 4th edition is free as well.

Atlas Games: Charting New Realms of Imagination