After last year, where I found several games to possibly try out or at least throw out for the rest of the Gamer Nation, I was looking forward to Free RPG Day at my FLGS. Alas, it wasn’t nearly as good. Yes, the place was crowded, but as far as I could tell it was the same games being played, rather than people trying out new systems or a new module for a favorite. Now maybe it would have been a better experience if I had more time between errands and that evening’s Skype game. Then I may have had a chance for a few more raffle drawings, to get into a game or just gab with more fellow gamers.
But other things weren’t under my control. A lot of it was due to marketing decisions by gaming companies. As I noted in last year’s Free RPG Day after-action report, many of the best-known (to me anyways) names in the business just don’t seem to be doing Free RPG Day anymore. No Wizards of the Coast, for instance. I have missed the FFG Star Wars modules for years, but I would have been happy if Fantasy Flight had chosen to promote one of their other lines, like the upcoming Legend of the 5 Rings, which I have long wanted to play. From the FFG website, it looks like they are holding off on Legend promos until GenCon 2017. Another I have missed is Paizo’s semi-facetious “We Be Goblins” Pathfinder modules. Although I have only played one or two, I have enjoyed reading the modules every year. But at least Paizo was represented with Starfinder Bestiary.
Another decision made by some companies is to not do a full free module or quick-start–that is, module plus basic rules and pregen PCs. For example, Paizo’s Starfinder Bestiary for their upcoming Starfinder (August 2017) science fiction game, based on Pathfinder. I could only flip through it–see below for why–and the creatures look cool, but no way to use them until August. Well, the blurbs on the booklet and site suggest using them in your Pathfinder game as the stats are fully compatible. But what if you aren’t playing PF right now and don’t have the materials to boot? This only rewards current fans of the game; it doesn’t really help get new players, which I thought was the main point of the event.
So why do some companies opt to not do quick-starts? In the case of FFG’s Star Wars lines, I suspect it is the additional hoops, and thus time, of Disney’s approval process for this license, and I can understand that. But what about properties that aren’t licensed? My theory is how common and (relatively) easy it is to offer free PDF quick-starts, modules, and the like year ’round nowadays, either on your own site or sites like Drive-Thru RPG. Which means a company can time them to shortly before a release or otherwise fit them into marketing plans, rather than wait until June and pay printing costs. These PDFs are the mainstay of my own Try Before You Buy feature, in fact.
That said, there were a number of companies that had full quick starts, although less than I have seen before. Modiphius (Symbaroum, Coriolis, Star Trek) offered their Conan RPG quick-start (which you can still get for free at the link) and Monte Cook Games featured a full module for its flagship Numenera. Chaosium (Call of Cthulu, RuneQuest) presented RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha – Quickstart and Adventure, a preview of their Christmas 2017 release. My friendly local RPG publisher, Troll Lord Games, had an Open & Play (quick-start) for the Borderhounds RPG (my review here). There were other full quick-starts, per the Free RPG Day website, but I didn’t see those at my FLGS.
I picked out Numenera‘s module “The Spire of the Hunting Sound,” which I will tell you all about next week. I am looking forward to reading “Spire,” especially the mechanics section, since I have heard a lot about the RPG–but it was a hard choice. I would have liked at least a few of the others. I may not be a Pathfinder player, but my husband is, and I really wanted to grab that bestiary for him to share with his PF group. Out of luck…
Warning – Minor rant content ahead
Which brings me to the other thing that was out of my control–my FLGS’s decisions about Free RPG Day 2017. I don’t think they promoted it as much or as early as last year–but to be honest, I didn’t go looking for information before early June. The decision that really, really bugged me was the One To A Customer policy on the giveaway materials. You read that right. A sample copy of each booklet was displayed on the New Products shelf. After looking through them, the customer went to the counter and asked for a copy of the one they wanted to take home, or a single promo die. (I am not sure if the promo dice were FLGS dice or the dice featured on the Free RPG Day website.) Granted, this isn’t against the rules. Per the Retailer FAQs : “So, the rule is this: if someone comes into your store on Free RPG Day and asks for something, you have to give them at least one item from the kit (until you run out, of course). What you give them is up to you. We encourage you to keep the premium prizes and most valued content for those who take part in your event. The point, after all, is for you and your customers to have a great time.” (Bolding is Free RPG Day’s.)
Maybe FLGS ran out of the freebies last year, but there were other ways to keep that from happening again. “Order more kits!” is obvious, but the kits aren’t free to the retailers, so limited usefulness. Sharply limiting the dice, certainly “premium prizes,” was a sensible call that I agree with. But they could have parceled just the booklets into bags and handed out one bag to each customer, or made the limit 2 or 3 booklets. Surely I wasn’t the only customer who wasn’t interested in everything but really wanted a couple?
All this said, am I glad I did Free RPG Day? Yes! And as I said above, I might have enjoyed it more if I had more time–so that’s on me. And I will give it a whirl next year. If I stop doing Free RPG Day, it won’t be over something as minor as not enjoying it this one time.
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Linda Whitson
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