Happy Free RPG Day 2026!

Hello, friends! Before I forget, we recently ended the latest season of Learned League, where I finished a comfortable twelfth in my rundle of thirty. The first part of my season was pretty great for me, but my defensive prowess faded towards the final stretch, as I lost far too many games on points alone. It was a good, competitive season tho, and I’m excited about all my friends who are getting promoted from their rundles, as well as the United States At 250 Mini League that I’ll be participating in during the off-season (primarily in hopes of rectifying my deficit in American history knowledge, as I went to school mostly in Malaysia.)

But the thing I’m most excited to talk about in this newsletter is my excellent Free RPG Day experience this past weekend! Game Kastle College Park is by far my favorite friendly local game store, so even tho there were three World Cup games scheduled that day, I knew I couldn’t miss out on playing in at least two of GKCP’s three free game slots. I ultimately decided to skip the morning session: while I may love tabletop roleplaying games more than I love football, I definitely do not love TTRPGs as much as sleep. Perhaps paradoxically, I do love football more than sleep, lol.

Anyway, I signed up for the Arkham Horror RPG quickstart adventure Three Days To The Big Easy in the afternoon, as well as The Crooked House quickstart for The Crooked Moon 5E campaign setting in the evening. I don’t often get the opportunity to play in horror games, so was super excited for both! Plus, the WiFi signal from the Starbucks next door was strong enough for me to watch the England Panama game on my phone (with my headphones on, ofc) between slots, bless.

I’d never actually played any Arkham Horror before but was lucky enough to sit with Lynn, who I played Shadows Of Esteren with during last year’s FRD. She’s been GMing AH with her home group, so helped me figure out how to roll for my (hilarious) grifter Countess Alessandra Zorzi. I actually picked out my pre-generated character sheet entirely for the plot (for a change,) as I had no idea how stats work in AH. Fortunately, it all worked out really nicely. I very much enjoyed playing this well-written adventure, with the “oh no!”s that Lynn and I yelled at the end of it being a testament to its quality.

The Crooked House adventure was perhaps not as well-written. For starters, it was so long that it took us three hours just to clear the first floor! Luckily, I had a stellar table, and we all agreed to fast forward to the final floor, to see if we could complete the boss battle in the forty-five minutes or so that we had remaining before GKCP closed. I super enjoyed playing The Reveler, a warlock-bard hybrid that I want to approximate the next time I build a Dungeons & Dragons character. I introduced her to the table as someone who was willing to do anything for the plot (lol) and essentially channeled a chaotic good version of Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn while playing her. In combat, she was a very effective one-trick pony with her enhanced Eldritch Blast (I think I critted three times!) but it was really her Hideous Laughter spell that came in super clutch at the end. I kinda wish I could join an entire campaign of this but who has the time, alas.

GKCP outdid themselves this year with their raffles during every slot. I won a prize in both, and got a D&D campaign journal and a Xanathar’s Treasure blind bag. I love how visible the printing on the dice was in the set I got from the latter: I am definitely at the age where things like that matter. And while I abided by the “one item only” sign on the Free RPG Day table when I first showed up at the store, I knew that if I hung out long enough, I’d be allowed (and even encouraged!) to take at least one of everything that was left. I’m not just hoarding tho: I’ve already handed the Cosmere one-shot Law And Obligation to another gamer who runs that system, as I realized after flipping through it that the game is thick with spoilers for the Stormlight Archive books that I still haven’t read. Of the things I am keeping, I’m most looking forward to plunging into both the sample Lore Master’s Deck from The Story Engine, as well as House Of Broken Promises, the two-player expansion for the horror game Home.

Reading-wise, I finally downloaded Matt Dinniman’s Dungeon Crawler Carl to see what all the fuss is about (prompted, yes, by the record-breaking BackerKit campaign for the TTRPG adaptation.) Friends, the book is so good I’ve started playing Baldur’s Gate 3 again, just to scratch that RPG video game itch. Essentially, Carl is a Coastie who runs outside pantsless when his ex-girlfriend’s spoiled Persian cat Princess Donut escapes from his apartment one cold winter day. This is what saves him from being killed when an alien syndicate flattens all the constructs on Earth’s surface and opens up entrances to underground dungeons instead. These dungeons are part of a deadly, televised video game-like experience where survival is the primary goal. Carl has to figure out how to navigate the game levels with the help of the newly sentient (but just as obnoxious) Donut, even as he ponders serious questions of compassion and humanity. It’s a smart, big-hearted book that’s also really funny and readable: I crushed its 480 pages in about 24 hours. I’m planning on grabbing the second book soon, and am pleased that I’m coming into the series when I am, as there are only two books left to be published. Hopefully, I won’t have forgotten everything by the time the last book comes out.

Midnight has unfortunately come and gone since I started writing this, but I’m looking forward to a long weekend, and hope you have a restful (and, if you’re in the path of a heatwave, cool!) few days in front of you, too. See you in six, friends!

Currently Playing (Music): Haydn’s 99th Symphony; my Declan Rice and 2026 Energy playlists; The Magnus Archives; BTS’ Arirang; Olivia Rodrigo’s you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love.

Currently Playing (Games): The Light In The Mist puzzletale; Metazooa by Trainwreck Labs; Learned League trivia; NYT Connections & Wordle; Gremco Industries’ Parseword; Irox Games’ Bongo Cat; Greg Stafford’s Pendragon; Larian Studio’s Baldur’s Gate 3.

Currently Reading/Writing (Games): Ghosts Of Saltmarsh.

Currently Reading or Just Read (Books): Murder At The Campfire Cookout by Darci Hannah; Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman; Uh-Oh, Hugo! by Jonathan Stutzman & Jay Fleck; Welcome To Hell: From The West Bank To Gaza by Mohammad Sabaaneh; The Delivery by Andrew Welsh-Huggins.