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.

There’s Something Rotten in the City of Q*Berg is the role playing game for those who have ever asked themselves what life would be like if all problems could be solved by jumping. It’s a game that balances role playing and character development for both the Q*Folk and the Coiled as they make their way through the Q*World and good, ol’ fashioned Q*Bert action. The game also delivers a wholly plausible (ie made up) story on why Coily was out to get our orange hero from the beginning. For those who really want to adventure in the city of Q*Bert, there are complete rules for joining factions, casting spells, and useful skills for pickpockets and lock pickers! Can the heroes solve the mystery behind the horde of pulverizing pineapple? Can the heroes stop the nefarious gremlins’ schemes and turn the Coiled back into peace green snakes again? If the The Ancient Order of the Q*Bringers of Q*Light doesn’t exist, why are they included as a faction and how come Q*Bert is a member? Will the O*Folk try to recruit you for their own schemes?? Nothing is needed except a couple of players, some lint, and a D2! It also has LARP rules and instructions on how to make your own Q*Bert! Created after literally minutes of reading on the history of Q*Bert, this game strives to stay true to the original, but adds a rules light way to role play in the Q*World.

A Little More About Q*Berg

Q*Berg is happy little town near the Qacific Qcean across the qontinent from the much more heavily copyrighted Q*Burg, though the two high school football teams do meet once a season to determine the state qhampion. Q*Berg is much like any town. Q*Folk live their lives in a relative state of happiness. They get up, kiss their qhildren, go to the jobs in their qars, work, come home, have family dinner, watch some entertaining Supercade shows on the TV and go to bed.

Q*Berg’s Economic and Political Machine

Q*Berg is home to several prosperous businesses, including S&S Green Pineapple Plantations, a division of Bush Bioweapons, Inc., the Wacky Happy Red Ball Company, and Gottleib Pinball Games, makers of the hottest pinball games in all of the Q*World. The current mayor of Q*Bert is Dee Warren and the city planner is Lee Jay. These two tireless Q*Folk work to keep Q*Berg a fun and exciting place to live, while dreaming on day of making Bigger, More Exciting Q*Berg, a town twice the size of the current city and more exciting to boot. Still, Q*Berg seems like a good enough place as it’s been ported all over the place.

The Geography of Q*Berg

Q*Berg is shaped very much like a pyramid with the mayor’s house at the very top, everyone else’s houses in the middle, and the city’s shopping and entertainment districts near the bottom. Q*High, Q*Middle School, and Q*Grammar School can be found in the middle of the pyramid right next to each other, while the Qollege sits at the bottom of the pyramid and sprawls across several city squares. Peculiar to Q*Berg are a collection of levitating discs which the mayor once created to take the Q*Folk to his house. Any Q*Folk can hop on a disk and be quickly, but safely transported to the mayor’s house at the top of the pyramid where they can stop by for tea or to discuss the intricacies of creating a series of repeating squares in the times before PCs. Not something most Q*Folk tend to be that interested in, actually.

The Dark Shadow Over Q*Berg

All is not completely fantastic in Q*Berg. First of all, there’s the Wacky Happy Red Ball Company’s tendency towards industrial accident. Each mishap spews hundreds of red balls into the air which fall upon the noggins of innocent Q*Folk. These occurrences unfailingly elicit all sorts of cursing from those hit. This, of course, sets a bad example for the younger Q*Folk, who learn all sorts of bad words.

Recently, there have been rumors of strange experiments at the S&S Green Pineapple Plantations. They say that the Plantation is filed with an eerie light and strange moaning coming from where the trees grow the thickest. No one is quite sure what to make of the rumors, but most attribute them to the imagination of qhildren. Unknown to the larger Q*Population, S&S is just a front for Bush Bioweapon’s Living Pineapple Combat Solider program, a horrific attempt to turn green pineapples into the ultimate solder.

Treason Season RPG is a simple solo game wherein all rules of gameplay are included in a single character sheet. In the game, the player takes the role of an operative for the government of a nation known as the Great State, an extreme version of our own country’s current political climate. Succeed in serving the State, and you may be rewarded by becoming one of the power elite that rule the nation, perhaps even becoming the leader of the Great State. Fail to serve the State, and you may be punished for treason, though those that escape such persecution may find a second life as a freedom fighter against the Great State, perhaps even toppling the corrupt regime via revolution.

