Free RPGs

Welcome to the RPG section of 1KM1KT. Here you’ll find member submissions of tabletop pen and paper role-playing games. All of the RPGs available in this section are free for download and are generally in .pdf format. If you’re interested in submitting your own RPG for publication, please visit our submissions page for details or send it to us using our contact form.

“The galaxy is in great peril. With the advent of the Sith invasion of the galaxy, the Jedi order is calling on their members to take an active role in the defense of the galaxy. The Sith are ruthless enemies with nothing to lose, so the characters must out forth their every effort to stop them. This game takes place during the Great Hyperspace War, a time of Sith expansion, and the players assume the role of Jedi in order to combat the threat to galactic safety. With a variety of Force powers, classes, and species to choose from, the Sith won’t know what hit them.”

A Note from the Author
This title borrows heavily from the Star Wars line of games (both revised and Saga editions) from Wizards of the Coast, and from West End games. It also uses the crystals, emitters, lenses, and energy cells from the Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords with little change in their effects. Most similarities between those products and this game are not coincidental, and are, in fact, intended. I thank the creators of those products profusely, and gives them full credit for their work.

Five by Five (fīv-bī-fīv)
adj.

1. In radio communication on a scale of 1 to 5 measuring signal strength and clarity, “Five by Five” indicates the best possible strength and clarity of signal.

2. Condition or state of being the best you can be; perfect. (slang)

Five by Five (fīv-bī-fīv)
noun.

1. An original game system and RPG Toolkit by Jeff Moore.

Five by Five is a “choose your trait” style RPG that makes unique use of six-sided dice to create an easy to learn and easy to play universal task resolution system. The game is meant to be flexible enough to satisfy a variety of settings and easy enough to pick up and play right away.

The core of the Five by Five game system is the 5×5 die roll. Players roll two dice (counting any result of 6 as zero) and multiply the results. This basic mechanic gives an average unskilled person around a 30% chance of success and each ranks of skill improves this chance by 5 and a half percent.

The game includes sample adventures for both a fantasy setting and a superhero game, example characters and a character sheet.

Powers-Brawl is the RPG of superhero battles with the emphasis on POWERS! Creating a character is as simple as choosing a few powers. There are no points to spend or attributes to roll… just select some powers and start playing right away! Players who are not sure what kinds of characters they want can even roll some powers randomly and be ready to play in moments with no prior exposure to the rules.

Combat resolution uses standard 6 sided dice and is simple enough that each player can control multiple heroes or villains. Characters can advance during play improving existing powers and adding new ones allowing for an ongoing gaming campaign with the same characters lasting as long as the players desire.

For players in a game of super powered heroes, what one element about their characters is the most important? It’s the POWERS!

POWERS-BRAWL
Powers-Brawl is a combat oriented miniatures game based on the battles of super powered comic book heroes and villains. Players can create characters and battle head to head or one player can take the role of the Referee shaping the story in an imaginary game world where the other players work cooperatively to defeat evil.

In a 2-player head to head brawl, each player can control up to 3 characters a piece. In a game controlled by a referee, any number of players will possess 1 character each and will compete against collections of villains controlled by the referee.

Characters are comprised of Values and Powers.

Values serve as a template for all characters and come in two forms: Action Values and Opposition Values. Action Values modify die rolls when you attempt to do something. Opposition Values represent how difficult it is to do something. Values can become temporarily damaged during combat but base values do not vary from one player character to another.

Powers vary for every character. They will continue to grow and evolve through play making the character more versatile and effective each time you play.

As the prisoner of a selfish, cruel dictator who swiped all your merchandise, you can get mad and you can also get even. You just need to get out of your cell and escape the palace with all the loot you can carry, before the helpful staff put you on the menu for their pet ogre. This is a solo RPG that can be played with pencil, paper, and six-sided dice. A roll of the dice reveals whether you are a human, an elf, a dwarf, or a space alien. You also get to have one spell and two weapons. You need all the help you can get, as you roll to find out what lies behind each of six doors. Is it a passage to freedom? Is it more doors? Is it a big, ugly mummy or a nasty skeleton? Do they have any treasure worth stealing after you kill them off with your screwdriver or your sonic force spell? It’s all a matter of chance. Along the way, you can keep most of the sixes you roll and stockpile them to either convert them into Reward Points (your loot) or transform them into Life Points. Naturally, you want to get out of the palace but you also want to make up for the loss of your livelihood, so you hope to get at least 50 points in the bargain. You’ll have to decide sometimes what’s more important to you: that extra piece of treasure or staying alive a little longer.

