Considering today’s topic was a fairly simple affair for me.  Maybe it is the Australian in me or maybe it is just the way I got into RPG’s that make this title stand out.

Day 7: Favourite Free RPG

Mark:

Before I give you the title I immediately thought of here I am going to do a bit of a description about a couple of things.  Firstly, when I look at this days topic I do not think of games that are Pay What You Want (PWYW) which some people may do.  That opens up a whole different arena of games that frankly when I see Pay What You Want I always try to pay over the recommended price if I have the money.  Some people will list FATE Core and other PWYW titles.  That is not me.

The reason this is one of my favourite games (and I will point out I have never had a game of it, but would love to) is quite possibly the fact that I am an Australian and there is a movie franchise that is really Australian at its core that this game would be a perfect addition to, or adaptation of.  These movies stretch back to the early eighties through to today and are fairly well loved universally by gamers, action fans and movie goers.

The other reason that this is battering the inside of my skull is the way that I came to Role Playing Games.  It was through a cousin who arrived to stay for a week when I was probably ten or eleven and I watched him build a dungeon for his red box D&D game.  I was fascinated at the process.  He would not play that with me but he did pull a game out of his bag that was in a little black plastic box.  It had a target, a jumping car and a guy in a helmet on the front with the title Car Wars printed across the front.  It was cheap then (as it is now – they have reproduced this game recently) and so I got a copy and after playing the death out of it for the next 6 to 10 years we all wished there was a role playing game to expand it that fit it well.

Then I was sitting in Giant Dragons Gaming Chat with the great and wonderful Jonathan Henry one day and he pushed the topic toward free role playing games and he had printed a copy of a game.  I immediately knew that this would be the one and it is.  Atomic Highway by Colin Chapman is easily my pick for my favourite free RPG.  I do want to get a game of it going and perhaps when I open the store I may devote a night to it and Car Wars that will etch it even further into my heart.

I have read the game a couple of times and I went on to purchase the supplement also Irradiated Freaks while it still had a price attached to it – I see that it now is a free addition too making this a brilliant place to be.  These are a very playable game that I just love to death and I can totally see a game that is adapted to Mad Max being so perfectly suited to one another.  I do wish I had some way to contact Colin Chapman to say thanks for all the hard work and tell him that this game really has bought to life the hope that I can bridge a game of Car Wars seamlessly with an RPG system to bring together an almost perfect fusion of board and role playing games.

If you have not heard of this game until now, go get it.  If you have heard of this game and have not gone and downloaded it yet, do it now.  If you have it and have played it – tell me about it in the comments.  Keep rolling!