RPG Boredom Busters

As a large number of us head into isolation, I’ve put together a list of resources that generous individuals and publishers have released: RPG Boredom Busters. Those offers that have ended a crossed through, but I have kept them (and their links) to show the generosity of their providers.

In the spirit of their generosity, none of the following links include my affiliate code. I have also requested that Google don’t serve ads on this page (although the built-in links for “Family Gaming” and “D&D 5th Edition” remain as they are site-wide – if I can work out how to turn those of on this page I will).

If I have missed anything (or an offer no longer works) please let me know. I aim to update RPG Boredom Busters as I find more items. Likewise, if anyone has any guides to using virtual table top (VTT) systems, I’m happy to link to them for new users.

Free RPGs

• Christopher West (Maps of Mystery): Until the end of March, you can download three of his map products for free: Distant Frontiers I, Forsaken Lands IV, and Night Life will all ring up at zero cost during checkout in his map store.
• Daring Entertainment: All PDF products including War of the Dead and World of the Dead
• Feral Games Inc: Delve
• Great Lake Games: The Darkest Age
• Greater Than Games: Sentinel Comics Starter Kit
• Green Ronin: Fantasy Age Basic Rulebook
• Osprey Publishing: Osprey are giving away 5 eBooks a week for the next 4 weeks! Full details here.
• Pinnacle Entertainment: Deadlands Reloaded
• R. Talsorian Games Inc: Teenagers from Outerspace
• R.A. Salvatore: The author of the Drizzt Do’Urden novels is offering the RPG for his DemonWars series of novels along with three short stories from the DemonWars world for free. Spookily enough, the DemonWars series is set in the world of Corona…
• Steve Jackson Games: The Fantasy Trip: Melee
• The Story Engine: Starting now, the printable PDF of @StoryEngineDeck is FREE to any family in quarantine. Sign up here and they’ll manually add you to the BackerKit pledge manager with free download access, or get instant access for $0.01: https://story-engine.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders/226625. They would make it instantly available for free, but BackerKit does not allow $0 checkouts. The deck has been reviewed by a curriculum developer who made sure the simple prompts section is a fun, creative, engaging activity for kids. We are working on free activity plans. You can find out more on the Kickstarter page.
• Troll Lord Games: Castles & Crusades Players Handbook
• Wizards of the Coast: Daily releases starting the week of 6 April including the rulebook from the D&D Starter Set.

Discounted RPGs

• Free League Publishing: 50% off all of their core RPG rulebooks at DriveThruRPG (including the new Alien RPG!). There are also free quickstarts for most of their games.
• Limitless Adventures: All of the Limitless Adventures PDFs are half price until further notice.
• R. Talsorian Games Inc: 50% off all their digital content including the Cyberpunk Red Jumpstart Kit and The Witcher RPG until 20 April. They also have Teenagers from Outerspace for free (listed above).
• Shop on the Borderlands: 10% off everything that isn’t already reduced by more than that. When you check out, enter the code SocialDistancing2020 in the appropriate box at checkout, and any prices not already reduced will be reduced by 10%. They’ll be running this offer for the forseeable future at their online store.

Software/VTT Resources

• Affinity: Anyone can use their creative apps [Affinity Designer, Affinity Photo, and Affinity Publisher] completely free for three months. Take 50% off if you want to buy.
• Campaign Cartographer 3+: 50% off: rpgmaps.profantasy.com/stuck-at-home. Also, for May, get 20% off the two Mike Schley mapping tools (SS4: Dungeons of Schley and SS5: Cities of Schley) with the following code: 427J4PH2
• Cze and Peku: They have released their first 50 maps for free. You can support them at their Patreon.
• DunGen.app: Unlocked all patrons-only features on DunGen.app for everyone until the end of April: High-res downloads and Automatic Dynamic Lighting for all generated dungeons.
• Loke Battlemats: A care pack of 12 digital maps for use in VTT games.
• Mike Schley: 50% off all digital art downloads using the code 2020Vision at checkout.
• mrvalor: A complete FREE collection of 1400+ (ish) battle maps for virtual gaming (source: reddit).
• printable_rpgs:  A collection of 45 battle maps (source: reddit). They also have a Patreon.

Virtual Social Gatherings

• The Mitchester Arms: Virtual pub open from 9pm (GMT) on Friday nights. First opened on 20 March, still going strong. Full details at mitchesterarms.com (original tweet).