Sonic the Hedgehog is about freedom from oppression and heroic antics of all kinds. It is also about the corrupting influence of power, embodied in the character of Dr. Robotnik/Eggman. It is about doing the right thing and dedication to ones’ beliefs – Sonic and pals all have power, but they use it to fight the villains of the game, and some have personal quests such as Knuckles’ protection of the Master Emerald.

How to use Sonic the Hedgehog, An Unofficial RPG

Sonic the Hedgehog, an Unofficial RPG is a roleplaying game. This is a game that is played with a group of friends in which each player takes on the role of a character and dictates their speech and actions. These characters are known as Player Characters (PCs for short). One player is known as the GameMaster (or GM for short). It is the GM’s responsibility to create the world and scenarios the PCs will act in, as well as populate them with Non-Player Characters (NPCs), which exist to make the world seem like a real, breathing one, not simply a static, non-evolving environment. NPCs may be allies, enemies, indifferent parties, or even minor character made up on the spot because a PC grabbed a random person in the middle of the street to ask directions. Whatever their role in the game, NPCs exist to give your world depth and the PCs an expanded cast with which to interact. For a more detailed discussion on the nature of roleplaying games, see Jeff Moore’s article, Roleplaying in the Computer Age.

This game, One Page RPG Fantasy Edition, is my response to Jeff Moore’s “The Character Sheet is the RPG challenge”. I chose to use a simplified version of my BLYSS system for this RPG, and if I do say so myself it’s worked out rather nicely. Though its quite as simple as Jeff’s Rage, Precognition, Grace, I’m still confident that a group of beginners could easily grasp it, and the selection of Attributes and Skills in this flexible point-buy system should suit the more advanced players too. I plan to produce a matching Dungeon Master’s sheet with advanced rules, DM aids like monster and combat trackers, and perhaps an adventure in notation form. Check this one out folks: It’s only a page long, it won’t take much of your time to look at … but it might consume a lot of your time to play!

Print out your sheet, pick up your dice, and prepare to play! SoloQuest is a solitaire RPG that requires only the use of a d8, a d2, a pencil and eraser. It consists of just one page, on which you can find both the rules and sections for recording your character’s statistics. With just these tools and a little imagination you can randomly generate a set of challenges to overcome!

SoloQuest assumes a fantasy setting, with the inclusion of witches, guardsmen, familiars, and a set of magick skills for your character to learn. While the rules generate the adventure, it is up to you to “join the dots”. If you meet a witch more than once, is it the same one? What is her interest in your character? Why did your familiar agree to join you? Exactly who is this criminal the guardsmen keep mistaking you for? Is he one of the enemies you’ll fight later? The rules are just words on a page, the true game goes on in your head: Only you can create the story.

Consider expanding on the rules on the page to add to your experience. You might randomly determine if an enemy has a magick skill (probably excluding resurrect). Initial enemies probably only have 1 rank in that skill, with more powerful enemies having additional ranks or several magick abilities. Perhaps you can find and buy amulets or potions of vigour, increasing your Health beyond 1 (to a maximum of 15, perhaps). Further skills are more than possible, and may be the focus of add-on sheets.

Above all, have fun!

How to Play: You need a d8 and d2. Print out this sheet. Name your character. Assign 5 points split between Attributes, and 3 between Skills. Generate adventures by rolling on the Encounter table, then rolling on the indicated table. Repeat. Each encounter equals 1 experience point (exp). Spend exp to add additional ranks to Attributes and Skills. Attribute ranks cost 2 exp x rank (to increase from rank 1 to 2 you would spend 4 exp). Skills cost 1 ? rank. Print out additional sheets for allies and familiars. Allies gain exp only for encounters they take part in. You have 1 Health, which are healed after all encounters with the exception of traps. In combat roll d8, if you roll lower than the enemy?s Defense – your Strength, reduce their Health by 1. Enemies attack you similarly. Each turn you must decide whether to use a Melee or Ranged attack (see Skills.You may have no more than 3 Allies, and only 1 Familiar.

A curse has infested an ancient keep near your town. The evil magic has filled the keep with monsters. Can you save your home from this hex?

“Hex” is a one page solitaire RPG by Jeff Moore inspired by “Doom: Semper Fidelis” by Sandy Antunes.

All you need to play “Hex” is a copy of the character sheet/rules and five or six six-sided dice. “Hex” creates a solitaire gaming experience similar to the dungeon crawling adventures of your favorite table-top or computer RPG.

