Free RPG Day 2025 just passed at the time of me drafting this. My friend and I visited enjoyed a mini scavenger hunt at our local friendly game store, where we were rewarded with a bag of RPG products. While I do not want to put out my full thoughts until I play them. I would like to share how excited I am for some of the products. There will be links to find the stuff online, as best as I can, in case you missed Free RPG Day or no Friendly local game shop took part in it. I am surprised a store in Vegas did. There are a lot of products so I will be breaking it up into multiple articles and linking to them at the top or bottom of each post. Haven’t decided yet, anyway on we go!
SHIFT : Roleplaying game Basic Rules
Excitement: The level of excitement when a new album comes out from an artist you like, but not love.
Why: This the preview material for a soon to be kickstarter project. It does give the vibe of a simple, imaginative and easy RPG, that I feel it’s more suited for kids or family play. The art has cartoony comic vibes that is cute. I’m just not looking for something like this at the moment. I hope the Kickstarter does well.
Link to free basic rules and microsetting: https://hitpointpress.com/collections/shift
Nobi Nobi Booster Quickstart
Excitement: Hmmm, I’m intrigued
Why: The rules are interesting. It reminds me of the recent edition of Fiasco mix with a bit of anime aesthetics. Everyone will get a character. The role of GM and main characters will swap between player through different scenes. Depending on how the scene plays out, your character will get a card of light or darkness. It does feel more streamline and the booster feels a bit more railroady. It’s a small deck of cards that I can throw in my bag to take to the next game night in case we may have to cancel session at last minute.
Link to their kickstarter with the print and play : https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ynnis/nobi-nobi-rpg?lang=de
Deck of Worlds Sampler pack
Excitement: My wallet is crying
Why: This is one of the few products that I can try right at the table. It’s a tool for GM prep and I love it. It’s a deck of cards that helps you built tiny micro settings, adventure sites or landmarks for a game. You draw a card to get a region then each subsequent card pull adds to the site. Other than the region card, each other type of card contains multiple choices of their type. You continue to draw cards and adding it to the others to slowly build out this little piece of a world.
For sure, you can get the same effect with random tables. I’ve done similar when I’ve been in a rut for world building. Roll on a few random tables to get an idea of a location. The difference is this deck of cards makes it a bit more engaging and visually interesting. When I built my first site, my mind was immediately racing to think of more lore, or adventures and what could be going on at this location. Same with the second location i made. When I wasn’t feeling a prompt, it was easy to turn the card to choose a different landmark or a different name, until I found the one I like.
I since trying have found they have multiple decks for lore, storying telling, and more genres for world building. I have their site open on several tabs and slowly making plans on how to buy them.
Link to the product page, I have not found a downloadable print and play to try
https://storyenginedeck.com/pages/free-rpg-day-2025
That’s all for now. More to come as I continue to read them!
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