[Free RPG Day 2026] From Here to There

Now in its nineteenth year, Free RPG Day for 2026 took place on Saturday, June 27th. 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. Unfortunately, it did not take place outside of the USA due to US customs issues, which means that none of the physical content has shipped to the UK. It is hoped that with the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham, Reviews from R’lyeh will able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day for future reviews.

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From Here to There: A Free RPG Day OSR Hexcrawl is a simple, straightforward hexcrawl. It is setting agnostic and can be dropped easily into a Game Master’s campaign, ideally somewhere in between locations that the Player Characters might want to travel to, hence the title. It is published by Third Kingdom Games, best known for its ongoing Populated Hexes series collected in Populated Hexes Monthly Year One, Populated Hexes Monthly Year Two, Populated Hexes Monthly Year Three, and Populated Hexes Monthly Year Four. What this means is that the publisher has form when it comes to creating hexcrawls. The scenario is written for Player Characters of First to Fourth Level and for use with two different rules systems. One is Old School Essentials from Necrotic Gnome, whilst the other is Bree-YARC, retroclone inspired by Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition, but still based on the ‘B/X’ version of Basic Dungeons & Dragons. What this means is that mechanically, From Here to There, will work with a lot of other retroclones, whilst in terms of its story and setting, it is easily adapted to other fantasy roleplaying games and would work just as well. This is because the fantasy of the setting is itself low key. The Player Characters are going to be facing bears, brigands, deer, Orcs, skeletons, zombies, and so on. The only creature that is particular to Dungeons & Dragons-style fantasy is the Stirge and that is easily replaced.

From Here to There is set in a heavily forested valley, some thirty-to-thirty-six miles wide and about fifty miles in length. Roughly every twenty miles along the rough track that runs along its length is a camp site where the occasional merchant caravans of mule-trains usually stop. There are rumours of a ancient magical fountain that can restore the dead to life to be found in the valley, barrows the final resting places of ancient kings are believed to dot the sides of the valley, rumours of an Orc tribe preying on anyone who leaves the road, and mumblings of brigands attacking the merchant caravans. The Game Master can simply drop the valley into her campaign setting and just have it as a route from ‘a’ to ‘b’, but there are several ways in which it can be used. The Player Characters might follow up on rumours to search for treasure in the valley or have a map suggesting that there is treasure in the region; the Player Characters might be hired to protect a merchant caravan; or they might be hired to discover who is ambushing the merchant-caravans. Or even a mix of the three.

Across the valley, there are twenty-one sites of potential interest to the Player Characters. Their descriptions are marked as either ‘Landmarks’, ‘Hidden’, or ‘Secrets’. ‘Landmarks’ are found without needing to search for them; hidden features need to be searched for, but this takes rather than requiring a die roll; and secret features can only be found if they are searched for and a die roll is made. Exploring the valley is built around the rumour table and the encounter table as the Player Characters wander from one hex to the next. Some locations have a set encounter, such as a solitary grizzly bear who will only bother the Player Characters to decide to camp out in his hex or an area where a rare herb grows, but others contain more random encounters. The more obvious such encounters include the camp sites where there is a chance of a caravan having made a stop, but others include the possibility of an abandoned bear trap being triggered, disturbing a nest of yellowjackets and getting stung, and so on. Others though, serve the general plot of From Here to There, in particular, pointing to the activities of the brigands. For example, the Player Characters encounter a caravan that is later the victim of the brigands’ predations. It is also in  encounters such as these that are the most opportunities for roleplaying. Lastly, there are two locations that are more detailed with individual maps and will make more time to play through, one of which is the brigands’ base of operations.

Both of the set locations use cartography by Dyson Logos, so are very good. The scenario has two other maps though, both of the valley. One is a simple hex-grid map using mapping symbol, so can be used as a map for the Player Characters. The other map is pictorial and actually pleasingly attractive. It is a pity that the players are unlikely to get to see it, because it is for the Game Master’s eyes only (though if adapted to a VTT, the Game Master could reveal the map hex by hex).

Physically, From Here to There is decently done. The maps are good and the artwork, though not extensive, does a reasonable job. One notable factor which sticks out is that the stat blocks for both monsters and NPCs are combined for both Old School Essentials and Bree-YARC. The stats for the latter are done in red, so do stick out a bit, at least initially. The Game Master will get used to it.

As written, it is fair to say that From Here to There: A Free RPG Day OSR Hexcrawl is perhaps a bit bland. However, that affords the Game Master flexibility in terms of how it is used. It can be used as an area to explore or as area to be travelled through again and again, with perhaps the Player Characters learning new rumours each time and uncovering more of its secrets as they travel back and forth. The Game Master will probably want to add some detail and flavour to the NPCs that the Player Characters might run into, as not all of them are detailed as they might be. The scenario is low-key enough that the Game Master has scope to adapt the setting to her own campaign, changing names and encounter types as necessary. Overall, however it is used, From Here to There: A Free RPG Day OSR Hexcrawl is an enjoyably low-key, low fantasy scenario.