Hex uses a minimum number of random tables to keep the game accessible and fast. Roll the dice, make a choice. Balance the loss of Health and Endurance to gain XP. Battle giant rats, skeletons, vampires, hellhounds and even a dragon to save your home town!

This is the nightmare of modern office life: work that crushes the spirit, office cubicles as cells, and managers as wardens. The office is a dehumanizing environment for the employees – the kind of thing that makes you a cog in the machine – a number. Nothing.

Faced with that, driven to a breaking point, human beings generally do one of two things: create their own petty fiefdoms and delusions of importance… or Get Out.

Frogger is about Getting Out. You remember the artwork on the side of the old Frogger arcade console? (Here’s a hint: look at the picture on the front cover of this game.) A frog, rushing somewhere, vest and tie awry, briefcase in hand. It’s easy to think that he’s imitating the White Rabbit, muttering “I’m late, I’m late…”, except that you know from the game itself that he’s trying to get Home. He’s an office worker, trying to get away, get across all these obstacles, and get to the thing he wants – the thing he needs.

Something happened to our worker bee that made him want to get away from the buzz; something hit that cog and made it slip off.

This game was written as part of the 1KM1KT 24-Hour RPG challenge, which called for designers to adapt a computer game into a tabletop RPG in 24 Hours. Any computer game would have been fine; I could have done City of Heroes… I could have done X-Com (heck, I actually planned to do that one), but my girlfriend suggested Frogger as a joke, and the damn idea wouldn’t get out of my head.

Aside from the game itself, I’ve pulled a lot of inspiration from movies like Office Space, Clockwatchers, Falling Down, Lost in Translation, Harold and Kumar go to White Castle, and (to take it a bit further afield) Shawn of the Dead, Grosse Pointe Blank, and Road to Perdition.

And this is what I ended up with. Enjoy.

In ‘Doom: Semper Fidelis’, you can enjoy a quick solo RPG based on the computer game ‘Doom[tm]’. Be the Space Marine who travels to Phobos to kill lots of demons in order to save Earth. Then see if any of your soul remains after serving your world. “D:SF” is a quick read at 5 pages, requires a 6-sided die plus paper and pencil, and plays in under 3 minutes. This somewhat abstract slayfest will test your ability to choose goals, prioritize, and navigate a bizarre and random set of challenges while keeping true to yourself, your mission, and the Marine Corp. Failure… is an option.

UAC researchers on Mars’ moon of Phobos have inadvertently opened a gate into an infernal realm. Demons have plunged through and slain everyone on the base. It is now a beachhead for a demonic invasion of Earth. A soul survivor remains on Phobos, a lone individual who must fight the forces of Hell itself. That survivor is you– and you, my friend, are first and foremost a Marine.

As a marine, you have loyalty to the Corp and to your Country, for the rest of your days and beyond. And so you must travel through the 6 levels of demonic hell on Mars in order to stop the demon invasion of Earth.

You will face former marine Sergeants and heavy weapon soldiers, now mind-controlled into being your enemy. Strange demonic fireball-shooting Imps and pink gorilla-like Demons, plus their invisible kin the Spectres. The dead humans were turned into the flying skulls dubbed Lost Souls. Strange gaseous Cacodemons float the halls. Barons of Hell and the larger Hell Knights lead the forces. A Cyberdemon giant and the Spider Mastermind will threaten you. Will you prevail?

http://www.momentarylapsepress.com

This game is a game of adventure and a game of uncovering lies. In it, the players take on the role of an undercover agent disguised as a waitress that has infiltrated into positions of trust, and then they use the trust to gain evidence against their marks. While obtaining the evidence, the marks will ask the characters to perform objectionable actions that conflict with the waitress agent’s sense of duty, but by performing these actions, the characters will find more evidence. Slowly, the guilt of violating duty can overcome a character, so it’s a race to bring down or be brought down. And it’s about the ends justifying the means.

Comic Introduction

Man in Trench Coat

(Black coat, leaning up against a wall)

Welcome, to the Agent training course. Here you’ll learn about being an operative before heading off in the dangerous field.

Man In Trench Coat

The first step of your training involves is physical conditioning. All agents must be strong and fit in order to catch the bad guys.

Corner Box

For this training, each player takes three six-sided dice.

Man In Trench Coat

Okay, now that you’ve changed into running uniforms and shoes, let’s see you race. The goal is to come in first. Ready. Set. Go.

