How to Play D&D for Free

You don't need D&D to play D&D. There are free alternatives. Not to mention that its not hard to make your own game if you understand how table top roleplaying games (TTRPGs) are played. 

• Basic Fantasy RPG is a free retroclone of an old school edition of D&D. It's like the Basic / Expert edition (B/X) with a few modern rules. This is the GOAT! They have a downloads page where you can get supplemental books including adventures.
• White Box : Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game has a free pdf. It's a 100 page retroclone of original D&D and I love it!
• Blueholme Prentice Rules is a retroclone of an older ed of D&D taking you on levels 1 to 3.
• OSRIC 1e, which stands for old-school reference and index complication, is a retroclone of Advanced D&D (AD&D) 1e.
• For Gold & Glory is a retroclone of AD&D 2e.
• Both D&D 3.5e and Pathfinder 1e have a System Reference Document (SRD) here. I've heard PF 1e described as D&D 3.75e. An SRD is also available for D&D 5e there.
• Draw Steel by MCDM is a relatively new game with its complete rules free online (got to respect that). I've heard it's similar to D&D 4e.
• Index Card RPG 2e has a very generous amount of content in their quickstart rules. It's a very simplified version of the essence of D&D. Setting and genre neutral. Flexible. Fast. Simple.
• Olde Swords Reign is a mix of D&D 5th edition, D&D 0th edition, and then some quality new ideas. I would call this a great way to ease modern gamers into older style D&D games.
• Shadowdark has a quickstart rules set. It's a popular alternative to D&D 5e. Its similar to 5e mechanically but it has an old school feel. I hear it's a good entry point for modern gamers into older style play.
• Cairn aka Cairn RPG is a very rules lite game. 1e and 2e online.
• Black Hack RPG is a hack of classic D&D. Probably B/X.
• Lamentations of the Flame Princess is old school D&D with a weird / horror twist. The core rules are slick and free.
• Open Legend RPG is like if all the familiar assets of character creation for D&D 5th edition were broken into little bity pieces and it allowed you to make a highly customized character. It's setting and genre neutral and highly customizable. Core rules are completely online. I really like it but the barriers to entry are that no one's playing it, there are few to no other resources for it even though its open-source, and it's character creation is really involved.
• OpenD6 is an a free game different from D&D and the d20 system. OpenD6 uses only six-sided dice. It's got a dice pool system. Your stats are represented by a number of dice. For example, rather than having 10 strength, you might have 2D for two dice in strength. That's the number of six-sided dice you roll to make a strength test. The rules are modular so if you want to change it to suit your game, you can by adding or removing stats, skills, etc. I wrote my own detailed notes on this system here.
• Patherfinder 2e is here. I hear this is very different from PF 1e.
• Mork Borg has a bare bones edition for download. This is a dark fantasy/ horror fantasy game.
• Open 2d6 is a game with mechanics inspired by Barbarians of Lemuria. Roll 2d6, add bonuses, try to roll 9 or higher. Double 1s are a crit fail, double 6s are crit success.
• Open Lite RPG is a game I wrote for fun on this blog. I imagined it as a simple, rules lite game. It uses only the d20 and d6's. 
• Myth & Measure is a game intended for first time players. It is intended to have simple, intuitive rules with simple explanations. Few complexities for a low cognitive load. Uses 5 attributes but uses step dice for variety.

Free Settings

A setting that is ready-to-play. A setting is a defined major location for your game with one or more minor locations. It could be a town, a dungeon, and a wilderness in-between. Or a whole region of a world. Or a galaxy.

• Mystara is a classic D&D setting.
• Blackmarsh (not Elder Scrolls).
• Draconia '95 is an in-progress setting I'm working on, also on this blog. It takes place in a generic city in 1995. It's a bases for urban fantasy, sci-fi, and horror in a grounded modern setting where the best of technology exists but is not ubiquitous.

Free Starter Adventurers

What's an adventure? It's a scenario to play through with a problem or goal, a map or series of maps, monsters, treasure, etc. Sometimes adventures have built-in settings.

• Basic Fantasy RPG's dowloads page is your friend! One thing worth noting is that all versions of D&D pre 3e are mostly compatible and easily converted, which means adventures for one work for the others. I am recommending these as good starting adventures:
• BF1 Morgansfort: The Western Lands Campaign. This contains a starter setting.
• JN1 The Chaotic Caves
• AA2 Adventure Anthology Two, the mini-adventure Kidnapped on page 41
• Tomb of the Serpent King is a teaching dungeon. Very good!

Managing Expectations in TTRPGs

Every time I've ever ran a TTRPG or been invited to play TTRPG, I have been disappointed by something, and I've dropped out of a few groups when it was bad enough. Managing expectations was a concern of mine from the very beginning. I think I've found the vocabulary that I need to describe concepts that GMs can and should use when inviting players to their game. These five items below should help you no matter what kind of game you're running. Explain these ideas to your players as early as possible.

1. Fiction Doesn't Mean Anything Goes

Have you ever told someone that their idea didn't make sense, and their response was something like "but it's [fiction / fantasy / sci-fi]" and the implications was that because something (the game) is fiction, anything should be permissible? Here's the counter argument. Just because something is [fiction / fantasy / sci-fi], that doesn't mean anything goes. Fantasy is fiction with fantastic stuff. In fiction, the limitations of the fantastic elements are established, and then the rest of the setting is assumed to be based in realism which we can all relate to. Note that realism here is not the same as trying to create a game or setting that simulates what is realistic. Note that the core rules do not say "disregard realism" or "default to realism", this is a ruling made by the GM; however, defaulting to realism as a rule of thumb is useful because it gives us a common understanding of how the world works where the rules of the game do not cover, and common understanding allows the GM to be fair and consistent in their rulings and helps the players to understand the limitations of what they can do and cannot do. This also has the benefit of simplifying the game.

