Three times a year, The Escapist encourages gamers to read an RPG book in public; any book from any RPG, as a way of educating the public that RPGs are fun.

This is called “READ AN RPG BOOK IN PUBLIC WEEK“.

The weeks are “during the weeks surrounding March 4th, July 27th, and October 1st (starting on the Sunday on or before, and ending on the Saturday on or after).”

The rationale for these three dates are: “March 4th was designated as GM’s Day in 2008, and was coincidentally the same day that E. Gary Gygax, the co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, passed away. July 27th is Gygax’s birthday, and October 1st is the birthday of Dave Arneson, the other co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons. It is also common for the American Library Association’s Banned Book Week to happen on or close to this week – and RPG books have been banned from some schools and libraries in the past due to many misunderstandings about their content and nature, which is the exact sort of thing that this event is hoping to clear up. ”

For 2014, this means March 2-8; July 27 – August 2; and September 28 – October 4.