What games have an audience? I have a lots of brilliant games (commercial ones) but many of them have never been played for want of players. I have encountered Osric and Labyrinth Lord being played. I played Star Frontiers when it came out. Some of these look really interesting. I will definitely check out any magazines for free games.
All those commercial games that you've got that you haven't run/played because of a lack of players?
They're more likely to get played and you're more likely to be able to find players for them.
There's some really groovy cool games out there, but the truth is, the number of people that are going to be into playing them is relatively small. Does that mean you won't find someone online going, "Well, _I_ had no problem getting people to play [insert game]!" I'm happy for them, but that doesn't mean that they're in the majority. Heck, just poking around online (which is going to tend to be the pool of player types that these free games which are, you know, posted online) shows that a majority of people aren't interested in a game that's "dead". By which they mean, "Does not have a new supplement being published".
Does that mean you shouldn't try out the games or others you find in the future? Nope. It just means that if you're looking for a game with a built in audience... stick with D&D.
One of the more popular small press/indy games (Spirit of the Century. It's the game that is responsible for the current version of the Fate rules) has sold a bit over 3 thousand copies. Sure, there's an SotC SRD available from Evil Hat's website. But 3k is the number of people that have bought it. It uses funky dice (although it's possible to substitute in d6s for them). So, out of the 3k people that have bought the game world-wide, how many do you think live in _your_ area?
I don't want to invest time in a game without players. Presumably, making it free removes any entry barrier but does it mean more players?
Nope. In fact, there's an awful lot of free games available out there. What's been listed here is a tiny fraction.
I don't want to sound like a downer here. I personally happen to be a big fan of the small press and "indy" games. But the group of folks that are doing the small press/indy/free games? In general it's a different crowd. There's some overlap between them and the "regular gamers", but... *shrug* Heck, look at ENWorld. Last year, Scott Rouse gave a (possibly inflated by his own admission) number of 6 million people playing D&D.
ENWorld has just a bit over 81 thousand registered members. What's my point? If the worlds most popular rpg can only scare up 81k worth of people for this board, the number of people that are going to be interested/willing/are playing one of the multitude of free games out there is going to be equally small.
Small press and indy games, free games, homebrews...all of these succeed because somebody likes the game, takes it to their group, and convinces them to try it. There generally isn't an already established demand for the game.
There's also the slight matter of "what kind of game do you want to run?" If you're just looking for fantasy (the most popular kind of rpg there is) you've got all kinds of different choices. You need to figure out specifically what it is about D&D, or whatever your favorite fantasy game is, that you don't like and then it's going to be easier for you to find a game that does what you want.
Each of the games that's out there, is something done by a person that's trying to either provide a ruleset for some setting they've had in mind, or they're trying to solve what they feel is a problem with some ruleset (or all of them).
Tell you what... here's 5 fantasy games to check out. It means a bit of downloading and you'll have to do a bit of reading, but if you're really interested in messing around with something besides D&D or White Wolf games, it's a good start:
First: Go here:
Neoplastic Press Enjoy the kick-ass picture. Dread and the game that picture is for (Spite) are games focused on monster hunting in the modern world. Enjoy the picture (done by one of the concept artists for Farscape.) Now, you'll want to go here:
Neoplastic Press. What you're going to want to download is called Gates and Gorgons. It's a fantasy implementation of the rules used in Dread. If you just want the stripped down rules, you can download the Dread STD here:
Neoplastic Press.
Second, the aforementioned Shadows of Yesterday. I'm going to give you a couple of different links, rather than the wiki (I personally hate that every has to be put up on a wiki these days).
The original version of TSOY, which uses d6:
The Shadow of Yesterday: Main Rulebook and the world that goes along with it :
The Shadow of Yesterday: The World of Near
And here's the second ed version of it, which uses Fudge dice:
The Shadow of Yesterday
Third, we've got another game by Nixon, called "Donjon". You can find it here:
Donjon
Fourth, we've got yet _another_ game by Nixon, this one called "Paladin". Here it is:
Paladin
Still with me? Last up, we've got Savage Worlds. You can get the basic stripped down rules here:
Pinnacle Entertainment Group Downloads and then you can go over here:
Savage Heroes and find a variety of conversions done, one of which should work for you.
Four of the five of these games are fantasy based. They're all looking at doing very different things though. They've all got enough information for you to be able to play/run games, without spending a cent.
Out of all the different games that have been offered, pick one or two that really tweaks your interest. If the game doesn't have enough of a default setting for you... convert something. Who gives a crap if the conversion is "right". Pick up one of your many unused commercial games and start pillaging. Pillage the setting, rip off some monsters, whatever. Go ahead and be _excited_ about it.
Then, go to your group and pitch it. You know what they like. It might be investigation, it could be monster hunting...whatever. Be up front with 'em too. Let 'em know, "I'd really like to try this out because [blah blah blah]." If your excited to try something, the group doesn't have to do any work, and you've got a premise that's going to appeal to them, chances are they'll at least consider it. If the game bombs, you'll still have learned a valuable lesson. You'll have a better understanding of what it is that _you_ want out of games, what it is that the group wants out of games, and finally whether a particular game is able to make that happen or not.
Free and small press games can _really_ rock. The key to making them work for you is to find one that actually matches what you're looking for, and actually being into it. Why should anyone else be interested in playing it if you're ho-hum yourself? Setting and all that? There's some many games out there to rip off, it's disgusting. Just do conversions from your own library and you're covered. If you go with something like Savage Worlds, there's a decent chance someone has already done the work for you, or is in the process of doing the work for you.
