Tabletop Roleplaying Games

Get your table playing in minutes, not hours.   GATEWAY RPG is a free, rules-lite d20 system built for zero-prep adventures, sudden one-shots, and seamless intro sessions. Familiar 5E-style mechanics with all the bloat stripped out, so you can run any genre instantly: neon-soaked cyberpunk streets, grit-filled noir alleys, high fantasy, cosmic horror, and everything in between. The Definitive Edition is now the main book. This is the complete, current version of GATEWAY RPG: updated core rules, solo play, a starter bestiary, and homebrew variants, character sheets all combined into one source. New artwork, professional layout, and everything players and GMs need in a single 132 page PDF. Want the history? Every older version of the rulebook, spanning 2017 to 2026, is bundled in the Legacy Zip below for collectors and the curious. Download the complete PDF bundle. AI Disclosure: This Enhanced Edition of Gateway RPG features some AI-generated artwork and layout assistance. The rules were still hand written by me and human proofread/playtested since 2017. As a one-man passion project with $0 budget, and $0 revenue gain from this game, this edition utilizes AI imagery only to provide a visually richer and cohesive experience while keeping the game entirely FREE. The original Classic Edition from 2017, featuring human-created artwork, is included as a bonus in the download files. However, if you are only looking for a gaming experience completely free of AI-generated assets, the standalone Classic Edition can be found exclusively on its own dedicated product page at https://gatewayrpg.itch.io/gateway-rpg-classic-edition. What’s Inside? Definitive Edition (Main Book): The complete game in one volume. Updated rules, solo play engine, starter bestiary, and homebrew variants. Legacy Zipfile (2017-2026): Every prior version of the rulebook, character sheet, supplement preserved as released. For archivists, returning players, and anyone who wants to see how the game evolved. Core Rules: The streamlined engine for players and Game Masters, in both English and Spanish (Reglas en Español). Character Sheets: Multiple Printable and Form Fillable Character Sheets Ready-to-Play Content: Pregenerated characters and one-shot adventure modules spanning multiple genres. Jump straight into the action. Player's Toolkit: Printable and form-fillable character sheets, a one-page quick reference guide, and the d20 Oracle for solo play. Starter Bestiary: 25 adversaries across 11 settings, from High Fantasy to Space Opera to Lovecraftian Horror. Homebrew Variants: Over 20 pages of optional mechanics, including Spark of Heroism (Inspiration), Pushing for Success (partial success), and genre modifiers for Survival and Cosmic Horror. Pocket Character Sheets: Compact sheets designed for portability. Solo Play Quickstart Zine: A portable, zine-style guide for on-the-go solo adventures. NEW: Android Player Companion App Character Builder: Create custom characters or select from 30 curated pre-mades. Pocket Rules: Quickly search core mechanics and references on the fly. Sheet-Integrated Dice: Roll checks directly from your sheet. Solo Engine: Built-in oracle for quick, on-the-go solo adventures. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aistudio.gatewayrpg.app Designer's Note: GATEWAY RPG grew out of a personal passion for tabletop gaming. Back in 2015, I discovered S. John Ross’s classic 1993 game, Risus: The Anything RPG. It was free, modular, ultra-flexible, and simple to pick up, but as I played more TTRPG's like DND5e, I missed the iconic d20 and the drama of critical hits and misses. I created GATEWAY RPG to capture that same beginner-friendly spirit while bringing back the thrill of the twenty-sided die and being able to use it for any setting. Whether you are running quick one-shots, playing standalone adventures, diving into solo sessions, or modularly introducing advanced rules as your group learns, GATEWAY adapts seamlessly to your table. GATEWAY RPG and Aurican's Lair are a Not-For-Profit Tabletop Roleplaying Game publisher.

