Free RPG day has come and gone yet again, and the lucky people got there swag. Before I go onto the break down of what I got I have to toss out my problem with the whole idea, we're preaching to the converted. Rather than reaching out to non gamers Free RPG day seems to me to be more of a pre-Origins, pre-Gencon demo for too many companies upcoming products. If you want to grow the hobby, why put the material where basically only existing gamers go? I mean admittedly there will be some random people walking in, or the tragic gamer girlfriend dragged along that will see something that catches their eye. And maybe some existing gamers will explore outside their comfort zone (ahem D&D fanatics) but there isn't the access to non gamers that is needed to truly expand.
Anyways, bitching is done.
What I got - Fantasy Flight's Black Crusade, Goodman Games' Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG, Green Ronin's Dragon Age RPG.
Black Crusade - this is my big winner of the day. Black Crusade is FFGs fourth book to its Warhammer 40K rpg trilogy (yes we are going into Douglas Adam territory). What makes Black Crusade different is the characters, as you play Heretics. Now that means its dead easy to do an evil campaign and play soulless evil monsters, but the cool stories will spring from the fact that the appellation Heretic comes from the Imperium, so this could be anyone from a defeatist trooper to someone with a modern day liberal view. All that matters is that your outlook on the world differs from the official views of the Imperium, therefor you are a heretic. This looks EXTREMELY interesting. The adventure is pretty straightforward, but a nice twist on a jail break adventure, but with combat and interaction.
Dragon Age - this has been an rpg Ive been very curious about for quite a while, as Ive heard very good things about game play, and the stunts idea are quite cool. I had thought that the game was a little closer mechanically to traditional d20 games, but its different. Now I have just enough to ponder material to steal. The adventure is actually quite nice, with a mix of combat, exploration and interaction in it. The main reason that this isnt a top marks product is the fact that the back cover talked about Dragon Age boxed set 2 - it has roleplaying and exploration stunts! I want that!
Dungeon Crawl Classic rpg - oh were to start with this. Its not a bad product, but its definitely not what the cover offers. The rules in the booklet are, well nonexistent. You have brief notes on the differences between the system and both old and new school D&D, and a link to the beta document. I guess my bigger problem is with the weird dice it wants to use - I dont understand the point of adding additional dice. Now on the plus side you get two adventures, though both are written to be brutal, and some very cool artwork.
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