Fear of the Unknown

Get your table playing in minutes, not hours.   GATEWAY RPG is a free, rules-lite d20 system built for zero-prep adventures, sudden one-shots, and seamless intro sessions. Familiar 5E-style mechanics with all the bloat stripped out, so you can run any genre instantly: neon-soaked cyberpunk streets, grit-filled noir alleys, high fantasy, cosmic horror, and everything in between. The Definitive Edition is now the main book. This is the complete, current version of GATEWAY RPG: updated core rules, solo play, a starter bestiary, and homebrew variants, character sheets all combined into one source. New artwork, professional layout, and everything players and GMs need in a single 132 page PDF. Want the history? Every older version of the rulebook, spanning 2017 to 2026, is bundled in the Legacy Zip below for collectors and the curious. Download the complete PDF bundle. AI Disclosure: This Enhanced Edition of Gateway RPG features some AI-generated artwork and layout assistance. The rules were still hand written by me and human proofread/playtested since 2017. As a one-man passion project with $0 budget, and $0 revenue gain from this game, this edition utilizes AI imagery only to provide a visually richer and cohesive experience while keeping the game entirely FREE. The original Classic Edition from 2017, featuring human-created artwork, is included as a bonus in the download files. However, if you are only looking for a gaming experience completely free of AI-generated assets, the standalone Classic Edition can be found exclusively on its own dedicated product page at https://gatewayrpg.itch.io/gateway-rpg-classic-edition. What’s Inside? Definitive Edition (Main Book): The complete game in one volume. Updated rules, solo play engine, starter bestiary, and homebrew variants. Legacy Zipfile (2017-2026): Every prior version of the rulebook, character sheet, supplement preserved as released. For archivists, returning players, and anyone who wants to see how the game evolved. Core Rules: The streamlined engine for players and Game Masters, in both English and Spanish (Reglas en Español). Character Sheets: Multiple Printable and Form Fillable Character Sheets Ready-to-Play Content: Pregenerated characters and one-shot adventure modules spanning multiple genres. Jump straight into the action. Player's Toolkit: Printable and form-fillable character sheets, a one-page quick reference guide, and the d20 Oracle for solo play. Starter Bestiary: 25 adversaries across 11 settings, from High Fantasy to Space Opera to Lovecraftian Horror. Homebrew Variants: Over 20 pages of optional mechanics, including Spark of Heroism (Inspiration), Pushing for Success (partial success), and genre modifiers for Survival and Cosmic Horror. Pocket Character Sheets: Compact sheets designed for portability. Solo Play Quickstart Zine: A portable, zine-style guide for on-the-go solo adventures. NEW: Android Player Companion App Character Builder: Create custom characters or select from 30 curated pre-mades. Pocket Rules: Quickly search core mechanics and references on the fly. Sheet-Integrated Dice: Roll checks directly from your sheet. Solo Engine: Built-in oracle for quick, on-the-go solo adventures. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aistudio.gatewayrpg.app Designer's Note: GATEWAY RPG grew out of a personal passion for tabletop gaming. Back in 2015, I discovered S. John Ross’s classic 1993 game, Risus: The Anything RPG. It was free, modular, ultra-flexible, and simple to pick up, but as I played more TTRPG's like DND5e, I missed the iconic d20 and the drama of critical hits and misses. I created GATEWAY RPG to capture that same beginner-friendly spirit while bringing back the thrill of the twenty-sided die and being able to use it for any setting. Whether you are running quick one-shots, playing standalone adventures, diving into solo sessions, or modularly introducing advanced rules as your group learns, GATEWAY adapts seamlessly to your table. GATEWAY RPG and Aurican's Lair are a Not-For-Profit Tabletop Roleplaying Game publisher.

