I came across a couple old RPGs that had gone out of print and then been made available for free on the Web by their owners, and I asked around on RPG.net and got a lot more! I wanted to make the list available here for two reasons.
- To let people know where to get some free games, especially nostalgia-triggering ones like Star Frontiers (my first RPG!), Marvel Super Heroes, and more.
- To give some kind of karmic credit to the companies and authors that are making these available for free once they’re not able to make money off them, as opposed to spitefully sitting on them as so many do.
Please note this is a list of legally available games only, not torrent sites or other pirate stuff (as best as I can tell). It’s also only for games that used to be for sale and are now free; there’s plenty of other lists of “made for free” RPGs out there on the Web. It’s also not “Lite,” “free,” or “SRD” versions of pay games, though I may post later with a list of those.
The List of Now Free RPGs
- Star Frontiers, the old TSR science fiction game, at http://www.starfrontiers.com/ (they go over their bandwidth from time to time, check again later if you get an error).
- Marvel Super Heroes, the old TSR supers game, at http://www.marvelrpg.net/
- Powers and Perils, a fantasy RPG by Richard Snider that was published in 1983 by Avalon Hill, at http://abroere.xs4all.nl/pnp/
- SLA Industries, a dark future RPG by Nightfall games, available from download from DriveThruRPG. (In fact, as an aside, this link will get you all the free stuff on DriveThruRPG).
- Ars Magica Fourth Edition, a medieval fantasy RPG by Atlas Games, available from their site (look way down on the bottom right for the Downloads section). If you are not familiar with the Ars Magica magic system, you are not an educated gamer.
- Dog Town, a modern crime RPG by Jonathan Ridd and Cold Blooded Games. The entire game line is available for free from their site!
- CJ Carella’s WitchCraft, a modern occult RPG published by Eden Studios, is now available on RPGNow.com.
- The entire catalog of Wasteland Games.
- Time Lord, an old Dr. Who RPG, is freely available from its author.
- Dragon Warriors, an ’80’s fantasy RPG, is on Home of the Underdogs.
- Several semi-diceless RPGs by Joe Williams and Marquee Press, incluyding Lost Souls and Legendary Lives, are available freely on the author’s website.
Know of more? Hit me up, I’d love to add them to the list!
