Jan 23 2013
Gaming on the cheap – 2013 Edition (Part 1/2)
”Roleplaying games can be an expensive hobby, especially when you are the game master.” With these words I started a post in 2009 called “Gaming on the cheap” and it’s still true. But in the meantime a lot of new free games have been released which are worth a look. There are also a couple of inexpensive games available if you are willing to spend a few dollars. But I will talk about those in the next post of this series. Let’s start today with the free games. You’ll notice that there are a couple of games on that list I was involved with, so I hope you don’t mind.
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Atomic Highway |
In 2011 Colin Chapman released the PDF version of his post-apocalyptic roleplaying game Atomic Highway for free. |
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Arcane Heroes |
Arcane Heroes is a 5-paged rules-light fantasy game I wrote in November 2010 after playing way too much Fable III. It’s inspired by said game and uses a simple dice pool system for task resolution. Even though it lacks a proper setting it should be fully playable if the GM is willing to fill the holes with his own ideas. The system could probably be easily adapted to other genres as well. Arcane Secrets by my friend Andrew Modro expands on Arcane Heroes and adds new spells. |
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A Wanderer’s Romance |
A Wanderer’s Romance is a 45-paged game of martial arts duels and tea-making contests written by Chris McDowall. And it’s one of the projects I was proud to be a part of. Back in 2011 I did the layout for AWR and I have to admit I am still proud on how it turned out. If you are into the fantasy wuxia genre you definitely should check out A Wanderer’s Romance. |
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Badass
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“Have you ever wanted to play a game that kicks that logic in the face, twists its arm behind its back and makes it cry for its momma?” Jay Steven Anyong’s BADASS is exactly that game. It’s a rules light beer & pretzels game in which you play badasses doing badass things. In Badass you can play dinosaurs, robots, ninjas, cops, teachers (yes, there are badass teachers), gamblers, and more. If you ever watched a totally over-the-top Hong Kong movie, you know exactly how BADASS is meant to be played. |
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Icar is a space opera created by Rob Lang which comes in the form of a 187-paged PDF. Compared with most of the other games mentioned in this post, Icar is huge – both in page count and depth. It’s also one of the games I always wanted to give a closer look, but never had the time to. I love the sci-fi genre and I – as I probably mentioned before – have a soft spot for percentile system, so there are multiple reasons to give the game a chance. I wish I had more free time. |






Especially in certain genres, music can be an important part of the gaming experience. In horror games the immersion can be extremely deep if you employ the right background music. Over the years I have collected various movie or video game soundtracks, classical music, etc. that are suited for this purpose.
I have to admit I still have fond memories of the long 
Today I stumbled upon Jeff Moore’s blog 









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