Tales from the Loop

Get your table playing in minutes, not hours.   GATEWAY RPG is a free, rules-lite d20 system built for zero-prep adventures, sudden one-shots, and seamless intro sessions. Familiar 5E-style mechanics with all the bloat stripped out, so you can run any genre instantly: neon-soaked cyberpunk streets, grit-filled noir alleys, high fantasy, cosmic horror, and everything in between. The Definitive Edition is now the main book. This is the complete, current version of GATEWAY RPG: updated core rules, solo play, a starter bestiary, and homebrew variants, character sheets all combined into one source. New artwork, professional layout, and everything players and GMs need in a single 132 page PDF. Want the history? Every older version of the rulebook, spanning 2017 to 2026, is bundled in the Legacy Zip below for collectors and the curious. Download the complete PDF bundle. AI Disclosure: This Enhanced Edition of Gateway RPG features some AI-generated artwork and layout assistance. The rules were still hand written by me and human proofread/playtested since 2017. As a one-man passion project with $0 budget, and $0 revenue gain from this game, this edition utilizes AI imagery only to provide a visually richer and cohesive experience while keeping the game entirely FREE. The original Classic Edition from 2017, featuring human-created artwork, is included as a bonus in the download files. However, if you are only looking for a gaming experience completely free of AI-generated assets, the standalone Classic Edition can be found exclusively on its own dedicated product page at https://gatewayrpg.itch.io/gateway-rpg-classic-edition. What’s Inside? Definitive Edition (Main Book): The complete game in one volume. Updated rules, solo play engine, starter bestiary, and homebrew variants. Legacy Zipfile (2017-2026): Every prior version of the rulebook, character sheet, supplement preserved as released. For archivists, returning players, and anyone who wants to see how the game evolved. Core Rules: The streamlined engine for players and Game Masters, in both English and Spanish (Reglas en Español). Character Sheets: Multiple Printable and Form Fillable Character Sheets Ready-to-Play Content: Pregenerated characters and one-shot adventure modules spanning multiple genres. Jump straight into the action. Player's Toolkit: Printable and form-fillable character sheets, a one-page quick reference guide, and the d20 Oracle for solo play. Starter Bestiary: 25 adversaries across 11 settings, from High Fantasy to Space Opera to Lovecraftian Horror. Homebrew Variants: Over 20 pages of optional mechanics, including Spark of Heroism (Inspiration), Pushing for Success (partial success), and genre modifiers for Survival and Cosmic Horror. Pocket Character Sheets: Compact sheets designed for portability. Solo Play Quickstart Zine: A portable, zine-style guide for on-the-go solo adventures. NEW: Android Player Companion App Character Builder: Create custom characters or select from 30 curated pre-mades. Pocket Rules: Quickly search core mechanics and references on the fly. Sheet-Integrated Dice: Roll checks directly from your sheet. Solo Engine: Built-in oracle for quick, on-the-go solo adventures. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aistudio.gatewayrpg.app Designer's Note: GATEWAY RPG grew out of a personal passion for tabletop gaming. Back in 2015, I discovered S. John Ross’s classic 1993 game, Risus: The Anything RPG. It was free, modular, ultra-flexible, and simple to pick up, but as I played more TTRPG's like DND5e, I missed the iconic d20 and the drama of critical hits and misses. I created GATEWAY RPG to capture that same beginner-friendly spirit while bringing back the thrill of the twenty-sided die and being able to use it for any setting. Whether you are running quick one-shots, playing standalone adventures, diving into solo sessions, or modularly introducing advanced rules as your group learns, GATEWAY adapts seamlessly to your table. GATEWAY RPG and Aurican's Lair are a Not-For-Profit Tabletop Roleplaying Game publisher.

NovArchaic is a modern-day science-fantasy tabletop role-playing game focused on identity-first character creation, a structured-but-creative action system, and fun, rewarding crafting. Character creation focuses on a character with a backstory rooted in the setting and goals that, once completed, unlock new ways to improve. All actions use a unified passive and active skill system, tied into a flexible critical-effect system. But what about the setting? NovArchaic's core setting is a world that didn't know it wasn't whole. The core reality shard is our modern world, with its cell phones and memes. Then there are fractures and other shards containing magic and monsters. Slowly, as time passes, these parts of the universe try to come back together, but it's a complicated, bloody mess.

Outgunned is a cinematic action tabletop roleplaying game about heroes in the style of 1980s and 1990s action movies, designed by Riccardo Sirignano and Simone Formicola of the Italian studio Two Little Mice, with illustrations by Daniela Giubellini.  It was funded on Kickstarter in May 2023, reaching its goal within five minutes, and won two Silver ENNIE Awards in 2024 for Best Game and Product of the Year. It was originally published in Italian and English by Two Little Mice, and since December 2024 Free League Publishing has published it worldwide under its Free League Workshop label, which covers games it did not develop in-house. The line has grown through the standalone Outgunned Superheroes and the pulp spin-off Outgunned Adventure, all built on the same dice-pool system and compatible with one another. It is a loose evolution of the matching-dice system of Broken Compass, Two Little Mice's earlier game. Description Players take on Heroes, each combining a Role (such as Commando, Spy or Nobody) with a Trope, a behavioral archetype such as Diehard or Cheater.  The Game Master is called the Director, and a story is framed as a season of an action series. Missions run as heists, chases, brawls and showdowns with a villain, and the game's own advice for the Director is "tools, not rules". The game wants a table that enjoys big set pieces and dramatic failures. Heroes are tough, but they run on a finite supply of energy, and when it runs out the rules push the table towards a near-death moment rather than a quiet exit.

Archivist is a TTRPG note taker without the busywork. It automatically builds recaps and campaign memory from Discord, audio, or a GM's notes: less admin, more story. Groups record live with the Archivist Discord bot or import audio, transcripts, play-by-post threads, or raw notes. Minutes later, Archivist delivers a session recap and updates a searchable compendium of characters, items, locations, and factions. Players and GMs can ask Archivist, the campaign chatbot, about anything that happened, right from Discord. Story highlights, player quotes, Hero Awards, trading cards, and one-click Session Handouts capture the best moments. It works with every TTRPG system, includes unlimited player seats, and never saves audio or trains on campaign data.

Mage: The Ascension is a modern-day supernatural roleplaying game created by Stewart Wieck and a team of designers at White Wolf Publishing, first released in 1993 as the third of White Wolf's original World of Darkness game lines, following Vampire: The Masquerade and Werewolf: The Apocalypse. It went through a second edition in 1995 and a Revised Edition in 2000, largely overseen by Phil Brucato, before Onyx Path Publishing released the 20th Anniversary Edition in 2015, the version most tables run today. Where Vampire is about hunger and Werewolf is about rage, Mage is about belief: player characters are ordinary people who have Awakened to the understanding that reality itself is negotiable, and the game is built entirely around the consequences of acting on that understanding.

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