[Free RPG Day 2024] Lost Tome of Monsters

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.

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Bar the dice, the smallest and very probably the weirdest release for Free RPG Day 2024 is the Lost Tome of Monsters: Free RPG Day Edition. Unlike the majority of the other releases, it is not a booklet, but what at first appears to be a pin (or badge) with a backing card. And this is more or less what it is, except that it is also something more. Published by Foam Brain Games, it is actually a ‘Pinature’ and an encounter. Except that description does not help given the fact that right now you are asking yourself, “What the hell is a ‘Pinature’?” It is a portmanteau word that combines ‘pin’ and ‘miniature’, and like that portmanteau word, what you get with is the Lost Tome of Monsters: Free RPG Day Edition is both a ‘pin’ and a ‘miniature’! The pin-part depicts a zombie in all of its ‘purple decayed flesh, knock-kneed, brain exposed, ragged cloth wearing, and blood dripping from the mouth’ glory. It is cartoonishly lurid as it looms over an open book, its pages marked with a ribbon. The book sits slightly forward of the zombie-figure, obscuring its twisted feet. This looks a bit odd, but the reason becomes apparent once you turn the pin over. On the back are two ‘Rubber Clutches’* and they look and are perfectly normal. However, at the bottom of the ‘pin’ there appears to be a hinge, right where the zombie’s feet are. The hinge enables the book on the front of the ‘pin’ to twist through ninety degrees and in doing so, provides a base for the zombie, which now stands vertically like a miniature much like the two-dimensional miniatures sold by W!ZK!DS. Thus, with the twist of the book base, the zombie goes from ‘pin’ to ‘miniature’ and back again. Hence, ‘pinature’.

* This I did know was a thing or what Pin Backs and Pin Attachments were called until I read ‘Custom Pins 101: Types of Pin Backs and Attachments’.

The encounter is described on the card that comes with the ‘pinature’. It is a ‘Challenge Rating 6’ encounter that begins with the adventurers playing dice and having a nice time at ‘Ye Olde Local Game Store’. This is interrupted by a storm and an unnatural darkness which surrounds the establishment and as thunder and lighting flash outside the store’s windows, the doorbell chimes. The shopkeeper screams in fear as it is not another customer that has entered the shop, but a zombie—the zombie of the ‘pinature’. As it lurches towards the adventurers, it utters one word: “Gammeeeesssss……” Do the Player Characters cower in fear or do they let the zombie join in? Also, where did the zombie come from, are there more? How can the zombie understand the rules of the game? And lastly, does the zombie have anything to do with the unnatural dark and the storm? The first question is the crux of the encounter, whilst the others are hooks that the Game Master can expand as possible further hooks.

There is no clear suggestion as to what roleplaying game exactly the encounter is written for, but the ‘Challenge Rating 6’ of the encounter suggests either Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition or the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. That said, with the ‘Challenge Rating 6’ being the only mechanical element to the Lost Tome of Monsters: Free RPG Day Edition, the encounter can be very easily adapted to the roleplaying game of the Game Master’s choice.

Physically, the Lost Tome of Monsters: Free RPG Day Edition is decently done. The zombie ‘pinature’ is small, but nicely detailed and really quite cute. The card captures the zombie ‘pinature’ in all of its lurid detail on the back, whilst the encounter is given on the back. The text for that is small though, and not easy to read.

The Lost Tome of Monsters: Free RPG Day Edition is both cute and silly. The zombie ‘pinature’ is the cute, in addition to being gory, whilst the adventure is the silly, what with adventurers playing in ‘Ye Olde Local Game Store’ and a zombie wanting to play games. Overall, tongue in cheek and not without its charms, but definitely the weirdest release for Free RPG Day 2024.