40K 10th Edition

 At Adepticon this weekend, Games Workshop announced the 10th edition of Warhammer 40,000, releasing this summer, likely at Origins or Gencon. Since the first edition released back in 1987, the industry has seen a new edition release about every 5 years. For those counting, that is about double the number of releases for D&D over a far longer time frame.

BattleTech

 If you are a Battletech player, we recently got in a collection of scenario books from the 1980s and 1990s, Some of them, such as Cranston Snord's Irregulars and More Tales of the Black Widow are more expensive and listed in our eBay store. Less expensive books like Lostech are in the Battletech section of our Used games

Game Store Classification

 

A big problem for game stores with social media has always been classification. Sites like Facebook, Google+ and Yelp do not have a category for “Tabletop Game Store” or most of the time even “Game Store”. The closest we generally get is “Video Game Store” or “Hobby Store” or “Book Store”. It’s enough to make a store feel unwanted and unloved. Give the amount of searching that is done by people looking for a game store on places like Google, Yelp and Facebook, not having such a category makes it that much harder for potential customers to find us. The “ comic book store” classification does help those stores that carry both games and comic books, but quite a large number of game stores specialize in that area to the exclusion of the other and the ones that don’t care comics would do themselves no favors by listing themselves in that category, only to have to put off customers who come in looking for comics. Same problem with using the “video game store” category. It is fair to say that there are a lot more video game stores than there are tabletop game stores (though probably far fewer as more video gaming moves to mobile platforms) but listing a store in the video game category would just disappoint customers coming in looking for video games.

New Age of Sigmar Releases

 The following will release for Age of Sigmar on March 25th. We will only order one or none of these as Age of Sigmar new releases move extremely slowly. If you are interested in any of them, please pre-order

VANGUARD: BLADES OF KHORNE

BLADES OF KHORNE: REALMGORE RITUALIST

VANGUARD: HEDONITES OF SLAANESH

HEDONITES OF SLAANESH: LORD OF HUBRIS

BATTLETOME: BLADES OF KHORNE (ENG)

BATTLETOME: BLADES OF KHORNE (FRE)

WARSCROLL CARDS: BLADES OF KHORNE (ENG)

WARSCROLL CARDS: BLADES OF KHORNE (FRE)

BATTLETOME: HEDONITES OF SLAANESH (ENG)

BATTLETOME: HEDONITES OF SLAANESH (FRE)

AGE OF SIGMAR: BLADES OF KHORNE DICE SET

AGE OF SIGMAR:HEDONITES OF SLAANESH DICE

WARBOSS (ROYAL HARD BACK) ENGLISH

Chris Clairmont's Greatest Mistake

 during the X-men's 60th Annviersary Event, Chris Clairmont said the biggest mistake he ever made, at least in the field of comics, was starting crossover events. The first x-men corssover events proved so successful that the powers that be at Marvel kept asking for more of them. Clairmont said the plan was to have the event, go back to normal and then, maybe in a few years, have another one. Marvel's top brass saw what crossovers did for sales and kept asking for more. 

St Patrick's Day

 On St. Patrick's Day, Castle Perilous Games is a no-pinch zone. However, for every $25 you spend on Magic that day, you may select one green Magic card.

Incredibly Awesome Kid Day

 March 15 is Incredibly Awesome Kid Day so bring your incredibly Awesome Kid in and we will give them a free Pokemon Prize Pack. Limit one per kid but you can get more for every $25 you spend on Pokemon

Lost Art Card

 We have a limited quantity of  the new Lost Art Card for Yu Gi Oh!:  Traptrix Genlisia. You may have one with each $30 you spend on sealed Yu Gi Oh product.

D&D Documentaries

 

Did you know there were a couple of documentaries about D&D in the process of getting made? Me either, at least not until a couple of days ago.  The first one, Dungeons & Dragons: A Documentary is produced by Westpaw Films /Iconoscope Films and funded through Kickstarter back in 2012. The company plans to release the finished film this year, coinciding with the 40^th anniversary of the original Dungeons & Dragons game. From the Kickstarter page for this film:

2014 marks the 40th anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons, a game that is, simply put, a cultural phenomenon.

