Free RPG Day is coming up on June 17th!

Best Selling RPGs - Available Now @ DriveThruRPG.com

thedungeondelver

Legendary Pubber
Joined
May 2, 2017
Messages
377
Reaction score
563
What are you doing?

I'm running events at Gods & Monsters here in Orlando; if you're in the Central Florida area, stop on by. Much AD&D. So TPK. Very module. Gygax.
 
I wish it was more of an event around here, but the local stores are primarily about MtG and 40K... along with a few other CCG and miniatures games.
I'd really like to grab the LotFP offering, play in a game or two... but I don't think I have the temperament to run a game in a store for a PUG.
EDIT: Just checked and there aren't any game stores in Vegas that are participating... so... meh.
 
Last edited:
I'd completely forgotten about it.

It looks like a local gaming 'cafe' has a Meetup event scheduled for Saturday morning. It's not clear if they've got anything specific planned, or if it's a case of just show up and run/play something. Sadly, I've got a lot going on Saturday so I won't be able to participate.
 
Usually I have regular games to play in on weekends, but this one happened to be wide open... but... oh well.
 
Darn thing always comes around right when I'm broke so I usually give out copies of GURPS Lite.
 
Was going to run something at the shop where I'm running Adventures in Middle Earth, but family stuff came up.

Luckily the owners are putting a copy aside for me of the book that I want (V.A.M.).
 
Since I work nights, I plan on picking up the Starfinder and RuneQuest quickstarts and then running Savage WH40K at one of Omaha's FLGS on Sunday.

Harl
 
I tell you, it went SO VERY WELL.

AD&D was loads of fun, I ran the tournament-rules version of A1 (upper temple area). Party made it 2/3rds of the way through before we ran out of time, there were two folks tied for team points (would've been three but the fellow playing Dread Delgath set off his Wand of Fire in room 12 (false slave pen) and it blasted back over the party; everyone but Kayen Telva's player made their save. He charred and died (-11 HP). It was 5 PM by that point so we wrapped.

Then I did a brief, 30-minute "how to DM" talk about good DMing habits and took some questions. I think it was alright, I did have a bit of an audience for it. :smile:

From 6:30 to 11, I ran Tales From The Loop with a home-brewed adventure titled "Polybius IS", about the urban-legend video game called Polybius. We didn't finish it but the people playing were mad to get to a conclusion! SO we all tacitly agreed to meet up and try and conclude it at some point this summer. I think they liked the vibe of Central Florida in the 1980s (I grew up here so I was able to "flavor" it :smile: ) and the whole "super-science crossed with the mundane"). For example, I told them that Loop technology had brought forth innovations like Magnetar levitation and fusion power...but neither scaled down beyond "industrial size" so while your family's brand new car was still a 1984 Caprice Classic, and it was still powered by 93 octane, the carrier that brought it from Detroit was a Magnetar lift vehicle with a fusion engine...

Very briefly, the scenario is that a brand new video game landed in the local arcade and is a huge hit. When the Kids finally get there to play it is mobbed. A few got a chance to play it but it left them feeling confused. Hungry for more, but confused. An NPC Kid plays it and unlike literally everyone else in the arcade, he's able to play for a long time on a single token. He obsesses on playing it again to the point that (unbeknownst to the Kids) he breaks in to the arcade later that night to play some more. Likewise, he discovered that the machine had a dial-in high score feature, and wants to make sure his score is really and truly preserved.

Unfortunately the machine is like an evil "Last Starfighter" style video game. It's designed to tap into emotions and reflexes that can make a person into a perfect battlefield management organism (think along the lines of Ender's Game but less voluntary). When he hooked up the phone to the thing (the arcade manager wouldn't since he only had one line) the machine phoned home...the Sinneslochen corporation, a front for researchers at Martin/Marietta (now Lockheed Martin, they have a HUGE facility here in Orlando...a few, actually) and they dispatched a team to pick him up.

