Free RPG Day!

Dristram · Post by **Dristram** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 11:52 pm

I just heard from my FLGS that Troll Lord Games is a major sponsor in the first ever Free RPG Day, akin to the Free Comic Book Day. Will there possibly be a C&C adventure for the giveaway?

moriarty777 · Post by **moriarty777** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 1:17 am

I'd like to hear more about this... I'm talking to a friend who works in a small store about getting some C&C stuff. They principally do comics and collectibles but do carry some gaming stuff too. This might be something interesting to explore...

Moriarty the Red
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Troll Lord · Post by **Troll Lord** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 2:43 am

Joe Goodman and Aldo Ghiozi cooked this up. Being buds with them they ran the idea by me and Davis and of course we thought it was a great idea and offered to sponsor the thing in a heart beat.

The days set for it is June 13 I think, though that may not be announced yet. Basically all participating stores will recieve six free copies of a product to be chosen by the publisher. Davis and I haven't gotten that far yet, but I suspect it will be a playtest version of the CC game itself, an abbreviated PH or some such. That way retailers could start some in store gaming.

Any of your thoughts would be welcome.

Steve
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serleran · Post by **serleran** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 3:02 am

How about the thing you were handing away at GenCon (when I was there, so... umm, 2005?) The PHB from the box set, and Lion in the Ropes, or Rising Knight. Or, a print version of the condensed pdf, and a freebie mod.

moriarty777 · Post by **moriarty777** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 3:09 am

Save some of your costs... you could put a few of these things on CD and give out a bunch of CDs!

No jewel case... just a simple paper sleeve with a nifty simple CD label to make it looked polished. Lion in the Ropes... Rising Knight as well as some condensed rules (perhaps an electronic PDF version of the material in the C&C box set).

Wouldn't that be a lot less expensive to produce and ship? And it could mean that more participants get their hands one something. Or... provide a special download (or series of downloads) for that day.

In fact, back to the CD idea, other companies (like Goodman Games) can also contribute content on it too. Production costs could be split that way and you can maximize some exposure.

...hmmm ... lots of ideas!!

Moriarty the Red
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Omote · Post by **Omote** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 3:18 pm

Exciting! I love the idea and should this free RPG day come to my FLGS, I will be sure to participate with C&C goodness wholly!

.........................................Omote

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Deogolf · Post by **Deogolf** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 6:25 pm

moriarty777 wrote:
Save some of your costs... you could put a few of these things on CD and give out a bunch of CDs!

No jewel case... just a simple paper sleeve with a nifty simple CD label to make it looked polished. Lion in the Ropes... Rising Knight as well as some condensed rules (perhaps an electronic PDF version of the material in the C&C box set).

Wouldn't that be a lot less expensive to produce and ship? And it could mean that more participants get their hands one something. Or... provide a special download (or series of downloads) for that day.

In fact, back to the CD idea, other companies (like Goodman Games) can also contribute content on it too. Production costs could be split that way and you can maximize some exposure.

...hmmm ... lots of ideas!!

Moriarty the Red

I'm not too sure about a CD, not very eye catching. Might be better to give them something they can look at right on the spot! Maybe I'm old fashion in that regard. I'd rather have a comic book/game to read than a disc that I need to take home to look at.

Omote · Post by **Omote** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 6:29 pm

Deogolf wrote:
Maybe I'm old fashion in that regard. I'd rather have a comic book/game to read than a disc that I need to take home to look at.

You're not alone. I can't stand .pdfs and crap on CDs. Gimme an ole fashioned book anyday!!! The spell of the printing, the tactile sense of granduer... books are the best.

..................................Omote

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moriarty777 · Post by **moriarty777** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 7:13 pm

Don't get me wrong... product that you can leaf through would be SOOOO much better; I was thinking more in terms of maximum 'spreading out' potential.

Perhaps a combination of both ideas (in one form of another)?

A great initiative none-the-less!

Moriarty the Red
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Omote · Post by **Omote** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 7:42 pm

Don't get me wrong, maybe electronic media is the way to go for the RPG day. It's just not my personal media of choice. The dang ol' kids now-a-days with their new-fangled 'puters...