Whether you know it or not, you may be playing Dungeons & Dragons. Any computer game you play, any role-playing game you play, any online profile you fill out, have their elements and DNA rooted in Dungeons & Dragons. It's a game that has had far-lasting, powerful and yet subtle influence in our culture. 

From its humble beginnings in a basement in Lake Geneva, WI, D&D was created by a group of game enthusiasts and game designers. The story of D&D and its creation spans four decades and is a complicated, heart-breaking story. Imagine "The Social Network", the creation of Facebook, but no one ends up rich. This is a cautionary tale of an empire built by friends and lost through betrayal, enmity, poor management, hubris and litigation.

Dungeons & Dragons is a game beloved by its fans. A game that brings family and friends together, creates communities, societies and sub-cultures. D&D teaches. We have heard countless stories of gamers who have delved deeper, studying history, language, science and math purely for the desire to be better players. Gamers have created lifelong friendships because of this game and come in all walks of life; firefighters, educators, computer programmers, entrepreneurs, and yes, even a few documentary film-makers.

Sounds good, right? Well, not so fast. Here comes Fantasy Game Films with their documentary The Great Kingdom. Yep, you guess it, they have a Kickstarter too (but don’t plan to release until July 2015):

In 1969, GARY GYGAX, a family man and an insurance underwriter with an entrepreneurial mind meets DAVE ARNESON, an idle, yet brilliant game designer. Their collaboration would change the world, their families and themselves.

This is the remarkable true life story of the rise and fall of Gary Gygax, Dave Arneson and the people behind the creation of the epic role-playing game, Dungeons & Dragons.

THE GREAT KINGDOM explores the personalities behind the game and the families they engendered. This is the saga of the people who brought a company from its humble basement beginnings and transformed it to a multi-million dollar corporation. A story for our time that parallels the rise, fall and redemption of Steve Jobs and echoes the who-invented-what question of the creation of Facebook.

The story of families, both blood and personal bond, affected by the success of the game, a game that brought joy to millions and heartbreak to its creators. What happens to these individuals as they weather through the success; the excess, the betrayals, the downfalls and eventual redemptions, all takes place in THE GREAT KINGDOM.

It gets even better though, as it appears the makers of The Great Kingdom worked on D&D:  A Documentar, as Iconoscope Films, before creative differences led to a parting of the ways. Again, from The Great Kingdom’s Kickstarter page:

Some of you may know James and myself from a different D&D documentary project that was started on Kickstarter a couple of years ago. As projects like this go and part of the nature of filmmaking, there were creative differences that led to our new direction and separation from the previous project.

We started from scratch, raising private funds and some of our own to get us to this point. We knew there was an amazing story to tell. And like any complicated story, there will always be room for different interpretations.

So, to those who helped support the previous documentary, we would like to offer a digital, downloadable copy of THE GREAT KINGDOM for FREE. It's our small way of thanking you for your support and patience. All you need to do is email us and there will be a copy waiting for you when the film is done.

Now, Westpaw Films, the original producers of the D&D: A Documentary film is now suing Fantasy Game Films. From the complaint, Westpaw is suing the company for:

usurping D&D Production opportunities through the actions of Pascal and Sprattley (FantasyGame Films)

who were secretly competing with the D&D Production by planning and undertaking to produce

a different Dungeons & Dragons documentary referred to as “The Great Kingdom”

This will drag out the production of both for the forseeable future.

Meanwhile, if you want to watch a D&D documentary, PBS, surprisingly, has a pair of them.  Can Dungeons and Dragons Make You Confident and Successful? runs on PBS’ Idea Channel while you can find Dungeons & Dragons and the Influence of Tabletop RPGs at PBS’ Off Book. You will be able to see these much more quickly than either of the competing D&D documentaries, I’d wager.

