[Free RPG Day 2025] Píaga 1348 Quickdeath

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—

The year is 1348 and mankind is subject to a divine punishment for its sins. For the last two years, all of Europe has suffered the devastating Black Plague which seems to spread fire and kills almost everyone it touches. The symptoms are easy to spot, black spots on the skin and swollen lymph nodes called buboes. Yet there is a second symptom, one that remained secret, one that the Papacy fought in secret and one it managed to eradicate—the Revenant Plague. Victims of the Black Plague are known to rise and not only spread its symptoms, but also feed upon the flesh of the living. The Papacy instituted the Ordo Mortis, a military order dedicated to not only fighting the secret war against the Revenant Plague, but also to keeping knowledge of the war against the Revenant Plague a secret. Word of it cannot spread, for it would weaken faith in the Catholic Church. This is the set-up for Píaga 1348, a storytelling game from NEED! Games, the Italian publisher best known for the Fabula Ultima TTJRPG.

Píaga 1348 Quickdeath is the quick-start released for Free RPG Day 2025. It includes the core rules, three scenarios, and four pre-generated Player Characters. The core mechanics are simple and straightforward, but the roleplaying game is played with shifting focus on the Soldiers of the Ordo Mortis who take it in turn to be the Soldier on Duty, whilst the other Soldiers will provide him with support—if they can. A Soldier is simply defined by several traits. These are the ‘Motto of the Ordo’; ‘Name’, including both full name and nickname, if any; ‘Description’; ‘Weapon’, which can also be an ability; and ‘Armour’. These are the five core traits, but he also has entries for ‘What I Want’, ‘What I Don’t Want’, and ‘Traumas’, the latter physical, psychological, and social wounds suffered when a conflict is lost. A player simply has to define these traits in order to create his Soldier.

At a start of scene, the Ludi Magister—as the Game Master is known in Píaga 1348—asks the player whose Soldier is the Soldier on Duty what he perceives and based on those answers, frames the scene for her players. When a conflict ensues, the Soldier on Duty’s player decides what his Soldier wants to do and builds a dice pool based on his five core traits. For each of them that the player can persuade the Ludi Magister to include, a six-sided die is added to the pool. Every result of five or six counts as a Success and only one Success is required for Soldier to achieve the objective outlined by the player. The Ludi Magister will narrate the outcome of the dice roll, though if a failure because no Successes are rolled, the Soldier on Duty will suffer a Trauma.

Any excess Success go into the Morale Pool, which on subsequent turns, the Soldier on Duty can draw from to increase the size of dice pool. Additional dice can come from the two sources. One is the other Soldiers, who can contribute dice based on their traits. The second is from a ‘Gamble’, in which the player adds a die of another colour to his dice pool. On a result of one, two, or three, nothing happens, but on a four, five, or six, the Soldier is ‘Exposed’. What this means that is a Soldier on Duty can still succeed—that is, roll a five or six—and still be ‘Exposed’. When ‘Exposed’, a roll is made on the ‘Gamble’s Outcome’ table. The result might be that a Soldier cannot use any further ‘Gamble’ attempts in the mission or that the Soldier is wounded and infected by a Revenant! Whatever the result, the outcome is narrated by the player.

What is important here is there is an economy to a player’s use of his Soldier’s five core traits. If they can be used all in one go whilst a Soldier is the Soldier on Duty, then they can be refreshed to be used on subsequent turns. Whilst a Soldier can use them to help another Soldier who is the current Soldier on Duty, it will mean that he will have fewer to use when it is his turn to be Soldier on Duty. Running out of traits and having none to confront a situation when a Soldier is Soldier on Duty means that he will automatically fail. This forces a player to husband the use of those traits from turn to turn.

The aim in Píaga 1348, and thus the Píaga 1348 Quickdeath, is to tell a choral story of life and death in the Middle Ages. This need not be a wholly accurate treatment of the Middle Ages and the Ludi Magister is free to add whatever anachronistic elements fits her campaign. For example, one of the pre-generated Soldiers is a Plague Doctor, a decidedly seventeenth century figure, but still feeling appropriate to the secret world of Píaga 1348. The basic elements driving a story are the Mission itself and ‘What I Want’ and ‘What I Don’t Want’ for each Soldier. The Ludi Magister is provided with decent advice for what is a quick-start, a set of prompts to set up her Missions, and three ready-play scenarios. They include investigating a haunted villa where several nobles fled to avoid the plague, tracking down a strange group of knights in rusted armour, and even ascending into the Carpathians to confront Count Vlad III who is said to have survived the Plague and become something more. All three come with detailed backgrounds, locations, secondaries (as NPCs are termed), and rumours. Lastly, there are four pre-generated Soldiers ready to play. They include an actual knight, a noble nun, an ex-assassin, and a plague doctor!

Physically, Píaga 1348 Quickdeath is fantastically presented. The woodcut style artwork and the use of a Gothic fount very gives it a singular look and conveys a lot of atmosphere to the Ludi Magister.

Píaga 1348 Quickdeath is simple to play and easy to grasp. After all, it could be described as just another zombie apocalypse roleplaying game, but the setting is different and the inclusion of the Black Death makes it even grimmer than most zombie apocalypse roleplaying games. As does the need for secrecy, which might result in the Soldiers going to deadly lengths to carry out this part of their duty. Overall, the Píaga 1348 Quickdeath provides a thoroughly engaging introduction to the setting of Píaga 1348 and purpose of the Ordo Mortis, as well as a gaming group with three good sessions of play.