I visited a local game store.

This year I chose to avoid the larger game store in town because they liked to play games with Free RPG Day:  It isn't free.  I got so disgusted with them two years ago that Free RPG Day actually worked in reverse for them....since I won't go in there anymore specifically because of what they did.

The store I visited was a small, space with four game tables, mostly concentrated on selling Warmachine miniatures.

They were giving out free items, but only to people who hung around all day and waited to play in one of their games.  I asked for a copy of the DCC RPG Adventure Starter rules.  They gave me a copy because no one was planning to run a DCC RPG game.

All in all, it was possibly, maybe, almost, just short of being worth the gas and time to drive over there.

I'm sending the manager an email to thank him for the DCC rules, anyway.

Malc,

    I think its the same over here. I'm pretty sure the stores here have to pay for the boxes as well. Its the main reason I try to actually purchase something else from the store while I'm there. Unfortunately, there wasn't much at the first one I hit today so I just picked up a couple of magazines.

    I went to the 2nd store. They had all the FreeRPGday items on the counter with a note reading "These items are free but please limit yourself to only picking 3 so that others may enjoy them as well". A lot of the items were already gone when I got there. Almost all of the 1 per box items were gone. I picked up the only Tunnels & Trolls quick start they had (1 per box). The DCCrpg were gone already. The Paizo and WOTC products still had 10 or so each. It looks like this area isn't for WoD as they still had the whole stack of them (but I'll give White Wolf credit...they put out a free 64 page quick start rules for free).

    Given the differences between the two stores, I spent roughly twice as much in the second store compared to the first. The first store was mainly a wargaming shop (Warhammer 40k, etc) and seemed like RPGs were just a small add on for them. The second shop appeared to be roughly 50% comics and 50% gaming (RPGs, Wargames, Boardgames, etc) but they had more stuff that interested me including some new OSR items.

Jerry

lawrenson wrote:The shops have to pay for the kits - they arent given to them.

About $90 or so.

Its the same here which is why I don't think any of the shops in my area have participated since the first year it was offered.

xRalphx wrote:I had a lot of fun playing in the We be goblins pathfinder module. The dungeon master received a copy for himself + a copy for each of the players so playing the module got me a copy of that one.

Lucky man !
Where is that dynamic store...?
I didn't know there was a chance to find such stores in continental Europe.

It is great to have some good places like this.

It seems that there is a good store in Liège, but I didn't have the opportunity to go there.

Thank you for the link !

I got the Paizo adventure, the DCC quickstart (also with two short adventures), the WOD one (my local CBG clone*), and the 4E item.  Tried to score the Dragon Age, Cthulhu, and C&C ones but the guy was being appropriately thrifty since it was early.

Sunrunner44 - knows his semi-reputable corporate scumbag look frightens most CBGs**.

* and yes, he's the cliche of cliches, down to the stench and t-shirt with authentic, non-pre-ripped holes.

** in their mind, I know they see me and think: "dammit, sales tax audit"

Ordered from Nobleknight again this year, got the typical C&C, Paizo, Wotc items as well as the Goodman Games one.  Also wanted Black Crusade but surprised it was not offered.
With maybe getting the hospital bills lowered somewhat wife allowed the purchase (though one maybe yet to be processed and sent to us), otherwise I would have just picked up Paizo's module for $5 when they sell it.
Hope I can teach first my daughter and then any more children with the Troll Lords Harvesters box set, but that's a ways off.

ShaneG.

davidc wrote:Was there a Cthulhu item this year?  If so, I must have missed it.

Not according to this years list.  It was most likely the Goodman Games' Age of Cthulhu offering from last year that the FLGS had left over.  Another one that I didnt see was the Tunnels & Trolls book.  I may have to see about finding one of those.

sauromatian wrote:Hasbro's D&D module came with no map, tile, or other goodie this year. Many of the other regular players (Tunnels & Trolls, Castles & Crusades) seemed to have lowered their production values as well. Signs of a new recession, I suppose.

In the Trolls' case it was supposed to be a quickstart for Amazing Adventures, their pulp RPG using the SIEGE engine. However there was a problem on their end so they couldn't include this quickstart. As a result they had to quickly put out yet another C&C quickstart, thus the low production values. At least they had a reason. The Tunnels & Trolls booklet was just plain sloppy. You can feel the text on the paper, which is a sure sign that it was laser printed. It also was fuzzy, making it difficult to read. Expect the print to start lifting from the paper in time.

I found Free RPG Day this year to be disappointing, despite being able to grab what I wanted.