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Lucas Yew
2019-12-05, 04:43 AM
By legally free I mean commercially free to the levels of at least OGL or CC BY(+SA, not ND nor NC).

Apart from the following obvious ones (which I own at least one core book for each),

- D&D 3.XE, 5E
- Pathfinder 1E, 2E
- many other OSR games
- Mutants & Masterminds
- many other SRD based d20 games
- FATE (all editions by Evil Hat)
- WOIN
- PbtA games

...plus major heartbreakers due to being well made yet with no chance of being legally freed (ditto as above),

- GURPS
- Savage Worlds
- HERO System

...which recommendable games meet the following criteria?

0. Legally-Free, for big emphasis. Which further means that I can potentially post stat blocks generated with said rules on an unrelated genre, like a fantasy novel book.
1. GNS-wise, its priorities are Simulationist >= Gamist >> Narrativist. The closer to PCs and NPCs using exact same rules to be run in-game, the better.
2. No single expected character archetype overshadows another one more than 40% of playtime, and all such archetypes aren't left out of spotlight due to incompetitiveness in general (to eliminate likely brain hemorrhage resulting from those LFQW shenanigans).
3. (preferred) Has an English version available (or maybe another UN language, yet the only such language I can use is English, AFAIK).
4. (preferred) Use only d6's, or use as little variations of different types of dice as possible (non d6's are a pain to acquire cheaply in my area).
5. (optional) Preferrably, a PDF copy and a fresh official printed one is easily available for a non-English speaker.

Grod_The_Giant
2019-12-05, 07:15 AM
My game, STaRS, has a basic edition (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/268062) available for pay what you want. It's a rules-light generic that steers clear of vague or narrativist rules. Pretty dice-light too; all you need is 1d10 per player.

Pauly
2019-12-05, 08:39 AM
I like Barbarians of Lemuria. There are more recent editions that you can pay for, but there is a full ruleset available to download for free.

https://beyondbeliefgames.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/barbarians-of-lemuria-rpg.pdf

The setting is very Conan the Barbarian (Robert Howard era). The game play is cinematic in style, it flows quickly and the players aren’t stuck with their heads in their character sheet counting potions and calculating modifiers. The emphasis is more on making a decision and resolving it, than micromanaging the situation.

There aren’t classes, characters have careers. In situations where that career would help the player gets a bonus. As characters gain experience they can add new careers or improve their level in their existing career. As long as the GM provides a variety of challenges that can be accomplished by a variety of methods no career path is better than others.

It is written, for the most part, in clear plain English, so ESL players should find it easier than most RPGs.

Esprit15
2019-12-05, 11:00 AM
PTU ( https://pokemontabletop.fandom.com/wiki/Pokemon_Tabletop_United_Core_Rules) is an awesome TTRPG if you’re interested in Pokémon. I’ve even seen some games that scrapped Pokémon entirely and just used the base humans to do other types of games.

Berenger
2019-12-05, 11:05 AM
I can recommend two free games:

Stars Without Number: Revised Edition is a science fiction game. It lacks a proper setting and instead comes with detailed instructions how to make a star sector from scratch, so the exact sub-genre of science fiction is up to the GM. There is a free version and a deluxe version. My group used the free version for about a year before we upgraded, so it's definitely playable as a standalone. If you follow the link, you will find beneath the description several other systems for $0.00 which a haven't yet played. There are a couple of supplements, some free, some not. SWN uses a variety of dice.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/230009/Stars-Without-Number-Revised-Edition-Free-Version



Low Fantasy Gaming is a... low fantasy game. It's rather gritty with deadly combats. I don't care much for the published setting, but I used it for several adventures and the mechanics seem solid. We ditched the Dark & Dangerous Magic part, as lovecraftian body horror is not our cup of tea, and agreed on other limitations for magic use depending on the setting we played in. Worked just fine. There are a couple of supplements, some free, some not. LFG also uses a variety of dice.

https://lowfantasygaming.com/freepdf/
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/231747/Low-Fantasy-Gaming-Original




(non d6's are a pain to acquire cheaply in my area)

Can you receive Amazon packages where you live? If so, you can get enough dice for the whole group for, like, ten bucks.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07B9VDFMC/ref=sspa_dk_detail_1?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B07B9VDFMC&pd_rd_w=IbSsc&pf_rd_p=45a72588-80f7-4414-9851-786f6c16d42b&pd_rd_wg=qybAI&pf_rd_r=H7EBXJKQAN8524TV3PAB&pd_rd_r=036a0aad-d5ac-48c6-8926-0f887c90472e&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEyMlAzSVRHVUNCNE5QJ mVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwMDIyNTMwMlhHRlBCRVU3NTJGRyZlbmN yeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwNjU0NTk0SVc5SVdBNlExS1gmd2lkZ2V0T mFtZT1zcF9kZXRhaWwmYWN0aW9uPWNsaWNrUmVkaXJlY3QmZG9 Ob3RMb2dDbGljaz10cnVl

JeenLeen
2019-12-05, 11:14 AM
It doesn't meet your dice requirement, but a "not the most recent version" of Arcs Magica is available for free.
https://www.atlas-games.com/arm4

It's also been a while since I've thought heavily on GNS theory, so not sure if it fits that to your liking. I've never played it, and it seems mechanically difficult to master, but I've heard good things about it and the lore is pretty interesting.

