Thought Punks

Tag: Public domain

  • Open Source TTRPG Resources

    Open Source TTRPG Resources

    This entry is part 7 of 7 in the series TTRPG Advice

    Here’s a collection of forever open licensed tabletop roleplaying games and resources. Borrowed from and inspired by the Forever Open Source RPG game jam series.

    Example Open Licenses

    A woman in a flowing dress enjoys peaceful moments in a vast, cloudy landscape.

    Open Source RPG Resources

    Quick Choices

    Open SRDs

    • 24XX, lo-fi sci-fi RPG SRD.
    • BInAS (Balanced Integrated Attribute System) SRD, d12-based system built around pairs of attributes between which the player chooses a balancing or pivot point at which the two meet.
    • Breathless, a creation toolkit that helps you design a game where every mechanic ratchets tension up to dangerous consequences.
    • The Buddy System, perfect for story-based character driven games where characters are stronger together.
    • Carta, a toolkit for making exploration focused solo RPGs.
    • Duels SRD, a unique resource to make games about bardic dueling!
    • DramaSystem, the system used in Hillfolk by Pelgrane Press.
    • EMERGE8, for TTRPGs you design as you play.
    • GOSS (GrimOgre Storytelling System), a mostly diceless system with haggling over action details, inspired by Nobilis and Engel.
    • Hopes & Dreams SRD, goal focused system that puts player characters against what they dread the most in every single roll.
    • Peregrine SRD, toolkit for creating card-based solo journaling games.
    • Push SRD, lightweight, story-driven RPG system designed for cooperative, action-packed adventures.
    • The Resistance Toolbox, the same rules that power Heart and Spire.
    • Threads of Lachesis, create solo games or generators with branched random prompts that the player organizes into a cohesive sequence via a single roll.
    • We Love In Whispers (WLW), create GM-less diceless games of romance and politics using a block tower and deck of cards.

    Open Games

    A man in a plaid shirt reaches for poker chips on a white surface, depicting a gambling scene.

    • Anamnesis, solo journaling RPG about self-discovery, reflection, and identity.
    • Anima Prime RPG, a fast-paced RPG inspired by JRPGs and action fantasy anime.
    • Babes in the Woods 2e, encounter the peculiar folks who reside within and help solve their problems while confronting your own relationships & fears.
    • Blades in the Dark, an extremely popular game with toolkit for making “Forged in the Dark” games.
    • Cairn, about exploring a dark & mysterious Wood filled with strange folk, hidden treasure, and unspeakable monstrosities.
    • Dinosaur Wizards In Space, exactly what it says on the label: DINOSAUR WIZARDS IN SPACE.
    • Fellowship, about going on an adventure, in the same vein as Lord of the Rings or Wakfu or Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders.
    • Liminal Sea: Dream, a game emphasizing why characters are acting and who they are while following dream logic.
    • Malandros, a tabletop role-playing game of swindlers and street fighters, of love, hate and community in the last days of imperial Brazil.
    • Monolith, science-fiction adventure game for one Game Master (GM) and at least one other player.
    • Pommel, tabletop roleplaying game with an emphasis on roleplay over rules. Made for the Minimalist TTRPG Jam by Binary Star Games.
    • Rainworld, a love letter to janky early-90s rules, dystopian SF settings, and dad jokes disguised as flavour text.
    • Rascals, minimalist OSR TTRPG based on Ben Milton’s Knave and the Italian fork written by Francisco Pettigiani: Canaglie.
    • Swamp Troll Witches, be a troll witch! Live in a swamp! Solve problems! Brew potions! Relax with a hot bath! Live your best troll witch life!
    • Thirsty Sword Lesbians SRD (Sapphic Reference Document), (shop link), the famous game of sword wielding lesbians (licensing info).
    • Whispers In The Walls, a solo journaling RPG about the knowledge of the walls. You play it by yourself in the dark.

    Worlds

    • Beyond the Spozak, a sprawling public domain (CC0) science fiction universe!
    • The Oz books from Wonderful Wizard of Oz through to (as of 2025) Jack Pumpkinhead of Oz (the 1st through 23rd books).
    • Anything you can find in the public domain at Project Gutenberg.

    Music

    Art

    Even More Resources

    A cozy library space in Stockholm with brown leather chairs and wooden bookshelves filled with books.

