…just kidding! Star Traders RPG isn’t about stock brokers–it’s a turn-based, outer space role-playing game where you “trade, battle, pirate & bounty for galactic riches.” Inspired by titles such as Master of Orion and Sid Meier’s Pirates!, Star Traders RPG has a straightforward premise: you captain a starship, and need to make money by trading and performing contracts for various in-game factions.

Your command of the ship is under constant threat, both internal and external. Can you manage your resources, crew, officers well to enough to turn a profit on your contracts and trades? Those that do will be among the Faction’s elite Star Heroes — and those that fail will be branded bandits and Crimelords.

Fail to turn a profit and you become a crimelord? Man, Space Capitalism is even harsher than the regular kind!

Luckily, Space Capitalism doesn’t govern sales of the game itself: you can get Star Traders from either Google Play or Amazon for free. As with Cyber Knights RPG, however, there is also an Elite version available for $1.99. This one adds “2,000 new Sectors, 200 additional Zones…more than 150 exclusive art files…100 ships, 100 planets, more rumors, officers, awards and content.” If that sounds like it’s worth a couple of bucks to you, you can grab the paid version on Google Play or on Amazon.

The premise of Cyber Knights RPG should be familiar to anyone with even a passing familiarity with the conceits of cyberpunk:

The year is 2217 and the world ended a while ago.  Mega-corporations provide the final sanctuaries for humanity in the vast domed cities across our ruined planet.  Isolated for years, as the Global Matrix roars back to life, the world community is once again awakening.

And awakening a new age of competition.  The fires of corporate warfare are being stoked and all eyes are on the limited resources, the remaining metroplexes, and domination of the global technological and arms race.

You will take control of a Cyber Knight and work for these organizations on a need-to-know basis, burning out a living for yourself in this cold war conflict.  You are an urban mercenary–deniable and expendable.  You will assemble and train a team of elite runners, working the most dangerous and critical jobs you can handle, always pressing you limits, always right on the edge.

In the shadows of the metroplex, you will command your team in turn-based tactical combat to deploy skills, equipment and cybernetic implants for maximum effect.  Specialize your team members in stealth, combat or hacking skills. Dominate the mega-corporate landscape with infiltration, battle prowess or be a digital ghost.  Explore a massive persistent world with shops, citizens, contacts, jobs, drops, meetings and danger at every turn.

There’s a gameplay video, though in the execrable tradition of mobile game videos, it’s taken with a camcorder (there are alternatives, folks):

Cyber Knights RPG is currently still in beta, but it’s already playable and available for free on Google Play and on Amazon. Additionally, there is a separately listed “Elite” version of the game that costs money. I emailed the developers for a list of the differences in the Elite version, and got this reply:

For Cyber Knights, in the Elite experience you have access to all of the best equipment, cybernetic implants, gear, and contacts which you cannot get in the free version.  All the best guns and armor, the most alpha-implants–you have to play Elite to get access.  In addition, Cyber Knights allows your Knight to gather and groom a team of Runners who are his or her specialists, muscle, hackers, or negotiators.  In the Elite version, your team can grow up to 3 active Runners, while in free you can only have 1 other active Runner.

As Cyber Knights continues to develop in its BETA phase, we are working on more differences.  Soon there will be professions (such as Droid-master) that are only available in Elite, and I am finishing the art for a third Cyber Knight avatar.  We are working on two different story lines right now for the game, and one of them (the shorter, more tutorial story) will be available in free, while the longer more involved story will only be for Elite players.

Well! There you have it. You can find the Elite version for $1.99 on Google Play and Amazon.

We’ll start with Gurk, a free game that offers “a 3-character party, 24 dungeon levels, 44 different items, 23 unique monsters and a vast wilderness.” It seems fairly basic, but again, it’s free. And at a mere 100 KB, the game is pretty compact to boot.

Gurk II, released last year, is decidedly un-free at $0.99, but it’s also more ambitious. For your minor expenditure, the devs say you’ll get the following in return:

Quests, boats, potions, music, more boats, tons more monsters, items, spells. The super-charged sequel to the famous 8-bit RPG, Gurk II is a huge new adventure with all of the most requested features added: quests, music, sound, potions, and an improved look! Fans of the original will be shedding tears of joy as they roll for their character’s stats, board ships, summon monsters and cast powerful area of effect spells. Players not previously familiar with the realm of Gurk will simply stare in slack-jawed wonder at the beautifully pixelated graphics, all the while being serenaded by the lush and authentic MIDI soundtrack. Only the viscerally-compressed sound FX and challenging new combat tactics will snap them back to their senses.

I’ve found at least one review that says Gurk II is a tactically involving game well suited for playing in short bursts, and a second that strongly recommends Gurk II over its free predecessor. Interested? You can grab Gurk II for less than a buck right here.

The developer description of the game is rather confusing, in that it uses the terms “character” and “player” interchangeably (perhaps a relic from the days when a player was a PLATO user, and had only one character?) The developers also refer to the game as “multiplayer,” and I’m not sure if that’s in their weird, “player-really-means-character” sense or in the “multiple actual human persons playing together” sense.

Each player (character) in the game is created from one of eight player races, which vary in attributes such as strength, intelligence, dexterity and durability. Elves are highly intelligent and (potentially) immortal, Orcs are strong with short life spans, Dwarves are strong with high wisdom, Kobolds are quite weak in most areas but advance more quickly.