Corner Box

This is called a Conflict. The goal is to win the race. Roll the dice. The player who rolls the most ones wins, and the winning player gets to narrate the results. If there is a tie, then the players who tied roll one dice over and over until a one is rolled. The first player to roll a one wins.

Man In Trench Coat

Great job, ladies! Now let’s try something a little different. Let’s move into combat training. For this event, pair off and before you fight, and I want to know how you want the fight to turn out if you win this event.

Corner Box

A winning player’s intentions dictate how any conflict will turn out after the dice are rolled. So, before the dice are even rolled, a player must state in theopen what they want to happen if they win the roll. In any Conflict that doesn’trelate to the mechanics of stats, all sides must declare what they want to happen before the roll.

Man In Trench Coat

Consider the bell rung. Fight time.

Corner Box

Each player in the fight rolls his or her three dice. The one who rolls the most ones wins and then gets to narrate how the conflict happened.

Woman Agent One

I jump kick into the air and land a foot straight into the stomach of my opponent. She falls to the ground and I put my foot on her throat.

Man In Trench Coat

Good. I see that you are learning fast. Let’s try something a little different. I have a written test for you to take. You need to pass this test if you’re going to advance to the next part of training.

Corner Box

This is also a conflict. Anything that may have an effect on the future of play or the story must be rolled on. But don’t get crazy; you don’t have to roll for everyday actions. Here the agents have to pass the test. If they don’t, then what happens? During the game, one player, usually the person to the left will decide what happens if an agent fails. So, have each player state what will happen if they succeed in the roll, and the person to the left describe what will happen if the roller fails. Then roll. If a one is rolled then the roller describes the outcome. If no ones are rolled then the player to the left describes.

Man In Trench Coat

I hate tests just as much as you do, so I’m glad that that’s over. Now, I want to give you some tools that will help you succeed. But first, why don’t you reflect on your past. I want you to tell me a little about your family, what you did before we recruited you, and what motivated you to come and work for us.

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Each player has one specific agent character that he or she will be responsible for during the game. During character creation, each player must write a back-story for this character. It doesn’t have to be long. One hundred words are plenty.

Man In Trench Coat

See girls, we recruited you because of your sense of duty and motivation to expose these evildoer crooks for what they are. Now that you’ve thought about your background, tell me what motivates you.

Corner Box

Each player should write his or her motivation on the agent’s character sheet.

Man In Trench Coat

Good work! This spying stuff is hard work isn’t it. We even work nights and weekend. Now, think about your background, the connections you’ve made, or the skills you’ve learned.

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Each player should pick out two Adornments for their character. An Adornment is a skill or connection that the character learned or has from his or her background that the player will use during play to help their character succeed.

Man In Trench Coat

Good, now that you know what motivates you and what you’re good at, you can apply these connections, skills, or motivation while you’re out taking down the bad guys.

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Motivations and Adornments add dice to the player’s conflict rolls, so, for example, if an Adornment was a Fast Runner +1, then the player would have rolled four dice instead of three in the above race.

Man In Trench Coat

Well, ladies, I tell this to all my recruits. I love you, but you’ve learned everything I can teach you. If you need something from me, I’m available. And let me give you some warnings.

Man In Trench Coat

You’ll be in deep cover and asked to do some dastardly favors for these corrupt bastards we’ll be exposing. You’ll also be paid pretty well with dirty money. Just keep your chin up, because I don’t need you to feel too guilty. Too many agents burn out when the guilt over comes duty.

Man In Trench Coat

By the way, we’re looking to do some promoting. One for you ladies will get my job and all the perks?I mean all the perks that come with it.

I got a bee in my bonnet to write another 24 hour RPG submission. A few weeks ago RPG Blog ran a story about some free (by license) fantasy clipart available for use by game designers. Since then I have been thinking that I would like to do a 24 hour game just so I could use the art… well, I got started last night and finished today (while at work, no less.) So I thought I’d send a copy of the game along.

Demetrius stepped quietly over the body of the fallen skeleton. The unnatural apparition had slain many good people from his village. Demetrius could feel the residual magical energy in the thing. It made the hairs on his arms bristle. He looked down at the formerly animated corpse squeezing his sword ever more tightly in his grip as he regarded it. It made him feel uneasy. Magic frightened Demetrius. It had invaded his world, and he knew that his world would never be the same.