Epic Games Free Game: Return to Moria

I haven't played it, but I grabbed it - Epic Games is giving away this game:

Return to Moria

Given that it's free, and I already have an Epic Games account, I went for it. Just passing along the news in case anyone is interested.

Random Links for Friday 1/26/2024

So what don't you want to miss, in my opinion, for this week?

- CRPGs aren't a replacement for tabletop. Yeah, tell me about it. The number of times I've cleared a fort protected by intelligent, organized foes one encounter at a time with 8-10 hour rests in the middle in CRPGs is >0, in TTRPGs 0.

Computer RPGs Just Aren't . . .

- A blog on writing a fantasy gamebook? Interesting.

- This caught my eye mostly due to the tables . . . the dragon concept is suitably meta-weird.

- OD&D debuted, and effectively changed games, 50 years ago today.

You can get OD&D for all of $10 in PDF. It's an interesting read . . . worth plunking down the money and the time. I'm so glad I sprang for a physical copy way back when from Mail Order Hobby House.

- Goodman Games is launching a sequel to the very excellent DCC #67 Sailors on the Starless Sea.

- You can get Mordheim (the computer game) free on GOG for a little bit. I grabbed it, but I haven't played it yet, as I'm wrapped up in two other video games at the moment.

- No game Sunday after all. Next game is in maybe 3 weeks or so? We'll see.

OSR Christmas has begun!

Enter to possibly win free cool stuff over at Tenkar's Tavern.

OSR Christmas Day 1

March Fourth Sales

There are a few March Fourth aka Gygax Day sales going on:

Warehouse 23 has a sale on GURPS, TFT, and other stuff.

Goodman Games has a sale and free stuff.

DriveThruRPG has a sale, too.

If anyone has others, put them in the comments and I'll link them here.

Don't "Gift" me free PDFs from DriveThruRPG

The title really says it all, here.

Periodically, people "gift" me a purchase on DriveThruRPG. It's always a free item, or a Pay What You Want item they've presumably paid $0 for.

It's never something I asked for or want.

And I simply do not ever pick the gift up or download the item.

I figure this is just spam marketing at heart. It's junk mail. I don't want to check out your PDF. I don't want to read your product if you have to push it on me yourself. And I don't want someone to figure some free item is a solution to my problems and just send it to me.

Sorry for the rant, here, it's just that I can't believe I'm the only one this happens to. It's annoying. I'd block this on DriveThruRPG if I could figure out a way to do so. It just clutters up my library . . . and I won't check out what I don't know I bought myself.

Anyone have a solution to this spammy way of getting product out that I can take?

A modified Ghost Tower of Inverness

Issue #24 of Footprints has an article that prompted me to download it, and which might be of interest to my players especially.

It is a modified, shortened version of C2 The Ghost Tower of Inverness.

Most interesting, I think, are the pre-chosen equipment options to speed up the start of the game. There are some interesting choices, especially given the challenges particular to the dungeon.

None of them feature a magical two-handed sword, which was a fantastic choice for Lembu, made just because Lembu's 9-year old player wanted the weapon that did the most damage that he could find. L-sized creatures abounded, and took lots of damage.

Worth the read if you know C2 well, or if you played it with me.

Starter Traveller - Free

This is the version of Traveller I started with:



It's available for free, right now (and that's Tenjar's affiliate link, because Tenkar pointed this out today.)

I had some issues with the set, mostly because the expansions assumed you had the three-book Deluxe Traveller boxed set. I paid $12 for the Starter set because $20 was crazy expensive for me. Even $12 was pocketbook breaking at the time, and cost me a lot of allowance. So I felt really burned when I'd get later books and they'd reference different books . . .

Still, it's a nice little set and it did get me going on Traveller. While it's free, just grab it.

OSR Christmas

Although this decreases my odds of winning, I do feel like I should amplify the word about the OSR Christmas:

Tenkar's Tavern's OSR Christmas

Free Stuff from Frog God Games

Another quick note about free stuff:

Frog God Games is doing a 12 Days of Christmas giveaway. Just check the Free Downloads tab on their page, find the Holiday PDFs, add them to your cart, and check out. They are up to day 6, and it seems like days 1-3 are gone now. So hurry up if you want free stuff.

Free Gaming Material on Christmas

A couple of bloggers, that I know of, are giving away gaming material for the holidays.

First up is Erik Tenkar at Tenkar's Tavern, doing a "12 Days of Christmas" giveaway.


Second, Douglas Cole at Gaming Ballistic is giving away PDF and print copies of The Lost Halls of Tyr. I was a Kickstarter backer, and I already have the PDF. It's beautiful. It's well written. And there is a chance that you'll get it for free.

Hope that helps some of you guys get free stuff this holiday.

ZWEIHÄNDER Grim & Perilous RPG Free until the end of today

Erik Tenkar posts so often sometimes that it's hard to keep up.

So in case you missed it, until the end of today, a Retro-Clone of the Warhammer Fantasy Role-Playing Game is available for free on RPG now.

Here is a direct link (with Erik's associate link):



It's free, go get it and see if it's something you like.

Fantasy General free on GOG

Just a heads-up - GOG is giving away Fantasy General for a limited time. It's a turn-based "light" hex wargame from SSI. It's pretty entertaining, and it's free for a while:

HEXMORFO - modular 28mm scaled hexes

Thanks to GURPS Megadungeon for posting about these. This is a pretty neat replacement for Cardboard Heroes: Dungeons Floors

HEXMORFO

HEXMORFO Templates Set A (XL)

Seems like it would be effective way to generate small dungeons that you can just put out in front of the players as you go. Nice. Combine these with Cardboard Heroes and the Great Salt Flats and you can make some bigger ones I'd bet.

