Free RPG Day is an annual promotional

Promotion (marketing)

Promotion is one of the four elements of marketing mix . It is the communication link between sellers and buyers for the purpose of influencing, informing, or persuading a potential buyer's purchasing decision....

 effort by the North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

n Role-playing game

Role-playing game

A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...

 industry. Inspired by Free Comic Book Day

Free Comic Book Day

Free Comic Book Day is an annual promotional effort by the North American comic book industry to help bring new readers into independent comic book stores. Retailer Joe Field of in Concord, CA brainstormed the event in his "Big Picture" column in the August 2001 issue of Comics & Games Retailer...

, Free RPG Day was started in 2007 and is coordinated worldwide by Impressions Advertising and Marketing. The most recent event was on June 18, 2011.

Participation

Publishers produce quick start adventures geared toward players unfamiliar with the game system or new to tabletop role-playing games in general. The games are distributed worldwide through participating stores.

The 1st annual Free RPG Day (June 23, 2007)

The first annual event in 2007 featured quick start adventures from 16 different publishers:

• Bits of Magicka:Pocket Items
• Black Arrow Run
• Castles & Crusades
  Castles & Crusades
  Castles & Crusades is a role-playing game published by Troll Lord Games in 2004. It was conceived as a reimagining of classic Dungeons & Dragons using streamlined mechanics from third edition Dungeons & Dragons. The game uses many of the d20 System mechanics, but eliminates skills and feats and...
  
   Quick Start Rules
• Changeling: The Lost
  Changeling: The Lost
  Changeling: The Lost is the fifth supplementary role-playing game line published by White Wolf, Inc. It uses the Storytelling System for rules and is set in the new World of Darkness setting...
  
   Free Rules and Adventure
• D0: Hollow's Last Hope / 1st level, Andoran, Darkmoon Vale
• Fisticuffs at O'Leary's Place
• Imperial Town of Tell Qa
• Vajra Enterprises
  Vajra Enterprises
  Vajra Enterprises is a small role-playing game publishing company founded in 2001. Vajra's games have a reputation for taking the conventions of more traditional genres and turning them around, into something familiar yet different. For example, at the beginning of Fates Worse than Death there is a...
  
   / Little Boy Lost
• Mutants & Masterminds Beginner's Guide
• The Pig, the Witch and Her Lover
• Quick Start Cthulhu
  Call of Cthulhu (role-playing game)
  Call of Cthulhu is a horror fiction role-playing game based on H. P. Lovecraft's story of the same name and the associated Cthulhu Mythos.The game, often abbreviated as CoC, is published by Chaosium.-Setting:...
  
  
• Septimus Quickstart
• The Sinister Secret of Whiterock
• Temple of Blood
• Tunnels & Trolls Featuring Goblin Lake Solitaire Adventure
• Xcrawl: Dungeonbattle Brooklyn

The 2nd annual Free RPG Day (June 21, 2008)

The second annual event featured:

• Bloodwood
• Castlemourn
  Castlemourn
  Castlemourn is a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game by Ed Greenwood, published by Margaret Weis Productions, Ltd. The world of Castlemourn lost its past during a cataclysm, and now various races try to find their history.-Setting:Castlemourn is a land searching for its...
  
   Quickstart
• Castles & Crusades
  Castles & Crusades
  Castles & Crusades is a role-playing game published by Troll Lord Games in 2004. It was conceived as a reimagining of classic Dungeons & Dragons using streamlined mechanics from third edition Dungeons & Dragons. The game uses many of the d20 System mechanics, but eliminates skills and feats and...
  
   Quick Start Rules 2008
• D1.5: Revenge of the Kobold King // 5th level, Andoran, Darkmoon Vale, kobolds
• Field of Daises; Heirs to Olympia
• Hollow Earth Expedition
  Hollow Earth Expedition
  Hollow Earth Expedition is a pulp 1930s role-playing game set in the fictitious Hollow Earth, published by Exile Game Studio. The game has been nominated for several Origins and ENnie awards since its release in 2006....
  
   Free RPG Day Adventure
• Hunter: The Vigil
  Hunter: The Vigil
  Hunter: The Vigil is a game line from White Wolf, announced on January 2, 2008, and released on August 14, 2008, when the sponsors for the second Free RPG Day were announced. It is the sixth game line to be part of the World of Darkness and the spiritual successor of Hunter: The Reckoning from the...
  
