[Free RPG Day 2026] Avatar Legends: Expanded Play

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 Avatar Legends: Expanded Play 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 five Adventure Booklets, Avatar Legends: Expanded Play 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. Avatar Legends: Expanded Play presents the rules and extra supplementary material that supports the five Adventure Booklets. Each of the Adventure Booklets presented an individual Legendary NPC who in some way helped serve the plot, whether that was as a powerful ally, a capable teacher, a dangerous long-term foe. Avatar Legends: Expanded Play explores these roles further suggesting how they might be used and not only that, presents another nine Legendary NPCs taken from Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra. Each of these is presented in a two-page spread, complete with a history, suggestions on how to play each NPC and how they can be brought into play, and techniques that they know. In each case, they also explain what they will be like as a teacher and where they might be found. Given the earlier discussion, it is disappointing though, that there is no discussion of how they might be a powerful ally or a dangerous foe, which leaves the Game Master to develop this aspect herself. Most of them come from the Hundred Year War Era and include Long Feng, manipulative head of the Dai Li; Azula, prodigious and dangerous Fire Nation princess; Katara, master waterbender and healer; Sokka, strategic non-bender and weapon master; Suki, resilient leader of the Kyoshi Warriors; Toph Beifong, inventor of metalbending (also from the Classic Era); and Ty Lee, Chi-blocking acrobat and martial artist. The others are Rangi, fierce firebending master and bodyguard from the Kyoshi Era, and Taqukaq, experienced waterbending mentor from the comics.

More specifically for the players, Avatar Legends: Expanded Play includes four new Playbooks that are each easy to bring to the table as new Player Characters. They consist of the Destined, the Elder, the Foundling, and the Razor. They are more focused on telling a specific type of story than those in the Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game. Indeed, there are suggestions too on how to mix and match these four with the ten in the Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game. Of the four, two stand out as slightly different. The Razor has been trained as a dangerous weapon, but now seeks a path to redemption, the other, the Elder, is radically different in terms of its storytelling. It is suggested that the Elder take on the role of a mentor, perhaps like Tenzin, Lin, or Iroh from the series. To support this, the Elder can have protégés and will know more Techniques, but it is harder for the Elder to learn new ones.

Rounding out the booklet are almost fifty new Techniques. These are split between universal techniques and from the six training paths, with some also marked as being rare, so hard to find masters who might teach them. Of course, these give the Player Characters something to work towards and some of the Legendary NPCs in the supplement might know and teach some of these Techniques.

Physically, Avatar Legends: Expanded Play is well presented, sturdy booklet.

Of all of the titles released for Free RPG day 2026 for Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game, the Avatar Legends: Expanded Play supplement is the one that a Game Master is likely to come back to again and again as its content supports campaign play with a solid set of Legendary NPCs, but then again, it does not ignore the player either. Overall, a good mix of new options.