Tabletop Role Playing: Adventuring Parties Gather, Despite Covid

By Ian Bonar

The 16th of October saw many Tabletop Role-Playing fans meet at their local hobby shops for Free RPG Day. This event happens once a year where companies promote their latest games by producing what is known as Quick Start rules.

However, due to COVID19, the day was held online last year, which had its own problems. Duncan Connor, owner of the Bus Stop Toy Shop in Largs, said: “Free RPG Day is about much more than playing a game.  It's a coming together of players who get to meet and play alongside new friends as well as catch up with old ones. Everyone did the best they could with the online version of Free RPG Day, but it didn't have the same magic to it that playing in person does.”

Despite being played in stores worldwide, a lot of publishers missed the date to get their products out for Free RPG Day, such as Goodman Games (creators of the old school dungeon crawl game, Dungeon Crawl Classics).

Surprisingly, physical stores closing over the pandemic has not affected the popularity of the hobby – tabletop gaming has seen a rise in participants.

Duncan Connor said: “The pandemic has wound up having a positive impact on tabletop gaming.  The vast majority of TTRPGers moved their gaming online during lockdown.  Additionally, a whole lot of people with time on their hands went looking for new hobbies – a great many of them found ours.

“Now that the world is slowly starting to return to some degree of normality, long-term fans are returning to in-person play, and a whole lot of new players are enjoying playing face-to-face for the first time.”

Duncan feels positive about the future of Free RPG Day, adding: “Hopefully the world will continue to take small steps back.  Let's keep our fingers crossed that by next year, gaming stores around the world are back to operating at their usual capacities and we can have an even bigger and better event.  The logistics of putting a Free RPG Day game out were still tough for many publishers this year, so hopefully we'll see a wider choice of games next year too!”