Depending on these attributes, each player will be qualified to join a limited number of player classes (occupations). More balanced players will have more choices, including Hirebrand (fighter), Mage, Priest and Thief. Less commonly, players may be qualified for a highly selective class with special skills such as Ranger, Sage, Paladin, Samurai or Ninja.

Unlike games which focus on a single player against multiple opponents, Oubliette allows a party of up to 10 players with complementary skills to face the various types of monsters found in the dungeon. There are more than 160 different monsters, and to deal with them, more than 150 different pieces of equipment, which may be enchanted with special properties or skills.

So, I’m pretty sure that this is a single-player game where you can create a party of up to 10 characters. If I’m wrong, someone please feel free to correct me in the comments.

Oubliette is available for iPhone, iPad and Android, though I admit to being a little perplexed by differences between the versions on each platform. From what I can tell, both versions involve in-app purchases. (Among them: the opportunity to set a “save point” and ward off perma-death for your party.)

The game version and price of entry differs among platforms. You can pick up version 2.1.1 of Oubliette (last updated in April 2012) for Android on Google Play or Amazon for $3.99. To assist in determining whether you want to shell out for the Android version, there is a free demo available right here.

Meanwhile, version 1.2 (last updated in September 2010) is available free-of-charge for iPhone and iPad in the Apple App Store. It isn’t immediately clear why the iOS version hasn’t been updated–particularly so given that the developers were evidently working on updating it last year–but it’s hard to argue with free.

Despite (or perhaps because of) the convoluted method in which it was created, Chain of Retribution sports a simple premise:

When two mercenaries accepted an escort job–thought to be a swift and easy– they found themselves involved into a global conspiracy that would shake the very core of the earth.

The devs (Archeia_Nessiah, Ocean, GreatOldOne, Skie Fortress, JIHAUS, marimo, Khos, and mellytan) state that CoR features a few unique mechanics. In particular:

*New twist on the battle system: Each character is divided into 3 categories. Striker, Balance or Passive. Striker types regain MP in battle by attacking only. They’ll gain 20 MP this way, and are usually more for saving up for a big attack.
Balance types regain 10 MP regardless of what command is used. Their skills tend to cost less but are not usually focused on having a big final attack to use.
Passive types regain 30 MP when you defend. They also start with the most MP in a battle and are Mage-types.

*Encounter Gauge which fills up as you fight encounters (which are seen on the map). Once filled, you can open up a special chest in the area.

The game is free–to nab it, simply head here and download away.

Red Rogue is a side-scrolling graphical roguelike by Aaron Steed, pitched as a reimagining of the original Rogue. If that sounds like the definitely-not-an-RPG Spelunky, consider that Red Rogue features loot drops, magic spells, stats and leveling-up. It also eschews jumping in favor of walking and climbing ladders. It’s still an RPG, in other words, despite the side-on perspective: it’s not a platformer.

The game uses pixelated sprites for its graphics, and goes for a Schindler’s List aesthetic with black-and-white visuals punctuated by the occasional burst of red. The look has a certain charm to it, I think. Currently, the latest build of the game is freely available to play right here on the developer’s website.

“But Craig,” you might say, “I’m too lazy to click once and instantly play a free game in my browser.” Well, you’re in luck! You can click below and watch someone else play it instead, if that suits you better. Lucky you.

There is no date mentioned as far as a final release goes. However, Aaron tells me that he expects development to continue until the end of the year. He also tells me that he has no plans to make any money off of the game, though he might accept donations once Red Rogue is completed.

The devs describe it as “an open-source, single-player, tactical role-playing roguelike and action game set in the world of Eyal.” Check out this gameplay video to get a taste for how it works:

Here’s the best part: the game is free, and in the best traditions of the roguelike genre, its development is open source. Which means that it technically isn’t “done,” and never will be, so long as people want to go in and add more stuff. But it’s currently at version 1.00 Beta 37, which I gather means you can play through the game and have a very complete experience doing so. Nab the game here.

Misfortune is a single player online RPG, in which you find yourself lost in a strange city. The story unfolds slowly through a series of short unique missions and strange events.

Two things I like about Misfortune: the art is quite nice, and you will frequently encounter text-based vignettes as you explore. You will seldom have more than one or two choices during these events, but some of them involve ability checks with branching results, which I appreciate.

The game uses a grid-based first-person perspective, and has a definite dungeon-crawling vibe to it even though you spend all of your time traversing city streets. The game runs in real time a la Dungeon Master, but you play only a single character.

Unfortunately, there is a noticeable lack of variety to the missions themselves, as well as the environments where they take place. Dungeons are generally fairly linear and simple to navigate, and lack any significant traps or puzzles. Moreover, you cannot return to areas once you’ve cleared them. I would not be surprised to learn that these missions and their associated dungeons are randomly generated. Combat literally plays itself out for you: the only interaction required of you is to click on each enemy once to target it. To put all this another way: there is no challenge to navigation, and battles are almost entirely devoid of tactical complexity. This might be a nice, gentle introduction to RPGs for the new player, but there really isn’t enough there to keep an old hand at the genre occupied.

Misfortune is free to play, though it relies on certain tricks common to Facebook games of the Farmville variety (e.g. limiting you to a certain number of missions per day and prompting you to post things to your friends’ walls when you finish quests or gain achievements). Even moreso than the last browser-based RPG I posted about, this feels like something Zynga might release. Whether that is a good thing or not, I leave to the reader’s judgment.

Still, the game is free, so you might as well give it a try. Below are some screenies showing what it looks like.