It's good to see a few events come back on the calendar in the wake of the announced cancellations of events such as Gen Con (see "Gen Con Officially Cancelled for 2020 Over COVID-19 Concerns ") and the Essen Game Fair (see "Essen Game Fair Canceled") not to mention most of the pro level Magic events for the year (see "Wizards of the Coast Announces Major Changes To Competitive Level 'Magic: The Gathering' Events"). No word yet on what will happen to Free Comic Book Day, but Free RPG Day has moved from its traditional third Saturday of June to July 25 this year (see "Free RPG Day Rescheduled for July"). Stores will also see the introduction of the new DCC Day this year which was scheduled for May, but due to the COVID-19 shutdown, it got bumped back to the weekend of June 11-14 with in store giveaways and limited edition products available on June 13 and an online convention running the 11th through the 14th.
As a store owner, I'm more interested in the brick-and-mortar component of DCC Day which primarily involves purchasing a DCC Kit that includes a DCC day edition of the Dungeon Crawl Classics Quick Start Rules, the DCC Day 2020 Adventure Pack, which contains a new module with three brand-new adventures inside. DCC: Expedition to Algol by Julian Bernick, DCC Lankhmar: The Heist by Harley Stroh, and Mutant Crawl Classics: Ruins of Future Past by Tim Callahan, both of which are designed to be given free to customers. Also included is the limited edition first level Shadow of the Beakmen module, designed for retailers to offer for sale to help them recoup the cost of the kit and 2 copies of a limited edition "Angry Hugh" hardback copy of the DCC core rulebook also designed to help recover the cost of the kit.
My past experience has shown there are enough DCC players around that there will be demand for the Beakman module, even if the number of DCC players in the local area doesn't justify hosting the event. Despite Goodman Games’ somewhat optimistic view that DCC players will embark on road trips for the limited edition items, based on past experience, stores will have to list the extra items for sale online as players likely won't drive a significant distance just to get one of the limited offerings, and with 90 stores signed up to participate nationwide thus far, there'll be quite significant distances between stores participating in the event.
A couple of comments:
- While the pitch for DCC Day to retailers says that the focus of the event is on the exclusive products only available at retailers participating in DCC Day, most of the promotion on the Goodman Games website is focused on driving attendees to the four day online component of the event.
- The store locator could use an upgrade. The addition of a searchable component would help people looking for stores near them. Even alphabetizing the listings by state instead of by store name would help a little bit. If I live in Missouri, I would like to know what stores in Missouri and surrounding states are participating
I am glad to see Goodman Games sponsoring an event like this, and I hope it is the first of many DCC Day events.
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.