Free RPG Day 2022

Free (International) RPG Day – Yarr! The Rules Light RPG

For those of you who don't know, Free RPG Day is an annual promotional event by the Tabletop role-playing game industry. The event rules are fairly simple: participating publishers provide special free copies of games to participating game stores; the game store agrees to provide one free game to any person who requests a free game on Free RPG Day. It usually occurs in June.

This year (due to international shipping times being stymied from the Covid-19 pandemic) the international (i.e. outside of North America) wing of Free RPG day was held on 23rd July 2022.

Free RPG Day was mooted in my local gaming store, OnTableTop social media channels, and some kind soul (thanks Tony!) nominated me as a GM for the day. I agreed rather quickly not sure of what I might run, but having played in and ran games at conventions, I had a head start on what would be required of me for the day – some sort of one shot, with pre-generated characters that can be run in a few hours.

After a chat amongst the game store and other interested GMs I opted for Yarr! The Rules Light RPG, a pirate themed game set in a semi-historical fantasy Earth. Now all I needed was an actual game to run. A couple of nights to think about it and I came up with:

Black Leg Pete and the Snow Diamond

I'll tell more about the actual scenario in another blog.

Initially there were to be eight games for four players, over four tables, across a morning and afternoon session. This soon got whittled down to four games, over two tables, across a morning and afternoon session due to lack of GM commitment.

Turning up on the morning of Free RPG Day I was informed no-one had signed up for my game, but that there were a couple of free slots in other games running that day if I wanted to join. I was not shocked at the lack of sign-up as I believe Free RPG Day could have been better advertised both within the gaming store and on other social media outlets, but the main reason being that I was competing with three Dungeons & Dragons games that day, and my RPG of choice isn't exactly well known.

Anyway following a quick chat with one of the gaming store guys, he asks how many I can actually accommodate, as he and a couple of game club regulars would be interested in a game. I informed him I could take eight in my game and ended up with six!

We all had a blast, and although I over-ran my slot a bit - I did have to wait until my crew of six were finally assembled as a couple of them were organising the game store as well a playing in my game – my outline timing worked almost to plan.

I joined one of the Dungeons & Dragons games in the afternoon session which was under-subscribed, and I had a blast as a player. The GM (cheers Matt!) ran a great scanario about an alchemists lab which had turned rogue AI.

One of the nice things about Free RPG Day is that you as a GM get swag to take home with you. I got a couple of quick start guides, and a couple of scenarios, as well as some nifty dice. Not bad for putting a bit of effort into running a game for others. My favoutite swag was the ROOT The Role Playing Game Quickstart and the Level 1 - Indie RPG Anthology (volume 3).

I really enjoyed myself during this years Free RPG Day, and I think my proudest moment of the day was when one of the players who had stayed on in the games store until it's close, was still talking about the 'pirate game' he played in the morning.

I look forward to next year's Free RPG Day.

J