Free RPG Day 2025

22/06/2025 23:18

Free RPG Day 2025

You might remember last years post on Free RPG Day. This year Free RPG Day was on 21st June 2025, and you can find out more about Free RPG Day here.

Although last years wasn't the event I had been working towards, I was glad that I organised something and glad that I got some games running for Free RPG Day. This year once again I asked my local gaming store, OnTableTop, if they were going to organise and host games for Free RPG Day. I did do this earlier in the year once Free RPG Day 2025 was officially announced... and the lack of response and general interest from the store was sadly present once again; just like last year. 

I had steeled myself for this particular scenario and so as soon as Free RPG Day 2025 was officially announced, I began organising things in the background in order to make this year as good a year as I could; they only thing I was leaving to nearer the time was the actual venue. Obviously being just an over-enthusiastic gamer, I couldn't order the swag for Free RPG Day, but at least I could organise and run some games.

Having done my background work I had quite a few GMs and quite a variety of games lined up.

The plan this year was to run two sessions with three games each session.

  • Session 1 (Morning)
  • Mutants and Masterminds (3e)
  • Dragonbane
  • Pendragon
  • Session 2 (Afternoon)
  • Dungeons and Dragons (5e)
  • Monty Python RPG
  • Labyrinth Lord

 

That plan didn't work, essentially due to lack of numbers – it is funny that if everyone who liked and commented on social media attended I would probably have had to turn people away, and as it turned out we had only a handful of those numbers overall. All was not lost however, as we did get a good number of games ran this year.

The final list of games played was:

  • Pendragon
  • Mutants and Masterminds (3e)
  • Dungeons and Dragons (5e)
  • Monty Python RPG
Pendragon

This was an adventure from the starter set and thanks to Paul for running this game. I had been eager to play Pendragon for some time and so was really happy Paul decided to run this. I enjoyed this Pendragon one-shot (which was just the first part of the starter set), and would definitely like to play more.

Mutants and Masterminds (3e)

This was a home-brew adventure and thanks to Marshall for running this game. I was (am) not a great superhero fan, and whilst I might watch a movie, or read a comic in this genre, it doesn't do much for me. That being said, I had never played Mutants and Masterminds and so was eager to give it a go. What can I say, I was really impressed with the system, and with the scenario Marshall had concocted for us. This was very enjoyable and I can definitely see myself playing more one-shots of Mutants and Masterminds.

Dungeons and Dragons (5e)

This was a home-brew adventure and thanks to Matthew for running this game. I did not play this (I was playing Mutants and Masterminds at the time), but it was D&D and is something I am familiar with, so there you go. Everyone who did play in the game seemed to enjoy it.

Monty Python RPG

Or to give it its proper title Monty Python's Cocurricular Historical Reenactment Programme and thanks to Gerry for running this game. I was curious about this game and I will admit I was not sure whether I would like it or not. I cannot even tell you if the scenario was from the game or a home-brew by Gerry, but whatever it was it was quite enjoyable and I feel it was a fitting game to end the day on.

Everyone who turned up had a great time and I think that this was one of my most enjoyable Free RPG Days yet.

 

When I was planning things the background, I knew I wanted to give something as a thank you to those GMs who would turn up to run a game, so I organised some 2025 GM badges. The GMs were over the moon when I handed these out, proudly wearing the badge for the day. I will definitely do something similar next year.

Also, not to miss out on swag, Lance from Fox and Hyde left in some of his zines during the day. I grabbed these two, a D&D character portfolio, and a game about woodland creatures. Thanks to Lance for coming down and dropping stuff off. You should really check his stuff out.

I was able to pack up and go home knowing we all had a great day and I an looking forward to Free RPG Day 2026!

 

 

J

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