Though I generally try to stick with reviewing things I like, I wanted to record some of my thoughts on a few books I picked up for Free RPG Day.  Not all of them are positive.  Funny enough, I just looked back and saw that I posted a similar thing last year, with almost the same opening sentiment, about five other Free RPG Day releases.  So, on with the show, I guess. 

Starfinder: Rescue on Raxil: This Starfinder adventure written by Linda Zayas-Palmer is essentially just three encounters.  Likely combat encounters.  That’s it.  The first two could possibly be something other than combat, but they’re weighted that way.  And since they all use battle maps, and battle maps tend to push players into a combat mindset, they’re probably going to turn violent.  For all the buildup the module gives you for this “adventure,” I was genuinely shocked by how little there is to it.  The pre-made characters are probably the most interesting thing about this booklet, and frankly, they don’t seem like characters who would just go in guns blazing to take out some critters and a villain.  But that’s what the adventure is.  Reading this, I was reminded of how much I think that games like D&D and Pathfinder/Starfinder are simply counter to how I want to game in so, so many ways.  It goes back to Matt Colville’s statement about rewards directing gameplay.  Games like Pathfinder and D&D reward you for killing stuff.  Ultimately, they’re games about fighting and killing.  Anything else you work in there is largely in spite of the game, not because of it.  

Age of Vikings: Quickstart:  To be perfectly honest, I’m sick to death of Norse/Viking stuff in RPGs (and video games & movies).  Like zombies in the early 2000s, it’s just been overdone, with seemingly every tabletop RPG ending up with its Norse inspired adventure or setting.  So, when Chaosium released this updated version of Mythic Iceland, written by Mike Curry, Pedro Ziviani, and Jason Durall, I just sort of sighed.  Though, frankly, I’m kinda glad Chaosium has been focusing on stuff I don’t really care about, because it’s given my wallet a bit of a break.  But dang it, I do love me some Basic Roleplaying.  I started reading this quickstart booklet and I was getting right back into it.  I think they’ve done a pretty good job of laying down a simplified version of the core rules here.  And the scenario, while not especially complex or nuanced, does capture the fantastical take on the North Atlantic, circa 977. If I wasn’t so darned Vikinged out, I’d probably have to pick up the full game.  There are no pre-gen characters in the booklet, but they are available to download. Finding them was a bit of a challenge to me, so here’s the page you’ll want (https://www.ageofvikingsrpg.com/resources/).

The Crooked Moon: The Crooked House:  I was genuinely surprised by this 5e adventure, penned by Mikey Gilder & co..  Especially coming on the heels of the above Starfinder adventure.  This is a full module.  I’d put it on par, content wise, with any given Dungeon Crawl Classics, or classic D&D module.  It’s for a setting called The Crooked Moon, which I hadn’t heard of, but reminds me a bit of stuff like The Shudder Mountains and Old Gods of Appalachia.  I also kept thinking about Call of Cthulhu.  Reading it, I could already imagine plopping the Crooked House down in Arkham (or Dunwich), or outside Lankhmar, or in any number of other settings, with just a few twists.  Considering this wasn’t on my radar at all, and I wasn’t even going to pick it up, except that the shop had a pile of them and a generous policy for Free RPG Day pick-ups, this was quite the find.  I assumed I’d read it and toss it in my pile of Little Free Library destined books.  Nope.  I’m holding onto this one, as I can definitely see finding a place for it in whatever sandbox I might assemble.  Heck, I’m kinda tempted to find the full The Crooked Man setting, even though this sort of Appalachian-styled Folk Horror isn’t really my bag.  The only issue I have with the adventure is with the pregenerated characters.  It has them, which is great.  They just seem wildly inappropriate.  This feels like an adventure meant for normal, fragile humans (maybe halflings), but the pre-gen characters are a menagerie of creatures as weird as anything in the house.  I don’t know if that’s The Crooked Moon’s shtick or what, but it seemed off.  They seemed like something that might fit more in Planescape or something.

From Here to There:  This little hex-crawl, designed (written?) by Todd Leback, is made with Old-School Essentials and Bree-YARK in mind, but it would take very little effort to shift it to any of the various D&D adjacent games, or frankly, most other traditional fantasy games.  There’s a nice hex map, several keyed locations, and a couple small dungeons.  Just what’s presented here is some nice material for a hex-crawl, and there’s a lot of room to flesh it out with more random encounters and story beats.  Not to beat a dead horse here, but comparing this to the above Starfinder adventure is…I mean, wow.  Night and day.

Tales of the Valiant: Runes of the World Tree:  Cue prolonged Tina Belcher groan.  This adventure is, you guessed it, Norse-themed.  That said, while it’s not as interesting or involved an adventure as The Crooked Moon, it’s definitely more interesting than Rescue on Raxil.  It’s designed (again, written?) by Brian Suskind.  I was reminded of old D&D modules, as it’s two short stapled booklets in a loose cover that subs as a battle mat.  One booklet is a very brief “quickstart” rulebook, designed by Richard August & co..  I won’t really speak to this, as I really have no interest in Tales of the Valiant, it being one of many variants of D&D.  It does come with pregenerated characters, which is nice.  The adventure itself has a solid premise.  What I like about it, again judging it next to something like Rescue on Raxil, is that there are several different types of encounters.  And it’s possible to avoid combat at each stage, even the finale.  Heck, it even gives you an alternate way to get involved in the story.  Nothing here is ground breaking, but if you’re just getting into RPGs, it’s nice that they give you options that aren’t just “roll for initiative…”  So, while this one isn’t really for me, it’s not bad.  It’s what I think a Free RPG Day adventure should be.  

The Crooked Moon and From Here to There will be staying in my collection for now.  The others will be making their way out the door, to a friend, or to Little Free Libraries in the area.  I want to be a bit better about actually getting around to reading these Free RPG Day books.  Well, I want to be better about reading a lot of things.  Whatever the case, hopefully I’ll do another post like this sooner than next year. Only time will tell.  

I’m an independent author, so… If you like what I do, you can buy me a coffee. Check out my YouTube, and/or take a look at my Patreon page, where I’m working on a novel and developing a tabletop RPG setting. I’m also proud to be an affiliate of DriveThru RPG.