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Free RPG Day is coming!

Junes is a fun month. Summer begins, it’s my birthday (feel free to send gifts!) and Free RPG Day happens on the 16th. I love the concept of Free RPG Day, it’s a great way to promote the RPG industry, get people visiting stores and generally share with people what RPGs are all about.

I imagine a store crammed with gamers looking for a freebie, bringing along their family and loved ones. The casual visitor to the store who wonders about RPGs gets to try them out. The passerby wonders, “What’s going on there?” and enters the store. The store manned with friendly helpful employees that run game demos and share their love for role-playing games!

At least that’s how I see it in my mind, since I have never participated in Free RPF Day…

See I live in Puerto Rico, and while we have (what to me seems like) a thriving community of role players (just visit/follow Puerto Rico Role Players in any of its incarnations); the FLGS are few and far between. We have some stores mostly dedicated to card games with the occasional role-player and one comic store/game store that has no gaming area. While the smaller stores do hold tournaments and competitions for card games, their bread and butter, something I totally understand, and one briefly participated in the D&D encounters, no store is participating in Free RPG Day.

I have NO idea what the cost for retailers is. That may be a factor. But I’ve seen the excitement Free Comic Book Day brings about and if run properly Free RPG Day could be a continuation of that at least for one store. Before you say it I have shared the information so it’s not that. Alas I must respect the decisions retailers make, they are supposed to know what’s best for their business.

But there is a silver lining, most companies share their Free RPG Day products in digital form afterwards, so I will get to experience some of the swag those of you lucky enough to have Free RPG Day near you will get your hands on.

So check out if a retailer near you is participating, support your FLGS and show your love for the RPG industry. Be sure to let me know if your experience is like I envisioned it, or maybe even better!
Sunglar

Welcome, reader; thanks for taking the time to discover who I am! My name is Roberto, although I usually go by Sunglar online. I am a longtime tabletop RPG player, primarily a GM for the better part of that time; some will say that’s because of my love of telling a good story, others because I’m a control freak, but that’s debatable. I was born and raised in Puerto Rico, an island in the Caribbean with a small but active gaming community. I’ve played RPGs for almost 40 years, and for most of that time, I played D&D in all its permutations, including Pathfinder and D&D 5th edition. Other games our regular gaming group plays include Mutants & Masterminds, Castles & Crusades, Savage Worlds, Stars Without Number, Alien, and more. I have played many games through the years and plan to play many more. I am a compulsive homebrewer and rarely play a campaign I have not created myself. You can follow me on social media as Sunglar, and I’m regularly active on Facebook where you can find me posting regularly in the Puerto Rico Role Players group. I am looking forward to hearing from you!

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Wander

For me, the best part of Free RPG Day isn’t the swag (though, I admit, the free goodies are a close second). What I most look forward to is what amounts to a mini-con that springs up in the back of game stores with multiple tables running various games. I got to play All Flesh Must Be Eaten for the first time last year at the event. The table next to us was Atomic Highway, I think, complete with a blasted road map and Matchbox cars and there were two other games going on at the same time. There was a Dresden game (which one had to reserve a seat in two FRPG days in advance) and also Pathfinder, I think. This year, I’m hoping to try Cosmic Patrol.
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