[Free RPG Day 2026] Water & Mist

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, due to vagaries of International Customs, Free RPG Day in the UK did not take place until Saturday, 22nd August.

This review is possible due to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham.

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For Free RPG Day 2026, Magpie Games published not one book, but six—Adventure Booklet 1: Earth & Root, Adventure Booklet 2: Fire & Brimstone, Adventure Booklet 3: Ash & Steel, Adventure Booklet 4: Air & Wind, and Adventure Booklet 5: Water & Mist as well as the Expanded Rules supplement. These are all for Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game, one of the most successful Kickstarter campaigns for any roleplaying game. This is the roleplaying adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra, animated series which are inspired by the indigenous cultures of North America and Asia, in particular, China, Chinese martial arts, and the ability to ‘bend’ or manipulate the four elements—water, earth, fire, and air. Only one person can bend all four elements, and he is known as the ‘Avatar’, and not only does he serve as the link between the physical world and the spirit world, but he is also responsible for maintaining harmony between the world’s four nations. In the roleplaying game, the players roleplay characters, or companions, who are capable of bending one of the elements as well as practising martial arts, all with the aim of protecting the world from harm and those unable to stand up to misuse of power.

As with the other four Adventure Booklets, Adventure Booklet 5: Water & Mist originally appeared in Wan Shi Tong’s Adventure Guide, which explores and presents adventures in the different eras of the Avatarverse, including the Kyoshi, Roku, the Hundred Year War, Aang, and Korra periods. Adventure Booklet 5: Water & Mist presents an adventure during the Korra period that will involve the Player Characters in a tale of revenge that takes them into a mess of city politics and city crime in Republic City. In what first looks like a missing persons case, the Player Characters are asked by Zhu Li Moon, the president of the United Republic, to look for her husband, First Gentleman Iknik Blackstone Varrick, who has gone missing. Now this is not the first time he has gone missing, but on previous occasions, he always turned up in some absurd situation or another, leading to the adoption of the ‘Varrick Rule’ under which his disappearances do not warrant too much concern. However, this time it looks to be different and the President wants her husband found quickly and quietly, the inference being that as a recently elected head of government, she wants to avoid a scandal!

In comparison to Adventure Booklet 3: Ash & Steel and Adventure Booklet 4: Air & Wind, the previous entries in the series, which were both chase stories, Adventure Booklet 5: Water & Mist is a detective story and involves a deep investigation into city politics. It begins with the Player Characters meeting President Zhu Li Moon at the Presidential Box at the Spring-Pro-Bending Tournament Qualifier and being asked for their help. After that, the Player Characters are free to conduct the investigation how they want, much as they were in the fairly first entry in the series, Adventure Booklet 1: Earth & Root. This time though, what the Player Characters will not be aware of, is that they are actually up against a deadline. To handle this, the scenario includes a ‘Clock’ as means of tracking how long it takes the Player Characters to act. As they progress, but are either too slow or travel to a new location, the Clock is filled in and when enough segments are filled in, certain events are triggered which go from helpful to ominous. If the Clock is completely filled in, then the Player Characters really only have moments before disaster strikes and they fail in their assignment!

What this means is there is much more of a sense of tension to Adventure Booklet 5: Water & Mist, a race to not only find First Gentleman Varrick, but also finding out why he has gone missing. Unlike the previous entries in the series there is a plot at the heart of the scenario, but like the previous entries in the series, there is no story plot of there being one scene after another. Instead, the scenario is very determined by the actions and decisions of the players and their characters. To that end, the Adventure Booklet 5: Water & Mist lists all of the NPCs and groups together and all of the locations together. Although the various NPCs will have things to tell the Player Characters, more importantly, the location descriptions include details of clues that can be found at each and leads which will link to other NPCs and locations. Effectively, the Player Characters can work their way through mystery, scene-by-scene, with the Game Master throwing in the odd complication or encounter, as determined primarily by the number of segments filled in on the Clock.

The advice for Game Master covers how to handle and fill in the Clock and throwing in escalations to raise the tension, but dedicates most of it attention to running detective stories. It suggests highlighting the passing of time to impress upon the Player Characters the sense of urgency and the consequences of the Player Characters not conducting the investigation in a quiet manner, but above all, it advises that the truth not be hidden from the players and their characters. In other words, the mystery is more fun if it gets solved, so the Player Characters should be able to find the clues and they should be able to undercover the truth. Overall, the advice is solid and useful.

There is advice too on how to set up the scenario if the players are using their own characters rather than the pre-generated quintet which is included in Adventure Booklet 5: Water & Mist. Whether or not the scenario is being run with the pre-generated Player Characters or ones of the players’ own creation, the players will still need to explain the relation between them and President Zhu Li Moon. The five pre-generated Player Characters include Enuk the Guardian, a new Airbender who has come to Republic City to learn Air Nation Ways and wants to keep an eye on a sibling; Changunak the Successor, a Waterbender and technologist from the Southern Water Tribe who wants to main her family’s fishing village; Zhu Song the Hammer, a weapon-wielding former Terra Triad gang member with a grudge against its new boss; Slate the Pillar, an Earthbender trained to lead to a specialised metalbending anti-mecha police force; and Pianchir Jing the Rogue, a Firebender and street orphan who knows Republic City well.

Also included are details of the Basic Moves and Balance Moves in Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game—in addition the Moves for all of the Player Characters—and the techniques that are not in the core book, plus the combat exchanges, statuses, and basic techniques. The Legendary NPC in Adventure Booklet 5: Water & Mist is First Gentleman Varrick, a technologist who could become a teacher to a Player Character (and of course, whether he survives) in the future beyond the scenario.

Physically, Adventure Booklet 5: Water & Mist is well presented, sturdy booklet.

Adventure Booklet 5: Water & Mist is the most sophisticated of the scenarios in the series released for Free RPG Day 2026. The Game Master needs to maintain a tension through between the mystery and its truths, between the actions and decisions of the Player Characters and the countdown of the Clock triggering events, whilst also pushing the players and their characters forward just little to keep the story and mystery unfolding. It is supported by good advice though and the scenario has every that the Game Master needs to run an entertaining blend of intrigue, interaction, and action. Again, as with other entries in the series, Fans of Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra will enjoy the background too and overall, Adventure Booklet 4: Air & Wind is great support for Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game.