RPG-A-DAY 2015 Day 7: Favorite Free RPG...Mystery Men!

7. FAVORITE FREE RPG...
Today's RPG-A_Day category was an easy one. There are many free RPGs out there, and many, many of them are awesome. However, there's one that really gets my superhero mojo working, and that's John Stater's Mystery Men! After a series of popular blog posts at Land of Nod as well as a successful Kickstarter fundraiser, John raised enough to have his free superhero RPG illustrated and produced before he released it free for everyone!

Mystery Men! is a glorious homage to the Golden Age of superhero comics using the heroes from the '30s and 40s as its inspiration. The simple system is powered by the Sword and Wizardry engine, so if you're familiar with that game, you can wade into the four-color BAM SOK OOF action Mystery Men! with ease. The rules cover all the usual RPG mechanics of character generation, combat, powers, etc., but also comes with several Golden Age NPCs, super-foes to fight, the bustling setting of Shore City for your heroes to explore, and a sample adventure to get your feet wet as you begin your career in crime-fighting! The game is beautifully laid out and illustrated, and is a complete package for any superhero RPG enthusiast. And for free? It's a fantastic game!

Or...it was...

Sadly, Mystery Men! is not currently available since John entered into an agreement with Fat Goblin Games to revise and update Mystery Men! into a slick new second edition. That was December 2013, and nothing has developed yet. According to John, his agreement ends in December 2015, so we may soon see a return of Mystery Men!