   Free Rules And Adventure
• Murder at Miskatonic
• The Murderer of Thomas Fell
• Punjar: The Tarnished Jewel
• A Song of Ice and Fire
  A Song of Ice and Fire
  A Song of Ice and Fire is a series of epic fantasy novels by American novelist and screenwriter George R. R. Martin. Martin began writing the series in 1991 and the first volume was published in 1996. Originally planned as a trilogy, the series now consists of five published volumes; a further two...
  
   Roleplaying Quickstart
• StarSIEGE
  Starsiege
  Starsiege is a mecha-style vehicle simulation game developed by Dynamix and released in 1999. Starsiege is set in the Metaltech/Earthsiege universe, which contains its predecessors Earthsiege , Battledrome , and Earthsiege 2 , as well as action game Hunter Hunted , strategy games Mission Force:...
  
  : Event Horizon Introductory Manual
• Take the Money
• Traveller
  Traveller (role-playing game)
  Traveller is a series of related science fiction role-playing games, the first published in 1977 by Game Designers' Workshop and subsequent editions by various companies remaining in print to this day. The game was inspired from such classic science fiction stories as the Dumarest saga series by...
  
   Book 0: An Introduction to Traveller
• Treasure of Talon Pass.

The 3rd annual Free RPG Day (June 20, 2009)

Games included in the third Free RPG Day event were:

• Bonus Bestiary
• Citizen's Guide to Surviving Alpha Complex
• Dragon Warriors Introductory Book
• Forsaken Bounty
• Geist: The Sin-Eaters
  Geist: The Sin-Eaters
  Geist: The Sin-Eaters is a tabletop roleplaying game and setting for White Wolf Game Studio's World of Darkness line released in August 2009. "Geist", in this context, refers to a spirit to whom a human who has died, binds, resulting in a Sin-Eater....
  
   Free Quickstart Rules and Adventure
• Grab the Cache
• Hollow Earth Expedition
  Hollow Earth Expedition
  Hollow Earth Expedition is a pulp 1930s role-playing game set in the fictitious Hollow Earth, published by Exile Game Studio. The game has been nominated for several Origins and ENnie awards since its release in 2006....
  
   Free RPG Day Adventure 2009
• The Ice Temple
• Immortal Heroes / Hearts of Chaos
• Items Evolved: Rituals
• Khyber's Harvest
• Mythical Monstrosities
• Oracle of Orcas Exploit

The 4th annual Free RPG Day (June 19, 2010)

• Abomination of the Amazon
• Bloodsand Arena
• Castles & Crusades
  Castles & Crusades
  Castles & Crusades is a role-playing game published by Troll Lord Games in 2004. It was conceived as a reimagining of classic Dungeons & Dragons using streamlined mechanics from third edition Dungeons & Dragons. The game uses many of the d20 System mechanics, but eliminates skills and feats and...
  
  2010 Quick Start Rules
• Dead Weight
• The Dread Pirate Aldo
• Final Sanction
• Heroes Forever Free RPG Day Package
• Legacy of Disaster
• Master of the Fallen Fortress [1st level, Absalom]
• A Nightmare at the Museum
• Roll d-Infinity: The Shape of Things to Come
• Under the Rose

The 5th annual Free RPG Day (June 18, 2011)

• Prime Directive Adventure "Starship Aldo" (both d20 & GURPS)
• XDM Adventure: "Laser Squid Nemesis"
• Dice Tower
• Commerative Dice For Store Owner
• All Flesh Must Be Eaten Quickstart & Adventure
• Hollow Earth Expedition Quickstart & Adventure
• Black Crusade Quickstart and Adventure
• Tunnels & Trolls solo adventure "Rescue Mission" and GM adventure "Riverboat Adventure"
• DCC RPG Quickstart
• DragonAge Quickstart
• "We Be Goblins!" Pathfinder Adventure
• Arcanis RPG Quickstart & Adventure
• Savage Worlds Quickstart & Adventure, titled "The Wild Hunt"
• Unique Elven-themed Dice
• Aspect Quickstart Adventure
• Castles & Crusades Quickstart and Adventure
• Stellar Horizons Quickstart
• World of Darkness Quickstart
• "Domain of Dread: Histhaven" Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition Supplement to the box set "The Shadowfell: Gloomwrought and Beyond"
• Free Bonus Item, Settlers of Catan: Catanimal Variant rules (single page paper insert)