Story:
Yesterday, you were just an innocent wandering merchant with a stock of wine. Today you’re a prisoner in the heart of the local overlord’s sprawling palace complex at the mercy of his henchmen. They have the wine and you have one day to get out before they use you as bait in a game of “tease the ogre.” Luckily, they left the slackest guards in charge of your cell. They’d rather play cards than watch you closely. A loud argument over a good hand was your chance to get the keys off the floor,
where they landed after the table got turned over. Now the guards are being summoned to the commandant’s office for discipline. You make your way out of the dungeon and start looking for the exit. Before you exit the last door, you have time to grab some weapons off the wall.

My Game Chef 2007 entry: The Dream Merchants

The Pitch: In the future…memory is currency. The players take the role of Dream Merchants who trade in forbidden and special memories in a world where strong emotions are punished. Will these memories hold the key to save their souls? Or will they end up like the rest of the Fallen; drained of their memories and forced to live in squalor?

“I remember now. The night of true passion and understanding, until our worlds came crashing down. The Judgment say that to feel too much is a sin. But the feelings inside of me cannot simply be turned off. I remember too much. It courses through me like steam through a vent, powering my brain and awakening my soul. I can’t let it go…I won’t let it go!!”

“Citizen, welcome to the Contentment Center. You have been selected for a MemWipe because of your troubled thoughts. We are here to guide you.”

“But I don’t want to be wiped. I need to remember!”

“No, citizen. None of us need to remember. What we need is to be Contented. That is what we…”

“…No!! Those are my memories…our memories! Please stop!!!”

“There…now isn’t that better? Feel the MemDrain moving through your veins. It’s already freeing your pain. Let it go…let it go…let it go…Okay, he’s out. Drain the last two weeks. That should do it. Is the girl ready yet?”

Dark Spell Diceless is a collaborative fantasy role-playing game that puts authority into the hands of the players. Features an unpredictable diceless resolution system with almost no resource management, no bidding, and absolutely no GM fiat. Simple rules to create any sort of fantasy monster or hero. Flexible and powerful but well defined magic. Can be played with a traditional GM, distribution of traditional game master roles, or no GM whatsoever.

About Dark Spell
Dark Spell is a dice-less, cooperative fantasy role-playing game. By dice-less, I mean that the game involves no randomizers. By cooperative, I mean that authority over the game is decentralized. Every player will share some of the responsibilities of a traditional GM, including framing scenes and playing multiple roles.

Playing Dark Spell is hard to play if everyone isn’t on the same page. Everybody has a lot of authority to change and introduce new elements into the game setting. Everybody is assumed to be at the game to have fun, build an interesting story, and challenge one another. The players may frequently be sporting and competitive, and the characters under their control will often be in direct opposition, but everyone’s at the game table for he same overarching purpose.

Differences in vision and other issues are bound to come up now and again. At the first opportune moment (say, between scenes, or during a pause in the action) take a brief pause in the game to deal with them out of game. Everyone doesn’t have to want the game to go in the same direction, but everyone must respect the vision of the other players. Make compromises.

The inspiration behind Dark Spell is the excellent story hour on ENWorld, “The Tales of Wyre,” by the
poster SepulchraveII. A game of Dark Spell should feature powerful characters conflicting over big issues. There should be might, magic, and drama. The main characters should have strong goals and strong convictions, and change the world as they pursue their course. Read the ENWorld thread if you need a bit of inspiration.

Dark Spell is not an immersive game. Players will be frequently called upon to operate at the meta-game level, and will need to portray multiple separate characters. Even though there may be many things that an individual does not know, there are no secrets between players in a game of Dark Spell. Don’t hide things from the other players. Try to keep your out-of-game knowledge separate from the in-game knowledge of each of your characters. Don’t be afraid to state actions for characters that land them in trouble. Trouble creates tension, excitement, and drama. These are good things. Want these things. Want trouble.

Read. Enjoy.

Go Play!

The world of Albion is in despair. Evils arise from the dark corners of the world. Orcs and goblins pour out of their lairs in endless droves. Dragons and great beasts of untold terror stir from their underground caverns. But bastions of civilization, defended by stout champions of great courage, stand against this dark tide. Will you join and help in this age of need, an age in need of heroes?

Excalibur is a fantasy RPG where players take the role of heroes in the world of Albion, fighting against (or for) the darkness. From knights in shining armor to arcanists unleashing magical devastation, players can assume the role of any hero. Excalibur is based on the Adventurer RPG by Joe Pruitt. It should be played by a group of about four (4) people and one GM (Game Master).

