I managed to grab three things at Free RPG Day. The retailer limited each customer to two items but someone else kindly gave me one of their picks. I also played in a 4E Living Forgotten Realms adventure. It wasn't terrible but it did boil down to basically three combat encounters - oh well.

First the ugly.

Dungeon Crawl Classics: Adventure Starter

WTF? No, seriously WTF? An adventure for 15-20 0-level characters or 8-10 1st-level characters. Is this a joke? The dungeon itself is an uninteresting trap laden gauntlet that harkens back to the 'good old days' of gaming (I guess). I'll pass.

Second the confusing.

Domain of Dread: Histaven

This confused me. It's not an intro. It's basically a supplement for a supplement. I thought it was interesting and pretty well written but why was it handed out at Free RPG Day? Just for the ad for Encounters in the back? If you are looking for some decent material for a jaunt into the Shadowfell, however, you might want to pick it up.

Third the surprising.

Black Crusade: Broken Chains

The only true intro product I picked up. You finally get to play Chaos, the 'good guys' of the 40K universe. An attractive booklet with an adventure that is surprisingly not just a series of railroad encounters. I could even see it expanded into a mini campaign. Sort of a 40K Metamorphosis Alpha. I may actually run this one.

I also saw The World of Darkness quick start being run and it looked pretty good. I think it was pretty hefty at maybe 64 pages?

I'm out...

Well

Savage Worlds The Wild Hunt is beautifully produced and pretty self contained.  I sure wish I liked Savage Worlds some days.

Laser Squid Nemisis is well, cheap and wacky there's nothing gripping or original here but I'll give the producers cudos for trying.  It's fun and silly and would have made a fine april fools Dragon insert back in the day.

The real Gem was Flashing Blades Pariesian Adventures which the FLGS was just trying to get off the shelves.  A very nice little supplement on Paris in the period of the Three Musketeers.  I miss FGU.

The gaming stores near me did not participate this year.

Quote from: David Johansen;464858The real Gem was Flashing Blades Pariesian Adventures which the FLGS was just trying to get off the shelves.  A very nice little supplement on Paris in the period of the Three Musketeers.  I miss FGU.

http://www.fantasygamesunlimited.net/

Quote from: danbuter;464859The gaming stores near me did not participate this year.

Same here, there wasn't anyone withing 200 miles according to the store finder they had.

Black Crusade interests me.

But I hear that stuff was doled out at random.

The last shop round here that did the free rpg thing was Travelling Man, and they were hopeless (and then went down the tubes).

I seem to recall a rather bland layout: a table of stuff. None of which looked appealing - at least to me.

Will this lead to increased sales of games like the forthcoming Black Crusade? Who knows. But i can't help feeling sceptical.

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;464908Black Crusade interests me.

But I hear that stuff was doled out at random.

To patrons you mean?  All the shops got the same allotment.

Ahh, found the list. (and I wish I could have gotten my hands on a bunch of them)

Quote from: Free RPG Day.comAmarillo Design Bureau
Sample (1 per box), Prime Directive Adventure "Starship Aldo" (both d20 & GURPS)

BlackWyrm Games
Sample (1 per box), XDM Adventure: "Laser Squid Nemesis"

Blue Panther
Sample (1 per box), Dice Tower

Chessex
Silver (4 per box), Commerative Dice For Store Owner

Eden Studios
Silver (5 per box), All Flesh Must Be Eaten Quickstart & Adventure

Exile Game Studios
Bronze (3 per box) ,Hollow Earth Expedition Quickstart & Adventure

Fantasy Flight Games
Gold (10 per box), Black Crusade Quickstart and Adventure

Flying Buffalo
Sample (1 per box), Tunnels & Trolls Solo Adventure, "Rescue Mission"

Goodman Games
Silver (5 per box), DCC RPG Quickstart

Green Ronin
Gold (10 per box), DragonAge Quickstart

Paizo
Platinum (15 per box), "We Be Goblins!" Pathfinder Adventure

Paradigm Concepts
Bronze (3 per box), Arcanis RPG Quickstart & Adventure

Pinnacle
Bronze (3 per box), Savage Worlds Quickstart & Adventure, titled "The Wild Hunt"

Q-Workshop
Silver (5 per box), Unique Elven-themed Dice

Stone Tablet Games
Bronze (3 per box), Aspect Quickstart Adventure

Troll Lord Games
Sample (1 per box), Castles & Crusades Quickstart and Adventure

Valkyrie Games
Sample (1 per box), Stellar Horizons Quickstart

White Wolf Publishing
Gold (10 per box), World of Darkness Quickstart

Wizards of the Coast
Platinum (15 per box), "Domain of Dread: Histhaven" D&D 4th Edition Supplement to the box set "The Shadowfell: Gloomwrought and Beyond"

Mayfair
Free Bonus Item, Settlers of Catan: Catanimal Variant rules (single page paper insert)

The Q-Workshop dice would have been nifty in particular. I have a feeling that at least some of the quickstarts will be showing up on company websites soon (if they haven't already) and that others will be showing up on eBay or other sites.

I got the We Be Goblins Pathfinder adventure after playing it at the store. It was hilarious! A great little adventure full of fun moments.

Update.

I just noticed that White Wolf posted their hefty quickstart on DriveThruRPG.

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=92564

Quote from: PaladinCA;464999I got the We Be Goblins Pathfinder adventure after playing it at the store. It was hilarious! A great little adventure full of fun moments.

I'm looking forward to reading over it, do you think it would be ok for new players offhand?

Paizo put it up for free (pdf, $5 hardcopy) in their store HERE.

Quote from: cnath.rm;465021I'm looking forward to reading over it, do you think it would be ok for new players offhand?
.

As long as they understand it is meant to be a somewhat goofy adventure up front, I think so.

Quote from: PaladinCA;464999I got the We Be Goblins Pathfinder adventure after playing it at the store. It was hilarious! A great little adventure full of fun moments.

This one is a free download too:

http://paizo.com/store/games/roleplayingGames/p/pathfinderRPG/paizo/pathfinderModules/v5748btpy8j5w