**Come here and talk about anything!**

This post will stay stickied for (at least) the week-end. Please enjoy this space where you can talk about anything: your last game, your current project, your patreon, etc. You can even talk about video games, ask for a group, or post a survey or share a new meme you've just found. This is the place for small talk on r/rpg.

The off-topic rules may not apply here, but the other rules still do. This is less the Wild West and more the Mild West. Don't be a jerk.

----------

This submission is generated automatically each Saturday at 00:00 UTC.

A list of the brief descriptions and links from the FreeRPG Day website. (I did this last year so I “assume” this is still okay :) ).

https://freerpgday.com

Check your FLGS or the map on the FreeRPG Day site for your closest FLGS:

https://freerpgday.com/gamers

9th Level Games - Level 1 Free RPG Day indie RPG Anthology: An anthology of indie RPGs published each year for Free RPG Day! This year's theme is Stand up!

https://9thlevel.com/pages/level-1

Avantris - The Crooked House Quickstart: The Crooked Moon is a 632-page tome that brings Folk Horror to 5E! Inside, you'll find player options & GM tools drawing inspiration from folklore, legendary horror films, and Halloween aesthetics. With the Crooked Moon, you can brave the dark wood, beware the witching hour, and weave your own dreadful folktale! NOTE: This item has a 2025 event date on it but was not part of the event last year so it is new for 2026.

https://avantris.com/collections/the-crooked-moon

Brotherwise Games - The Cosmere RPG: Law and Obligation: Law and Obligation is a one-shot adventure for 3rd-level characters, designed to introduce players to the Cosmere® Roleplaying Game and Stormlight™ Campaign Setting.

https://www.cosmererpg.com/shop

Catalyst Game Labs - Wizard Riders: Ride a motorcycle at the end of the world with Wizard Riders from Catalyst Game Labs, a dying-earth, magic-infused, engine-revving RPG! Ride broken highways in search of adventure, arcane tech, and a little more of the really good ale you had that one time.

https://www.catalystgamelabs.com/

Chaosium - The Age of Vikings Quickstart: The Age of Vikings Quickstart lets you plunge right into the action, becoming heroes like those of old, with streamlined rules for the Age of Vikings roleplaying game, along with four pregenerated hero characters and a ready-to-play adventure!

https://www.chaosium.com/

Creature Curation - Creature Curation Presents #1 : Creature Curation Presents #1 is a brand new adventure anthology featuring Vast Grimm, Raptor Ruckus, and Neon Bastardz! Each quickstart adventure has links to character generators and additional resources to have a great experience with each of these games.

https://creaturecuration.com/

Darrington Press - Daggerheart: The Dying Spire: The Dying Spire, an exciting level 2 adventure for Daggerheart.

https://darringtonpress.com/shop/

Dispel Dice - 2026 FRPG Day D20

Edge Studio - Zombicide: Plaguebearer RPG: This is not a game about hiding from the dead — in Plaguebearer, you play a tough, sword -wielding, spell-casting, Zombie-killing scoundrel. Can you survive the world's un-deadliest fantasy RPG?

https://gamefound.com/pt/projects/asmodee/dead-men-tales

Edge Studio - Dungeons & Kittens: An Afternoon Outing: Embark on a charming tale with Dungeons & Kittens from DeadCrow and Edge Studio, a TTRPG blending playful feline adventures and medieval fantasy. Perfect for newcomers and younger players, this free Quick Start introduces a quirky story of teamwork, clumsy diplomacy and amusing challenges

https://www.edge-studio.net/

Edge Studio - Arkham Horror RPG: Three Days to the Big Easy quickstart adventure: Immerse yourself in Three Days to the Big Easy, a quickstart adventure for Arkham Horror RPG. As passengers on a luxurious Mississippi paddleboat, filled with speakeasies and casinos, you’ll uncover sinister secrets hidden beneath the glamour. The mafia is pulling strings, but a vengeful curse tied to a lighter threatens everyone aboard. As investigators, it’s up to you to untangle a web of crime, curses, and dark forces before it’s too late!