Description

I finally remembered to submit this to 1km1kt. It has been a long time. Be on the lookout for the expansion set… coming soon.

DESIGNER’S NOTE
Game Masters; feel free to exercise your creative freedom within the world of Excalibur. If not for Mr. Pruitt’s permission to allow me to use his creation (Adventurer RPG), Excalibur may have never been created. So, from one RPG player to another, I wish you good luck on your adventures into Albion. May your minds bring you into the uncharted areas of your imagination!

-B.G. Selidio Tan

A Funny Thing Happened is a game designed to fill in the blanks in journeys. To detail the intereactions and minor foibles that whilst not central to an epic plot can still occur on any journey.

It is also intended to be playable whilst on a journey. Players take it in turns to describe the story with a dice based bidding mechanism to control conflict resolution.

You can play A Funny Thing Happened as a stand alone game or as a filler for your ongoing campaign to explain what acutally happened in the 2 week long trip that your GM glossed over in a sentence.

Introduction
This game is the culmination to two ideas having a head on
collision in my brain. Thankfully no one was injured but the
resulting fusion of ideas is what you hold in you hands. To
understand the concept it’s easier to explain each of the core
ideas in turn.

The first idea : Travelling in a Game
At certain points in any narrative the protagonists will be at point A and the next major piece of the plot will take part at point B.

At which point you may hear the immortal lines ‘The journey was uneventful’. These words have always felt wrong to me, no journey is ever truly uneventful, something will happen. The traveller will if nothing else have some time to think, maybe read a book.

A better phrase is ‘Nothing important to the plot happens’ but this then reveals the man behind the curtain and unsuspends the disbelief. Of course you could reach for the handy dandy ‘Random Encounter Tables’ but this again is just a fancy way of saying ‘Nothing important to the plot happens’.
Or you could play it out, tell the story of the journey. But whilst this story is real it is, as I may have entioned, not important to the plot. So the telling of it is less vital. It doesn’t require everyone of a regular play group to be there. Or character sheets, or books and it could even be done without the GM. Everyone knows that nothing major will happen, no one will dice, no one will get any new super power (Feat whatever). But maybe some of the characters will get to actually talk and some role-playing might happen.

The second idea : Gaming while travelling
The second idea occurred because at the same time as having the first idea I was thinking about the 7 hours train journey I had ahead. This got me thinking, as I was thinking about travelling and gaming, that it would be nice to have a storytelling game that would be easy to play while travelling. Or in other situations where all the regular paraphernalia of gaming might not be easily used. For instance in a drinking establishment.

With this thought in mind I had a constraint for my journey telling game. It should require as little as possible, finally coming down to the concept of each player needing only a pocket full of dice. Any dice, from the lowly four sider to the twenty sided dice of power. It’s all good.

One player plays as playboy billionaire James Bloodfang, whom has journeyed to his fathers castle with his four friends in order to discover who killed him. In this tale of suspense and thrills five players will be trapped in the same castle. three are innocent, and Jason must find out the fourth.

The Usual Suspects
A scary ass game by Robbie Cousineau
Its midnight. Theodore lay on your bed as you hear creaks and groans throughout the mansion. He hears a knock on his door. Theodore stands up and answers the door. He gasps as a a loud shot is heard and blood splatters across his bed.

That Morning. The police investigated your fathers mansion fully and found no murder weapon. Only a pure silver bullet casing. Your fathers will read as following: In order for you to inherit the family fortune and position, you and four friends must stay the night in your fathers mansion.
Determined to get your payday and office. You collect your friends and walk up the creaky steps of Bloodfang mansion…

Introduction

You play as James Bloodfang. Your father was brutally murdered last night, devils night. Your lawyer has said that in order to inherit a dime, your father decided you had to stay a night in the mansion. You have been told that your allowed to bring four friends. Explore the mansion and avoid whatever ended up killing your father. One player is the killer, whose goal is to murder everybody by setting and activating the many traps placed around the mansion.

Ghosts haunt, Plants talk, Skeletons….break dance? Prepare to be scared so bad you won’t even be able to say a good thing about it!

(This game requires 5 people and a GM)

d100 is a rules-light, semi-generic (biased towards modern horror/fantasy) RPG rules set with a self-contained determination system. Combat is VERY bloody yet fast-paced. The design idea was to have a flexible system that fits the “System in a Can” parameters, yet was able to be developed within 24 hours.