"FREE" RPG day?


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I guess they just want that stuff they couldn't get

Sovereign Court Contributor

I was pleasantly surprised that the store I went to had a table set up with all the free stuff. I asked if there was a limit and they said "One of each item per person." I grabbed one of almost everything, and then bought a bunch of Archie Comics and Webkinz cards for my kids, plus a box of miniatures for me. I couldn't stick around, and I don't think they were running demos, but their good will got them a sale, and I'll gladly look there next time I need something.


Vic Wertz wrote:
rclifton wrote:
The store clerk... readily admitted that Paizo product was the highest quality they sold and they couldn't keep it in stock.
I totally have the solution to this problem. Have him try ordering more!

I keep pushing for it!


My experience -

Store #1 - Kept everything on a rack, allowing everyone to take 2 for free. Wanting to show my appreciation, I purchased some Goodman Games d20 modules they had on sale at 75% off, as well as the latest issue of Kobold Quarterly. Thinking strategically, I picked up Fiery Dragon and Columbia Games freebies, knowing those are in more limited supply. They had plenty in stock, but it was early.

Store #2 - Free things on the table, picked up the Green Ronin and Goodman Games freebies. I would have grabbed Paizo's, but they were out. Also bought a small duck and puzzle for my son, again, to be polite to the store.

Store #3 - This one was in walking distance of store #2. To get one of their free items, one had to play in their sponsored games that day. Still planning to hit two more stores, I decline. I still manage to get the latest WarMachine Demo rules and GameTrade Issue #100 for free. I didn't buy anything.

Store #4 - These guys put everything in boxes up front and let everyone take 2 of each, unfortunately by this time it had been mostly cleaned out. I did get Heirs to Olympia and the Cthulhu live supplement. Hopefully my gaming buddies I sent to this store to pick up stuff I couldn't get got there before me. I do buy Conquest of the Empire by Eagle Games, having just learned from Chris Prama's blog that this may soon become scarce.

Store #5 - This store is giving one free item per customer, with the understanding you buy something. Buy a couple of old Dungeon magazines and then pick up Paizo's item to finish up the day. Score!

This took about 4 hours and a little less than $20 in gas.

The Exchange RPG Superstar 2009 Top 8

Rambling Scribe wrote:
I was pleasantly surprised that the store I went to had a table set up with all the free stuff. I asked if there was a limit and they said "One of each item per person." I grabbed one of almost everything, and then bought a bunch of Archie Comics and Webkinz cards for my kids, plus a box of miniatures for me. I couldn't stick around, and I don't think they were running demos, but their good will got them a sale, and I'll gladly look there next time I need something.

Hey Rambling, was that here in Ottawa?

Grand Lodge

Tarren Dei wrote:

I don't know what to say. Most of the gaming shops in my town are run by gamers who do their best to keep a store afloat in a changing market. Respect.

Very true.

One does that by being honest with customers. The name of the day was Free RPG Day, not Free-with Purchase RPG Day. And not by telling fans of a game system "I would never look at that."

Respect is a two edged sword. Game stores that do not respect their clients will find respect hard to come find.

A friend of mine has a life goal of opening a game store. The lot of us have considered banding together to get it started. But we just don''t see how to stay alive in this market. How do you compete with internet sales that can be almost 50% lower than retailer prices (and just how in Asmodeus' name do they do that? For example Amazon- how do they do that?)

The Exchange RPG Superstar 2009 Top 8

My comments weren't directed at you. You had a complaint and that's fine. Other posters referred to some store owners as 'greedy'. I don't think 'greed' drives the gaming store industry. If these people were greedy they would have become lawyers.

...

<...waits for it...>


Let's face it. Some of the people running these stores are comic books collectors and gamers and have no business acuity.

Hence the problems.

'Nuff said.

People who are selling 'free rpg' day stuff on ebay may be customers who got some free stuff, or they may be 'greedy' store owners. Who knows, maybe they have a mother who needs an operation.

Who cares if they sell it?

Scarab Sages

To be fair to the stores requiring a purchase to get the freebies, it is a convenient way to make sure everybody gets something, and I don't think it is as completely "offside" as some people are suggesting - if anything it gets the regulars looking at new material in exchange for money they would spend anyway (admittedly not entirely the point).

