I’m well aware that this upcoming Saturday is Free RPG Day. I’m also well aware that I have to work this Saturday (which is odd for me), so I probably won’t even have a chance to hit a game store at all, let alone in time to pick up any free goodies.

Ah well. Such is life. Last year’s Free RPG Day was a pretty heavy bust for me, and trying to do the day justice and review all of the material is something that my life has made unfeasible at this point.

I’d love to get my hands on one of the d6 that they put out, but I just don’t see that happening.

Everyone go out and enjoy the day and get some free goodies. Most importantly: While you’re at the store snagging some swag, make sure to do some shopping and buy something that catches your eye!

For the past few years, I’ve participated in Free RPG Day as a collector and reviewer of materials. I’ve done this for the past five years, and reviewed almost everything (I fell short last year) I collected each year.

It didn’t happen this year. *sigh*

I was evacuated from my home due to the Black Forest Fire, and was in the middle of returning home for most of Saturday. This meant I had zero chance to hit my FLGS and pick up the Free RPG Day offerings.

I have found a Google Doc that lists the PDF offerings. I’ll download those and review them when I get a chance to do so.

At least I’ll get a little bit of reviewing done from Free RPG Day!

One of the items I picked up from Petrie’s Family Games for Free RPG Day 2012 was the Map of Harn. The front side of the poster-sized paper is a suh-weet map of the island of Harn. I’ll admit that I’ve never played in the realms of Lythia before even though I own quite a few PDFs that I bought years ago. I’ve just never managed to make the time to read through all of the goods I have to see what it’s like. The map really inspires me to break out those PDFs and see what else I can discover in there!

The back-side of the map is a brief overview of some of the nations, races, cultures and guilds that can be found in Harn. It’s very obvious there is much more information available in the full products than what can be found in the freebie. Once I’m done reviewing the various materials I picked up (and Reign and Birthright) I may dig up those Harn PDFs I own and review them. We’ll see how things go.

Grade: A+ — This freebie really demonstrates the depth and breadth of thought that went into the island of Harn and deeply hints at what can be found in the full products. Good job, Columbia Games!

I’m finally going through the loot I picked up at Petrie’s Family Games last month. Life has settled back down to a state of semi-normalcy. I’ll be posting two reviews per week until I’m through the materials. That gives me 4 1/2 weeks of posts. I have eight physical items to review, and I’ve managed to track down one PDF of something I missed out on. I’m still searching for the rest. If I find them, I’ll add them to the queue for review.

I’m not sure just yet what order I’ll be reviewing the items. I guess it depends on what I grab off the top of the stack.

Oh. I’ll also be reviewing Reign, which I picked up from Petrie’s as well. That’ll come after all of the other material. Once I’m caught up with the Free RPG Day goodies, I’ll jump back into Birthright.

I ran by Petrie’s this morning and managed to come away with the following items:

• A Time of War: BattleTech RPG/Shadowrun Quickstart flipbook
• Cosmic Patrol RPG Quickstart
• Harn setting material with world map
• Conspiracy X Quickstart & Adventure
• Warhammer 40K Roleplay Only War Adventure, “Eleventh Hour”
• Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG Quickstart & Adventure
• Pathfinder Adventure, Dawn of the Scarlet Sun
• D&D 4E Adventure, “Dead in the Eye”

There are a few items that had so few in the box, they were already gone by the time I managed to get there. I’m hoping the following things will be released in PDF format somewhere on the Internet. I haven’t searched yet for the PDFs, but if someone wants to leave me a comment pointing me to a PDF, I’d be eternally grateful. Here are the items I’m missing:

• “Slavers of the Sunken Garden”, Pathfinder Adventure
• Pathfinder, “Shadowsfall: Temple of Orcus”
• NeoExodus Pathfinder Adventure
• Brass & Steel Quickstart
• Castles & Crusades Adventure

I’ll post images of my haul a little later when I get a chance to drag out the camera.

Oh. One other thing. I picked up Reign by Greg Stolze in hardcover. I’ve seen it floating about the shop for a while, and I finally took the plunge to pick it up. I’ll review it along with the rest of the Free RPG Day goodies.

Free RPG Day is coming up soon! Oh. Wait. It’s tomorrow! 

If you haven’t found an FLGS to assist you in acquiring some wonderful freebies, then head here.

If you’re not sure what’s being given away, you can check the main Free RPG Day site, and the front page has a list of materials you can pick up, depending on what level your FLGS signed up for.

Last year, I had some trouble finding a truly friendly FLGS, but Petrie’s Family Games came through for me!

I’ve already contacted Petrie’s again this year, and they’re willing to hook me up with the goods again this year. Score!

I can’t wait for tomorrow to get here to see what kind of quality work I can pick and how I can expand my already-lengthy RPG wish list. Last year, I also ran into a good friend of mine that I’d not seen for over a year at Petrie’s. I wonder who I’ll run into again this year?

May all of you find a quality FLGS that will hook you up with some RPG goodness tomorrow.

PS: Just a kind request from me on behalf of your FLGS… Don’t just walk in, mooch some free stuff and walk out. While you’re there, do some shopping! Buy something! It’s the only way they’ll stay in business. You want that, right? Right?!?

How was the overall offering for this year’s Free RPG Day? Very excellent, I must say. The highest grade was A+ and the lowest was C-. A good range and none were failing scores. Most of the books from this year received at least an A- or higher.

Here’s the breakdown of the final grades in the order that I reviewed them:
We Be Goblins (Pathfinder) / A-
Rescue Mission (Tunnels & Trolls) / A
Dragon Age Quickstart Guide / A+
Broken Chains (Black Crusade) / A-
Histaven (D&D) / C-
Hollow Earth Expedition / A+
Aspect / B-
Arcanis / A+
The Waking Dead (AFMBE) / A-
Castles & Crusades / A
A Day Late, A Shilling Short (WFRP) / C-
Prime Directive / B
Dungeon Crawl Classics / A
Final Sanction (Deathwatch) / A
Under the Rose (Exalted) / B-
A Nightmare at Hill Manor (WoD) / A+

I want to extend my most heartfelt thanks and gratitude to the organizers of Free RPG Day and the participating publishers. I may have been a little harsh on some of you at times, but I do thank each and every single one of you for giving me the chance to review the materials you worked on with every last drop of your blood, sweat and tears. Keep up the good work, everyone!

The average grade point average for this year’s Free RPG Day came out at 3.41375 on a 4.0 scale. That’s a solid ‘A’ grade, there.

Again, thanks to everyone participating in Free RPG Day (organizers, publishers, consumers, readers, commenters, players and everyone else.) I hope see you here again between now and next year’s Free RPG Day as I start reviewing various RPG materials that I come across. Of course, I’ll still keep on doing the Friday Five offerings as well.

Enjoy!