A Role Playing Games Blog
Freebies
Free Stuff Friday: Dungeons & Dragons
4June 4, 2010
It’s Friday and it’s time to give you some more free stuff!
This weeks Free Stuff is: Dungeons & Dragons.
I know what your thinking. “Free Dungeons & Dragons? How can this be?” Well it’s true everyone. If you have ever wanted to play Dungeons and Dragons, or you just wanted to give the 4th edition a spin, now you can! Wizards of the Coast will let you test drive Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition for free! But it’s a little better then that.
Wizards of the Coast is giving you access to some “Quick Start Rules” as well as some pre made characters. If that was not enough for you they are also giving away two free adventures. “Keep on the Shadowfell” and “Khyber’s Harvest“. You can’t beat that!
So check out Wizards of the Coast free Dungeons & Dragons stuff. When you’re done send them an e-mail and thank them for all the free stuff you just got!
Field Report: Lady Blackbird
2June 3, 2010
Just to get some expectations out of the way, this is NOT a review of the Lady Blackbird adventure module by One.Seven Design! There are plenty of those out on the Web. This is a great “steampunk adventure module for 2-6 people. It contains a starting situation, setting, pregen characters, and quick-play rules perfect for a no-prep game of 1-6 sessions or more” (that’s the blurb from their website) and I recommend it whole heartedly. This is a post on my experience running the game.
This past Sunday during the Puerto Rico Role Players geeknic I got to run Lady Blackbird. This was not my first choice! Originally I had planned to run a superhero game. If you’ve read my recent posts you know I’ve had that itch for some weeks now. But talking with the other gamers who were coming to the geeknic I figured a more classic fantasy game might be a better choice. The days kept flying by and real life conspired to keep me from preparing properly for the game. The night before the geeknic I found myself with no game knowing there were going to be some gamers there the next day expecting me to run something.
Then along came a Blackbird. My friend Daniel had gushed about the game; written about playing the game and made sure I downloaded Lady Blackbird. I had read through it twice and figured I would give it a try one day, I had even printed out the characters and handouts just in case. I re-read it and readied myself to try something new at the geeknic.
What an awesome time we had! The rules are simple, easy to grasp and encourage role-playing. The one page description of the setting, the Wild Blue, was enough to fire my imagination. The character descriptions were enough to give players a frame around which to develop their characters. Here is how it went down…
(Beware there are “spoilers”, if there could be such a thing, for Lady Blackbird ahead!) (more…)
Supers, supers everywhere!
13June 2, 2010
With the release yesterday of the new superhero game ICONS from Adamant Entertainment my superhero fever has reached new heights. I’m getting my copy today after missing out on the pre-order due to some pay-pal woes, but if I had any doubt about the game, all the stellar reviews, and specifically Greywulf’s excellent 10 things to like about the ICONS RPG, cinched the deal for me!
However all this superhero madness has left me with the age olds conundrum, how do I illustrate the supers in my head? Some of you may be artistically inclined, and heck I can use existing art to represent my character, but how do I bring to life the specific superhero, or super villain, I can see so clearly in my mind?
You can go the art commission route, a great way of employing the many talented artists who offer their services. Although I have never contracted his services, I’m particularly fond of Storn Cook, I just love his style and think he captures the feel of supers so well.
But what if you are on a budget? Besides caped stick figures you can try out some of the applications available online that let you create your own superhero. HeroMachine is perhaps the best known, but I’ve never been a fan of the results, but I’ll admit the new version 3 alpha is a great improvement.
Personally I prefer Fábrica de Heroís, which I believe translates to Hero Factory! As the name suggests the page is in Portuguese, but it is pretty intuitive, and once you select a body type for your superhero, there is an option on the top of the menu where it says Idioma: to switch all menus to English. It may not be exactly what you want, but with all the different options and permutations, I’ve created over 50 heroes and villains using it. On this post you can see a sample of those creations.
Well that’s all for now. I’d love to know how the rest of you go around illustrating the characters in your superhero games. Looking forward to your comments!
Dungeonslayers: Fireworks!
