This is a list of tabletop RPGs that you can download (or read online) and start playing for free. Only games that have the necessary rules for both players and the GM are free. This isn’t an exhaustive list; it’s just ones that I think are a cut above average. Don’t forget to support the authors and publishers of games that you like!
General
- Ironsworn is a storytelling RPG where you are a hero in a low fantasy setting taking on a perilous quest while trying to keep the vows you made. It offers rules for GM-less, solo, or group play.
- Stars Without Number and Worlds Without Number are OSR-style sandbox adventure games featuring lots of random tables and tools for a GM to generate elements of the adventure on the fly. Their free versions are still quite generous.
- Cairn is a minimalist, fiction-first adventure game about exploring dark and mysterious woods.
- Fate is a flexible storytelling game where players earn currency called Fate points by allowing their character aspects to get them into trouble, then spend it to influence other parts of the story. PDFs are PWYW.
- Mausritter is a rules-light fantasy adventure game where you play as a brave mouse. PDFs are PWYW.
- Pathfinder and Starfinder via the Archives of Nethys . This site contains a plain-text, searchable version of the rules in all sourcebooks published by Paizo. (Unlike a certain similar website for D&D 5e, Archives of Nethys is officially partnered with the games’ publisher and serves as the official system reference document.)
- Eclipse Phase - PDFs of this sci-fi system are freely available from author Rob Boyle’s website.
- OpenD6 is a universal RPG system originally published by West End Games. It has also been streamlined into a lightweight, and still free, version named Mini Six.
Retroclones
- Delving Deeper emulates the original 1974 version of Dungeons & Dragons, focusing on a few essential rules.
- Old-School Essentials Classic Fantasy SRD is an art-free edition of the popular retroclone. It strictly recreates the 1980s Basic / Expert rules for Dungeons & Dragons with much-improved layout and clarity.
- Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game is a game that mostly follows B/X with a few modifications. It also offers many free adventures, monster manuals, and optional rules. It’s also notable for having extremely affordable soft-cover rulebooks.
- Dark Dungeons X offers comprehensive coverage of the ridiculous power heights of the 1991 Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia, with some light commentary and house rulings included.
- OSRIC recreates 1st edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, with clearer text and explanations.
- For Gold & Glory recreates 2nd edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, with clearer text and explanations.
Micro RPGs
- FU: Freeform Universal is a generic game where you interpret combinations of YES / NO / AND / BUT from the roll of a six-sided die.
- World of Dungeons by John Harper is a simple, quick-playing dungeon crawl game based on the Defy Danger move from the Powered by the Apocalypse rules system.
- Lasers & Feelings by John Harper is a one-page, one-shot RPG that you can easily hack into whatever premise you desire.
- Risus is a 4-page generic RPG, where characters (helpfully illustrated as stick figures) are defined by their dice ratings in a handful of clichés.
Paid games with free quickstarts
- Coriolis is a sci-fi RPG from Free League Publishing; a sort of Arabian Nights in space.
- Dungeon Crawl Classics blends late 1970s crawling tropes with d20 mechanics and weird non-polyhedral dice, such as the d7.
- EABA Lite is a 15-page trial of the end-all, be-all generic roleplaying system.
- (Though I am not sure how you’d actually play this…)
- Electric Bastionland Free Edition covers the player-facing rules and ten of the game’s 100+ failed careers.
- GURPS Lite, a 32-page distillation of the player-facing GURPS rules.
- (again, can you actually bring this to a table and play it?)
- HackMaster Basic , yet another fantasy role-playing system with crunchy combat rules.
- Lancer offers everything except NPC creation, the GM section, and setting information in its free edition.
- MÖRK BORG BARE BONES edition is a text-only version of the game. (Though, honestly, I don’t know why you’d get into this without all the artwork and graphic design.)
- Victims of the Demon Lord: Starter Guide for Shadow of the Demon Lord.
- Basic Roleplaying is the rule system that powers most Chaosium RPGs, including Call of Cthulhu and Runequest.
- Root: The Tabletop Roleplaying Game is based on the board game, where players are woodland critters, adventuring from place to place in the forest as a war unfolds in the background. There are three adventures to try with these quickstart rules.
- Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition Basic Rules
Further Reading
Zireael07/awesome-tabletop-rpgs: Awesome list of free and/or open source tabletop RPGs (github.com)