https://store.asmodee.com/collections/edge-studio

Evil Genius Games - Everyday Heroes: All Bets Are Off!: All Bets Are Off is a Free RPG Day starter adventure for Everyday Heroes. A perfect casino heist collapses when the getaway van disappears, forcing the crew into a high-pressure escape across the city using quick thinking, sharp skills, and improvised solutions as everything closes in.

https://evilgeniusgames.com/

Exalted Funeral - Dolmenwood Quick-Start: Venture into the perilous fairy-tale woods with this Dolmenwood RPG Quick-Start, featuring basic rules, six ready-to-play characters, and a short adventure, The Weaver & the Redcaps.

https://www.exaltedfuneral.com/pages/dolmenwood

Free League - Vaesen: Nordic Horror Roleplaying Quickstart: Try out the award-winning Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying from Free League Publishing with this Quickstart including rules, pre-generated characters, and the thrilling adventure The Archivist’s Curse, playable in just two hours!

https://freeleaguepublishing.com/

FreeRPG Day - Free RPG Day 20th Anniversary Pencil : Each Free RPG Day 2026 kit will include 12 branded mini pencils.

Goodman Games - Pretenders to the Rat King's Throne After a band of heroes defeated Lawrence Gannu and his minions, a new menace lurks in the abandoned mineshafts of Silverton. Whether the Rat King or some pretender stalks the land, adventurers must now take up arms, discover the truth, and put an end to this new — or old — evil

https://goodman-games.com/

Knight Vision Creative - Creed Shadow Stalker : Eberron meets Dark Sun in this 5E supplement introducing new player and GM options. Creed Shadow Stalker is an all inclusive adventure from Knight Vision Creative. It includes everything you need for an epic game night. You don't even need to prep

https://shop.knightvisioncreative.com/collections/shop-our-wares-1

Kobold Press - Runes of the World Tree Quickstart: Answer the call of Yggdrasil in Runes of the World Tree, a thrilling Free RPG Day quest of cursed axes, ruthless mercenaries, and epic heroism—fully compatible with Tales of the Valiant. Gather your party and defend the sacred World-Tree!

ONLY IN USA KITS DUE TO LATE ARRIVAL

https://koboldpress.com/kpstore/

Limithron - Pirate Borg: Terror in Tortuga : Terror in Tortuga is an introductory, sandbox-style adventure for the Pirate Borg TTRPG. It has a rules reference, previews from the forthcoming Dark Caribbean Campaign Setting Book, and everything you need to run a session or two in the Dark Caribbean!

https://www.limithron.com/

Loke Battle Mats - Dungeon Beneath the Brightspire: Delve beneath a mystic beacon tower in this 5E-compatible adventure from Loke Battle Mats. This all-in-one module features four pre-generated characters, two detailed battle maps, and a set of cut-out tokens, providing everything you need to delve into the dark depths for a thrilling game night.

https://www.lokebattlemats.us/

Magpie Games - Quickstart Adventure Bundle: Dive into a six-pack of quickstart adventures for Avatar and Root! Each booklet is a self-contained story. Explore different eras across the Four Nations or carve your path through the war-torn Woodland’s unique clearings. Perfect for jumping into unforgettable RPG action, fast.

https://magpiegames.com/

Marvel - The Secret Wars Expansion Preview: The Secret Wars Expansion preview features a Battleworld adventure with an exciting 16-page story and an original map. It also includes a free PDF download of ready-to-play character sheets and a quickstart guide to get you and your friends straight into the action

https://www.marvel.com/rpg

Mythworks - KAGUYA PROTOCOL: Harness the power of the ONIGAMI in KAGUYA PROTOCOL, a two-part scenario designed for CBR+PNK. Play as descendants of ancient Shinobi guardians in the year 20XX. Infiltrate the mansion of a Trillionaire and escort Kaguya back to the Moon. Wield Artifacts given to seal your ancient pact..

https://www.myth.works/pages/cbr-pnk

Paizo - Pathfinder Free RPG Day Adventure: Things Go to Hell: When the wizard Yrdris made a deal with a devil to take possession of an infernal tower spun from shadow in exchange for his eternal soul, he expected to find a way around the contract before his demise. He was wrong. Upon his death, the tower was whisked away to Hell along with everything inside. The problem: there were four beings still within who were, for various reasons, considered the wizard’s property, and thus now Hell’s. However, if they can help find the wizard’s soul, which is somewhere in the tower, they can return home!

