Free RPG Day 2009

June 18, 11:06 PMRPG ExaminerMichael Tresca

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Courtesy Q-Workshop.

Saturday, June 20, is Free RPG Day! The goal of Free RPG Day is to get gamers inspired to play a new role-playing, which will in turn create sales through local game stores.

For Free RPG Day, Impressions Advertising & Marketing works with hobby game retailers and role-playing game publishers to bring new rules and adventures into the hands of gamers. Consumers around the globe will be able to grab brand new material for a variety of role-playing games. These aren’t over overstock, retail-priced or dead product items--they’re brand new.

Chessex will be offering a free dice set, including a store sample and commemorative dice with participating store names.

Q-Workshop will also be offering the awesome purple-yellow dice set, pictured at right.  I’m tempted to drop by just to pick up a set for my wife.

Exile Game Studios will offer a free adventure for Hollow Earth, a cinematic pulp role-playing game inspired by the literary works of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Jules Verne, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Fantasy Flight Games will offer a free adventure for Rogue Trader, Forsaken Bounty, based on the Warhammer 40,000 science fantasy setting. Forsaken Bounty is a full-color, 24-page booklet that includes a selection of pre-generated Rogue Trader characters, a simplified quick-start rules set, and an adventure that sends your characters on a dangerous journey into the Koronus Expanse. If you miss your chance to pick up the free booklet on June 20th, Forsaken Bounty will be made available as a PDF download from the Rogue Trader web site after Free RPG Day.

Paizo will offer the Bonus Bestiary. This 16-page supplement is a first look at the upcoming Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and the Pathfinder Bestiary, with more than a dozen menacing monsters. Showcasing the new rules and flexibility of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, this collection of creatures draws from more than 30 years of gaming history. A free PDF and a limited number of copies of the print edition of this product will be available for sale exclusively on paizo.com after Free RPG Day 2009 concludes.

Lone Wolf will offer a special edition of their character creation and management software tool, Hero Lab. It includes a preview of the Cortex System data package.

Mongoose will offer three products: The Troubleshooter Reference Manual for Paranoia, an Introduction to Dragon Warriors, and Grab the Cache for the Corporation role-playing game. 

This year White Wolf fans will be able to delve into the realm of Giest: The Sin-eaters with a complete adventure, including pre-generated characters and all the information the Storyteller needs to run a four hour session in this new product line that is the latest addition to the World of Darkness.

Goodman Games is offering two books: Hero’s Handbook: Immortal Heroes for 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons and Amethyst: Hearts of Chaos, an introductory adventure for the upcoming Amethyst RPG. Hero’s Handbook details nine epic destinies that lead down nine paths to immortality. Some unlock the lost or hidden potential of a hero’s race, while others reveal the brutal and everlasting truths of martial superiority. Amethyst postulates what would occur if a true-to-book fantasy setting was forced upon our real world. Heart of Chaos also has a free online supplement, which includes additional encounters as well as five pregenerated characters using the new classes presented in the final book.  Goodman Games is also offering a set of three coupons,  valid only on Free RPG Day, including one for benefits depending on the roll of a 20-sided die.

Wizards of the Coast will be offering a unique 4th Edition adventure, Khyber's Harvest, written by Keith Baker. In Khyber's Harvest, the 2nd-level characters battle an ancient evil threatening a remote village in the Shadow Marches.

Claymore Entertainment launches the Hero’s Bane Quick-Start and Adventure set. The game is set about two hundred years after a great plaque nearly wiped out human kind, focusing upon the conflict between Darkness and Light. Hero’s Bane includes a simple and easy to learn system that gives players more control over their characters fate.

"Despite it being free to the customer, it was an investment of money, time and resources for us," said David McKenzie-Cole, Vice President Claymore Entertainment, Inc. "Come Free RPG Day, we’re hoping to start getting feedback from people about what they think of the game."

Troll Lord Games will offer a Castles & Crusades quick-start book along with an adventure, the Wizard’s Tower. But far more bizarre is this virtual interview with Steve Chenault from Troll Lord Games.