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Post by ritt on Jun 17, 2017 6:45:45 GMT -6
The only game store anywhere remotely around here that participates in FRPGD is a (Very nice) comic shop about an hour away. They turn the event into a neat little one-day mini-con... The last two years I've had a complete blast, so I'm really looking forward to it. This year I'm running Dungeon Crawl Classics (The first game I've ran in almost a year, due to personal melodrama), and hopefully I'll get to play a couple of games too. Woot!
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Post by Finarvyn on Jun 17, 2017 6:57:50 GMT -6
I wish there was a better way to get the free stuff without having to find a store that does this. (My local store used to do it but no longer; I have to go an hour or so to find a place that participates.)
Make it "cheap RPG day" and sell the booklets for a buck each, or something like that, where they would arrive at roughly the same day as the stores are giving them away.
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bat
Level 4 Theurgist
Mostly Chaotic
Posts: 144
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Post by bat on Jun 19, 2017 10:27:07 GMT -6
The place near me that advertised it then later that day denied it was even a day and another place only let a person have one thing if they ran a game and provided no space. I wasn't even getting things for myself but for my buddy, the man behind the Swords Against the Outer Dark blog. When I mentioned it on Facebook, Marcus King, retailer and buddy of Ken 'Kickstarter King" Whitman called me a 'self-entitled whiny asshat'. Nice.
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Post by geoffrey on Jun 19, 2017 10:35:05 GMT -6
The place near me that advertised it then later that day denied it was even a day and another place only let a person have one thing if they ran a game and provided no space. I wasn't even getting things for myself but for my buddy, the man behind the Swords Against the Outer Dark blog. When I mentioned it on Facebook, Marcus King, retailer and buddy of Ken 'Kickstarter King" Whitman called me a 'self-entitled whiny asshat'. Nice. So if someone goes to a participating store on Free RPG Day, he is a "self-entitled whiny asshat" if he expects to actually get a free RPG? That's like a joke out of a sit-com: Customer: "Hi! I noticed your sign that says FREE SAMPLES. I'd like to try one." Retailer: "What? You want something for free? What a self-entitled whiny asshat." |
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Post by Scott Anderson on Jun 19, 2017 12:03:50 GMT -6
Drive an hour for a game store? Gosh...
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Post by ritt on Jun 19, 2017 12:14:47 GMT -6
The place near me that advertised it then later that day denied it was even a day and another place only let a person have one thing if they ran a game and provided no space. I wasn't even getting things for myself but for my buddy, the man behind the Swords Against the Outer Dark blog. When I mentioned it on Facebook, Marcus King, retailer and buddy of Ken 'Kickstarter King" Whitman called me a 'self-entitled whiny asshat'. Nice. If I had to guess I would say they were probably keeping the swag and selling on the secondary market. My local comic book shop, game store, and movie theatre all, to quote the legendary 80's horror movie critic Chas Balun, "Suck the farts out of dead cats". Deeply unpleasant and even sinister creepazoids that only stay in business because they're the only game in town and a sort of creaky small-town inertia. So about once a month I drive about an hour to better ones in the big city. I wish I didn't have to, but the people are cool enough that it makes it worth it. Anyway, I had a lot of fun Saturday. I wish I could have stayed and played games all day but I was operating on no sleep and had to go after running DCC. Anyway, in my old age just being around other role-players is kinda rejuvinating. |
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Post by cadriel on Jun 19, 2017 12:21:06 GMT -6
I drove a bit more than an hour but visited two game stores; got different stuff at each. I just ordered a new Runequest booklet from Noble Knight explicitly because the staples are already coming undone from my one copy. Neither had the bright idea to do a mini-con, though. The store I went to in 2013 and 2014 had done this, and it was great, but that store went under.
The Runequest booklet is very nice and encouraging; there is hope that the new Chaosium will do well by it. The Lamentations of the Flame Princess book reminds us that James Raggi is a provocateur and likes to upset game owners ("girl thingys Are Magic!" caused quite a stir) - the contents are all "How to Break Your Campaign with One Spell!". The Dungeon Crawl Classics offering has a nice little module featuring gnoles, which I can't begrudge as the Dunsany / St. Clair gnoles are a favorite trope of mine, but also spends 40-some pages delivering a stripped-down DCC and the already published Portal Under the Stars. I'm happy with the new Michael Curtis adventure but let down by the repeat on the flip side.
I also picked up the Numenera and Starfinder booklets out of curiosity. Not really much to talk about with them.
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Post by ritt on Jun 19, 2017 12:37:26 GMT -6
The Runequest and DCC booklets were really cool and were the only two that I read that really provided playable demo versions of the game for newbies. The LotFP one had some interesting ideas and gets points for audacity. The Conan one had an awesome cover (BROM!) but I zoned out trying to grok the dense rules. The Numenera one didn't even have pre-gens. The Starfinder one was just a promo pamphlet.
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Post by scalydemon on Jun 19, 2017 16:50:20 GMT -6
I attended at my local FLGS and had a good time and got some good free schwag. Runequest and the Conan book were the highlights for me.
For those that didn't attend or couldn't - Noble Knight apparently has stock of all the give away books and is offering a deal you get to pick one free book for every $15 you spend.
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bat
Level 4 Theurgist
Mostly Chaotic
Posts: 144
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Post by bat on Jun 19, 2017 20:03:34 GMT -6
I have attended Free RPG Day and the past and it was nothing like this.