Pokemon Prize Packs

 We received a number of Pokemon Prize Packs so are giving one away with each $25 spent on Pokemon product or for playing in our Saturday afternoon Pokemon league at 1 p.m.  We willnot have the league tomorrow due to roof repairs and the possiblity of people in the bak getting hit with some debris.

St Patrick's Day

 No pinching on St. Patrick's Day, at least not here. Castle Perilous will be designated a pinch-free zone. However, fear not. Instead, for each $25 you spend on Magic, you may pick one green Magic promo card from the selection we offer you.

The Nasty

 New horror comic coming from Vault. We will stock the book but are taking pre-orders as well if  you want a copy held. You  can see a video from the creators talking about the book here

Scotland, 1994. 18 year old Thumper Connell still has an imaginary friend: the masked killer from his favourite slasher film. Thumper is obsessed with horror and always has been. He fills his time with scary VHS rentals and hanging out with his fellow fans, The Murder Club. But everything changes when his local video shop acquires one of the notorious films known as “video nasties” — films so scary, they’re the target of the British Moral Decency League’s crusade to ban and burn. But it’s only a movie, right? It’s all just imaginary, isn’t it?

A story about the perception of evil, the power of genre, the love of fandom, the need to create art, oh, and crap-your-pants TERROR!

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom Boardgame

 Picked up a copy of the Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom Boardgame today. It comes from the era before multi-page rulebooks, when the rules were printed on the inside of the box cover and movement was determined randomly by the roll of a die or spin of a spinner. This style of game was quite common in the US until the late 1990s and often were produced to capitalize on a popular TV show or movie. Among the smaller number of strategy focused boardgames, these types of games were referred to as "Ameritrash" games, due to the high amount of luck required to win.

This game, and othe Temple of Doom items, will likely see a resurgence of interest due the re-emergence of the actor Ke Huy Quan, who played Short Round in the film and Data in the Goonies, only to drop out of acting when he could no longer find non-stereotyped parts. With the success of Everything, Everywhere All At Once and his nominations and awards, his early career is going to get another look.

Phyrexia life counter

 We will start giving out the limited edition Phyrexia life counter this Friday with the purchase of either a Phyrxia Complete Bundle or $75 worth of sealed Magic product. We only have a limited number of these so it is first come first serve.

Planechase

WotC plans to bring back Planechase cards in the March of the Machines set. For those not familiar with them, Planechase cards, introduced about 2009 are cards that, once put into play, remain in play and affect all players until they are removed or replaced. The format did not go over very well with players when first introduced. I beleive I saw less than half a dozen games played with Planechase cards before they went out of print.

The new Commander decks for March of the Machines will each contain 10 Planechase cards, 5 completely new and 5 reprints of earlier cards.  Since I hve not heard anyone show any interest or enthusiasm in these, I expect them to do about as well as the first go round. 

March of The Machine

 Here is a look at some of the  upcoming card treatments for March of the Machine, including the return of Planechase cards. No idea how or where the Planechase cards will be packaged, although randomly placed inside of Commander Decks for the set makes the most sense.

Maus

 In Janurary of 2022, a Tennessee school board voted to ban Maus for "book’s content, its age appropriateness and the best way to teach children about the Nazis’ persecution of European Jews during World War II". As a result, the graphic novel shot back up to the top of the best seller lists. We sold more copies of Maus in 2022 than we had in the previous 5 years. 

The lesson, of course, is if you want more people to read a book, ban it.

Leiji Matsumoto Dies

 Leiji Matsumoto, the creator of  such early classic space scifi manga as Queen Esmereldas and Galaxy Express 999, has died of actute heart failure at age 85.  His best known works were those derived from his Space Pirate Captain Harlock series such as Space Battleship Yamato.

Commander Cards in March of the Machines

 The latest controversy to hit Magic play is the annoucement by WotC that is will include an additional Commander card in pre-release kits for March of the Machines. No cards will be removed from the kits. This will be an additional unusable card included. According to Wotc:

"The intention is not to only cater to Commander players, but rather include something that may make them (and players of other eternal formats) more interested in participating in Prerelease. "

The concern of course is that players have always been told that all cards  in their pre-release kits are usable in the tournament and this Commander specific card cannot be.

