We are getting the HVAC systems replaced on Sept 25. Due to this, the construction company has asked we not have any customers in the building while they are working on the roof. We expect them to start around 7:30 and be finished by 1 p.m.
The blog for news, events, releases and commentary from Castle Perilous Games & Books. located in downtown Carbondale IL. New posts every Monday and Wednesday.
Sunday, September 24, 2023
Thursday, September 21, 2023
Pokemon 151
Wednesday, September 20, 2023
Stickers
You like stickers? So do we. We have Wilds of Eldraine stickers free. Just stop in and ask for a set.
Tuesday, September 19, 2023
Lorcana League
The second season of Lorcana play starts tomorrow night. Prizing for the first season will be given out. top player receives 2 Promo cards, everyone else receives 1. top 5 players all receive Locana Pins.
Monday, September 18, 2023
Phandelver and Below
Saturday, September 16, 2023
Wilds of Eldraine Commander Party
Come play in our Wilds of Eldraine Commander Event on Sept 17 and get this Syr Konrad card. Players that register with their Wizards account will get the cards first, then players with Guest accounts.
Friday, September 15, 2023
Games Workshop New Releases
New releases for Sept 23 are Orruks for Age of Sigmar. Let us know if you want any of them.
ORRUK WARCLANS: TUSKBOSS ON MAW-GRUNTA |
ORRUK WARCLANS: WEIRDBRUTE WREKKAZ |
ORRUK WARCLANS: ARDBOY BIG BOSS |
GLOOMSPITE GITZ: TRUGG'S GREAT TROGGHERD |
ORRUK WARCLANS: ORRUK ARDBOYZ |
ORRUK WARCLANS: ZOGGROK ANVILSMASHA |
VANGUARD: ORRUK WARCLANS |
GLOOMSPITE GITZ: RABBLE-ROWZA |
AGE OF SIGMAR: REIGN OF THE BRUTE (ENG) |
Elementals
Here is an interesting aside to Bill Willingham's announcement regarding putting Fables in the public domain. Back in th e1990s Comico published his Elemental series. When the company went bankrupt, it, and the rights to Elementals (and those of Rob Liefeld's Youngblood) were sold to Terrific Publications, which has an "interesting" track record in its dealings with creators. One of its stipulations was that, during the epidemic, writers and artists would get only half the agreed upon rate until 90% of the US population was vaccinated. You can read the whole story here.
Thursday, September 14, 2023
Fables in Public Domain
Fables, Bill Willingham's long running comic series, is now in the public domain. Willingham, the creator and owner of the series, has gotten so frustrated with DC and the way they have handled the series and his contracts with the company, that he has decided to put the entire intellectual property into public domain for you to make use as you will. Write stories using the characters, draw them, make video games featuring them, they are now your's.
Tuesday, September 12, 2023
Batman Day
This Saturday is Batman Day so we are celebrating with 2 FREE Batman Comics, a limited quantity of Joker and Catwoman masks, the release of Batman Gargoyles of Gotham #1, a $1 sale on most Batman back issues and a free Batman comic with a $10 purchase.
Monday, September 11, 2023
Writing a Best Seller
According to an analysis in the Economist there are several things to do if you want to write a best seller
Write fiction
use short sentences
Set your story in a sunny climate
Write a lot.
Tuesday, September 5, 2023
Drown in the Loch
Drown in the Loch is the promo card for the Wilds of Eldraine Open House. While quantities last, play in a Magic event this weekend or spend $20 on Wilds of Eldraine product to get one Free. Limit one per customer.
Monday, September 4, 2023
Wilds of Eldraine
Since it is after the pre-release weekend but not yet release day, we will use the Wilds of Eldraine promo packs as prizing in our tournaments, at least until they run out.
Sunday, September 3, 2023
Wilds of Eldraine Pre-releases
We had successful Friday night and Sunday afternoon pre-releases but not on Saturday. People seem to like the set but not enough to come out on Saturday for the event. As a result, we gave away extra booster packs at the conclusion of Sunday's two headed giant to thank the 4 teams that showed up for the the 2 headed giant and to encourage them to come back for the next event.
