In one word: fun! Allow me to elaborate further.
Puerto Rico has not always participated in Free RPG Day. Gaming Zone participated in 2014, and the Puerto Rico Role Players were there.
Paladin Books and Games in Isabela participated a few years ago, though I was sadly unable to go.
Puerto Rico has seen a boom in FLGS (Friendly Local Game Stores) in recent years. There are many CCGs, but post-pandemic, we have also seen growing interest in TTRPGs. One of these stores, Titan Games, has been participating in Free RPG Day for the past few years.
I participated in 2024, running Savage Worlds. Last year, I was not in Puerto Rico for the event, but this year I was ready to participate.
The gaming community in Puerto Rico really came out in force, and both Titan Games locations in Caguas and Río Piedras had several tables playing TTRPGs. There were games of:
- D&D 5e
- Daggerheart
- Star Wars: Edge of the Empire
- Mothership
- Mörk Borg
- Vampire: The Masquerade
- And my own Shadowdark table!
I ran Kneel Before the Goblin King by Joseph R. Lewis, a great short adventure that will be part of a crowdfunding project for print copies in July. I printed out the map, used the random online character generator to create pre-gens, got a player cheat sheet from Etsy, and ran four friends through a deadly Shadowdark adventure.
It ended up in a TPK (Total Party Kill). Incredibly, I had never had a TPK in a session before in my 40 years of gaming. Even when I tried to create an adventure just to do that a few years ago for D&D 5e, I had never wiped out the entire party. A first time for everything, I guess! We had a lot of fun.
Allow me to share a video about the games played, the fun we had, and the loot I grabbed:
I am thrilled I got to spend the day with friends, make new ones, and meet other members of the community. I am delighted to see the Puerto Rico TTRPG community thriving. Thanks to everyone who participated, and to Titan Games for supporting the community.
I mentioned Paladin Books and Games at the beginning of the post. The store may no longer be there, but the former owner, Mario Vélez, has a very active community of gamers who share reviews and meet up for games. You can find The Gaming Dragons on Facebook and on YouTube.
I hope you had fun on Free RPG Day, in whatever form you got to celebrate the day. See you all at Free RPG Day 2027!