33rd Anniversary

 Until 4:30 today , you can get a ticket for a prize in our drawing celebrating out 33rd anniversary.  You get  one ticket for coming in, one with your preferred customer card and one for each stamp earned on  a Castle Card today.

CAH Clones

 

1)      Cards Against Humanity clones. We’ve already seen a few of these. Crabs Adjust Humidity from Vampire Squid and Personally Incorrect from Lion Rampant come to mind offhand and I spotted several more either in development or already launched, such as Heebie Jeebies from Zipwhaa. The ones I saw all use the basic Apples to Apples mechanic of having players choose cards and a judge deciding which one is the “best” in anywhere from mildly to highly offensive combinations of cards. This indicates the approaching crest of the popularity of Cards Against Humanity.

 As I tell the students in my Principles of Marketing and Product and Pricing Strategy classes, every new product goes through the Product Life Cycle of Introduction, Growth, Maturity and Decline. During the Introductory and Growth stages, the new product sees heavy demand (assuming the launch is successful) and double or even triple digit sales increases, much like we have seen with Cards Against Humanity for the past couple of years. 

A key marker of when a product moves from the Growth stage to the Maturity stage is the appearance of knockoffs and “me too” products. By this point in the original product’s lifecycle, other manufacturer have noticed its success, decide there is additional unfulfilled demand for it and come up with their own product to fill the perceived gap in the market. Unfortunately, this also means demand for the product has probably topped off and, while growth will continue, it will no long see the outsized increases of the past. Ergo, while we will still see respectable Cards Against Humanity sales, stores won’t see near the levels that they did in the past.

GW Pricing

 GW prices on a number of items will increase on March 6. Stock up now while  you can.

Family Games: The Best 100

 

Family Games:  The Best !00, though out of print is a wonderful book, 380 pages of commentary by some of the top minds in the game industry  (Richard Garfield, Steve Jackson, Kenneth Hite, James Ernest, Robin Laws) on what each feels is one of the most enjoyable and most cleverly designed games from the last one hundred years. Some of the choices are unsurprising.  

Lewis Pulsipher picks Blockus and Will Hindmarch chooses Cranium.  However, there are a number of rather surprising choices as well.  James Ernest opts for Candy Land as a game that appeals to both 3 year olds and professional game designers, while Dale Donovan picks The Omega Virus, which Milton Bradley released in 1992 (and I remember seeing under the arm of every other attendee at that year’s GENCON) for a design that’s “so absorbing, so immersive, so well conceived that it gets right under a player’s skin”.

 Other games chosen include Clue, Great Dalmuti, Magi-Nation and Faery’s Tale Deluxe.  Even Monopoly has a fan in Steve Jackson, who lauds the game’s combination of skill and luck as well as the fact that it has one of the first official expansions for a board game, Stock Exchange, which released in 1936 and the first electron expansion for a boardgame, Monopoly Playmaster, released in 1982.

SRD 5.1

 WotC announced yesterday the company placed all of the core D&D mechanics under the Creative Commons license, meaning anyone can use them to create material, either for or not for profit. Ergo companies can create materials under the OGL or D&D specific materials under the Creative Commons license.

Yu Gi Oh Day

 Apparently we are hosting a Yu Gi Oh Day this Sunday. $5 entry fee  gets players two tournament packs. Top 8 get a limited edition field center card. Winner and one random player receive the Yu Gi Oh playmat

Game Rental Library

 We are updating the store game rental library by posting the rental prices next to each game as well as whether it is currently in the library or had been rented.

OGL 1.2

 Here is a link to a draft of WotC's proposed OGL 1.2  This version moved the core D&D mechanics into a Creative Commons licence, allows creators using the D&D mechanics to retain ownership of products produced, as well as revenue streams  generated from them., which were major criticisms of the first draft.