3May 29, 2010
Yesterday my Dungeonslayers supplement Feuerwerk was finally released in an English translation. Thanks a lot to the translation team, which did a great job! So, what’s Fireworks about?
Fireworks contains rules for firearms, bombs and cannons and features a new spellcaster classed called the Arcane Gunslinger. There are even some tips on how to use these rules in your DS campaign.
As always you can download the PDF for free at the official site.
Free Stuff Friday: One Monk Miniatures
1May 28, 2010
It’s Friday and it’s time to give you some more free stuff!
This weeks Free Stuff is: One Monk Miniatures.
The only thing better then miniatures are free miniatures. This is just a great idea for anyone who needs some kind of miniature to represent bad guys or good. The details in these paper miniatures are some of the best I have ever seen. They are great for people just starting out in the roll playing game hobby or for people who have been into it for years. As quickly as you can print, cut, and paste you can have an army ready for your next game. Plus you can’t beat free. Everything on the site is free!
On the Encounters website they wrote this stuff up: “The popularity of paper modeling for the purpose of wargaming is continuing to grow each year. With the continued increases in the prices of metal and plastic figures, paper miniatures offer you the great looks of painted miniatures, for a fraction of the cost. With a printer and a few simple tools, you can be creating your own hoard of miniatures in just a few days.“
So go on. Check out One Monk Miniatures. Let them and us know what you think!
Freebie: Bill Coffin’s Septimus
5May 22, 2010
The only game ever released by WEG under the Open D6 brand was Bill Coffin’s Septimus. Now that Bill got the full rights to this game back by Eric Gibson, WEG’s owner, he has decided to release it for free over RPGNow/Drivethru RPG. So what’s Septimus about? Here’s the blurb from the RPGNow product page:
Bill Coffin’s Septimus sets the players inside a Dyson Sphere made from an unknown and unknowable alien technology. Faction pitted against faction to control the sphere and the amazing technology therein — a technology so great that no weakness cannot be eliminated and even death is not final. But, even as the obsessed techno-cult, the Sindivar Extant seeks to build a Utopia around Septimus’ many nanofoundries, a dark secret spreads. The same technology that is a boon to so many billions of people contains a flaw, a flaw that may have spelled doom to the great originators, a flaw that threatens to crush Septimus and its inhabitants, even before the greatest of secrets yet remains undiscovered
Whether you fight alongside the Extant and the Cadre, or whether you join one of the many factions seeking to wrestle power and wealth from the Cult, you are sure to find a game that is right for you. This 360+ page RPG comes packed with everything you need for many hundreds of hours of gaming. This books needs no additional material to play. It comes with the OpenD6 core rules, huge amounts of setting information, complete with area maps, plus the most exhaustive character generation and character option information ever in a single D6 System book.
Inspired by, and meant to capture all the fun of the Classic Star Wars roleplaying game by West End Games, this free-wheeling Space Opera also takes you science fiction fun to the next level. More mature and multi-tiered that Star Wars D6, Septimus includes elements of Cyberpunk, Transhumanism, Light Mecha, all the way to fantasy elements. Septimus’ vast territory only about 1 or 2% of which has been mapped, means an almost unlimited field to play in.
If you like the d6 System and space opera, you should definitely have a look at Septimus! You can download the complete game as a 364-paged PDF here.
Free Shit Friday: Encounters
1It’s Friday and it’s time to point you in the direction of some free shit. Shit you can use for your hobby and your game.
This weeks: The Encounters Fan Zine!
Encounters is a brand new quarterly fan zine dedicated to classic Dungeons & Dragons. Best of all. The damn thing is free to all! So go download it now. If anything it is a great source of story and campaign ideas. But also it’s free so go get it!
On the Encounters website they wrote: “Welcome to the home of Encounter, a free quarterly fanzine dedicated to the Classic DUNGEONS & DRAGONS® Game! This humble journal seeks to provide a new online voice for the grand old version of the role-playing game we know and love. Whether you are re-living your gaming glory days or are new to Classic D&D® we hope you enjoy your visit!”
Why don’t you be a pal and write the folks over at Encounters and thank them for the free download? Also Let them know what you think of their new zine.
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