DAMN KIDS GET OFF MY LAWN!!! *shakes fist at youngsters*

......................................Omote

FPQ
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Orpheus · Post by **Orpheus** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 8:14 pm

The overall cost shouldn't be too bad for the print version, especially since they could probably just consider it an advertising expense. I like hard copies for my core books, but .pdf form of adventures is ok by me. I wonder how the cost gets allocated for those however since beyond the initial upload, what is there a cost for? The fee for hosting the file?

Lurker · Post by **Lurker** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 11:32 am

IMHO a mix would be good. I use PDFs to save space & ease of movement, but hate having to set in front of a "puter" all the time. NOTHING better than the feel of a book in hand & fliping pages.
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Orpheus · Post by **Orpheus** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 3:18 pm

I just do the adventures modules in .pdf form. We have a printer here at home so I just print those babies out (I print on both sides to save paper). I'm like you Lurker, I don't like to have my computer sitting in front of me during a gaming session (I prefer my DM's screen, pencils, scratch paper, dice, and my calculator to be in front of me instead a keyboard.) But if something's free... then I'll take it in whatever format I can get. One really cool idea I've seen is the Burning Sky Campaign that's being published. You get a year-long subscription and every month a new module in the adventure path is delivered to your desktop in .pdf form. They even have a free Player's Guide and Game Master's Guide to accompany them. I think that's an awesome idea as far as distribution for modules goes.

Stratos · Post by **Stratos** » Mon Feb 05, 2007 11:41 pm

June 23, 2007 is the date... here's the press release...
Stealing a page from the comics industrys play book in running the highly-successful Free Comic Book Day, Free RPG Day will provide free role-playing game quick-start booklets or adventure modules to a select group of core hobby retailer stores nationwide. With a goal of having 100 participating retailers and 10 role-playing game publishers involved, Aldo Ghiozzi of Impressions initially developed the idea to specifically give his own role-playing game publishing clients in the adventure games industry a little boost.

I really have to give the idea credit to Joseph Goodman at Goodman Games," Ghiozzi said. "The thought was to just do another retailer-targeted promotion to push the Dungeon Crawl Classics line, but then I brought the idea up to some other Impressions clients and they wanted in.

When asked about the goals of the project, Mr. Ghiozzi added "Though I have seen RPG sales increasing over the past two years, and believe that the RPG market is on its way

back up, it needs a push, and a promotion specifically targeted to get excitement back into true pen and paper RPGs. Heck, most of us that grew up on RPGs have kids now and this would be a great way to bring them into the hobby. For a long-term goal, I truly want it to evolve into "Free Game Day" where any type of gamer can come in for free games or free exclusive add-ons to RPGs, board games, card games, miniatures games... any type of non-electronic game!"

Already Free RPG Day has commitments from Goodman Games, Troll Lord Games, Green Ronin Publishing, White Wolf Publishing, Mongoose Publishing, Chessex, and Skirmisher Publishing. Several more companies have given verbal commitments, but have yet to officially sign up.

"The goal of Free RPG Day is to bring more, new players into the hobby, but quite honestly, I think it will draw in more people that are currently hardcore players," Ghiozzi said. "The secondary batch of people will be the occasional players that just wish they had more time to play."

Retailers and publishers are still able to sign up, and consumers are encouraged to appeal to their favorite friendly local game store to inspire their participation in this event.

For more information on Free RPG Day, be sure to visit www.FreeRPGDay.com.

About Impressions Advertising & Marketing

Impressions is a firm that specializes in consolidating orders for small companies together to make them more appealing to large-scale buyers such as distributors. Impressions has 34 clients in the hobby game industry, including Testors, Goodman Games, Troll Lord Games, and Toy Vault.

magehammer · Post by **magehammer** » Tue Feb 06, 2007 12:32 am

PDFs and books both rock. Gimme gimme.

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moriarty777 · Post by **moriarty777** » Wed Feb 07, 2007 2:31 am

hmm... the URL in the press release doesn't seem to be working.

Moriarty the Red
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Stratos · Post by **Stratos** » Wed Feb 07, 2007 2:08 pm

That's because the press release has an extra period with the URL at the end of the sentence.
http://www.FreeRPGDay.com
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moriarty777 · Post by **moriarty777** » Thu Feb 08, 2007 1:23 am

DOH!

(thanks)

M
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