He's now in their clutches and will be experimented on and ultimately sacrificed - the Kids have to find their friend and discover the sinister secrets of M/M!

I did railroad a tiny bit since it was an event game, but in the overall I was super surprised that they took it on themselves, really, I didn't have to nudge them much at all.
 
I'm glad someone had a good day of it.
I'm seeing a lot of grumbling on FB... people mad that they didn't get the gimme they wanted, mad that they went to the store for their free stuff and the store had set it up that they actually had to play to access most of the goodies. Seems to me that was the whole point... to show up and take part, not grab-n-run (or grab-n-run-n-resell on Ebay).
If we'd had any shops here participating I would have intended to hang out and play... even if it was just Pathfinder.
 
I'm glad someone had a good day of it.
I'm seeing a lot of grumbling on FB... people mad that they didn't get the gimme they wanted, mad that they went to the store for their free stuff and the store had set it up that they actually had to play to access most of the goodies. Seems to me that was the whole point... to show up and take part, not grab-n-run (or grab-n-run-n-resell on Ebay).
If we'd had any shops here participating I would have intended to hang out and play... even if it was just Pathfinder.

Well...I don't want to overstate my role (especially as the Pathfinder Society guys were there too, rockin' a couple of great-looking games that had a good crowd) but I had a "pile of swag" I was in charge of and frankly...nobody who didn't play got any. The point of RPGs is to play. It's not like free comics: reading a comic book isn't by nature a shared experience insofar as it is participated in with one comic by multiple people at the same time. So...you either play, or you get no swag.

I ran A1 as a Tournament module and gave extra swag to the two winners. That's how I rolled it.
 
Bulldogs went well. Sadly, my buddy's Tales from the Loop game didn't fire. A lot of games didn't fire.

But two Fate games (my Bulldogs and Dresden Files) running at the same time was cool.

As for freebies... there were lots of books left over. I grabbed a few extras tonight and I may grab more later if she lets me.

I was a little let down by the Torg freebie. It didn't look functionally different than the old Torg game I have in my basement (not that there is anything wrong with it, but I already own that game.)

The Numenera freebie was cool. I could see adapting it to different systems/settings.
 
I was a little let down by the Torg freebie. It didn't look functionally different than the old Torg game I have in my basement (not that there is anything wrong with it, but I already own that game.)

Look at it this way: even if nothing is new about it, a new Torg could lead to new Torg supplements that you could use.
 
Yeah so I really wasn't able to run anything on the day itself, but the guys at the FLGS kept their promise and held a copy of VAM for me.

No one at the store knew about Lamentations of the Flame Princess. I did a sales pitch for them, explaining that it was basically original D&D rewritten for the modern age and reinterpreted with a sheen of Metal music sensibilities (especially Doom, Stoner, Death and Black).

Everyone was hella intrigued and I'll see if I can run it there (once Adventures in Middle Earth runs its course...).

Vaginas are Magic is a fun supplement. Some cool ideas on magic use and the spells themselves range from "huh?" to hilarious, raunchy to rockin'. All weird, in my opinion. The art and layout are top notch, as is the standard for Raggi's books.
 
Yeah he was deliberately trying to create controversy and fed on all the chatter in online communities that urged stores to throw away VAM in the garbage.

His introduction is a bit eye-rolling. I got distracted by the nice art and layout.
 
WTF? Raggi's Free RPG Day offering was Vaginas are Magic???

Did anyone get anything good?

I got the DCC quick-start and the Rolemaster Quick start plus a couple of other things in the pile (a cardboard Pathfinder dice cup...wtf, whatever...); I gave away the rest of the swag to the folks at the table (DCC & Rolemaster for everyone, not enough TORG quick-starts for me to have a copy too tho :sad: )
 
Banner: The best cosmic horror & Cthulhu Mythos @ DriveThruRPG.com
Back
Top