The bigger store in my area made this perfectly clear in all their promotional materials, and they were giving some wicked deals on other products that they didn't have to give.

At the smaller store in my area, the owner put together her own package using her own resources and a few special deals with publishers. You got it if you spent $25, so that was completely her decision as it wasn't using the Free RPG Day scheme.

I've been looking on the website, nowhere does it say "these must be given away with no caveats" - has this been clearly outlined somewhere?

Scarab Sages

I was running my CotCT at a game shop that didn't do the Free RPG day... but I'll talk to them next year. I couldn't make it to the 2 FLGS semi-close and far away to me since I was running my game. I did enjoy it last year though. (at the far away from me store)

Sovereign Court

FREE RPG DAY WAS AN INCREDIBLE, AWESOME EXPERIENCE FOR ME.

I picked up about 15 free quick-starts and modules. I met the editor for one of the games who showed up just to support free RPG day. He, I, and others chatted, networked and enjoyed reveling in the open game movement. We discussed its importance, and the brilliance of, Erik Mona and the PRPG Beta that will be released at Gen Con!

The actual names of all the materials I received have already been mentioned in this thread. I want to praise these 3pps for stepping up and continuing this awesome tradition. I want to applaud the flgs's for paying the $90 bucks or so to get the materials and participate. (My understanding is that some game stores too close to one another could not participate, and the participant list filled up quickly).

I'm sorry to hear not everyone's experience was good. In fact, from what I've been reading, many experiences sucked. Its really too bad how many stores used free RPG day "with strings attached".

As several of us discussed last Saturday morning, the beauty of FREE RPG day is it might bring in new players - and a few kids who had never played an rpg showed up. The clerk set up some 4e stuff for them to go through to experience an rpg. The clerk strongly dislikes 4e and is switching his group to Pathfinder from 3.5. (But I am sure we can all appreciate how important it is for most flgs folks to appear unbiased in order to sell more product. I can truly respect that.)

Free d20 were given to kids (the really cool ones from Poland) - and all the free modules and materials were absolutely free for the taking. I ended up picking up some pricy Necromancer Games stuff, and also bought a loyalty card from the store. I would rate this experience a 10 out of 10. I hope those who had a crappy time, have a better experience next year.


Of the local stores in my area, only one decided to participate in the Free RPG Day. They simply set out the products and let the customers look over them and select what they wanted. They did not get a lot of some of the products, and none of the Wizards product, but there were easily 10 or more of most of the titles to choose from.

They didn't host any games for the day, but instead had an auction that took place of customer's goods, and that seemed to bring in a sizable crowd. All in all it was a good day for them, and for those of us who took part.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

knightnday wrote:
They did not get a lot of some of the products, and none of the Wizards product, but there were easily 10 or more of most of the titles to choose from.

This seems odd. You can see what's in the kit here. According to that, all of the kits had *at least* 12 of each Wizards module (towards the end of shipping, some had *more* than 12).

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber
Vic Wertz wrote:
knightnday wrote:
They did not get a lot of some of the products, and none of the Wizards product, but there were easily 10 or more of most of the titles to choose from.
This seems odd. You can see what's in the kit here. According to that, all of the kits had *at least* 12 of each Wizards module (towards the end of shipping, some had *more* than 12).

Sounds like it was free wizard module for employees and friends. :)

Sovereign Court Contributor

Tarren Dei wrote:
Hey Rambling, was that here in Ottawa?

Yep! It was "The Comic Book Shoppe" on Clyde (their downtown location wasn't participating). Fandom II was also participating, but I was heading out of town (in the other direction) so I didn't go there.

Looking at the link Vic posted, a few things were not available where I was (or at least I didn't see them, but they were probably already picked up by other customers, since it was mostly the bronze level products). I really can't complain, I was after the WotC adventure and the Goodman setting thing, and of course RotKK. Paizo was a slightly lower priority only because I knew I could buy a copy and get a pdf free failing that.

But I got a lot of other goodies too.