I am glad that others had a better time and while this year was weird I haven't soured on the hobby or the people, I just know which stores not to support in the future.
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Post by scalydemon on Jun 20, 2017 18:58:18 GMT -6
The Conan one had an awesome cover (BROM!) but I zoned out trying to grok the dense rules. I really wanted to like this with the subject material and awesome cover, and went into reading it with a very open mind. I hated it two pages in and then it got worse. Very dense action scene detailed labor-some mechanics. |
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Post by ritt on Jun 20, 2017 20:26:49 GMT -6
The Conan one had an awesome cover (BROM!) but I zoned out trying to grok the dense rules. I really wanted to like this with the subject material and awesome cover, and went into reading it with a very open mind. I hated it two pages in and then it got worse. Very dense action scene detailed labor-some mechanics. The same people have the RPG rights to John Carter of Mars (The game was originally supposed to come out years ago). They do say they're simplifying the system for the JC version (Thank God). |
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Post by jeffb on Jun 22, 2017 5:27:42 GMT -6
I really wanted to like this with the subject material and awesome cover, and went into reading it with a very open mind. I hated it two pages in and then it got worse. Very dense action scene detailed labor-some mechanics. The same people have the RPG rights to John Carter of Mars (The game was originally supposed to come out years ago). They do say they're simplifying the system for the JC version (Thank God). They said the same thing for their new Star Trek license. It's not that "light", either. There are some excellent ideas in their 2d20 system, but there are too many decision points, too many fiddly things to track and resolve for my tastes. Fantasy Flight's Star Wars has an innovative dice mechanic that accomplishes the same things quickly, with one roll and little to track. |
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Post by ritt on Jun 22, 2017 6:29:38 GMT -6
In my middle age I've gotten really conservative and stuffy when it comes to games systems. The (IMHO absurdly arcane) FFG Star Wars RPGs, as well as the recent fad of games where the GM never rolls dice, make me want to go out on my lawn and shake my cane at clouds.
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Post by jeffb on Jun 22, 2017 6:43:25 GMT -6
In my middle age I've gotten really conservative and stuffy when it comes to games systems. The (IMHO absurdly arcane) FFG Star Wars RPGs, as well as the recent fad of games where the GM never rolls dice, make me want to go out on my lawn and shake my cane at clouds. I'm the opposite. Star Wars and Dungeon World have become my favorite systems. It's either newer narrative style or the games I grew up playing like OD&D. The middle ground is what no longer appeals to me. FFG star wars seems far more complicated/arcane than it actually is. I was intimidated by it for years, and finally bought one of the beginner games. We had some of our best gaming sessions ever, and the game runs smoothly and fast once the basic dice mechanic is understood (which took about half of a session) It does require the GM to be on their toes, and be able to improvise often. If you try and run a railroady game/adventure and the characters are just playing through the GMs pre-planned story, it will stifle the fun. That also goes for Dungeon World which became our D&D game of choice for the most part. Frankly, as a GM of both I thought I would hate NOT rolling dice, but in actuality I love it. It's liberating to me. I let the players roll dice for everything even in my D&D games now. O/YMMV  |
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Post by Gene M. on Jun 22, 2017 14:24:47 GMT -6
I showed up about twenty minutes after they'd opened, hoping to grab the Runequest quickstart, and every free item had been snatched up. Apparently they'd been waiting something like half an hour to get in, then stormed the place. I think each person just grabbed one of everything. Disappointing.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 22, 2017 15:53:51 GMT -6
I showed up about twenty minutes after they'd opened, hoping to grab the Runequest quickstart, and every free item had been snatched up. Apparently they'd been waiting something like half an hour to get in, then stormed the place. I think each person just grabbed one of everything. Disappointing. Agreed. Had the exact same thing happen at the FLGS where I was going to be running games. The line was started an hour before the place opened, and by the time the doors opened is was all the way around the building and down the block. None of the people in the line seemed to have stayed; I did look... |
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Post by geoffrey on Jun 22, 2017 15:56:46 GMT -6
...the recent fad of games where the GM never rolls dice... First I've heard of it. I'd as soon go to a movie and never open my eyes. |
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Post by DungeonDevil on Jun 22, 2017 20:35:13 GMT -6
...the recent fad of games where the GM never rolls dice... I've heard of a few such games that outlawed dice, likely due to current pop-psychology tosh that randomness is traumatising for developing minds and risk of failure will cause youths to dive into a death-spiral of inescapable despair.  A game where "everyone is a winner": Here, have a little victory-cup! Everybody get's a winner's cup! Yay! This is the most plausible explanation. I worked in music stores ages ago, and the management would keep all the collectible promo goodies for themselves, never even thinking to let customers get some of it, or, heaven forbid, let any of the lowly minimum-wagers partake in the bounty.  |
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Post by ritt on Jun 23, 2017 12:21:01 GMT -6
I showed up about twenty minutes after they'd opened, hoping to grab the Runequest quickstart, and every free item had been snatched up. Apparently they'd been waiting something like half an hour to get in, then stormed the place. I think each person just grabbed one of everything. Disappointing. Very sad. But then, all of the FRPGD goodies except RQ, DCC, & maybe LotFP were throwaway disappointments. The fun part of the day was the actual gaming, sitting around talking about gaming, and looking over and pawing each other's funny dice and tackle-boxes of toy soldiers (Umm, ah... I mean "Tactical gaming miniatures). |
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A game where "everyone is a winner": Here, have a little victory-cup! Everybody get's a winner's cup! Yay!