#FreeRPGDay, Take Three

Back in June, I lamented the lack of proper same-day participating of #FreeRPGDay in my general area, due to conflicting events at stores.  I eventually found a cool store that was participating and added it to my future travels.  

As a follow-up, my one local store, Sword in the Stone Games had rescheduled their #FreeRPGDay events for a week late, only to have the entire shopping mall they're located in shut down for more than a week due to electrical infrastructure issues.  

Yesterday, the store finally had their day, and I must laugh, I swung in to check out the swag, and was grateful I store two sets of dice in the console of the car.

First, a huge shout-out to the store for ordering two kits of materials.  I did not get to see the variety of items at the store I visited in June, because it was already mid-day by the time I found them.  I showed up three hours into the event, and there was an immense and diverse selection of everything, with no limits.  

In something that I appreciated even more, their large open gaming space was dominated by multiple 2-hour free RPG sessions for a variety of systems... beyond the two long-term games hidden in designated RPG space. 

Friend of the blog, friend of Mepacon, and employee of Sword in the Stone, James Burns was running events, so I fell into his table, and after 16 years, finally played a game of Pathfinder. 

My winged kobold rogue... who had more bite than the image's inspiration lent to the pre-gen.

To dive into a high-level pathfinder adventure was a little intimidating, and although the bonuses had already been collected for reference, I was referencing three pages of special abilities, and four spots to confirm how many dice I rolled for damage (note to self, it maxed out a 6d6+5).   We did manage to defeat the dragon, even if, for a moment, I decided to essentially leap into the dragon's mouth and stay there for a few rounds.

The thing under the dragon's jaw is me! 

I was already there, so I transitioned into the next event, a Delta Green game.    I played the original, I helped playtest the current game rules, and I do own the book, so it was fun to revisit it with a clean-up operation when an agent from the 60s finally passed away.  There was a lot of gasoline, my FBI medical examiner bruised his sternum with a drill, and it was amusing that all the players assumed they were driving sedans, with almost catastrophic consequences.  

Huge shout-out to Sword in the Stone, for the extra kit of material.  By the time I left at dinner, I had ten freebies (two duplicates from June) and received two packs of Reaper minis as a participation award.  

I'm hoping scheduling and mall infrastructure doesn't interfere with next year's events, because it was really well run.