Though there is about 6 or so game shops in my city, only 1 of them participated in Free RPG day. The rule at his shop was 1 item per $5 of purchase. Semantics of the word "Free" aside, I really did not mind buying some of the discounted 3.5 edition books he had in stock. He seemed very puzzled, though, that I passed up the 4e stuff to get the Paizo and White Wolf offerings.


My local store didn't observe Free RPG day. They did last year, so I know they knew about it. I guess they didn't consider it worthwhile. Last year they had so much leftover product they were actually encouraging us to take extra copies of stuff.


SirUrza wrote:
Vic Wertz wrote:
knightnday wrote:
They did not get a lot of some of the products, and none of the Wizards product, but there were easily 10 or more of most of the titles to choose from.
This seems odd. You can see what's in the kit here. According to that, all of the kits had *at least* 12 of each Wizards module (towards the end of shipping, some had *more* than 12).
Sounds like it was free wizard module for employees and friends. :)

That was my thinking as well. I was the third or 4th person in the store that morning and while there were stacks of the other products, except for the dice, the WOTC stuff was missing. Heck, I even managed to snag one of the sets of Chessex dice. No big deal, really, just sort of came across a little poorly that the employees grabbed all/most of the adventure instead of leaving a few for the patrons.


Last year I called my LGS (wich is over an hour away, theres nothing else remotely close) and asked them if they will participate in Free RPG DAY. They had no idea what I was talking about so I directed them to the site. I also e-mailed the website to contact my LGS.

Free RPG Day went into effect and I got my stuff. I did all this just so I can get my hands on Goodman Games' Dungeon Crawl Classics #51.5.
While I was there I found Hollows Last Hope and grabbed that to just for kicks. I didnt even know about GameMastery moduals at the time. Little did I know what I was getting that day. :)

This year I didnt call or e-mail. I mean...I dont work for this store. Its not up to me to hold their hand and baby-sit them. And besides, they advertised the holy hell out of D&D Game Day on the 7th and had all these events and stuff. Why would this be any different?

I work 7 days a week and times are rough right now financially. Thats why Im not a subscriber right now. Anyway I request a day off once a month and I requested the 21st for Free RPG Day.

Well the day came and I called them ahead of time and dicovered they forgot about Free RPG Day, and when it was brought to their attention by a customer they tried to get the stuff but they missed the deadline.

Luckily I can get Revenge of the Kobold King tonight off the website. Maybe I'll treat myself to some other stuff to. To bad I wont be getting the other stuff. I really wanted the tile and Wraith miniature and wouldnt have minded checking out the 4th edition moduals.

Im still really bummed about it so felt like ranting. Thanks for listening. :)

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 16

My friendly local game store didn't get their order in on time to receive the items. He actually apologized when I called him: Last year, they allowed people to take whatever interested them, but encouraged customers to only take one or two items.

I wouldn't be too critical of stores that decided to give away the freebies only to those making purchases: It's not like the items were free to the store.

I just wish I could have picked up the Paizo scenario. I'll end up buying it eventually, just to have a "hard copy".


Krome wrote:
So, while I managed to get my copy of RotKK- and may have a convert for PfRPG, I still think it is totally unfair to call it "FREE" RPG Day when we have to buy stuff to get anything. It is misleading in a way. But I am naive that way.

Krome,

Sorry to hear about that...I heard several stores were asking for a purchase for the freebies. This is not what we envision for the event, but this is why we encouraged consumers to call their participating store in case they were doing something different/special because we cannot control what the retailer does once they purchase the kits from us. Please understand though that many stores who have Free Comic Book Day and/or Free RPG Day are not thrilled at the droves of people that walk into the store, ask for the freebies, then leave. It sounds like a measure to try and encourage consumers to support their FLGS...which is what we want from the event.

Best,
Aldo Ghiozzi
Owner
Impressions
www.FreeRPGDay.com


Kelvar Silvermace wrote:

Wow. I feel really lucky.

Long live Free RPG Day!

I guess my FLGS is pretty good.

Woohoo! Great to hear! If you can, let me know the store so I can thank them for truly being in the spirit of the event!