Free Stronghold 'zine issues for Veterans

Like the subject says, Boric is giving away free copies of the Stronghold's first three issues to veterans.

If you are one, contact Boric. If you know one, pass it on.

Veteran's Day Free Offer--EXTENDED

It lasts until midnight tomorrow.

GURPS Freebies

So GURPS Lite is free. I've got a link to it on the side of my blog. What else is out there that is free for GURPS?

Official products, I mean, not just fan-created material.

Here is the complete list:

GURPS free stuff at Warehouse23

I'd like to highlight some especially good or broadly useful ones.



Caravan to Ein Arris - and excellent GURPS starter adventure. It's wonderful for introducing new players to GURPS, and I've used it to introduce new players to RPGs in general. Yet it's not without some interesting depth for a group that pushes roleplaying and fights and physical challenges for groups that prefer those. It works very well one-GM one-player, too.



GURPS 4th Edition Combat Cards - also a great item for new players - printable cards with the various Maneuvers you can select from.



GURPS Martial Arts Techniques Cheat Sheet - GURPS Martial Arts has a lot of techniques. This is an at-a-glance listing of them.



GURPS Range Ruler - something we actually keep handy at my table as a tiny short-range-only Size and Speed/Range Table substitute.



Floor Plans 2: The Great Salt Flats - varying sizes of hexes and squares. Including, naturally, the 1" hexes GURPS uses. Technically not a GURPS item, but very useful for it.

That isn't a complete list - I mean you can get GURPS Lite in Korean so you can finally play with GURPS Martial Arts in Korean* But these are ones I've used in the past, use now, or just find nice to have in general.



* Results not actually likely.

12 Days of OSR Christmas FYI

If you missed it - despite Tenkar's actually reasonable posting frequency these days - the 12 Days of OSR Christmas has started:

12 Days of OSR Christmas is LIVE! - Big Dragons and Not So Small Hobbits - Oh My!

Erik has links to several Christmas giveaways in that blog post.

Free Car Wars Classic rules

Check this out over at the SJG Daily Illuminator:

Free Car Wars Classic



You can download the rules in PDF.

They look good, and the improved images for maneuvers (compared to the old sets I used to play with) are really nice.

Review: Majestic Wilderlands 5e Berserker

I wanted to take a look at one more barbarian class out there - a 5th edition D&D berserker written by Robert Conley. I know there are other barbarian classes, and I may get to them sometime in the future.

Majestic Wilderlands Berserker

Written by Robert S. Conley
MSRP: Free!

The berserker is a class option for Lawful or Neutral human fighters in the Majestic Wilderlands.

Like most other barbarian classes, this berserker can track, go into a battle frenzy, and comes with a bunch of weapon, armor, and outdoor skill proficiencies. Most of these are granted right away, but the battle frenzy, skills, and some additional powers are added or improved as the berserker levels. This is much like the rest of 5e classes - every level is a significant improvement.

What I like about this class is that it is not just a frenzied warrior. Instead it's a holy warrior blessed by a specific god (Thor) and granted battle frenzy and special abilities because of that. This gives it a lot of focus that a more general barbarian or general berserker class lacks. These berserkers are giant-killers, basically - they got a lot of special perks for fighting larger foes.

Not only that, but it's a balanced barbarian type class - at least it seems so. The powers don't seem out of line for 5e, or what other classes would get. Unlike the "You get everything, but it costs a lot to level" approach of the UA or LL barbarians, this is an approach I think works better - you level like everyone else, and as you go up you gain new powers. A more monk-like approach, comparing it to earlier editions - every level you get more monk-like, instead of getting a big pile of abilities right away.

The supplement is well-written, attractively laid out, and tightly edited - as usual for Rob's books.

Overall: A nice class, and a good example of what you can do with the 5e framework with a specific type of barbarian in mind. Doesn't seem unbalanced with the official options, or with the rest of the MW classes.

Free Game - Barbarian Prince

Actually, it's free games - a number of Dwarfstar games are available for free.

But the one I'm talking about now is Barbarian Prince. Mostly because it came up on boardgame day the other day, and I wanted to make sure I blogged about it so my players would get a chance to check it out.



This is one of those games which I wish was an app or a PC game. I'd play round after round on my computer, where as setting up and playing a solo adventure game is a lot of work I find that - even with a copy printed out - I just won't do. I will soon so I can review it . . . but just looking at it, I'd like to play it repeatedly and offload all of the page flipping, counter moving, and time and resource tracking. Having a physical copy means needing a physical space to play it, and means reading the rules and double-checking to ensure I'm doing it right. Having a computer-arbitrated version means no physical space needed, it's portable, and I can play and learn as I go.

Like Ogre, actually, which also screams out to be a playable one-person game. There was one, but there should be a new one. Along with a PC Barbarian Prince.


Still, I'd pick a physically attractive and well-made reprint of this game up if one were made, especially if it came with a mini I could paint.

Far Away Land Quick Start

Erik Tenkar is a big, big fan of Far Away Land.

I think thanks in part to him, there are some FAL Quick Start rules available. They are PWYW - Pay What You Want. AKA, get it for free, come back sometime later and give them some money because you liked the work.

Here is Tenkar's post about the rules availability:

Free - Far Away Land Quick Start

Or if you prefer a direct link from here, click on the image:



You have nothing to risk getting them. And from what I've seen so far of them, they are attractive and a fun read. Hopefully I'll get to sit in on one of Tenkar's Roll20 sessions and see how it plays.