There's nothing in this world that's quite as cool as getting a freebie, particularly as a gamer. Sometimes (rarely) I get promotional items from folks, oftentimes gifts from family, and then occasionally stuff just sort of falls from the sky and lands in my lap, so to speak. I'd like to take a minute to rave about that last item, and give a few choice examples.

Back in January, I purchased a gift with some Birthday money. The FLGS had a copy of the TSR 25th Anniversary Boxed Set, a compilation of items that consisted of B2 Keep on the Borderlands, G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief, G2 Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl, G3 Hall of the Fire Giant King, S2 White Plume Mountain, I6 Ravenloft, the previously unpublished L3 Deep Dwarven Delve, a copy of Basic D&D - the version edited by Dr. Eric J. Holmes, plus a booklet titled "The Story of TSR", a glossed over outline of the history of TSR with a forward by Gary Gygax.

Quite a bit of stuff in that box, and with B2 and the D&D Basic Rulebook, one might make the argument that it was a complete RPG ready to play...! Except, of course, it cost $50. But unfortunately for me, my copy had a peculiar flaw: there was no "G1" included. Merely two copies of "G2". I emailed Wizards of the Coast and, predictably, they couldn't help me. The Silver Anniversary set had been printed in a quantity of 5000 copies, and only in 1999 (25th anniversary, you see).

So I was stuck without a "G1". Or was I? When I mentioned the set's contents over on the dragonsfoot.org message boards, a fellow "'footer" by the name of Mike Stewart dropped me a casual note that he had a copy of G1 (pastel cover) that he'd part with for...absolutely nothing. That's right, Mike gave me his copy of G1. He later mentioned in a discussion thread that it was the first D&D module he'd ever purchased. In short order he mailed it to me, and I now have a complete "Silver Anniversary" set.

Mike, thank you. Thank you very, very much.

Another fine example came at the recent RECON'04 show. A little less "lasting" but absolutely no less heartfelt. After a protracted setup and long start, into the 1st Edition AD&D game I asked if we could pause while I got some dinner. Without missing a beat, Beka Lukomski gathered up cash from all of my players and got me dinner so I could stay at the table, DMing the evening away. For that I am very, very grateful to Beka and everyone who participated at my game. And lest I sound less than equal-opportunity in my thanks, I'd like to thank Gregg Lukomski for prodding me in to running the game in the first place. I had no idea that a 1st Edition AD&D game would be such a smashing success!

An additional big dual thanks to my wife, Colleen and her co-worker Jeremy Myers. Jeremy recently went to a Friends of the Library sale in Gainesville, Florida and bought some D&D books he thought I might be interested in. Oh boy, how right he was. For what Jeremy got for me was nothing less than Men & Magic, The Underground and Wilderness Adventures and Supplement I: Greyhawk! Colleen was kind enough to bring 'em home to me. That, dear readers, is cool beyond all coolness.

So what's all this about then? It's about the need for community amongst us hobbyists. Right now, I feel that a renaissance is going on in role-playing. The d20 steamroller seems to have (predictably) ground to a halt under it's own weight, and folks are ready to play something different. My experience at RECON'04 (to be written of in a later article) is proof positive: eight strangers, one DM, and AD&D and not a single complaint about lack of feats, etc.! What we can do to support each other, friends, is remember that we're all we have at the moment. So...if you know of a fellow gamer at a table who needs a little something, perhaps a module you've got a spare of, or an assist getting a game together or whatever...do the right thing. Play it forward, and it'll come back to you ten-fold.

-TDD