I am going to go to Total Escape Games in Broomfield, CO. for Free RPG Day 2013!  I have never been to one before.  I have a few questions for veterans of this experience:

• Do you have to purchase something in order to receive a free item?  
• Do you have a play a game at the store to receive something?
• Can you pick, or does the store just hand something out at random?
• Do you have to be there right when the store opens and line up?

Quote from: Drohem;662207I am going to go to Total Escape Games in Broomfield, CO. for Free RPG Day 2013!  I have never been to one before.  I have a few questions for veterans of this experience:

Amusingly, that's where I have often gone in the past for Free RPG day myself, so I actually may be able to help.  Mind, I don't work there so I'm not sure, and you might give them a call and make sure.

Quote

• Do you have to purchase something in order to receive a free item?  
• Do you have a play a game at the store to receive something?
• Can you pick, or does the store just hand something out at random?
• Do you have to be there right when the store opens and line up?

• No, as I remember they would let you take one thing for free, but would allow you to take more things if you buy stuff.
• No, you haven't had to play a game in the past to get something.
• I remember them letting you pick, although you may not be able to get one of the rarer items without a purchase. (Some items come 10 to a package, 5 to a package, or 3 to a package.)
• If you've got something you really want from the Free RPG day, I'd suggest it.  Last time I was there I remember it being fun, folks lined up and chatting with each other while we waited for the store to open.

Not sure if I'm going to go up to TEG or slide over to Wizard's Castle in Cherry Creek, which has a major advantage of being much closer to home.  Have fun!

Quote from: jcfiala;662222Amusingly, that's where I have often gone in the past for Free RPG day myself, so I actually may be able to help.

Awesome, thank you!

Looks like Wizards Chest in Denver has gotten two boxes of Free RPG day stuff, and doesn't have any firm rules about handing it out, other than the obvious 'don't allow someone to grab all of the remaining Pathfinder books' and the like.  So I'll probably go there, as my wife requires my presence at 11.

Looking forward to the Flame Princess module, I just read through the log of Dan's chat with the owner/writer and was excited.

I don't think we have this in south america.

Im guessing theres gonna be some sorta free rpg day dealy on drivethru so i may check that out

Quote from: flyerfan1991;661777Who's going?  What are you interested in?

I know my kids will want the We Be Goblins Too module from Paizo, but I'm more interested in what Shadowrun 5e will look like.  Well, and what the Trolls and Goodman have in mind, too.

(And gee, Free RPG Day also coincides with WotC's D&D Game Day.  Who's piggybacking on whom?)

I wasn't originally going to go because no local game stores were participating. However, I have been invited to Dicehead Games in Cleveland, TN to run a couple of games for the event so I will be driving an hour there to do so. I will be running Mongoose Traveller and d6 Star Wars demos. I still have some 2008 Free RPG Day copies of Mongoose Traveller Book 0 so I will hand them out to those interested.

The only thing coming out that I am interested in is also We Be Goblins Too from Paizo. The FFG Star Wars has got too convoluted a dice mechanic for my taste and I am running d6 Star Wars for people to compare the two because of it.

If I am lucky, I will be back home before 8pm.

Quote from: Broken-Serenity;662571Im guessing theres gonna be some sorta free rpg day dealy on drivethru so i may check that out

I haven't seen anything so far on DriveThru, but there are a few online things going on.  Will be dropping links to anything I see in this doc https://docs.google.com/document/d/1woCe5QqDCMMOsEnxJzswVc7Zz-587h-msfcdDGDUv7A/edit      Edit away if you see free stuff online today!

I too was looking forward to We Be Goblins, Too! but I arrived too late.  Apparently all the gamers in the area are early birds, so most of the stuff was taken.  There were a few copies of the Hall of Bones and Cosmic Patrol Quickstart, but many stacks of Better Than Any Man.  I took one of each, and bought a few books to support my FLGS.

I'll be on the lookout for Drive-Thru RPG if they have any plans today.

Quote from: RPGPundit;662522I don't think we have this in south america.

Noble Knight sells free RPG products online for 1c. I normally time a purchase with them this time of year to pick up what interests me.