SHRINES – A Dark Pilgrimage RPG is a classless dark fantasy tabletop roleplaying game about dangerous pilgrimages through wounded worlds. It combines tactical D6-pool combat, exploration, escalating threats and character growth through Domains with a strong focus on consequence, discovery and gaining knowledge. Description SHRINES – A Dark Pilgrimage RPG is a dark fantasy tabletop roleplaying game in which the players take the roles of the Marked, pilgrims bound to mysterious Shrines and sent into regions scarred by ancient wounds, broken beliefs and hostile forces. The game combines tactical combat with exploration and narrative decision-making while keeping bookkeeping deliberately light. Its core system uses pools of six-sided dice, with characters defined without traditional classes. Instead, they develop through their qualities, talents, maneuvers, equipment and Domains - powerful influences that shape abilities, vulnerabilities and interactions with the world. Shrines form the anchors of every pilgrimage. They provide safety, progression and a place to return to, because death is not the end. When a pilgrimage fails, the Marked may return to their bound Shrine, but failure still carries consequences. Lost Essence, Burden and an increasingly dangerous world ensure that reformation never makes defeat meaningless. Exploration is built around regions, locations and Instances rather than long quest lists. Players uncover Lore, discover competing factions and decide how deeply they are willing to involve themselves in conflicts that rarely offer a simple distinction between good and evil. At the same time, Regional Escalation causes the world to react to the actions and failures of the Marked, making prolonged expeditions increasingly dangerous. SHRINES is designed around the idea of fair cruelty: the world is harsh, combat can be deadly and mistakes matter, but danger is meant to be readable and consequences understandable rather than arbitrary. The game can be played with a group or as a solo pilgrimage. Its free introductory series, SHRINES: INITIATION, guides players step by step through the core ideas of the system across four connected episodes, gradually introducing exploration, combat, navigation, escalation and the consequences of failure. It leads directly into FIRST FRAGMENT, the upcoming Quickstart release, which expands SHRINES into a broader playable region with additional rules, characters, locations, monsters and a complete pilgrimage to undertake.

Vagabond // Pulp Fantasy RPG is a d20-based OSR fantasy game designed by Taron "Indestructoboy" Pounds - an ENnie Award-winning designer previously known for third-party D&D 5e class content - and published through his own studio, Land of the Blind. It funded its development on Kickstarter in 2023, with a print run funded via Gamefound in 2024, and fans have taken to calling it "the Pathfinder of the OSR": an attempt to bring modern character-build depth to old-school-inspired dungeon crawling without losing the rulings-over-rules, low-prep philosophy that defines games like Knave, Cairn, and Into the Odd, several of which are explicitly credited as influences. Description Playing Vagabond means playing pulp-flavored fantasy adventurers - the kind of setting where a Goblin Gunslinger might delve a mummy's tomb alongside a Dwarf Witch hunting Excalibur - built specifically to keep GM prep and mental overhead low while still giving players a genuinely deep character-building toolkit. It's explicitly compatible with B/X-derived monsters, classic TSR modules, and Old School Essentials adventures, so existing OSR content drops in with little to no conversion. All rolls are player-facing, meaning players roll rather than the GM rolling against them, and creature stat blocks include a built-in "Action Gambit" describing exactly what a monster does in combat, aiming to strip improvised tactical decisions away from the GM entirely.

Fatal Tomb is a brutal, rules‑light pulp sword and sorcery tabletop role‑playing game. Explore forgotten tombs, dark dungeons, ruined kingdoms, monster‑infested wildernesses, and strange worlds beyond the Black Gates. Battle ancient beasts, uncover lost treasures, and survive perilous journeys into the unknown. Designed for both solo and group play, Fatal Tomb emphasises fast character creation, deadly combat, minimal preparation, and simple mechanics that stay out of the way of adventure. All you need to play is a pencil, some paper, and a handful of dice.

When the Moon Hangs Low is a gothic action roleplaying game in which the players take on the roles of Hunters; people possessed of strange abilities who find themselves fated to oppose the forces of darkness. Set in Harrowmire, a decaying city teetering on the edge of chaos, it is a game of intrigue, investigation, and combat. Games in When the Moon Hangs Low can cover a range of themes; from hunting vile beasts through collapsing sewers, to investigating gruesome murders, to intrigue and politics in the heart of the city. When the Moon Hangs Low has been inspired by a number of other works. Most heavily it draws inspiration from the computer games Bloodborne by From Software and Darkest Dungeon by Red Hook Studios. It also takes notes from the Dishonoured game series by Arkane Studios, the Bas-Lag Cycle by China Miéville, and the Berserk manga series by Kentaro Miura.

Trophy is a collection of collaborative storytelling games about doomed and desperate treasure-hunters entering a haunted forest that doesn’t want them there. The games explore the physical, mental, and emotional descent of the treasure-hunters as they move deeper and deeper into the forest, encountering ancient ruins, terrible monstrosities, and the greatest horror of all: themselves. Games rooted in Trophy are built around characters willing to push their luck. The character are often desperate, with something driving them to continue against all odds. The system itself encourages risk taking, so if your game isn’t about risks or characters who push themselves, then Trophy might not be the best foundation. Trophy is also about decline. Characters tend to degrade over time, or have some precious resource that they’re gradually losing (or a negative resource that they’re gaining). If your game is about characters becoming more and more powerful, then you might want to try a different system. There are two versions of the game: Trophy Dark and Trophy Gold. Trophy Dark is designed for single session play, while Trophy Gold is designed for longer campaigns.