Monster of the Week (MOTW) is an urban fantasy-horror tabletop role-playing game developed by Michael Sands. It was first published in 2012, and a revised edition was published by Evil Hat Productions in 2015. The entire theme of the game is heavily inspired by TV shows like Buffy, Supernatural, X-Files, Fringe and many others. The system it directly evolved from is Apocalypse World (2010) Description Players in the MOTW system take on the role of monster hunters. Capable of dealing with most creatures that might get in their way. Using skills to solve mysteries, track monsters and eventually defeat them.  System Overview & Key Features Powered by the Apocalypse Engine (2d6) Players roll two six-sided dice (2d6) when performing actions, adding relevant character modifiers to the result. Rolling a 10 or higher is considered a success. 7-9 is a partial success, which will also carry some added consequences. Getting a 6 or lower means failure - you have not succeeded in whatever you attempted and dire consequences are soon to follow. Basic and Playbook Moves Game mechanics are categorized into discrete actions called "Moves." Basic Moves are universally available to all characters and cover common actions such as "Investigate a Mystery," "Kick Some Ass," or "Act Under Pressure." Playbook Moves are exclusive, specialized abilities granted by a character's chosen Playbook, allowing them to manipulate the narrative or game mechanics in unique ways. Finite Luck Points Each character possesses a limited track of Luck points. A player may permanently expend a point of Luck to retroactively alter a dice roll to a 12 (a complete success) or to entirely negate a single instance of sustained damage. Luck is a resource the players have to keep an eye on. Using too much can get you out of trouble, but if you don't have it when you need it most - trouble awaits. Harm and Exploiting Weaknesses Physical trauma is tracked using a short monitor called "Harm." Player characters and adversaries possess low thresholds for sustaining Harm, making direct combat inherently dangerous. To successfully defeat a primary antagonist, players are mechanically required to investigate and utilize the creature's specific weakness, as standard physical attacks are often insufficient to achieve a permanent victory. The Mystery Countdown To structure a gameplay session, the Keeper utilizes a tool called the Countdown. This is a chronological timeline detailing the sequence of events that will occur if the player characters fail to intervene. The Countdown is divided into escalating phases, ending with a catastrophic event. It serves to govern the pacing of the investigation and provide a sense of urgency. Additional links evilhat.com - Official Evil Hat Productions website genericgames.co.nz - Official home of Michael Sands and the original game files

Mothership is an action-packed mixture of sci-fi and horror themes, combined into a streamlined gaming system about surviving in the cold, deadly vacuum of space while everything around you is trying to kill you. All at the same time as you are fighting (or fleeing from) alien creatures who aren't there to make any new friends. Chaos. It was published by Tuesday Knight Games and released in 2024.  It is a survival horror system designed for one-shots and campaigns, inspired by classics like Alien, Event Horizon, and Pandorum. Famous for its streamlined ruleset and award-winning graphic design that prioritizes ease of use at the table. The game, at the same time simplistic and streamlined in design, will challenge the characters at all times, allowing the game to focus on the storytelling and less on having complicated rules. The system it is inspired by is Old School Renaissance Description In Mothership, players take on the roles of blue collar workers in space, such as Teamsters, Scientists, Androids, and Marines. You are not powerful or heroic soldiers; you are vulnerable humans trapped in high pressure environments with alien monsters, failing life support systems and the crushing weight of corporate greed. The game is designed to be fast-paced and unforgiving, where the primary goal is not to win, but often enough - to survive. System Overview & Key Features d100 Percentile Resolution In the core of the game system is the d100 percentile system. Roll two d10 dice and get a number from 00 to 99. Success means rolling a lower result than your character's appropriate stat or skill for the task. Rolling a double, like 11, 22, or 33, is considered a critical success if it succeeds or a critical failure if it fails. Rolling low is the target for survival. Stress and Panic As characters encounter horrors or suffer trauma, they accumulate Stress. When a character experiences a terrifying event or rolls a critical failure they must make a Panic Check. The more Stress they have, the more likely they are to suffer a catastrophic mental breakdown, ranging from a heart attack to a violent psychotic break. The Save System Instead of a long list of saving throws, characters have four primary Saves: Sanity, Fear, Body, and Armor. These are used to resist different types of potential trauma. Fear saves are rolled to keep your cool under pressure, while Sanity saves represent your ability to process alien truths without losing your mind (think lovecraftian horrors). Class Based Skills The game features four distinct classes. Marines are obviously combat focused, Teamsters are pilots and laborers, Scientists are experts in medicine and biology, and Androids are cold calculating, yet efficient machines. Each class has it's unique starting stats and specific triggers for when they gain or lose Stress, which is based on their personality. Lethal Combat and Healing Combat is extremely dangerous and often a last resort. Weapons are likely to deal potentially excessive damage when compared to a character's total healthpool. Healing will be slow and require resources that are hard to come by in the middle of the constant crisis, making every injury feel like a significant threat to the character's chances of making it out alive. Deadly Ship-to-Ship Combat The game includes a streamlined system for starship encounters. Ships have their own stats and modules that are likely to be damaged during a fight. Players must work together to manage various roles and stations, like Engineering or Piloting, to keep the ship's hull from breaching while under fire or fleeing from cosmic anomalies. Additional links tuesdayknightgames.com - Official Tuesday Knight Games website mothershiprpg.com - Official Mothership portal and digital resources