Things Go to Hell is a short adventure for 7th-level Pathfinder characters where they take on the role of forgotten “property” of a deceased wizard caught up in the red tape of an infernal contract. The four pregenerated characters included in this adventure let you jump right into this single-session adventure!

https://store.paizo.com/pathfinder/

Paizo - Starfinder Free RPG Day Adventure: Rescue on Raxil: When a greedy biotech corporation threatens to destroy a planet’s ecosystems and harm an endangered species, a squad of protectors known as Xenowardens deploys to stop them in Rescue on Raxil!

This short adventure for 3rd-level characters puts players in the role of five guardians of nature: Stitchvine RS the mystic, Kahalara the envoy, Takkar the operative, Raluraz the witchwarper, and Xyzexius the solarian! Each character comes with complete pregenerated stats and roleplaying tips for the adventure—and they’ll need to unleash their combined powers to save the planet and the adorable endangered aliens from a sinister corporate scheme!

https://paizo.com/starfinder

Qrawl - QRAWL: QRAWL is back for FREE RPG DAY 2026. Thanks to the fine folks at Paizo for sponsoring this interactive adventure at your friendly local game stores.

R Talsorian Games - Fossilized Violence: A PREHISTORIC ROLEPLAYING GAME In Fossilized Violence, early humanity risks everything to fight back against evolving dinosaurs on primeval Pangeon. As you hunt, you’ll unlock 140+ pieces of equipment to give your cavemen a chance of surviving long enough to become an elder.

https://rtalsoriangames.com/fossilized-violence/

Renegade Game Studios - Tradition of Destruction: From Renegade Game Studios, Tradition of Destruction is a complete, stand-alone story for Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition Roleplaying Game about murder, revenge, and how, even in a world of beautiful, deathless monsters, paying someone back is more complicated than it seems.

https://renegadegamestudios.com/

Roll and Play Press - No Place Like Homebrew sampler: The No Place Like Homebrew sampler gives you ready to use settlements, factions, NPCs and more for your fantasy TTRPG games. Designed to slot seamlessly into your campaigns, it makes building a living breathing fantasy world easier than ever!

https://rollandplaypress.com/products/no-place-like-homebrew

Sirius Dice - End of Session note pad.

Son of Oak - Legend in the Mist: Spin a fireside tale of villagers and other unlikely heroes setting out on a quest into a greater unknown world, rife with peril and mystery.

https://sonofoak.com/pages/legend-in-the-mist

Story Engine Deck - The Story Engine: Lore Master’s Deck: Weave a web of intrigue with this 35-card demo of The Story Engine: Lore Master’s Deck! The double-sided cards elevate any RPG campaign with powerful factions, notable figures, legendary objects, must-see locations, and mythical creatures.

https://storyenginedeck.com/products/lore-masters-deck-prompts-for-worldbuilding-writing-dnd

Third Kingdom Games - From Here to There: From Here to There is a mini-hexcrawl through brigand infested, mysterious words

https://www.sabregamesandcards.com/products?Category=Third%2520Kingdom%2520Games

Wet Ink Games - Home: House of Broken Promises: A haunted house game - for just two players! Draw a map room by room as you explore a mansion abandoned by a cult. Which will be worse: the secrets you uncover, or the discord the two of you brought into the house with you?

ONLY IN USA & CANADIAN KITS DUE TO LATE ARRIVAL

https://www.wetinkgames.com/

WizKids - D&D Exclusive Miniatures: Bring excitement to your D&D games with exclusive miniatures from WizKids. Enjoy the Nolzur’s Marvelous Miniatures Kuo-toa Monitor and Scarecrow, along with an Icons of the Realms: Nothic with a DungeonGlo™ eye!

https://wizkids.io/localstore

This is the link:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sinenomineinc/the-book-of-unnumbered-worlds/

It's already 100% funded. (It's a Sin Nomine book, so duh.)

