Because the barkeep shouldn’t be forgettable—and neither should the world you build Non-player characters, or NPCs, are the lifeblood of any good tabletop campaign. They guide the players. Annoy them. Betray them. Heal them. Haunt them. And if you do it right? They live rent-free in your players’ heads forever. But let’s be honest—sometimes it’s hard to keep those characters from blending together into a gray, generic slurry of shopkeepers and quest-givers. How many gruff dwarves and mysterious cloaked strangers can one party meet before it all starts to blur? Today on RPGInquisitor, we’re diving into practical, creative, and repeatable […]
Author: Phoebe Atlis
Top 10 Free TTRPG Systems You Can Start Playing Today
A gateway to incredible roleplaying experiences—without spending a single gold piece Tabletop role-playing games have never been more accessible, creative, or wildly diverse. But let’s be honest: cracking open a hardcover rulebook and realizing it costs more than your monthly spell component budget can be discouraging. What if we told you that some of the best, weirdest, and most imaginative TTRPGs out there are absolutely free? Whether you’re a curious newcomer, a game master on a budget, or a veteran player looking for your next favorite system, these free-to-play TTRPGs deliver depth, variety, and narrative power—no paywall required. So grab […]
How to Homebrew Safely: Balance Without Killing Fun
Guidelines for introducing custom rules or items without breaking the table There comes a point in every game master’s life when the rules… just aren’t enough. Maybe you want to create a new spell that lets your bard charm someone by tap dancing. Maybe your warlock wants a sentient umbrella that shoots fireballs. Or maybe your entire table is bored of existing subclasses and craving something new. Welcome to the world of homebrew. It’s exhilarating, creative, and dangerous. Done well? It’s unforgettable. Done poorly? It’s campaign-breaking, spotlight-hogging, or worse—it’s boring. So how do you walk the line between letting your […]
Black Powder & Brimstone: Demons, Gunfights, and Doom in the Wilds of the Weird
Inside the gritty, gunsmoke-drenched TTRPG from Free League Publishing If you like your roleplaying games with a little sulfur, a little lead, and a whole lot of trouble—let us introduce you to Black Powder and Brimstone, the infernal-fueled, bullet-bitten frontier of Free League Publishing’s grimdark fantasy offerings. This is a game about survival at the edge of damnation. About dragging your muddy boots across a cursed world that stopped asking for heroes and started praying for fewer monsters. But don’t get the wrong idea—this isn’t just another grim fantasy knockoff with undead cowboys. This is a fully realized system and […]
Why Every Party Needs a Cowardly Character
How fear-based characters add humor, drama, and surprise heroism to your next campaign Bravery is overrated. Sure, it’s cool when the paladin charges the dragon or the barbarian holds the bridge with 2 HP and a broken axe. But you know what your campaign really needs? A coward. The one who says, “Nope,” when danger looms. The one who hides behind barrels, fakes death at the first sign of danger, and questions everything the party tries to do. Why? Because in a world of heroes and monsters, the coward is what makes the story great. We’re here to make the […]
Bricks & Sagas: Building an Ongoing LEGO Campaign (One Battle at a Time)
How to turn your LEGO builds into an epic, evolving tabletop narrative with characters, factions, and story arcs You’ve built the battlefield.You’ve raised the fortress, armed the orcs, posed the paladin mid-strike.The battle looks amazing—and maybe you’ve even started playing games with your builds. But now you want more. You want to tell a story. A story that spans kingdoms, betrayals, victories, and ruins. A story where your builds don’t just stand alone, but connect into a larger world of recurring characters, persistent consequences, and ever-changing terrain. Welcome to the world of LEGO campaign storytelling—where each build isn’t just a […]
Bricks of War: Building Epic Battle Sets with LEGO
How to bring combat scenes, campaigns, and conflicts to life—one stud at a time There’s a special magic that happens when you combine structured creativity with imaginative chaos. And in few places is that magic more apparent than in the world of LEGO battle sets. Not the official sets, necessarily (though there are some cool ones out there). No—we’re talking DIY battle scenes crafted from bins of mismatched bricks, custom minifigs, and the wild ambitions of builders who dream in stud-widths and turret fire. Whether you’re setting up a dramatic clash between mechs and pirates, staging a medieval siege on […]
Pirate Borg: Doom, Treasure, and the End of the World at Sea
The only RPG where your scurvy crew may die horribly—and you’ll love every second of it You don’t play Pirate Borg to be a hero. You play Pirate Borg to chase cursed treasure through a haunted archipelago, scream “Betrayal!” as your first mate steals the ship, and go down in legend with a gun in one hand and a cursed goblet in the other. This is not your friendly, rum-swigging, parrot-on-the-shoulder pirate fantasy. This is MÖRK BORG by way of Black Sails and Event Horizon—a doom metal sea crawl dripping with blood, sea salt, and desperation. Published by Free League […]
TTRPG Spells Inspired by Classic Board Game Mechanics
How to bring the cunning of Clue, the strategy of Risk, and the chaos of Monopoly into your magic system Not all spells need to be about fireballs and healing words. In fact, some of the most fun, flavorful, and memorable spells in a tabletop RPG aren’t borrowed from real-world folklore or high fantasy—they’re borrowed from board games. Yes, really. Board games are full of mechanics that drive drama, tension, and victory—not unlike the best spellcasting moments in TTRPGs. Whether it’s the calculated dominance of Risk, the deduction dance of Clue, or the spreading dread of Pandemic, each game has […]
Mr. Faust’s Footnotes: A Necessary Newsletter from a Fox with Filing Privileges
A formally informal invitation to explore the magical margins of the world of Fable In a world where sentient staircases argue with their architects, pastry betrayals are a weekly occurrence, and the constellations have an opinion about your haircut, one fox has taken it upon himself to document the absurd, the arcane, and the alarmingly underreported. His name is Faust. He is, by his own reckoning: You may now begin wondering why you haven’t subscribed already. Let’s fix that: 👉 Read and subscribe at faustffox.substack.com But if you’re the sort who needs a formal introduction—and truly, Faust would expect nothing […]