    More SRDs

    • Aspire SRD, a framework for designing narrative-driven TTRPGs featuring turning points that change both the stakes and the rules.
    • Bad Time Game SRD, a d4 based system that results in inevitable failure.
    • BFB SRD, for those who’d like to build on and/or adapt the rules and ideas found in Beak, Feather, & Bone, a tabletop roleplaying game by Tyler Crumrine.
    • Core Micro, blends traditional RPG concepts with narrative techniques to create unpredictable character-driven stories.
    • Ebon Fantasy Essence, a robust mid-crunch OSR-style system.
    • ENI, ruleset for RPGs focused on collaborative storytelling, meaningful choices, and growing tension.
    • Fantasy EMERGE, a version of the EMERGE8 SRD tuned specifically for fantasy roleplaying games.
    • Firelight Creator Kit, a condensed and open licensed solo/co-op role-playing game about a guided journey across a plagued land, inspired by the Metroivania video game genre.
    • Four Points, a TTRPG SRD focused on the aforementioned 4 points of player agency, narrative, characters, and customisation.
    • The Grove System, a unique system for building and exploring communities, with a macro phase for influencing communities directly.
    • Guided by Sun SRD, a GM-less, card-based system, telling the story of a protagonist undertaking a journey and making friends along the way.
    • Heroic Tales, genre-neutral role-playing system of heroic problem solving.
    • Initiated SRD, four-page ruleset for mechanically leveraged storytelling.
    • Ironsworn SRD, based on the famous GM-less and solo capable game.
    • Journey Tarot SRD, uses tarot cards and archetypal symbolism to tell stories through single-player tabletop games.
    • Lay On Hands SRD, for modifying the unique post-apocalyptic solo game Lay On Hands.
    • Knave is a toolkit for building classless OSR games.
    • MiniBX SRD, an attempt to make That Game our own. More than a minimalistic hack, a new rule set.
    • OZR, a lightweight framework for running OSR-ish adventures.
    • Personae SRD, where the curious investigate mysteries, explore paradoxes and delve into the hidden truths of the omniverse.
    • RISE SRD, guide players in 3 Acts to get to know their characters, scaffolding difficulty as you play along through your game.
    • Second Guess System SRD. What if each time you rolled a prompt over again you had to admit to something that you had lied about previously in that prompt?
    • Sigil SRD, Creative Commons licensed SRD for The Sigil System, gritty lethal rules meant to put all your skills to the test.
    • Striders SRD, English translation of Frontearth Striders Source Reference Document (SRD), about explorers striding through a turbulent world and being dragged into all sorts of problems.
    • Tapestry SRD, a word association storytelling games that fit in a mint tin.
    • Tavern Dice, a single dice system designed for narrative play powering your entire world with a single d12!
    • The Goblin Pulls Out A Gun, a TTRPG tech pack to make a GM-less opposed dice pool system.
    • Total//Effect, a fast, modular, configurable TTRPG system.
    • Trophy SRD, build your own rules-light, risk-heavy games.
    • Untold Narrative Options SRD, mechanic pack containing combat and skill check mechanics for Role-Playing Games (RPGs) using a set of hobby dice and a standard Uno card deck.
    • VEN6 SRD, storytelling roleplaying game system with conflict mechanics and a GM option.
    • VRBS SRD, ultralight system for creating highly improvisational role-playing games that reward creative heroic action.
    • Wretched & Alone, a unique card and tower based solo system.

    More Games

    • Agouro, narrative game of inevitable prophecies, inspired by Tarot cards and dark fantasy stories like Kentaro Miura’s Berserk and Netflix’s The Witcher.
    • BREATHE LIFE INTO THESE BONES, some jackass necromancer just raised your bones back to life and you’re a reanimated skeleton.
    • Brighter Worlds, whimsical fantasy tabletop RPG with modular crunch.
    • EMPLOYEE, one-page simple adventure game that based on daily activities of a professional employee working in a professional corporate office.
    • Gratitude, a storytelling game about trying to please an unknowable god-being in the hopes of being able to leave this terrible place.
    • GrimBlade, light and fast-paced roleplaying game of adventures and stories set within an implied grim fantasy world.
    • High Moon, western/fantasy-themed classless TTRPG with an emphasis on tough character-building choices and practice-based skill progression system.
    • Iron Edda, lets you tell stories of brave warriors, Jarls, Bonebonded giants, and their defense of their holdfasts.
    • Ironsworn, an iconic TTRPG famous for its GM-less and solo play modes.
    • It Wasn’t Supposed To Happen Like This, something has gone horribly wrong. Your spirit leaves your body. Can you find a way to save yourself?
    • Liminal Horror, rules-lite, fail forward tabletop role playing game with investigators navigating a modern world full of terrible and unknowable things that hide in the spaces between.
    • Plerion, a sci-fi hack from Cairn designed to play radiant space opera
    • Ringmail, a framework for reintroduce the style of play of the Wargame that preceded “the most famous RPG ever”
    • Thálassa, adventure game for one facilitator (the odigós) and at least one other player.
    • The Lurking Fear, lightweight simulationist investigative horror ttrpg in the style of classic horror tabletop games.
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    Related posts:

    1. About Us
    2. In Defense of Optional Rules
    3. Rebutting the Criticisms of Rules-Light Systems
    4. Great TTRPG Newbie Paradox (they’re easier to teach)
    5. Rebuttals to Criticisms of Rules-Heavy TTRPGs
  • RPG Idea: Hard Road Ahead

    RPG Idea: Hard Road Ahead

    This entry is part 3 of 4 in the series Free Games

    Something I may never complete. Inspired to share this from my slush pile by my post about Ghibli-inspired games. Putting this out there for anyone else to finish, if they want. Fully open license, public domain. Use as you will.

    Hard Road Ahead

    Mysterious forest road at night with a solitary silhouette, creating a haunting atmosphere.

    A two-player micro-RPG inspired by the darker elements of Studio Ghibli.

    Overview

    One player takes the role of The Young Person, someone desperately striving to save a loved one who will die without their help. The other plays The World That Is, a callous, indifferent force that cares only for the endless cycles of life, death, and the laws of the universe. Together, you will tell a story of hardship, fleeting hope, and the cruel beauty of persistence.

    What You Need

    • 6-sided dice (d6), at least three.
    • Paper and pen for tracking progress.
    • A quiet space to reflect and tell your story.

    Setup

    1. The Young Person names their loved one and describes why they must save them. Define the relationship and what makes this bond vital.
    2. The World That Is describes the setting: is it a crumbling city, a storm-lashed forest, or a war-torn countryside? Frame the narrative tone.
    3. Both players collaboratively decide on the loved one’s three essential needs:
      • Medicine to treat or prevent sickness. What treatment do they need?
      • Food to stave off starvation. What kind of allergies and other food issues must you avoid?
      • Clothes to protect against deprivation. What is needed for the season, weather, and terrain?
    4. Draw two trackers:
      • Young Person’s Needs: Hunger, Exposure, and Exhaustion, each starting at 0.
      • Loved One’s Needs: Sickness, Starvation, and Deprivation, each starting at 0.

    How to Play

    The story unfolds across at least five quests that The Young Person must pass to gather the resources their loved one needs. Each quest is an encounter, framed by The World That Is, which presents as (roll a d6):

    • 1-2, A Social Trap: An overprotective guardian, a deceptive merchant, or others with conflicting goals.
    • 3-4, A Task: Delivering messages, retrieving a lost item, or fulfilling a troubling request.
    • 5-6, Internal Struggles: Phantoms or hallucinations of doubt and despair.

    For each quest, the conditions available in the quest may offer a chance to reduce negative conditions for the player and there are two possible outcomes:

    • Pass: The Young Person earns a vital item (Medicine, Food, or Clothes) and/or a step of relief for their own Needs.
    • Fail: The World That Is offers a deus ex machina escape at a steep cost: an increase of 1 in either Sickness, Starvation, or Deprivation for the loved one, as well as usually an increase of one of the young person’s Needs.

    Mechanics

    Set of white dice with black pips on a reflective black surface, showing various numbers.

    1. Encounter Timers: Each encounter is resolved in three rolls or less, symbolizing the limited time available. The timer reflects urgency, a collapsing bridge, approaching danger, or window of opportunity closing.
    2. Rolling for Progress: The Young Person rolls 1d6 per action. Actions must align with their described approach to the challenge. They may choose to accept 1 negative track for +2 dice. Once per encounter, you may also pick one of your loved one’s Needs and roll twice as many extra dice as the track is at. But if you take a cost (partial success or failure), it adds +1 to one of their other Needs tracks in addition to the young person’s. However, if you succeed, reduce the loved one’s Need used by 1. Possible results:
      • 6: Overwhelming success.
      • 4-5: Partial progress; the player may advance but at a cost, such as 1 Hunger, Exposure, or Exhaustion.
      • 1-3: Failure; no progress and +1 to one of the young person’s Need tracks.
    3. Tracking Needs: Needs can be alleviated to some degree by the encounters, such as eating at a strange festival to reduce Hunger or taking shelter with that witch for a while to reduce Exposure. When any of The Young Person’s Needs (Hunger, Exposure, or Exhaustion) reaches 5, they collapse, lost to the indifferent world. The game ends with tragedy, as they are discovered dying by their (probably also soon to perish) loved one.
    4. Loved One’s Condition: Failures during encounters add to the loved one’s Sickness, Starvation, or Deprivation. They cannot be alleviated under they are reached by the Young Person. However much Medicine, Food, and Clothing they have reduces Sickness, Starvation, and Deprivation that much. If the game ends with any higher than 1, or 1 in all, their future is ambiguous. 1 or 0 in all, except for all 1s, they go on to be well. When any of these reach 3, the loved one succumbs before The Young Person can reach them. The story ends in sorrow.
    5. Winning the Game: If The Young Person successfully passes at least five quests and delivers at least 1 Medicine, Food, or Clothes, they reach their loved one in time, saving them (at least for now) from death. Note the loved one’s condition to judge their epilogue. And the journey’s toll remains, leaving scars and questions about what was lost to succeed.

