PenAndPaper.Quest

Free RPG Day 2026

Written by

SirCobalt

in

This past weekend was one of the few events that I look forward to all year. On Saturday, June 27th, Free RPG Day took place at Local Gaming Stores (LGS’s) across the world (except for some locales who had delays in shipments, sorry ya’ll!).

Free RPG Day (FRPGD) is a great reason to visit local game shops and support small businesses (as most LGS’s are). Game publishers of all sizes partner with the organization behind FRPGD to send ruleset quick starts, adventures, game samples, and all sorts of goodies to stores. The goal? Get more people into their LGS, foster a community of like-minded individuals who love tabletop gaming, and get some more games out there for people to try!

This was exactly the kick I needed to visit an LGS that I haven’t been to in quite some time, since it’s now a 40+ minute drive away. I’m glad I made it out, because I had a great time browsing the large offering of board games, TTRPG’s, dice, comics, miniatures and more. I got to read through some of the, new-to-me, Dungeons & Kittens RPG core rulebook, check out physical copies of Dead Letter Society, Librarians Apprentice, Eleventh Beast, and more. Honestly, they had a much larger selection of solo-focused RPG’s than I would have thought!

On a store shelf sits a zine, the cover red with a black streak down one side. It depicts a redskull sitting atop a journal and envelope. The title reads, "Dead Letter Society"
On a store shelf sits a zine, its cover part green part tan, it reads, "The Bonsai Diary, grow your own tree with just pen and ink". An image of a bonsai tree growing in a fanciful glass or stoneware pot, with a cat watching a butterfly.
A light blue zine cover depicting 3 open windows, each with a different landscape (part of the buildings in a city, open hills with a moon and planet in view at night, and a forest with various vegetation and insects). The title is "Alone On A Journey, a collection of solo adventuring games"
A reddish-brown, leather looking booklet cover reads, "The Librarians Apprentice, A solo journaling game in an infinite library".
On a store shelf sits a zine, black with white text reading, "What Lies Beneath. A solo dungeon-crawler of dice, decisions, and death." A simple image of stark white against the black background depicts stairs leading up to a doorway, with a set of white eyes staring down the stairs.
On a store shelf sits two solo-focused TTRPG zines. Adventure, a blue cover with bright pink header font, and simple graphics depicting a town with its center on a floating island. Also, Eleventh Beast, a solo monster hunting game, the cover is red, depicting an overhead view of the map of a city.

As is tradition for any in person event, I arrived a little early, and joined the group waiting out front in anticipation. It was nice just listening to some of the conversation going on, with different GM’s discussing their groups antics and various adventures they’ve run through for their parties. Just being around people who share the same hobby can help you feel engaged and more “into” whatever it is – this is the same experience as a pen show for stationery nerds. I took the time waiting to spin up a Cairn 2e character, a cutpurse named Silas, whom I now need to find a suitable engagement for.

The store had their FRPGD goods well organized, and the process was simple. There were some goodies available for anyone who came in, but if you made a purchase in the shop, you could also take with you 3 of the new FRPGD booklets and 1 of the more “premium” items. This includes items such as a Dispel d20, some FRPGD pencils that doubled as a d6 roller, a sampler pack for the Story Engine Lore Masters Deck (a card system to help you generate all sorts of ideas) and some unpainted miniatures. They also threw in some options from their shop, including some full dice sets amongst other items, which was a nice touch considering the highly sought after items go pretty quickly.

I picked up copies of Miru I and Miru II, which I haven’t seen physical copies of and the last time I had looked for them they were sold out everywhere (quite some time ago now). Miru is a solo-focused hexcrawl adventure, in a solarpunk world, where your protagonists goal is to hunt down and kill the God responsible for their brothers death. There’s actually 3 chapters to Miru now, and I’ll have to see about getting the 3rd once I get a chance to run through 1 and 2. Check out the digital versions of all three on Hinokodo’s Itch.IO page.

Two bookletes, one sitting atop the other. The top one is green, with darker green lines making an image of 2 sets of eyes on a face, white text reads "MIIRU" (Miru 2). The bottom one is red, with what looks like part of a skull in darker red, also with 2 sets of eyesockets. The white text on its cover reads MIRU (Miru 1). Both are solo focused analog games.