Have never run a game. Only played 2-3 DnD sessions and a few one-offs. Recently my wife and her sister and a possible other friend are thinking about doing a Brindlewood Bay campaign. I'm going to do a one-off first to see if we like it. I've read the book and mostly understand how it works - and we are not super serious players. Her sister plays with very serious DnD players and would like something more loose/light and doesn't like combat at all. My wife has done some one-offs where she works with kids. I'm hoping between the three of us we can crib together enough knowledge and energy to make something productive. Any tips/advice for running this game?

I'm out of the loop on this , I mean i've seen his videos and like him but the system he had never had my attention until now. Apparently it's going to be compatible with shadowdark as well.

Thoughts on this thing? How does it differ from other games?

So a friend of mine has fallen down the Dungeon Crawler Carl rabbit hole and as such purchased the upcoming TTRPG starter kit, core book, figures, dice blah blah. Problem she has never played a TTRPG, RPG, video game or anything based on an RPG. This was her first foray into LitRPG and i think the fondness for the books has caused an overenthusiatic response. My goal is to try and set her up with a self contained solo TTRPG that will hold her hand so that she will have some idea what is going on in October when the DCC stuff arrives. I have searched the board for beginning games and have landed on a few like Ironsworn, Quest Fonts, Dungeon: A Solo but I am really looking for a "kit" type solution something that is a complete package for a total novice. Ideally something self contained with clear instructions on how to start and play. I do think she will ahve to purchase some dice (before the DCC ones arrive in October) but I would like everything else to be included.

Any thoughts or ideas appreciated!

I was reading through Voidheart Symphony again and I made a realization: this game is too heavy. Not mechanically, but narratively. The example villains are so real evil that it is kind of depressing. Like, they are all the kind of bad guys you'd read about in the news.

When I think of Persona, sure, it can be dark. Persona 5's Kamoshida, Persona 4's Adachi, and the Death/Nihilism of Persona 3 are examples. I never played 1 & 2. But, most of Persona is melodramatic and lighthearted. There is a light air to Persona, usually, that only gets as dark as a shonen anime.

Usually. Kamoshida is a big exception there.

I've checked a few games for Persona and none clicked for me. I checked

• Voidheart Symphony: Very clearly trying to be its own thing about revolution. Extremely well made but a bit too heavy for me. Can't imagine finding a group ready for this subject matter.

• Midnight Generation: Didn't leave a strong impression as it's mainly a Masks Setting, but the dev is working on it and their recent work on other projects is good. High hopes on the new release.

• The Velvet Book: Seemed too detached from Persona's themes and was just about the literal HOW of Persona. It is well made on that front, but feels best for those who prefer RPG with no thematic reinforcement.

• Ediolon: Be Your Best Self: Very cool game that uses Tarot cards, but the vibes never fit for me. It works well as it's own thing. I think it's because it's splitting the influence between JoJo's and Persona.

• Grimore of The Heart: This one I had trouble wrapping my head around. It goes so broad as to include Metaphor and thus I have trouble getting Persona from it. I think it also focuses a lot on the HOW over the WHY.

What I think I'm looking for:

• A focus on being young and having a close knit friend group: I always felt Persona is a game about youth and reliving its up and downs with a close group of friends

• A split between the real and supernatural: Persona is clear that things from the other world don't work in the real world. All your powers don't work outside of dungeons

• A delve into human psychology: Persona 3 and onward are about delving into the human soul. Whether it's the collective human nihilism of 3 or the individual delves of 4 and 5.

• A focus where emotional self improvement is rewarded with supernatural power: In persona, growing emotionally is rewarded in the other world with power

• Narrative mechanics that reinforce theme: I'd like it not to be a "GM make it feel like Persona" thing. I'd prefer game elements that reinforce theme, like those seen in Cortex, Powered By The Apocalypse, and Forged In The Dark

• Light GM Prep: A game light on GM Prep is prefered

Any suggestions?

All the sudden I've been reminded of a campaign setting book I saw once that intrigued me but which I've completely forgotten the name of.