I see Green Ronin did a free deal on M&M3e pdfs over at //www.mutantsandmasterminds.com, that was generous.

Went by Wizard's Chest, and managed to grab the Pathfinder module and the LotFP module, as well as the Tunnels and Trolls and something else.  Bought a Netrunner expansion pack that I didn't have yet, and they also let me have one of each of the dice.  I may go back this evening and see if anything is left, as well as to let my daughter wander through the store as she apparently wants to.

(Wizard's Chest sells games, but also toys, stuffed animals, magic tricks, yoyos, and whatever else works.)

Let's see...

I hit three stores in the area that had Free RPG Day events --Yotta Quest, Rockin' Rooster, and Gateway Games-- and they had a mixed bag of activity.

Yotta Quest had dialed back their activity a bit due to this being the same weekend as Origins, but they had a decent amount of people show up for gaming.  Not like last year where the place was so packed it was like sardines, however.  You could hear the activity easily in the front room, and people were definitely having fun playing the games.  When I asked the owner about squeezing into a game, he said that there were slots available for the D&D Game Day, but he was pretty sure the other slots for Pathfinder, Star Wars, DCC, and others were all filled.

Pickings were a bit slim at Yotta Quest, and I noted that both the Shadowrun and Lamentations offerings were completely gone, and there were only one left of all save for the Paizo offering.

Rockin' Rooster had very few people in for the games, even though there were Magic groups playing at the time, and they felt it was mainly due to Origins.  Still, the store --a comic and game store-- was fairly busy, just not due to Free RPG Day.  As a consequence, there was a load of material available in the mid-afternoon.

Gateway was the smallest of the three in terms of space, but all of their tables were filled with people playing Free RPG Day material.  At one point a table erupted in laughter, as one player had cast a fireball and rolled so badly that he ended up hitting his own party instead.  

As we were leaving Gateway a woman at another table spoke up, "Not another word out of you or I'm deactivating you!"  I raised an eyebrow at the clerk, who said "The Star Wars RPG."  I turned around back at the table where the free stuff was and realized that the Paizo, C&C, and FFG Star Wars offerings were all gone.

One thing I wanted to make sure I did while I was out with the family was to make a purchase at each store, because I wasn't going to be that guy and show up just to grab the free stuff and split.  The kids ended up with a Paizo splatbook and some minis, I picked up some Mongoose Trav material, and we got one of the small expacs for the Talisman boardgame.

We're within driving distance for Origins, so even though it's around 1/4 the size of Gen Con, I'm sure that Origins did zap some of the Free RPG Day activity.  I just hope that it doesn't mean that in the future some game stores will be more reluctant to participate.

Just got back from Free RPG Day and had a blast there. I picked up We Be Goblins Too and the FFG Star Wars offering Shadows of a Black Sun. The Mongoose Traveller demo was such a smashing success that two guys at the table both ordered the game through the store (which was offering a 20% discount on all games and orders). Didn't even get to either FFG or d6 Star Wars demo, because they both got eclipsed by Mongoose Traveller. Only ran into one annoying catpissman there. On a sour note, one of my gaming buddies got into a car accident while getting some food and had to leave early to handle the results of that.

I got to the store about an half-hour before it opened and lined up.  There were about a dozen people in front of me.  The store owner said we could take three items for free, and if we spent $10 USD in the store then we could pick a fourth free item.  Also, they had a 10% discount on all RPG stuff today.  Before the owner let people in the store he threw out 3-4 free T-Shirts into the line.  The guy in front of me was really tall and snagged one for his wife.  The logo on the shirt was cool.

I picked up the free module for Lamentations of the Flame Princes, Hall of Bones for Swords & Wizardry by Frog Games, and new Tunnels & Trolls Quickstart.

I wanted to get the Free RPG Day 2013 die, but they were out by the time I got my shot at the loot and all they had were the yellow d6 dice offered.  

I had some good conversation while waiting in line and then talking at the RPG rack with some other patrons.  All in all, a good experience was had by me this morning.

Stopped by The Source Comics & Games.  They weren't participating at all, so I bought no gaming stuff.  That's not to say that I came home empty-handed, for I also stopped by the Half-Price Books store nearby and scored a Palladium FRPG rulebook for under $12.