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.
Quick-starts are a means of trying out a roleplaying game before you buy. Each should provide a Game Master with sufficient background to introduce and explain the setting to her players, the rules to run the scenario included, and a set of ready-to-play, pre-generated characters that the players can pick up and understand almost as soon as they have sat down to play. The scenario itself should provide an introduction to the setting for the players as well as to the type of adventures that their characters will have and just an idea of some of the things their characters will be doing on said adventures. All of which should be packaged up in an easy-to-understand booklet whose contents, with a minimum of preparation upon the part of the Game Master, can be brought to the table and run for her gaming group in a single evening’s session—or perhaps two. And at the end of it, Game Master and players alike should ideally know whether they want to play the game again, perhaps purchasing another adventure or even the full rules for the roleplaying game.
Alternatively, if the Game Master already has the full rules for the roleplaying game the quick-start is for, then what it provides is a sample scenario that she still run as an introduction or even as part of her campaign for the roleplaying game. The ideal quick-start should entice and intrigue a playing group, but above all effectively introduce and teach the roleplaying game, as well as showcase both rules and setting.
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What is it?
The Three Days to the Big Easy: A Quickstart Adventure is the quick-start for the Arkham Horror: The Roleplaying Game, the roleplaying game of Lovecraftian investigative horror derived from Arkham Horror board game and Arkham Horror Living Card game from Fantasy Flight Games, both of which are derived from the original version of the Arkham Horror board game published by Chaosium, Inc. in 1987. It is published by EDGE Studio.
The Three Days to the Big Easy: A Quickstart Adventure is a thirty-two page, full colour booklet.
How long will it take to play?The Three Days to the Big Easy: A Quickstart Adventure includes the scenario, ‘Three Days to the Big Easy’, a short scenario which can be played through in one session.
What else do you need to play?
The Three Days to the Big Easy: A Quickstart Adventure needs a set of six six-sided per player, plus a lot more for the Keeper and some dice of a different colour.
Who do you play?
The Three Days to the Big Easy: A Quickstart Adventure includes six pre-generated Investigators. They consists of a bruising gangster with connections to the O’Bannion connections; a larcenous White Russian countess; an African American trumpet player (who has the Knack ‘Dead Man’s Stomp’ in a nice nod to Lovecraftian investigative roleplaying); a supernaturally resilient singer; an intuitive violinist; and a magician who knows a little too much lore.
How is an Investigator defined?
An Investigator in Arkham Horror: The Roleplaying Game is primarily defined by ten skills—Agility, Athletics, Intuition, Knowledge, Lore, Melee Combat, Presence, Ranged Combat, Resolve, and Wits. Of these, Lore is how much an Investigator knows about the occult and how to apply it, if necessary. Skills are rated between two and six. He has a variety of Knacks, special abilities that might grant him extra dice, alter the number of dice rolled, allow special actions, cast spells, rerolls of the dice, and more. There is a wide variety of Knacks, even presented in the six pre-generated Investigators in Three Days to the Big Easy: A Quickstart Adventure.
An Investigator also has a Personality Trait, such as ‘Reserved’, ‘Ambitious’, or ‘Outgoing’. These can have a positive and a negative effect in play.
Lastly, an Investigator has a pool of six-sided dice, typically six. These are used and refreshed from one scene to the next and they represent a combination of an Investigator’s effort and health. In the case of the latter, when an Investigator is injured, he loses dice, limiting his actions until he can rest, heal, and receive medical attention.
How do the mechanics work?
When a player wants his Investigator to undertake a Complex action, such as climbing a fence in a chase, shooting cultist in a gunfight, researching a newspaper morgue for clues, or casting a spell, he takes as many dice as he wants from his pool and rolls them, comparing the results with the skill being used. For each die result equal to, or greater than, the value of the skill, a success is scored. In general, only a single success is required to achieve whatever an Investigator wants to do, but more successes are needed to trigger the effects of some Knacks.
In general, only a single success is required to achieve whatever an Investigator wants to do. Complex actions can also be rolled with Advantage or Disadvantage, rolling with one more or one less die in either case, but removing the lowest result on any die if at Advantage or the highest if at Disadvantage.