There are still some potential problems with the new draft. If, for example, you use Licensed Content or material from the SRD 5.1  which was published back in 2016, you automatically agree to the terms of the OGL1.2

How Ryan Dancy Saved D&D

 Well not quite. Here is the blog post on how he and his team created the original OGL for D&D 3.0. For those not familiar with the concept, the Open Gaming License was created by WotC/ Hasbro and released along with the third edition of D&D. It allowed, as long as the rules in the license were followed, publishers to create materials and expansions for D&D without paying a licensing fee to WotC as long as they put the OGL statement in the book someplace and stated that the materials were created under the OGL Castles and Crusades and Pathfinder were both created under the OGL, hence their use of many D&D rules.

What the OGL allowed WotC to do was create many supplements without having to invest anything in them while continuing to sell the core products needed to use these new materials. Many companies such as Goodman Games, Mongoose Publishing, Necromancer Games and Paizo got their start publising mateiral under the OGL before developing their own games and systems. Of course, dozens of companies also produced a lot of bad material (take a look through our used D&D  section for examples) and went bankrupt within a few years. 

Collections

 Just a reminder that we do not look at collections after 8 p.m. Single items are considered at the staff member's discretion. After 8 p.m., we are getting ready to close and do not have sufficient time to evaluate quantities of items and make you a fair offer.

Dominaria Remastered

 We have been allocated to 12 draft boosters of Dominaria Remastered and 4 Collector booster boxes, though we may be able to get more of the Collector booster boxes. Our pre-order prices are $249.99 for the draft boosters and $374.99 for the collector booster boxes. Suprisingly, given they way WotC has pushed them over the past year, there are no Set Boosters available with this set.

Tyranny of Dragons

 The updated edition of Tyranny of Dragons releases January 17th . From what we can tell, this edition will be updated with the changes introduces in Monsters of  the Multiverse. WotC does not appear to offer an alternate art cover of this book so you should only buy it if you are a completist or do not have the original Tyranny of Dragons.

A Fond Look at the Shadowrun RPG

 Though the big two, Dungeons & Dragons and the Pathfinder RPs get all the attention, there are a number of second tier RPGs that quietly sell, day in and day out.  At our store, that’s Shadowrun.  Released back in 1989, we’ve carried it since before the store opened, when we used to do conventions and mail order only.  One of the few times I remember seeing a crowd of gamers running  was at GENCON in 1992, when the release of the 2nd edition of the Shadowrun rules was released. FASA announced only a limited number of copies available at the show. For some reason, I was in the exhibit hall when the doors opened and watched as a couple of hundred excited games ran through the aisles towards the FASA booth, hoping to score a copy of the 2nd edition rules.  The only other time I have seen that much excitement over a game release was when TSR finally released the Temple Of Elemental Evil  back in 1985.

Since then , Shadowrun has sold steadily for us, to the point we try to keep 2 to 4 copies of the core rulebook on the shelf at any one time. The only other RPGS in the store that get stocked to that depth  are Dungeons & Dragons and the Pathfinder RPG.  In fact, because of sales, Shadowrun and Pathfinder are the only two RPGs that we stock all of their hardback sourcebooks 2 to 3 deep at all times.  Even Dungeons & Dragons (4th edition anyhow) doesn’t get stocked that deeply (mainly because there are a lot more hardbacks for D&D than for either Pathfinder or Shadowrun).  Looking at the shelf at the moment, we have nine Shadowrun hardbacks in stock  and another 9 or 10 paperbound books.  They sell.  Week in and week out, they sell for us and justify the shelf space and inventory.  We average sales of 3 to 5 of each new sourcebook when they hit the shelves (campaign settings and adventures not nearly so well) and have to restock two to three assorted hardbacks weekly, so this is a line that really gets hurt in our store when a book goes out of print, as happens way too often with the line.  Looking at our records, we have sold 6 copies of the rulebook since the beginning of the year and this is of an edition that cam out almost three years ago.

Shadowrun gets little to no promotion (I don’t recall Catalyst mentioning any upcoming releases for it during their presentation at this year’s GAMA Trade Show) and certainly flies under the radar in most stores but its players have quite a bit of devotion to the product, enough to make it our third best selling RPG.