    Example Encounter

    The World That Is: “You step briefly inside a well-maintained old cottage and suddenly an old woman blocks your way. Her house is warm, filled with food, and she offers you shelter. But she insists you stay and never leave. Her smile is kind, but her grip on your arm is iron the moment you step anywhere near the doors or windows.”

    The Young Person: “At first I may have no choice, so I will rest a while and eat a bit to put her at ease.”

    The World That Is: “The old woman seems happy that you accept so easily. She presents course after course of food, then covers you with a blanket as you rest afterward in a deep comfortable chair, reducing both your Hunger and Exhaustion by 1.”

    The Young Person: “When she settles down herself, that is my chance. I will try to distract her by singing a lullaby to make her sleepy.”

    Successful Quest

    The young person rolls a 4, a partial success with a cost. The old woman’s eyes droop, but she shakes her head and her gaze remains fixed on them. They also take 1 Exhaustion as they sing a lullaby but resist the urge to sleep. Continuing to sing, they make a second roll. The old woman finally nods off, lulled to sleep by the soft melody. The Young Person gathers food and escapes, having some time while the woman sleeps so both reducing their Hunger by 1 and earning 1 Food for their loved one.

    Failed Quest

    The young person rolls a 2, a failure. The song is off-tune as the old woman eyes them suspiciously and remains perfectly alert as she sips her tea. The awkward tension is draining and adds +1 to Exhaustion.

    The Young Person: “I see this isn’t working. I’m going to try making increasingly bothersome requests to see if I can get her away long enough to slip out.”

    The young person groans as they roll a 3, another failure. They ask for different blankets, pillows, obscure snacks, and the whole lot of it but she never has to leave the room to accommodate the young person. The whole process is so tiring and adds another +1 to Exhaustion. Their Exhaustion is creeping very high and they decide to not risk any further action.

    The Young Person: “If I can, I’m going to accept that there is no escape for now and rest to recover a bit before the other shoe drops.”

    The World That Is: “You may remove one of those Exhaustions you gained. As you fitfully nap, you are rudely awakened being pushed out of the chair. The old woman is screaming at you about some request you made while half-asleep. As far as you can tell it was for some kind of cookie or snack, but she is taking it as a deadly insult. You are thrown out of the house in the middle of a storm, gaining 1 Exposure. Reflecting the plenty that you’re leaving behind, your loved one’s Starvation goes up by 1.”

    Themes of Reflection

    After each quest, The Young Person pauses for a moment of introspection. The player must describe what keeps them going despite the rising toll and stress, while The World That Is narrates how the environment reacts: indifferent stars, whispering winds, or the cold indifference of a collapsing society.

    Conclusion

    Hard Road Ahead is not about triumph or comfort but persistence against the odds. It captures the heartache, fleeting beauty, and relentless hardships that echo the darker undertones of Studio Ghibli’s masterpieces, while also mixing in non-traditional conflicts and whimsical encounters to reflect the other side of the inspiration. Will you make it in time, or will the world’s callousness win?

    Have you hacked this into a more complete game? Are you incorporating some of these ideas into your own game? Or have you even tried giving this raw/mini version a try? Please, shout at me on Bluesky about it. 

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    Related posts:

    1. In Defense of Optional Rules
    2. Free Duo Game: The Immortal’s Affairs
    3. Rebuttals to Criticisms of Rules-Heavy TTRPGs
    4. Immersion and Authoring in TTRPGs
    5. Let’s Talk About “Ghibli-inspired” TTRPGs

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