Rolling for Initiative is a weekly column by Scott Thorne, PhD, owner of Castle Perilous Games & Books in Carbondale, Illinois and instructor in marketing at Southeast Missouri State University.  This week, Thorne talks about the similarities and differences between International TableTop Day, Free Comic Book Day and FreeRPG Day.

After reading my column from a couple of weeks ago (see "Rolling for Initiative—Quick Six TableTop Day"), a reader sent an email asking how International TableTop Day (ITTD) compares to Free Comic Book Day (FCBD) and FreeRPG Day (FRPGD).  Here are my takes on the similarities and differences.

1.  Focus.  All three days feature event-specific giveaways for customers, comics on FCBD, RPG supplements on FRPGD and mostly board game-related items for ITTD.  In the case of FRPGD and FCBD, the event focuses on the giveaways, while ITTD focuses more on playing games.  Retailers participating in FRPGD and FCBD usually schedule events to complement the giveaway, such as costume or drawing contests, creator appearances, or RPG demos, but make no mistake, the focus is the free books, with customers often visiting a number of stores during the day in order to complete sets of comics or get promo items (or to get extras to sell online).  While customers tend to visit and leave during FRPGD and FCBD, attendees at ITTD often spend several hours playing different games.  With ITTD, the focus is on playing, with the promotional items as more of an afterthought.  In fact, stores do not even have to have promos in order participate in ITTD as indicated in…

2.  Registration.  Stores may register as an official TableTop Day venue free of charge.  There is no fee to appear on the website.  In order to appear as an official FCBD or FRPGD venue, stores must purchase a specific quantity of promotional comics or RPG supplements.  Purchasing a certain number of comics or a FRPGD kit automatically registers the store on the respective website, where stores can list…

3. Events.  Actually, stores can list events on both the ITTD and FCBD websites, though I have heard of stores having problems getting events to appear on the site in both cases.  The FRPGD website does not have a similar area, making it incumbent on the stores to get the word out about any events.  Most stores run events tied into FCBD or FRPGD such as costume or drawing contests, as noted above, but the main draw is the free items, with the events creating more excitement about the day.  With ITTD, the events are the focus and a number of stores this year opted to run events as a sanctioned venue without any of the official promos, perfectly in line with the philosophy of the event, meaning no…

4. Costs.  Retailers receive none of the official promotional items for free.  For ITTD and FRPGD, stores buy kits, either "standard" or "premium," containing a given number of promotional items.  They may purchase multiple kits and may mix kits but get the same items in each type of kit.  Stores must buy a kit to get listed as a FRPGD store but not for ITTD.  For FCBD, retailers much purchase a specific number of books from the Gold Sponsors and can then buy as many more of the Gold, Silver or Bronze books as they wish.  A minimal purchase for any of the three Days runs between $50 and $100 but stores can spend hundreds or even $1000s increasing…

5. Quantities.  For ITTD and FRPGD, as noted above, stores can only purchase kits, each containing a specific number of promotional items.  The only way to increase the number of promotional items to give away is to purchase multiple kits, resulting in the store receiving promotional items for products it does not carry.  For FCBD, once the store meets the minimum required Gold quantities purchase, stores may increase their purchase of Gold Sponsor books and purchase as many or as few books from the other sponsors as they choose.  If a retailer does not think a particular book would appeal to its customers, as long as it is not a Gold book, the store can opt not to purchase it.  Ergo, customers don’t find consistent quantities of comics from one store to another, while with ITTD and FRPGD, stores get all the promos, but are unable to increase quantities of items they think will appeal to their customers and cut those items they don’t.

So there you have it, similarities and differences among the three major "store-focused" events of the year.  For most comic retailers, FCBD is one of the top sales days of the year, while ITTD and FRPGD do not generate anywhere near that sort of revenue for most game stores.  Why not?  Topic for a future column.

The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.