Best,
Aldo Ghiozzi
Owner
Impressions
www.FreeRPGDay.com
aldo@impressionsadv.net


SirUrza wrote:

Here's the problem with "Free RPG Day" it's bulls#$@!

RPG books costs WAAAAAY more then comic books. Marvel, DC, Image, and a few other can AFFORD to print 1000s of copies of a single book and not charge for it for Free Comicbook Day.

I don't know what the buy in for Free Comicbook Day is, but the "Free RPG Day" buy in was $90. That's right, the store had to give the organizers $90 to participate.

Wow...that's the meanest thing I've heard about the event. :P

Someone emailed me saying we "scammed" them, but then I explained it is all up to the store.

And in terms of Free RPG Day vs. Free Comic Book Day, ask your local comic book store about the $500-$1500 they need to spend to participate in that event (farbeit comics are much more mass market than RPGs).

Best,
Aldo Ghiozzi
Owner
Impressions
www.FreeRPGDay.com


Mactaka wrote:
the Goodman Games Gazeeter (Interestingly, they say on the inside back cover that their 4e game adventures are coming out in August...guess this was printed before they new about the moratorium until oct 1 or they have a separate non-GSL deal already)

That is not a mis-print...The product solicitation information for Goodman's 4E products is offically out there so I can tell you that they will be launching 4E product at Gen Con...yes, at Gen Con...go to www.goodmangames.com to find out more.

Best,
Aldo


Peter Hahn wrote:
SirUrza wrote:
The original poster still got what he wanted, without having to pay, so I don't know what he's complaining about. Those who criticize stores who didn't give away products completely free don't understand what Free RPG Day is really all about, which defeats the purpose of it.

We encourage all stores participating (paying) for the event to be a part of the spirit of the event...which is to give away the freebies with the hopes that it influences consumers to buy more RPG products. Again, the most we can do is encourage stores to do this.

Best,
Aldo Ghiozzi
Owner
Impressions
www.FreeRPGDay.com


Zootcat wrote:
Bull-s&@!!! Free means free. If you are expecting people to spend money, then don't use the word "free."

Again, please note that Impressions (our company that organizes the event) encourages stores to give away the product for free to encourage more RPG gaming in the world...in the end, we cannot control what they do.

Best,
Aldo Ghiozzi
Owner
Impressions
www.FreeRPGDay.com


Erik Mona wrote:

My personal blessings to everyone who went out to support this event.

My kudos to Impressions and Aldo who made it happen. I hope this event goes on annually for years to come.

I LOVE FREE RPG DAY!!

Thanks for the kind words Erik...It is nice to hear vs. the complaints that started rolling in Saturday and still continue today (Monday)! =P

I just want to make a big note to all the consumers here that they need to know that the really heroes here are the publishers like Paizo because they are the ones spending their hard-earned money to print these to give out for free. We don't pay the publishers, but it does cost us money to collate the boxes, create promo materials and get stores on-board.

Best,
Aldo


PsychoticWarrior wrote:
It is really crappy that your store decided to fleece people for $10 to get a "free" RPG book. If I were you I would see about contacting the poeple behind FreeRPG Day and have them give the store a talking to.

We welcome consumers whole-heartedly to let us know which stores they had a good and bad experience with.

Best,
Aldo Ghiozzi
Owner
Impressions
www.FreeRPGDay.com
aldo@impressionsadv.net


Dire Bare wrote:
And I was right. NONE of the stores in my area bothered with Free RPG Day this year. The one store I bothered to visit anyway on Saturday, told me that they "didn't even know" about Free RPG Day. Which can only mean they simply didn't pay attention to the materials they get from their distributor (Alliance).

We ask all the distributors to encourage stores to sign up, but none of the distributors sign up retailers...they need to sign up through us directly.

Best,
Aldo Ghiozzi
Owner
Impressions
www.FreeRPGDay.com
aldo@impressionsadv.net

The Exchange RPG Superstar 2009 Top 8

Aldo,

I couldn't make it out to Free RPG Day this year because of familial responsibilities. Please, please, please keep this event going next year. THANKS!