Jakinbandw
2019-12-05, 12:20 PM
Godbound is a fun DnDish game where you play as Demigods. It's mostly balanced outside of some small edge cases. It's free version contains all the core rules with only some small optional rules missing. https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/185959/Godbound-A-Game-of-Divine-Heroes-Free-Edition

LibraryOgre
2019-12-05, 12:43 PM
OpenD6 (http://opend6project.org/) is a d6-only game, released under the Open Gaming License, that uses the same engine that ran WEG Star Wars for 20 years.

Psyren
2019-12-05, 12:47 PM
Wellllll, since it wasn't on your starting list and you didn't specify genre... Starfinder is also OGL and meets all your criteria (except #4 because it is a d20 system). But because it is tech/sci-fantasy-based, the casters aren't nearly as quadratic compared to noncasters, technology allows the latter to keep pace. You could adapt it to 3d6 pretty easily (using the OGL 3d6 variant (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/adventuring/bellCurveRolls.htm) as a starting point) if you're dead-set on using more of those dice. Anyway, SRD is here. (https://www.aonsrd.com/)

Koo Rehtorb
2019-12-05, 02:04 PM
I'll second Stars Without Number.

GrayDeath
2019-12-05, 03:53 PM
I'll second Stars Without Number.

Thirded. For your requirements it seems to fit best.

Grek
2019-12-05, 05:19 PM
How about Eclipse Phase? It's Creative Commons!

Ventruenox
2019-12-05, 06:01 PM
Hungry? (https://www.feastoflegends.com/images/Feast_Of_Legends.pdf) Wendy's put out their own TTRPG.

Arbane
2019-12-05, 07:38 PM
A big list of RPGs (https://www.pillowfort.social/posts/457091), quite a few of which are free, pay-what-you-want, or demos.

Rynjin
2019-12-06, 09:57 PM
Final Fantasy d6 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?173958-Final-Fantasy-d6-(Complete-System)) is a really fun and well made game.

As the name implies, it only uses d6 dice.

Zakhara
2019-12-06, 10:29 PM
Warrior Rogue & Mage (or other games using its "WYRM" engine, like Resolute Adventurer & Genius). There's also John Harper's World of Dungeons, which is a sort of streamlined PbtA engine (and has many hacks to its own name as well).

LibraryOgre
2019-12-07, 10:55 AM
Since I like to pimp my own stuff: ODE (https://rpgcrank.blogspot.com/2013/08/ode-one-deck-engine.html)

It doesn't even use dice. It uses a standard deck of playing cards.

ngilop
2019-12-07, 03:06 PM
Hungry? (https://www.feastoflegends.com/images/Feast_Of_Legends.pdf) Wendy's put out their own TTRPG.

Ugh, you beat me to it. Honestly if you replace the food names to something else more fantasy related its a great game The rules are overly and surprisingly well done and thought out!


there is also RISUS (http://www.risusiverse.com/)

Also Dungeonslayers is great as well. IF you can find a working link to the game or an online depository of some sort. the main Page no longer exists. (well at least in English) This is the german site. (http://www.dungeonslayers.net/) -side note: they also have Starslayer but I haven't read I and am not even sure that it was in English at any point.

thorr-kan
2019-12-12, 10:37 AM
The 80s Marvel Super Heroes game, sometimes called FASERIP, is available for download from classicmarvelforever.com, as are it's supplements.

There's two active Facebook groups doing supplement design as well. They put out some high quality stuff.

Arbane
2019-12-13, 01:43 AM
An annotated rec list of forty-odd free or pay-what-you-want tabletop RPGs (https://prokopetz.tumblr.com/post/188803951667/the-present-tabletop-rpg-resurgence-is-great-but).

Knaight
2019-12-13, 03:28 AM
Going by legally free in the sense of not only free to acquire but also free to change and rerelease - take a look at Fudge. It's what Fate grew out of but is emphatically not Fate, growing out of GURPS as it did.

Lucas Yew
2020-01-16, 11:47 PM
Thank you for all these recommendations. Although, I needed to clarify further what that "legally free" means. Example: if you modify a rule system then commercially redistribute the modified rules and and get in legal trouble because of it, it is NOT legally free in my book. As such, I do not consider the "NC" notated Creative Commons rules as truly free (though I can understand why the author did that and still might get to read and review such rules).

So some sort of official statement from the copyright holder that you can maim and bend this rule then actually sell the outcome is a must. Not that I actually have any plans to be a RPG publisher as of now, but it's my adamant personal policy to support such "goodwill" acts as mu

Ventruenox
2020-01-17, 12:10 PM
Mödley Crüe: There is a possibility that this conversation could stray into legal advice territory, which is against forum rules, so let's avoid that please.

It sounds like you are looking for recommendations for materials released as Open Game Content (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Game_License). Here is a link (https://ogc.rpglibrary.org/index.php?title=Main_Page) to just under a dozen such systems.