Can I use this space to vent a little about my Free RPG Day experience?
My local store, where I'm a know-my-face-but-not-my-name regular, wasn't listed as participating on the Free RPG Day website. Several other stores, much further away from me, were listed, but I thought I'd swing by anyway in the off chance they had something going on.
There was nothing obviously tied in to Free RPG Day: it was a nice day and the store was sparsely populated, with a small Magic tournament about to start. I browsed a bit and scouted the store to see if anything was going on (the closest I got was overhearing one of the Magic players dismissively noting the occasion to his opponent), but there was nothing displayed, no signage, no nothing. I was going to just leave, but thought I should buy an RPG on Free RPG Day, at least, so I picked out a purchase and went to the register.
As the teen behind the counter (no one I'd seen before) rang me up, I asked, "Nothing going on for Free RPG Day?" He said the owner had mentioned that there was stuff to give away if people asked for it, but hadn't told him what it was. He offered to message the owner and find out. While we waited he went through the motions of checking around behind the counter, poking around as if looking, picking up boxes and putting them down again after glancing beneath them (at one point stopping to straighten the computer printer paper). After a few minutes of semi-looking, he admitted he had never worked Free RPG Day before and wasn't sure what he was supposed to do. We stood there for a while--I think he expected me to just walk away?--and I asked him if I could just hang out until he heard back from his boss. He said sure, and just then he got a message back.
He read the instructions from his boss and, in a tote bag next to his stool, were bundles of the "Free RPG Day"-branded books. He said they hadn't been sent all the stuff they had ordered. He looked at the message again and read , "1 book ee-ay per person? What's 'ee-ay'?" (I helpfully offered that probably meant, you know, "each"). This seemed to register with him and he handed me a shrink-wrapped bundle, saying, "There you go!" I suggested that probably meant just one from the bundle, not the whole thing. He admitted this made sense and opened up the bundles. He handed me a Feng Shui quickstart (apparently from two years ago?) and Unknown Armies and... that was apparently all they had been sent (I'll go ahead and take that at face value). He (to his credit) apologized for not knowing what to do; I thanked him for taking the time and left with my purchase and the books.
So it was better than nothing--I walked out with two booklets, so hey, it's a net win--but it was still a pretty dispiriting visit. I worked at a comic shop for a number of years, and Free Comic Book Day was always a big deal for us, with sales, big crowds, special appearances, etc.; obviously I didn't expect anything on that scale, but this was... quarter-assed. I've generally been pretty positive on this store, but, frankly, I wish I'd made the drive to those other stores and tried my luck there. A very discouraging Free RPG Day for me.