Last night I was “listening” to the latest YouTube live stream by the nerdarchy guys to fall to sleep to. During the interview/discussion they got to discussing other RPG systems.

The first that stood out as sounding interesting and worth further investigation was a RPG called Ironsworn. There were some keywords that made it sound of interest to me. Those being FREE (that’s always a big plus), doesn’t require a GM, plays co-op and solo as well as guided (they mean with a GM).

Skimming the downloaded pdf that I got this morning (did I mention it’s free?) Ironsworn is a dark fantasy setting based in a world called the Ironlands. To play you require d6 and d10 dice, character sheets and asset cards. The cards you can get the pdf for free and print yourself or get printed from DriveThruRPG.

The host and his guest then went on to discuss briefly the difference between D&D and RPGs created in the US and those from Europe. Apparently European RPGs tend to be more darker. That got me interested, a couple of examples they cited were Tales from the Loop, and Alien RPG. They also mentioned a German created RPG called Dark Eye that I’d never heard of, that was created in response to not being able to get D&D in the German language.

But the one that got me googling it was Degenesis. Visiting the website to investigate it more I was pleasantly surprised that this too is free to play.

I think the easiest way to get an idea about this futuristic (set 500 years or so in the future) post apocalyptic setting is to look at the YouTube videos the publishers/creators did for the RPG here.

The graphic design of this RPG and art is out of this world. It looks stunning. The system itself uses d6 dice.

Both look interesting and will join the growing list of RPGs I’d like to try to get to the table.