I picked up a few small additions, including this awesome expansion to Adorablins, which I wrote about previously. I didn’t even know there were expansions to this little mint tin game, but I really enjoy the packaging to it. It’s a great use of the interior flaps of the simple cardboard container to house random tables, and the very inside flaps fold out to a miniature map and locations! Little did I know, this expansion was already part of my tin can version of the game. But it’s OK, I was happy to get this as a reminder to go back and play this game again with my kids (who, like me, are easily distracted when there’s “new shiny things” all the time).

On a table sits a small cardboard box reading, "Adorablins Adventure Pack, On the Farm". An adorable goblin character stands in front of a cow and a barn, holding brocolli and a hoe.
The interior of a small cardboard wrapping from the Adorablins Adventure Pack, the flaps come fully open and the interior contains multiple lists from 2-12 for random choices of "Who you'll meet", and "What went through the portal"
The fully-open interior of the Adorablins On the Farm adventure pack, with the most-interior flaps displaying a map of the Adorablins town, and the bottom flap having a "Where did the portal open" random chance table with options 2-12.

I was early in the line to get inside and when I got to the register to make my purchase, I took a moment to look over my selection options for the “premium” item choice. After giving the options a look-over, I decided on what looked like one of two remaining Dispel d20’s. Right as I was asking to for it, another gentleman at the register said the same thing (it was a classic jinx moment). Turns out, it was actually the last one, and a tricky box placement that made it look like two. So how did we resolve this conflict? Why, a friendly game of ro-sham-bo of course! We stood in front of one another, eyes locked, the rest of the store watching and counted down, “Ro-Sham-Bo“… as my paper covered his rock, I thanked him for a friendly game and got to take home the last Dispel die. The whole interaction was very friendly and good spirited, which was pleasant to see considering some people can get very touchy about limited items.

A small black box sits propped open, holding a single twenty-sided die. The interior lid reads "Dispel". The die sits on a small foam block, its overall colour ranging from ping to purple, with a shining glimmer of blue/green inside. The numbers are painted in pink.

After that exhilaration, I flipped through several of the FRPGD booklets and chose to take the Pirate Borg Terror in Tortuga quickstart + adventure, the last Root quickstart that I didn’t have from prior years, and the Dungeons & Kittens quickstart + adventure that I thought would be another great game to try with my kids.

Of course, this post is a few days past FRPGD. Since then, I took a jaunt down to another game shop near my office to check out if they had any leftover goodies they were still looking to get rid of. They did, and I picked up a copy of the CBR+PNK pamphlet Kaguya, as well as a copy of the new Level 1 Anthology, a selection of Indie RPG’s with a central theme (this years being Stand Up!).

An a5 sized printed zine sits on a tabletop. The cover reads "Pirate Borg Terror in Tortuga", a Mork Borg compatible quick start and adventure. It depicts a large zombified sea captain, with its large hat, wielding a flail overhead and a heart grasped in its offhand. In front of it, a person with long, red hair swings an axe into its body.
On a tabletop sits a folded pamphlet, mostly red and black, reading CBR+PNK x Onigami, Kaguya Protocol. An adventure crossover for the CBR+PNK, inspired by a new RPG system, Onigami. The cover of the pamphlet depicts 3 ninja-inspired characters, outfit with swords, high-tech bodies, and cybernetic equipment.
On a tabletop sits a booklet, the title reads "Dungeons & Kittens Free RPG Day Special, An Afternoon Outing". The cover depicts 3 cats, one sitting and writing in a book, two travelling up a hill to meet the third. In the background is a sea of sprawling green farmland, and a tall castle atop a hill.
On a table sits a booklet titled, "Root the Roleplaying Game, Bertrams Cove Quickstart". The cover depicts a cartoony image of a forest and part of a lake, overlayed on top is a circle of anthropomorphic animals (mouse, owl, ferret, squirrel) in various adventuring garb.

Overall, I had a great time getting out to a game shop, having a pleasant discussion with one of the staff members about the event, a few RPG systems, and some of the dice selection they had, and getting to play rock paper scissors without one of my kids forcing me to lose.

On a tabletop sits a collection of bookletes (Miru, CBR+PNK Kaguya Protocol, Pirate Borg, Root, Dungeons and Kittens), a D20 die sitting in a small black box, and a short tube next to a set of 7 polyhedral dice. The booklets are spread to show most of their covers, with the dice above and below them.

Have you been out to any local game shops lately? Perhaps attending a Free RPG Day event? If not, find something close by and maybe you’ll find a system or inspiration for your next Pen & Paper Quest!

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