Free RPG Day 2022: 5 great games, including Critical Role’s latest

This Saturday, June 25, is Free RPG Day. That’s your signal to visit a participating friendly local game store to grab some free stuff. But if all you’re doing is a flyby to see what goodies you can make off with then you’re missing the point. Free RPG Day should be about building community and not just buying merch. Instead, why don’t you pick up a pamphlet, plop down at a table, and start playing one of those games right away?

Polygon had the chance to preview all of the materials being given away during this year’s Free RPG Day. Here’s our pick of the five best tabletop role-playing games that you should be able to get off the ground with just a handful of inexperienced players and very little prep time.

Dungeon Crawl Classics, Danger in the Air

Goodman Games

Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game is a throwback ruleset by Goodman Games that evokes the same feeling of danger and exploration present in the original 1974 version of Dungeons & Dragons. The system has been “modernized” in such a way as to be extremely familiar to fans of later editions of the game — including the most recent 5th edition.

The dangers of the airIt is an easy way to create level-0 characters. This requires no more than basic knowledge of the d20 systems. (If that gives you anxiety, there’s also a 44-page quickstart guide available online.) By the end of an hour or two expect to have a handful of level-1 adventurers ready for their first real quest — and dozens of bodies of those who failed in the task. That task is what? Well, it’s exploring a drifting extraplanar craft of mysterious origins that has been hovering over town for the past few days. It’s a great way to kick off a larger Dungeon Crawl Classics campaign — or to tease folks hyped for the pending reboot of Dungeons & Dragons’ Spelljammer setting.

Level 1: The Indie RPG Anthology Volume 3

Image: 9th Level Games

Level 1: The Indie RPG Anthology is back with its third issue this year, and it’s basically a bag of holding crammed full of thoughtful rules-light RPGs. This year’s gem is called Media Old GodsBy Graham Gentz, which encourages you to appropriate several of the world’s most beloved characters and turn them into Eldritch forces bent on world domination.

All the love and passion that fan put into fictional characters gives them power. Now imagine that these characters exist as immortal gods, their power relative to their peers — and even humankind itself — fluctuating with each theatrical or video game release. Simply click on Brand Awareness to begin. There are many matchups, particularly when you think about how much power demonic entities must have to be allowed to access the public domain.

A Familiar Problem

Darrington Press image

A Familiar ProblemThis is a fun, lighthearted game that has great bona fides. It was created by Critical Role’s Marisha Ray and Honey Heist Creator Grant Howitt. A Familiar Problem puts players in the role of “scrappy and stressed out” familiars — magical, sentient animal companions of spellcasters — trying to keep up with a party of adventurers. The project was announced earlier this month, and now that I’ve had a chance to get a look at it I’m really impressed. It has all the charm I’ve come to expect of the crew of actual play stars, and all the randomness and open-ended design that Howitt’s work is known for. It’s the perfect ice breaker for an event like Free RPG Day, or perhaps for your next regular at-home game.

Rolled & Told Volume 1

Photo: The Lion Forge

Free RPG Day has the most impressive offering this year. Rolled & Told Volume 1The full-size, hardcover edition of ‘The Complete Book of Adventures’ was first published in 2019. It’s a collection of seven adventures from the Rolled & Told series, which is a hybrid publication that combines serial comic book adventure and a complementary set of 5th edition-compatible adventures. The original price was $39.99. It could be because The Lion Forge, the publisher of these adventures, had many of them lying around in their warehouse and wanted them to go. But that doesn’t make the excellent and lengthy adventures contained inside any less worthwhile.

Homeworld Revelations

Image: Modiphius Entertainment

The softcover quickstart manual for Free RPG Day is perhaps the best of all the official licensed items. Homeworld RevelationsHigh-concept, tabletop RPG that is based on the classic real-time strategic series. While it doesn’t include all the delicious fluff penned by the game’s original writer, Martin Cirulis, you do get a healthy peek at how the mechanics of the game will work in motion ahead of the general release.

Other licensed games include modules for Paizo’s Pathfinder and Starfinder settings; Steamforged Games’ Epic Encounters series of 5th edition-compatible adventures; a new quickstart for Root: The Roleplaying Game; Cyberpunk Red is an Easy Mode, which serves as a prequel for the TTRPG in pint size. Cyberpunk 2077; and a new one-shot for Privateer Press’ Iron Kingdoms setting called A Strange Light Breaks.