[Free RPG Day 2025] Legend in the Mist Demo Game

Now in its eighteenth year, Free RPG Day for 2025 took place on Saturday, June 21st. 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—

Life in the Dales has been good and all you have ever known. The working of the soil, the turning of the seasons, the joy of the festivals scattered throughout the year, and shared stories, some of past exploits, others of caution and calamity, and then, legends of great deeds long in the past and far away, outside the mountain fastness of the Dales. Above you know the wind as it blows cold down the mountain and into your bones or wafts along the river to warm your face and sway the barley. Of late, the wind has changed. You know it as it wails through the ruins of an ancient tower. You feel it as it brings a chill earlier in the nights than it should. You see the shadows deepen and hearts fill with uncertainty. The tales of old twist to tell of a fallen kingdom, of the Creatures of Twilight, and of Deceivers that stalked the innocent and the unwary, preying on the lost… Has an age-old threat returned and if so, why do you feel compelled to seek out the truth of the doom whispered upon the winds? To explore the extent of the Dales, before leaving its sanctuary, your home, and embark on a long journey in the Wanderlands?

This is the Legend in the Mist Demo Game, a quick-start for Legend in the Mist: The Rustic Fantasy RPG, published by the Son of Oak Game Studio, best known for City of Mist, the Pulp Noir, Urban Fantasy storytelling game. It is a narrative roleplaying game with optional tactical features intended to evoke the feeling of an old fireside tale. It uses a variant of the Powered by the Apocalypse mechanics, and the Legend in the Mist Demo Game includes a short three-act scenario, ‘A Shadow in the Barley’, that can be played through in a single session with the three pre-generated Player Characters provided.

A Player Character in Legend in the Mist is defined by four sets of themed Tags. These Themes vary, but can include Devotion, Trade or Skill, Trait, Personality, People, Trait, Possessions, and more. Themes are categorised as either Origin, Adventure, or Greatness Themes, which define where the Player Character came from, how he works to affect the world, and what he is good at, respectively. Each Theme set contains five Tags which can be used as a ‘Power Tag’ or a ‘Weakness Tag’. For example, the Red Marshal has the Tags of ‘The Red Armour’, ‘Stand Watch’, ‘Reassuring Presence’, ‘Know These Lands’, and ‘Loyal Horse’ for his Devotion Theme. A Theme has tracks for Experience—gained when a Tag is used as a weakness, and Decay, gained for acting against a Theme—that is, out of character—and which if filled, will lead to the replacement of the Theme. Each Player Character has a set of items which can be used as Tags too.

The three Player Characters in the Legend in the Mist Demo Game are ‘the Apple Picker’, a young, orphaned prankster; ‘the Red Marshal’, the new village scout; and ‘the Wise One’, the village healer who knows some of the mysteries of the world. Each Theme comes with some colour text which gives it and the Player Character some context. Lastly, each of the three pre-generated Player Characters comes on a double-sided A3-size sheet, with a female version on one side and a male version on the other.

Mechanically, to have his character attempt a task a player rolls two six-sided dice. If the result is ten or more, the Player Character succeeds without Consequences; if it is seven to nine, he succeeds, but suffers Consequences; and if six or less, the Player Character fails and suffers the Consequences. To the roll, the player adds as many Power Tags as he can and which are appropriate, but has to deduct any Weakness Tags that apply. The resulting value is the Player Character’s Power. This can be spent on various Effects—Attack, Influence, Boost, Create, and Restore. They can also be applied to Challenges and Threats in an attempt to overcome them. Each Challenge or Threat has a rating or a ‘Limit’, for example, to get past an encampment of bandits with two men on watch, the Limits might be ‘stealth: 2’ and ‘wounded: 3’. In the first example, the Player Characters would apply the Effects from a stealth-related Tag to exceed the Limit, whilst in the second, the Effects from an attack-type Tag would be used. This can be done over multiple attempts with the Effects stacking each time, but if successful will change the status of a Challenge or Threat. Thus, the ‘stealth: 2’ Limit changes to ‘evaded-2’ and the ‘wounded: 3’ Limit to ‘wounded-3’.

However, there are ramifications if a Challenge or Threat is not dealt with succinctly or is even ignored. The Narrator can apply Consequences. This might be something as straightforward as ‘bleeding-3’ for a wound, ‘burning-1’ from a spell, or ‘lost-4’ if in a blizzard, but Limits themselves could change. For example, the Limits for the bandits could change to ‘hunted: 3’ and ‘wounded: 4’, now that the Player Characters failed to get past the encampment. The Legend in the Mist Demo Game includes a list of possible Effects, a very quick introduction to character creation—more of an enticement to look at the full rulebook and what it offers than anything else, advice on running the roleplaying game, and possible Challenges, Threats, and Consequences that the Player Characters might face and suffer.

The adventure itself, ‘a Shadow in The Barley’ is set in the village of Ravenhome in the Dales. One autumn morning, the three Player Characters met on the road* outside of the village. They have time to interact before they hear the scream of a child coming from a nearby field of barley. Investigating reveals a very scared child, paralysed with fear, as well as a strange feeling upon the air. Is there something lurking in the field? All is revealed when a shambling, water-logged corpse, wearing old armour and wielding a rusty sword lurches onto the road. This is a Waken Sentry and the Player Characters will realise that the only source of water nearby is that of a pond in a decrepit tower. However, before the Player Characters can investigate they need to get the child to safety and warn the villagers. This sets up a social challenge which can end with the whole village fleeing or even arming everyone with pitch forks to deal with themselves. There is scope here for some good roleplaying versus some interesting, but not always helpful NPCs. The finale of the scenario sees the Player Characters investigate the tower, encounter a strange NPC who wants their help in retrieving a ‘family heirloom’ from the pond, and discover the cause of the Waken Sentry.

* Well, it makes a change from a tavern.

‘a Shadow in The Barley’ is ultimately the introduction to a longer scenario, setting up, as it does, a mystery at the end . In the process of setting that up, it showcases how the rules apply to different situations—one combat related, one social, and one exploratory.

Physically, the Legend in the Mist Demo Game is well presented. The artwork is good and the writing decent. All three Player Character sheets come separate from the main book and there is even a sheet of Tracking Cards to cut and use to keep track of Effects being applied to Threats and Challenges and Limits being reduced.

If the Legend in the Mist Demo Game is lacking anything, it is an example of play or the rules in play. Without either, it is not quite as easy to grasp as it could have been, presenting more of a challenge to learn for anyone new to roleplaying or new to the narrative style of play employed in Legend in the Mist: The Rustic Fantasy RPG. However, for the experienced Narrator or the Narrator willing to grasp its slightly different rules, the Legend in the Mist Demo Game is a solid, engaging introduction to Legend in the Mist: The Rustic Fantasy RPG.