IF YOU GO* What: Free RPG Day (while supplies last).* When: Saturday.* Where: Dicehead Games & Comics, Bradley Square Mall, 200 Paul Huff Parkway, Cleveland, Tenn.* Phone: 423-473-7125.* Website: www.freerpgday.com.
By Paul Leach
Correspondent
Fans of role-playing games can get free promotional items, while they last, at the Cleveland location of Dicehead Games & Comics on Saturday as part of the fourth annual Free RPG Day.
Participating publishers offer a number of introductory and quick-start games of adventure in which players assume the roles of heroic characters with nothing more than paper, pencils and dice.
Tabletop role-playing games encourage social interaction, and the best of these imaginative experiences are more than just defeating villains and looting treasure, said gamer Scott Wood of Athens, Tenn.
“Gaming is a good way to meet people. Everybody here, I wouldn’t have met them except for gaming,” said Wood, a member of a fantasy RPG group that regularly meets at Dicehead.
Free RPG Day takes inspiration from Free Comic Book Day and is primarily sponsored by North American game companies. This year’s offerings encompass a variety of adventure genres: science fiction, horror and several flavors of fantasy. Each promotional store kit includes more than 70 pieces of free product.
“It promotes the hobby and showcases a lot of game systems that people may not normally be exposed to or invest money in without a chance to play first,” said Dicehead owner Shane Grubb.
Erik Mona of Paizo Publishing, publisher of the “Pathfinder” role-playing game and recurring sponsor of the event, said, “Free RPG Day is an excellent wide-ranging promotional effort that gets our games in front of a huge audience of folks.”
“Free RPG Day is a great way to show (our material) in beautiful full color at no risk to the gamer who picks it up for free. It’s also a great way to support local game stores, without whom there would be no gaming companies,” added Mona.
“We see Free RPG Day as a great way for game stores to keep customers happy and continue to grow their business,” said Kim Page of Porter Novelli on behalf of Wizards of the Coast, publisher of “Dungeons & Dragons” and a major sponsor of the event.
Page added, “With so many people coming together on one day to play a range of games and compare notes on gaming experiences, sharing favorites, etc. a stronger gaming community is built, between a game store and gamers in its area, which is great for all gamers!”
The RPG industry traces its roots to the medieval fantasy game “Dungeons & Dragons,” created in the early 1970s by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson.
Paul Leach is based in Cleveland, Tenn. E-mail him at paul.leach.press@gmail.com.
HIGHLIGHTS
* Title: “Age of Cthulhu: Abominations of the Amazon Adventure.”
* Genre: Horror/mystery.
* Publisher: Goodman Games, www.goodman-games.com.
* Title: “Castles & Crusades Quickstart Game and Adventure.”
* Genre: High fantasy.
* Publisher: Troll Lord Games, www.trolllord.com.
* Title: “Dark Sun 4th Edition D&D Adventure.”
* Genre: Post-apocalyptic desert world fantasy.
* Publisher: Wizards of the Coast, www.wizards.com/dnd.
* Title: “Exalted 2nd Edition Quickstart Game & Adventure: Under the Rose.”
* Genre: Epic fantasy.
* Publisher: White Wolf Publishing, www.white-wolf.com/exalted.
* Title: “Legend of the Five Rings 4th Edition RPG Quickstart Game & Adventure.”
* Genre: Asian-themed medieval fantasy.
* Publisher: Alderac Entertainment Group, www.l5r.com.
*Title: “Pathfinder Adventure Module: Master of the Fallen Fortress.”
* Genre: High fantasy.
* Publisher: Paizo Publishing, http://paizo.com.
*Title: “Warhammer 40K Roleplay: Deathwatch Adventure.”
* Genre: Grim outer-space sci-fi.
* Publisher: Fantasy Flight Games, www.fantasyflightgames.com.