Free RPG Day '10

So today was the fourth Free RPG Day. And, it was actually the first time I'd been in a shop for Free RPG Day since '07. (I think.) That first year I went to Games of Berkeley and saw a stack of Free RPG books rather negligently tossed onto a signless table and given almost no support. The next year I ordered a few books I particularly wanted from Noble Knight. In '09 I got some choice books weeks later from EndGame because they'd overstocked, after ignoring the day of the event.

This year, we were planning to run Traveller at EndGame, and I was somewhat eager to watch over the store as we played, to see people come in for their loot and head out happy.

Sadly, I was disappointed in that at least. It appears that the story of Free RPG Day is now that of an early morning rush to the shop to pick up all the LOOTZ, because some of it is in such short supply. By the time I got there at 1pm EndGame had already gone through almost two-thirds of its stock, and thus while we were gaming, in the afternoon, things were pretty quiet.

(I did pick up some fun loot, myself, including the newest Pathfinder and Dungeons & Dragons adventures, but never mind that.)

Chris and I talked some about Free RPG Day, and I expressed that it was sad that stores weren't encouraged to really push the products. With so many quick starts, and the material usually showing up a couple of weeks early, it just seems to be begging for GMs to come and run everything, but you don't see it at most shops (though I've heard of a couple).

Chris pointed out something that I'd never realized: the shops don't actually get any support material. They get the free materials (which they pay for), but no posters, windows signs, or other things to really highlight the event. So, I think a lot of loot goes out to store faithful--and system faithful--and so stores can treat it as a sort of loyalty program, but I'm not convinced its doing much to expand the hobby in any way shape or form.

Better than nothing? Maybe. It's surely nice to have a day where some large number of people are really excited about RPing.

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In any case, we played Traveller today, and it was good. I had a group of 5 players (though Dave S. was a couple of hours late). I got to run the one-page adventure that I wrote up a month ago, and I thought my shorter prep time largely paid off. The adventure wasn't quite as smooth as my longer writeups, but I learned that my biggest problems were weapon and armor stats, and I could put a chart together to improve that.

It looks like we get to RP again next week, which would make three weeks in a row, which is the best we've done all year.

Woot?

The Colorado Kid, by Stephen King

So a few weeks ago I discovered that the Siffy ("SyFy") channel had a new summer offering called Haven. I got excited when I discovered it was based on a Stephen King novella called The Colorado Kid and that the TV show was being produced by the novella's publisher, Hard Case Crime editor Charles Ardai. I'd previously read three of the very pulpy Hard Case Crime novels, the three written by Charles Ardai, and two of those were superb (and the third intriguing and clever).

So, I ordered a copy of The Colorado Kid from the library and finished it a couple of days ago.

It's a nice little story, definitely one of the strong King works from the last few decades. It's a very quiet piece, set on an island near Maine that centers on three people talking about an old unsolved crime. It's really a story about questions, not answers, that sets up an intriguing situation and then invites you to think about it yourself.

And it doesn't have a bit of science-fiction in it (as for whether it contains "syfy", who can say)--though the TV show is said to be a supernatural drama.

In anyc ase, the novella was definitely worth reading. I don't know how much mileage the TV show will get out of it, except as a snapshot of a rural Maine community, but I'm still interested in the show too, based largely on Ardai's involvement.