Mischief is a D12 chaos-driven game of magical mayhem that keeps your TTRPG sessions fast, intense, and unpredictable. Classless character builds offer maximum customization. The Luck system keeps gameplay quick and swingy. Prep is uber-simple and fiction-first. The Mischief engine is designed for easy reflavoring to suit your next campaign or setting!

DiceCalc is a TTRPG dice managmeent system for players and GMs. Here's what it does: Roll all of a character's dice simultaneously — see every attack, save, skill, and modifier roll all at once via the Roll All mode with character tabs. Still reroll per macro — long-press any single roll to edit or reroll just that macro without rerolling the rest, even in Roll All mode. In-depth macro inspection — Roll Macro mode focuses on macro options, allowing players to inspect rolls, rename, edit, and sort the macro list. Sort order here is also preserved in Roll All mode. Cryptographically secure random number generation — higher unpredictability, more randomer. Sortable character tabs with up to 100 macros each — whether you're running or playing a campaign, organize by character, encounter, monster, game system, or any other way you like. Every major TTRPG dice mechanic in one app — keep high/low, target numbers (successes), botches, exploding dice, crit detection, multi-roll comma separation for staged (verification) rolls, and yes... push dice! Constraint validation with red-highlighted error feedback — pathological expressions are caught before they run, no infinite loops or broken math. Persistent 300-roll history with timestamps — every roll logged with full roll breakdown and no truncation. Tap-and-hold context menus throughout — edit, duplicate, delete, rename, reroll wherever it makes sense. Localized in 7 languages — English, Spanish, Portuguese, German, French, Italian, Polish, with complete in-app manuals for each. 14-page in-app user manual — every feature documented with examples, no need to leave the app. Supports Android 8.0 and above — runs on devices going back a decade. Custom QWERTY keyboard for macro names — with locale-specific diacritics via long-press. Independent horizontal scroll per output row — nerd out inspecting long expressions, results, and roll details without truncation. Also... I'm giving it away for free till 09/31/2026 11:59:59 (JST). Check the promo section of the website for details. Honest reviews are appreciated.

Trails Weaver is a visual worldbuilding app for game masters, worldbuilders and writers. Every character, location, faction and item is a page with rich text, images, custom properties and a relations table, and any page can also be dropped onto a board. There are four board types: - an infinite free board where element cards nest inside other element cards. - map boards with pins, regions and roads that reveal more detail as you zoom in. - hierarchy boards for family trees and chains of command. - relationship graph that assembles itself from the relations recorded on each page Anything marked secret stays hidden when a world is shared through a read-only public link. The free plan covers one world, unlimited free-boards and up to 25 world elements. Pro removes every limit.