Free RPG Day 2016

    This marks my third year attending Free RPG Day at my FLGS over in Fowlerville. My goal before hand this year was to spread the word the best I could across social media and word of mouth to try and draw as much attention to what I feel is something that is important to our hobby.

    I went out early around noon just after they opened for the day and spent some time talking with a couple of the other DM's who signed up to run tables for the day. I was slotted in at 5 to run a S&W adventure and pretty much every one else was running this years version of the pathfinder goblin adventure. When the OK was given I collected just the few things that I wanted to have this year (the DCC adventure combo and the lamentations of the flame princess slugs bestiary) making sure that there would be plenty for any one else coming in and sat down for the first game of the day.

    I don't really play pathfinder short of at FRPGD mostly because I prefer to DM and I prefer the old school method of adventuring. This is ok because our DM was new and my fellow adventuring companions are also experienced AD&D players we regularly broke away from the conventions of what was wrote out in the adventure and ad-libbed and on the spot ruled quite a bit. I played the bomb throwing goblin who absolutely loved finding random junk because I found a use for pretty much anything I found and made more then my fair share of improvised explosives (nothing makes me happier then finding a barrel of grain alcohol, several empty glass bottles, and plenty of cloth to create Molotov cocktails) along with throwing salt all over an enemy and watching their donkey chase them all around trying to lick them (I was aiming for their eyes but the DM found his stride and just went with it). When it was all said and done we burned down a gnome wedding, blew up alot of stuff, got high off some cake, and returned as heroes of our tribe. All in all I think it went pretty well and we helped a new DM find out that it is ok to deviate from what is written and just have fun with the game (which was a big win in my book).

    Sadly being in a smaller area and being Father's Day weekend no one showed up for my 5pm game but that is OK. The point is to show up and show support not just for your game of choice but to support others as well. I might not regularly play Pathfinder but I wouldn't want to see it go away either. The hobby is about getting together, making friends, and adventuring and that goal was accomplished as well as supporting the local FLGS which sadly in our age of Amazon and Ebay, they get under-appreciated. I like having a place that is fairly close to me that has room to play, a shop owner who is receptive to what I am looking for both all facets of tabletop gaming, and regularly has interesting stock showcased that I might not have seen else where. Some times yes this means paying more then what I would have if I got some of the same things online but to keep game shops around who support our hobby I feel that extra 2 or 3 dollars I spent is going to something more worth while.


    Side note: Thanks to Shawn at Game Links for hooking me up with the awesome mimic dice bag (at a very reasonable price too I might add) as shown below. I love being able to zip up my dice and not have them make the great escape!