• It was probably on DriveThruRPG

• I think it was digest-sized and somewhat short, and was either a black-and-white or blue-and-white layout

• It somewhat loosely detailed a setting consisting of an archipelago of islands (I think there was one big one and a few smaller ones nearby?)

• There was one central city that got a little more detail to it, and maybe a few other towns that were hinted at

• I don't think it was made in mind with any one system, except perhaps being broadly meant for something D&D or OSR styled

• I don't remember if it featured much other artwork besides a map

I've been struggling with where to play RPGs. At someone's home is great when it works out, but it's not always feasible; some folk don't have the room/furniture, sometimes you don't know the group well enough to invite them into your home, etc. A game store seems like the best option, but the game stores near me are all too crowded and loud, usually with card games like Magic. I'm struggling to come up with other options. I've heard libraries can be a good place to play, if they allow it, but they close too early on weeknights to be useful for my specific group. I've heard of groups that play in bars. I know one group that plays in a diner. Where do you all play?

Hey everyone, I'm running a campaign (first time). How do you keep track of NPCs the party or singular players know/have met in previous sessions? Or even go about planning all of the quests / side quests / NPCs?

Curious how you all handle it:

• What do you use? Notion, Obsidian, pen & paper, raw memory?
• How do you find an old NPC or plot without killing the pace?
• What actually stuck for you vs. what you set up once and abandoned?

I've heard some people use symbols when they write them down (kind of like bullet journal).

Currently I use Notion for my DM & player sessions but it feels off (maybe it's my setup)... I'm a software engineer and am trying to solve this for my own table and want to hear what works before I overbuild it or try something that is just a waste of time.

What solo rpg do you suggest to beginners wanting to try solo, and why do you suggest it? Where can i find said game at?

Im looking for recommendations that are simple to get into as a beginner.

I am looking to manipulate my fraternity brothers into liking DnD/ttrpg. I have an idea of a pretty easy story with just a lot of drinking and a quest to get the greatest bottle of tequila in the known universe. I also have ideas on how to make the whole campaign be a drinking game so they look forward to it being a drinking game. I’d probably call it something stupid like “Many Shots: The One Shot” or whatever.

These are a rare type of fraternity brothers. In the small group that I expect to play with, we are all very accepting but we are still in a fraternity that has a lot of toxic masculinity and we all kind of have to mask how left leaning we are. We are all only in the fraternity because we get a huge discount on housing and our own bathrooms. Plus free drinks every weekend. What I’m trying to say with all of this is that some of them would feel embarrassed saying they are playing DnD, especially when they don’t really know how it works.

Basically my plan is this:

Create characters for them. This might be a bad idea but I would personalize them for each of them and allow them to make changes wherever they’d like. My main reason for doing this is because they would most likely be daunted by trying to understand how a character sheet works and what not.

Ignore a lot of the rules but not the fundamentals. My main idea on how to make this come across well is letting them think of whatever kind of attack they want to do and they get to kind of act it out so we can all stay a little active and let the alcohol flow through us. I’m not saying full on live action role play but like they can stand up and demonstrate how they would attack a character, then roll a dice to see how much damage they do. As the campaign goes on, I’ll introduce some more rigid structuring of rules and if they would rather the earlier version, then we’ll stay with that.

Most of the money I will be spending on this campaign will be spent on alcohol. I don’t really have the money nor the time dedication to giving everyone a visual layout of what is happening. I know there are some free apps out there that help with this though so I am planning on using them. I just have heard that some use a certain intelligence that people call artificial so I’m trying my best to steer clear of those.

My main goal of all of this is to show them what a ttrpg actually is and how it can pretty much be anything you want. I’ve always wanted some friends to play ttrpg with and if I have to manipulate them into liking ttrpg, then so be it. I hope that after this campaign is done, we can start actually playing around with different campaigns and maybe even do one that is super cool and serious.

I just wanted to go on here and ask for any suggestions or tips for going about it this way. Might be stupid but I wanted to try it out.

Also, reposting here from the DnD subreddit because they suggested that since I was looking for something with less limiting rules.