Free RPG Day Coming on June 22, 2024

[Dire Bare]

It didn't happen to me, but a local retailer would keep buying the kits and them complain they didn't work for them without even trying to stock some of the stuff from the kit, like core 5e or Pathfinder books.

To clarify, I didn't imply mean they should stock everything but try something. For a most stores, some of the demos should be related to no-brainers for their local meta.

Heh, I have multiple FLGS owners in my area who couldn't figure out how to use the kits effectively, and decided they were not worth it. I didn't, and still don't get it . . . it's not rocket science.

ADVERTISE locally that Free RPG Day is being celebrated at your store! Make it an event beyond just slapping the freebies down on a table. Put some effort into it! By Gygax's Beard!!!

 

[Von Ether]

I'm beginning to think the kits should include a mini guide for the stores on how to use free rpg day to grow sales.

Frustratingly, many game stores owners suffer from the same symptoms as many game publishers; many get get started more with a plan based on passion vs a business plan. So this could help quite a few stores.

 

[Marc Radle]

I'm curious about some of the other announced publishers.

Kobold Press will have a brand new Tales of the Valiant adventure!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Kobold Press will have a brand new Tales of the Valiant adventure!

That was a pretty safe bet, at the rate you all have been cranking them out. It's a really impressive volume of content for DMs.

 

[darjr]

I run three games that day. Plus I’ll run others of the free games on later store days.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Frustratingly, many game stores owners suffer from the same symptoms as many game publishers; many get get started more with a plan based on passion vs a business plan. So this could help quite a few stores.

The old saw - what is the best way to make a million dollars in the [friendly game retail business]? Start with TWO million dollars

Which is to say, most folks who start game retail business do NOT have previous retail or probably even business experience. Also the number of FLGS retailers who are RPGers is low. Most are MTGers or some other version thereof. ALSO! Running an xLGS (not all are friendly, lets be honest) is very hard, very complex, and you run on a razor's edge for most of your first 5 to 10 years. After which maybe you can slightly (very slightly) relax, but most likely you are out of business. Which means getting a detailed plan on what to do with the FRPG material would be VERY Helpful

 

[darjr]

Actually I think our local store gets a big bang out of us letting people know we’ll run these throughout the year.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

I'm curious about some of the other announced publishers.

Ditto. Wonder what Magpie will have on offer. Probably too much to hope for something new for Masks, sadly. Getting kind of old and none of the US distributors my FLGS deals with even carry the core book any more.

 

[Abstruse]

Normally Free RPG Day will announce a month or so in advance what all products will be available. Right now, it's likely they're not sure as the deadline has passed for publishers to join in, but not for providing the product.

 

[EldritchHistory]

The Free RPG Day website has started dropping the sneak peaks at this years offerings.

I own two of the Roll & Play gamemaster books of tables and they are excellent. If they put a portion of that content in front of a wider audience, I expect a lot of people to become big fans of them. The tables are meant for mid-game play, when someone wants to pickpocket townsfolk or wants to know what's on the tavern's menu or what a spaceship in the space station is named and what its cargo is. The spiral-bound books are also lightly laminated and digest-sized, making them really easy to find space for at a table that might already have a lot of books on it.

I'm curious about some of the other announced publishers.

Free RPG Day would be an ideal time for 9th Level to have the newest edition of Kobold Ate My Baby available to preview and sell.

Not sure what Wet Ink will have. A preview of their recently Kickstarted mega-dungeon?

1985 Games doesn't seem like they're close to publishing Obojima, but that'd be a great product to preview to a such a large audience.

Wet Ink has a quickstart for Garbage & Glory: Trashrun

1985 Games does indeed have an Obojima adventure

Ditto. Wonder what Magpie will have on offer. Probably too much to hope for something new for Masks, sadly. Getting kind of old and none of the US distributors my FLGS deals with even carry the core book any more.

Sorry Wofano, looks like Magpie is focusing on Avatar with a new adventure and dice.