Pax Veritas wrote:

FREE RPG DAY WAS AN INCREDIBLE, AWESOME EXPERIENCE FOR ME.

Hey! Could you email me the store's name off-list to aldo@impressionsadv.net?

Best,
Aldo


knightnday wrote:
SirUrza wrote:
Vic Wertz wrote:
knightnday wrote:
They did not get a lot of some of the products, and none of the Wizards product, but there were easily 10 or more of most of the titles to choose from.
This seems odd. You can see what's in the kit here. According to that, all of the kits had *at least* 12 of each Wizards module (towards the end of shipping, some had *more* than 12).
Sounds like it was free wizard module for employees and friends. :)
That was my thinking as well. I was the third or 4th person in the store that morning and while there were stacks of the other products, except for the dice, the WOTC stuff was missing. Heck, I even managed to snag one of the sets of Chessex dice. No big deal, really, just sort of came across a little poorly that the employees grabbed all/most of the adventure instead of leaving a few for the patrons.

Again, please let me know the store privately at aldo@impressionsadv.net and I can give them a shout.

Best,
Aldo


Aldo, I just wanted to share a post that I added to my own FLGS's (Endgame in Oakland, CA) forum earlier today:

I wrote:

I just wanted to thank you guys for participating in Free RPG Day, and for the way you handled it. Looking around the web at different forums, I see where a lot of people were disappointed by the choices, disappointed they got nothing, laughing that they walked away with 3 of everything, and so on.

I got there at 10am, second one in. Your "2 per person" rule was great, because even as I left a little after 11, there were still plenty of choices there, even the WotC stuff. I grabbed that and the Traveller quick start. And then proceeded to spend about $100!

4E has dragged me back into the hobby bigtime, and Free RPG Day dragged me back into your store for the first time in years. It won't be the last! I know it costs you something to participate, so I just wanted to say thanks! I intend to be around and participating a lot more now!

BTW, I think the Kobold King supplement was as popular as the WotC contributions! When I left, it looked like the event had helped draw quite a crowd. Thanks from this 40-something gamer to everyone who participated and contributed!


Well our FLGS did awesome job with Free RPG Day! The owner had put a limit of 4 items at the beginning of the day, but around 4pm he raised the limit to one of each item.
The place is called Heroic Adventures, in Edwardsville, Illinois.
Wingnut, you should give this guy a medal or something.


My local participating FLGS (Compleat Strategist in Falls Church, VA) was giving a single item per person. All item were listed on a sheet of paper and you rolled a d20 and matched it with the sheet. Then you could trade if you wished.
I was there early in the AM so who knows about later but it was cool, I got into a great is 4e worth it discussion with some regulars (All sticking with 3.5) :)
I got the Tunnels and Trolls intro and went ahead purchased a DCC box set. Just wanted to support my local FLGS :)

Liberty's Edge

My Local FLGS(Cavalier Comics in Wise, VA) allowed you to get one of each if you so desire, though most did not grab one of each. I can understand limiting the number of items each person could get so that more people can get someting but not making them buy products in order to get one of the free items.


tim plum wrote:

My local participating FLGS (Compleat Strategist in Falls Church, VA) was giving a single item per person. All item were listed on a sheet of paper and you rolled a d20 and matched it with the sheet. Then you could trade if you wished.

I was there early in the AM so who knows about later but it was cool, I got into a great is 4e worth it discussion with some regulars (All sticking with 3.5) :)
I got the Tunnels and Trolls intro and went ahead purchased a DCC box set. Just wanted to support my local FLGS :)

Thanks for the kind words. As a retailer I took the approach that the $90 per box was no different then running a newspaper ad to promote the store. Advertising is advertising no matter what shape it comes in. I couldn't sleep at night if I charged people for things that were supposed to be free. Unfortunately Free Comic Book Day taught me a valuable lesson. We ordered some of every title for that event and let everyone take one of each title. We had families come in with their kids and each member of the family walked out with a huge stack of one of each comic. Because of that, I decided to limit the selection for this event to only 4 items per person. The funny thing is we bought two kits and now we have quite a few items left over. No worries though. They will make great prizes for RPGA or any other gaming events down the road.

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