In addition, an Investigator has a supply of Insight points. These can be spent to add an additional success to a complex action, take a Complex Action with Advantage, to add a narrative element to a scene, or to avoid certain trauma.
Play itself in Arkham Horror: The Roleplaying Game is handled as a series of scenes, either Narrative or Structured scenes in which Simple and Complex Actions are attempted. Narrative scenes rarely involve peril, and allow an Investigator to undertake Simple Actions without his player needing to roll dice, whereas Structured scenes do involve peril or great difficulty, such as a combat scene or a confrontation with the Mythos, require a player to roll for both Simple and Complex Actions.
How does combat work?
Combat uses the same mechanics, with damage being inflicted in two ways. Primarily by reducing a defendant’s dice pool, limiting his capacity to act, wounding him if the dice pool is reduced to zero, after which he can strain himself to restore his dice pool to full at the cost of suffering an Injury. The other way is by a weapon specifically inflicting an Injury. Injuries are determined by rolling on the Injury Table. These are rolled on a single die, to which are added the number of injuries already suffered. Since the Injury roll is made on a single die, it takes a lot of injuries—at least five—before someone can be killed straight off. There is no little grievous Injury in the meantime, but it is difficult to kill a defendant and certainly an Investigator.
How does Horror work?
The way of handling Horror Damage or exposure to the cosmic truths of the universe is more interesting, though similar to that used for injuries. When an Investigator suffers Horror Damage—whether from a spell cast at him, seeing a creature of the Mythos, or reading a horrific tome—his player replaces a number of dice in his dice pool with Horror Dice equal to the Horror Damage suffered. Horror Dice work exactly like normal dice in a player’s dice pool and can be lost if an Investigator suffers damage. However, should a player roll a one on any single Horror Die, his Investigator gains a Trauma. The rolls a single die and consults the Trauma Table, adding one for each one rolled on the Horror Dice. Where an Investigator is physically resilient, the same cannot be said mentally. It is a lot easier in comparison to get Horror Dice, roll ones, and suffer Trauma and since there are fewer results on the Trauma Table, for an Investigator to be ‘Lost Forever’.
Horror Dice can be healed from one round to the next, as well as by certain Knacks and spells, replacing them with standard dice. This is an action though and in a Structured Scene, the Investigators might not have the opportunity. Whereas injuries can be healed though, traumas cannot, although they can recede over time. The combination of Horror Dice and Trauma is intriguing as a means of handling the escalating danger of being exposed to cosmic threat, but it does feel undercut by the ability to heal Horror Dice within a scene.
What do you play?
The Three Days to the Big Easy: A Quickstart Adventure includes the scenario, ‘Three Days to the Big Easy’, a short scenario which can be played through in one session. The scenario primarily focuses on interaction and action in terms of its play and there is not a great deal of scope for investigation. In the main, the Investigators are reacting to violent events, appearing to discover the culprit, only for it to occur again. This is interesting, but not interesting enough. There is never really a chance for the Investigators to fully work out what the cause of the situation, only identify its source. And that source is another of the problems with scenario. The source is a vengeful spirit in a cigarette lighter. There is no denying that ‘Three Days to the Big Easy’ is a horror story and the situation is horrifying, yet at the same time, its source is so ordinary, it feels banal. Anyone playing the scenario and expecting a Lovecraftian source or threat is going to extremely disappointed.
Is there anything missing?
No. The Three Days to the Big Easy: A Quickstart Adventure is complete as is.
Is it easy to prepare?
Yes. The Three Days to the Big Easy: A Quickstart Adventure is easy to grasp and prepare.
Is it worth it?
Yes and no. The Three Days to the Big Easy: A Quickstart Adventure is playable and presents an engaging set-up and potentially horrifying scenario. Ultimately, the repetitive structure of the scenario and its avoidance of anything Lovecraftian and satisfying explanation as to the situation for the players and their Investigators—especially in what is a one-shot—means that it not fulfil its set-up as much as it could.
The Three Days to the Big Easy: A Quickstart Adventure is available from EDGE Studio.
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