2. Forget Everything You Know About X

Tell your players to forget everything they know about fantasy, sci-fi, horror, 5e, Faerun, Eberron, World of Warcraft, etc. Do not let them bring their knowledge or expectations about goblins or vampires or were-creatures or magic to your game. Tell them that in your setting, these things might work differently, and that by relying on their knowledge of other settings or pop culture can spoil the experience of your game for themselves. Tell them you expect them to figure things out through exploration, social interaction, and experience in play. Alternatively, this common knowledge can give us a starting point to understand a setting, and so you would want to provide them with a list of other fiction that has inspired your game like D&D's famous Appendix N. I personally do not like Tolkien's interpretation on elves, dwarves, and hobbits (halflings). 

3. Generic Setting vs Curated Setting

Tell your players that the GM is the curator of the setting. As curator, you decide what is appropriate for the setting and what is not. Tell your players whether you are running a generic fantasy setting that is a hodgepodge of fantasy's most popular ideas intended for mass appeal, or if you are running a game in a curated setting with select fantasy ideas intended for a niche audience. Even a kitchen sink setting can have a few restrictions for the sake of keeping the game simple to prep and run for the GM, and to create a more focused or cohesive experience for the players.

4. Don't Ruin the Mood

People go to see movies for the kind of movie it promises to be. An action movie that's just sad and doesn't have very much action would be disappointing. Now imagine going to see a horror move that has 15 minutes of good, uninterrupted comedy that breaks all the tension. Imagine going to comedy that has 15 minutes of uninterrupted violence and gore that leaves you feeling too disgusted to enjoy the rest of the humor. Some people think a TTRPG has room for everything, but for me, these are examples of ruining the mood. Tell your players to be considerate of the mood of a scene or situation, especially when the focus is on another player character. Tell your players the kind of mood or overall tone you want for your game. Do you want a game with a more serious tone like Lord of the Rings or Star Wars, or do you want a game with a whacky fun tone like a Marvels movie or even some cartoon. Tell your players to make a character who suits the tone of the game.

5. Compatible Playstyles

This is a response to the famous excuse "I'm just playing my character TM". Every player plays differently. Your playstyle describes more than what your fantastic race / background / class is, but also how you play it. Define how you want your players to play the game from the beginning. I want the players to have cooperative playstyles, but I find too often that there are players who have made characters who not cooperative. They make crazy, loner, mischievous, selfish, greedy, or violent characters. The intent may be innocent, but the effect is that their playstyle is incompatible with others' if not antagonistic. They inevitably complicate or ruin a scene or goal for another player and spoil the fun for them. The offending player provides the famous excuse TM, and they avoid taking responsibility or making changes to their playstyle. Don't give your players the opportunity to even make that character. At character creation, tell your players they need to make a character who can work as part of a team and play collaboratively. Suggest that the players all make characters who are morally compatible or who share the same beliefs, values, or goals.

There you go. These five rules should stop your players from making that chaotic neutral cyborg ninja turtle-kin from the future who multiclassed into batman and power rangers and who worships the god of math and speaks in the third person using a Jersey accent and he loves eating mustard by itself. As a bonus sixth tip, tell your players they need to make a likable character, and that is a concept itself that will have to be defined, but most importantly it means don't make an asshole or a dick.

Mapless Towns

Imagine a grid or draw one if you can't imagine one. Let's say it's 2 by 3, but it could be larger or smaller. Each grid square abstractly represents a distinct area in your town, and the grids abstractly represent the layout of those areas in your town, meaning the relative placement of one area to another area, not the shape or size, or the scale. If any of the areas of town being represented by the grids are particularly big or small, notate it in the grid as you go.

Name each area of town and label your grids. Example: North End, West End, Center Square, Old Town, etc. They don't need to be the official names of areas of town, they could be the informal names given to them by folks in town, or names you give them for the purposes of organizing town. You may want to try to come up with names that describe what primarily is there, like residential area or business district.

In each grid, list major locations. Example, City Hall is the name of an area, and so it's also the name of a grid space.  It includes all the government buildings such as the City Hall, the mayoral manor, Prisons, Courthouse, gallows, and stockade. It also has a job board or bulletin board for odd jobs and news, and official proclamations. Maybe there's a mail courier station. It might even have an armory or barracks for the town militia. You can also list important NPCs, products or services associated with each location.

Old Town Slaughterhouse and Meat Packing Old Mill and condemned buildings.	City Hall Mayoral Manor Heath Ledger, mayor Town Hall Bulletin Board (Job Board) Gallows, Stocks Militia Barracks and Armory	Up Town High class shops and traders Armstrong Smithy Erin Tinctures (apothecary)
West End Residential (poor / slum) Scum and Rook (seedy bar with Pitt Fighting, gambling, secret hideout of the Black List [gang]) Bartholemew	City Central Gate house with toll Carlin Bros Gen. Store Blue Moon Inn & Tavern Mark Piper, owner Thomas St. Richard’s Church Father Simon Belmont	East End Residential (modest) Nelly (Nel) Hilldotter’s home (cultist)

Finally, scale. Instead of a bar or line marked with a distance in feet, yards, or miles, we'll do something simpler and more practical. The scale will be walking time, and the walking time for this town will be 1/4 hour. That's how much time it takes for the player characters to walk anywhere within one area. If the players want to walk from one area to another, add another 1/4 hour for every area they pass through.