[Free RPG Day 2024] The Great Toy Heist

Now in its seventeenth year, Free RPG Day for 2024 took place on Saturday, June 22nd. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. This included dice, miniatures, vouchers, and more. Thanks to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham, Reviews from R’lyeh was able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day.

—oOo—

One of the perennial contributors to Free RPG Day is Paizo, Inc., a publisher whose titles for both the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and the Starfinder Roleplaying Game have proved popular and often in demand long after the event. The emphasis in these releases have invariably been upon small species. Thus, in past years, the titles released for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game have typically involved adventures with diminutive Player Characters, first Kobolds, then Goblins, and then with the release of A Fistful of Flowers for Free RPG Day 2022 and A Few Flowers More for Free RPG Day 2023, and now for Free RPG Day 2024, it is the turn of toys with The Great Toy Heist! This is a short adventure for Second Level Player Characters—of which four pre-generated examples are provided—who are all one of Golarion’s rare ancestries. This is ‘Poppet’. Usually in Golarion and the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, a poppet is a small, mindless magical construct designed to serve as familiars and help with simple tasks. However, with The Great Toy Heist, all four pre-generated have achieved magical sentience and so can go adventure on their own.

To get the most out of The Great Toy Heist, the Game Master will need access to the Pathfinder Player Core, Pathfinder GM Core, Pathfinder Monster Core, Pathfinder Lost Omens Grand Bazaar, and Pathfinder Lost Omens Worlds Guide. However, a Game Master should be able to run the adventure with the core rules and further references found in the Pathfinder Reference Document.

The setting for The Great Toy Heist is the Chelish capital of Egorian, notorious for its inhabitants engaging in the practice of devil-worshipping. Not everyone is a devil-worshipper though and in-between the gothic buildings of the temples to Asmodeus, there are ordinary businesses such as The Terrific Toybox. It is famous for the quality of the toys its owner, Gettorio Galla, makes and sells. The shop is sat atop a source of occult magical energy, some of which seeps into some of those toys and so awake them to sentience. These Poppets revere their creator and help her about the shop as well as keeping an eye on when she is not there or asleep. However, a greedy, unprincipled, and wealthy noble, Baron Falgrimous Vreen, has learned about the magical source and decided to take for himself. He found a loophole in the diabolically complicated laws of the city and exploited it to seize the deed to the toyshop and now plans to evict Gettorio Galla and her fantastic creations—including the Player Characters. Loyal to Gettorio Galla, the four Player Characters have decided to break into the mansion of Baron Vreen and steal back the deed to The Terrific Toybox!

The Great Toy Heist opens en media res. The Player Characters have had themselves shipped into Baron Vreen’s mansion and can take the advantage of the head of the house holding a party, to search the for the deed. As players, the scenario gives them time here to go over their characters and introduce themselves to each other before beginning the scenario proper. The first encounter is combat driven, a fun battle with a pair of Imps engagingly called ‘Tsk’ and ‘Tut’, who will taunt and tease the Player Characters throughout the fight. The guidance for the fight suggests making it a very physical affair that takes in the environment, such as climbing and pulling down bookshelves, dropping chandeliers on the Imps, and so on.

The battle, which takes place in the mansion’s sitting room, is the first of the scenario’s three acts. The second is the ‘Manor Infiltration’ in which the Player Characters sneak about the mansion. This is handled not room by room, by more narratively as a montage of scenes in which the Player Characters overcome obstacles and take advantage of opportunities. Through rolling successes and failures, the Player Characters accrue Infiltration Points and Awareness Points, and these can be used by the Game Master to trigger Obstacles, Complications, and Opportunities, such as a ‘Messy Office’, ‘Drunken Guest’, ‘Not Like That!’, and ‘Lucky Break’. Eventually, the Player Characters will find the vault, deal with its guardian, and having found the deed to the land under The Terrific Toybox, escape back home with its future ensured.

Whilst half of The Great Toy Heist is dedicated to the scenario, the other is decided to its four pre-generated Player Characters. These consist of Cutie Killstuff, a pink, fluffy bunny rabbit Barbarian; Hellpup, a hellhound toy and Witch done in leather; Marcella the Marionette, a classic Domino puppet and Rogue; and The Tin Wizard, a clockwork toy Wizard. All four are given a two-page spread complete with background, a guide to playing them in terms of combat, exploration, and healing, , relationships with the other three Player Characters, and the full stats along with a good illustration. These are really very well done, though quite a lot of information for a one-shot scenario.

Physically, The Great Toy Heist is as well presented as you would expect for a release from Paizo, Inc. Everything is in full colour, the illustrations are excellent, and the maps attractive.

The Great Toy Heist is a fun scenario, though very short. The only problem perhaps is the inclusion of Cutie Killstuff, a pink, fluffy bunny rabbit Barbarian. Everyone is going to want to play them and only one player can! The Great Toy Heist is a great release for Free RPG Day 2024, just as you would expect from Paizo, Inc.