I am a college student. That makes me a big fan of the phrase “free stuff.” This blog is pretty much my only income, and my library of D&D books is at the local game store, because I can’t afford to bring them back to my apartment, which is too small to run a game in anyway.(To quote Nethack, “Wizard Needs Food Badly!”) My cat removed severa keys from my keyboard over a month ago, and I still haven’t scraped up enough to stop making these friggin’ typos. So here I feel it is important to popuarize and publicize systems friendly to broke-ass gamers like myself.(**Note** I’m not putting my own free games on here, because it seems really tactless. The links are in the sidebar if you want to check them out.)

1. Risus: Damn this is fun. Where else can I come up with a druid who lives in a modified portable hole with a thousand mice? Discworld? Not Quite. A little simplistic, a little silly, I wouldn’t use it for a serious campaign, but it is really easy to play when you’re **ahem** studying with friends. —-Pros: Simple, Fast, Flexible, Multiple Settings Possible, Easy to play when drinking to excess. —-Cons: Maybe -too- rules lite. Formats Available: PDF, RTF, and TXT available from official website, support materials are in various formats.
2. Returner Games FFRPG: There aren’t many gamers in the 15-30 age bracket who haven’t played a Final Fantasy game before and thought “Why isn’t there a PnP system here.” Most have eventually come to the same conclusion I did. There is, it’s called D20 D&D. Throw in some Chocobo’s if you must. Here, however is a complete game system and setting designed by experts to emulate the console game world(s). —-Pros: It doesn’t feel like a modified version of D&D, Complete rules set, Complete Setting. —-Cons: Learning Curve, Inflexibility Formats Avaiable: PDF and mediawiki with TXT support Materials.
3. The Sword of Martin: A throwback to my childhood, I guess. I read all of the Redwall books as they came out until three years ago, when I became too broke to afford them and too busy to read them. Thankfully, I recently found this free game at 1km1kt.(Alas, poor Yoric, I knew him well, a fellow of infinite jest.) Fell asleep for a minute there. —-Pros: It has a whole bunch of rodents! —-Cons: Not enough rodents! More rodents NOW! Formats Avaiable: PDF Only, little to no supporting materials outside the Brian Jacques novels(If I were at my apartment, I’d count them, but I use hotspots because I can’t afford an internet connection).
4. Dark Spell: This is kind of like what Mage: The Ascension/Awakening would be if White Wolf didn’t try to baby it’s players with a gigantic setting that most gamers could probably come up with on a walk around Huntington, WV at night. Sorry to anyone who likes the massive metaplot, but frankly, I like filling in plot holes myself and hate emo. Depression is a problem, not a fashhion statement. Anyway, Sorcery is completely devoid of metaplot and setting, it’s just a system that provides detailed rules for magic that, in game, is complex and difficult enough to be believed in a modern setting. —-Pros: It’s not World of Darkness. It is a modern magic game. —-Cons: Takes a little bit of getting used to, systemwise. Formats Available: PDF only, with no support materias but highly compatible with many settings.
5. OPIGS: I’m just impressed. It’s very difficult to put into one page, enough material that the characters don’t all end up the same. OPIGS has done this to great effect, and has increased funtionality with a few modules (Superheroes) similarly sized and similarly free. —-Pros: Very easy to use, quick character creation, everyone gets a rulebook as long as you’ve got a printer. —-Cons: Not feature complete without modules to back it up. Formats Avalilable: TXT only, TXT supporting materials.

I hope you like them. Over the years of playing free games, these are the ones that truly are memorable games for me(Except for Risus.)

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