On June 25 (or July 23 outside of America), developers of tabletop RPGs like Pathfinder or Dungeons & Dragons will celebrate Free RPG Day by publishing and promoting free roleplaying content. Said content includes Quickstart rules, game modules, and storytelling resources that can help novice gamers get into the roleplaying hobby and introduce veteran role-players to new settings and systems. Here are a few tabletop game companies worth checking out on Free RPG Day by virtue of the excellent and enticing freebie game products they've released in years past.
The first Free RPG Day in 2007 was heavily inspired by the Free Comic Book Day used by North American comic publishers like DC, Marvel, and Image to promote their publications. Comic book publishers generally offer free copies of classic comics or the first issues of long-running series, encouraging prospective customers to purchase subsequent issues or trade paperbacks. Tabletop game publishers like Dungeons & Dragons' Wizards Of The Coast, Paizo, and Modiphius Entertainment take a similar approach on Free RPG Day, frequently publishing free Quickstart game modules with a compact campaign premise, a basic explanation of the RPG's rules, and pre-written characters players can use to hop straight into the roleplaying action. These freebies also entice players to buy the core rulebooks and game master guides needed to run more elaborate, detailed RPG campaigns.
The following tabletop game companies are all official participants in the 2022 Free RPG Day event, partnering with the Gaming Days organization to supply game stores across the world with free booklets, campaign modules, accessories, and other useful tabletop RPG resources. Most of the materials these companies publish are Quickstart modules for their more iconic tabletop RPG products, while others act as previews for new roleplaying content they're planning to put out.
Free RPG Day 2022 - Pathfinder & Starfinder Quickstarts By Paizo
Paizo, the tabletop gaming company behind the Pathfinder heroic fantasy RPG system, is planning to release two short adventure modules for Free RPG Day. The first free release is a Pathfinder campaign module called A Fistful Of Flowers, a tongue-in-cheek 3rd level adventure where a group of magical plant people called Leshys seek retribution against the pompous aristocrat who kidnapped them from their forest to be used as centerpiece decorations at a tea party. The second free release is a Starfinder space-fantasy RPG module called Skitter Warp, featuring a narrative about the crew of a spaceship trying to rescue one of their own from an alien planet where cosmic storms have turned colonists into an angelic or demonic version of themselves.
ROOT: The RPG Quickstarts Published By Magpie Games
Magpie Games, the studio behind both the new Avatar: The Last Airbender RPG and the teenage superhero game Masks: A New Generation will be releasing a Quickstart for the upcoming Free RPG Day 2022 called Talon Hill. This module, made for the company's RPG adaptation of the ROOT board game, will put players into the shoes of fantasy adventurers who are also Wind In The Willows-style talking animals trying to bring peace to the magical woodlands where they live.
Conan, Star Trek, Dune, & Fallout RPG Quickstarts By Modiphius
The game studio Modiphius Entertainment, founded by British game designer Chris Birch and his wife Rita, frequently acts as retail channel where developers from different backgrounds can promote and sell their tabletop games. Modiphius is also a publisher of original tabletop roleplaying settings such as Achtung! Cthulhu and RPG adaptations of iconic sci-fi and fantasy franchises like Star Trek, Dune, Fallout, Homeworld, and Conan The Barbarian, each built around their proprietary 2d20 roleplaying ruleset. Modiphius Entertainment hasn't yet announced the content they'll submit for Free RPG Day this year, through a recent Screen Rant interview with Chris Birch has hinted at a new original game IP and a prequel to Achtung! Cthulhu that might be revealed soon.
Free RPG Day 2022 - Level 1 Indie RPG Anthology By Level 9 Games
Level 9 Games is a small but prolific indie games studio with a library of generally light-hearted and rules-light RPGs - an homage to classic D&D/Pathfinder dungeon-crawling called Mazes, a comic "Beer-And-Pretzels" RPG called Kobolds Ate My Baby!, a Star Wars action figure inspired space-opera RPG called Rebel Scum, and so on. For Free RPG Day this year, Level 9 Games will be releasing the newest volume of their level 1: Indie RPG Anthology, a collection of short but creative indie roleplaying game concepts from promising new game developers.
Source: Free RPG Day