Friday, September 1, 2023
New Warhammer 40K
The Tyrannids are coming back for 10th edition. Let us know by Monday Night if you want any of the below ordered and held for you for Sept 9th release
TYRANIDS: NORN EMISSARY
TYRANIDS: GENESTEALERS
TYRANIDS: HORMAGAUNTS
TYRANIDS: BIOVORE
TYRANIDS: LICTOR
TYRANIDS: NEUROLICTOR
TYRANIDS: DEATHLEAPER
TYRANIDS: TERMAGANTS
CODEX: TYRANIDS (FRENCH)
CODEX: TYRANIDS (ENGLISH)
DATASHEET CARDS: TYRANIDS (FRE)
DATASHEET CARDS: TYRANIDS (ENG)
WARHAMMER 40000: TYRANIDS DICE
Tuesday, August 29, 2023
Lorcana
Saturday, August 26, 2023
GW New Releases for 9/2
Here are next week's new releases, this week for Age of Sigmar. We will only order 1 of each so please let us know before Tuesday if you want one
VANGUARD: SERAPHON
CITIES OF SIGMAR ARMY SET (ENG)
Friday, August 25, 2023
The Happy Shop
New All ages graphic novel releasing next February
PORTLAND, OR (August 25, 2023) - Oni Press, the multiple Eisner and Harvey award-winning publisher of comic books and graphic novels, will publish Brittany Long Olsen’s graphic novel, THE HAPPY SHOP. This heartwarming middle grade story will be released in February 2024.
In THE HAPPY SHOP, eleven-year-old Darcy is feeling sad and alone after she moves to a new country when she accidentally stumbles into a magical store that sells happy feelings. But when Darcy witnesses a sad feeling accidentally being sold at work, she begins to wonder. Is happiness really the only emotion people need?
“THE HAPPY SHOP shines a light on the deep importance of experiencing a whole range of human emotion, not just happy feelings, and building community with the people we care about,” said cartoonist Brittany Long Olsen.
“THE HAPPY SHOP's charm is that it exists in a world just like ours,” said Oni Press Editor Grace Scheipeter. “The story features a contemporary setting with just a light touch of magic. And much of that magic is in the dynamic cartooning of Brittany Long Olsen, whose graphic novel is a delight and inspiration. It’s a perfect read for fans of the film Inside Out, Mai K. Nguyen's Pilu of the Woods, and Brenna Thummler's Sheets.”
THE HAPPY SHOP will be available in bookstores and comic shops in February 2024.
Thursday, August 24, 2023
Gary Gygax Material
Gary Gygax materials coming back into print via Troll Lord Games
We are very happy to announce that Troll Lord Games, in conjunction with the estate of E. Gary Gygax, and Luke Gygax, is at long last able to bring the works of the Father of Role Playing back to the gaming table!
This has been something we have desired for 15 years and something we are beyond ecstatic to make happen! For everyone here at Troll Lord Games, and for all of you out there, and for the legacy of E. Gary Gygax, this is a wonderful day.
A glorious day!
We need to show the Estate Managers the real value of this material and to do that we have already announced and launched the Pre-order for the Classic Yggsburgh Fantasy Campaign Setting. Written by Gary Gygax and first published in 2005, this classic work is full to the brim with gaming content.
This will be the original version of this work as written by Gary and published by TLG. It includes two maps, one by our Lady of Gaming, Darlene! We aren't changing anything but the Stock Code on the spine!
Tuesday, August 22, 2023
GW New Release
Here are the new releases for Sept. 2 for Games Workshop. Please let us know if you want any ordered.
VANGUARD: SERAPHON
CITIES OF SIGMAR ARMY SET (ENG)
CITIES OF SIGMAR ARMY SET (FRE)
WH UNDERWORLDS: PATHS OF PROPHECY (ENGLISH)
WH UNDERWORLDS: PATHS OF PROPHECY (FRENCH)
Monday, August 21, 2023
Lorcana
We are currently out of Lorcana booster packs. We still have decks, deck boxes and sleeves and hope to have more boosters and Troves arriving soon.
Saturday, August 19, 2023
Trades
Starting September 5th, due to the amount of freight we receive on Tuesdays and the time it takes to process it, we will no longer purchase or trade for items on Tuesdays.
Friday, August 18, 2023
Lorcana
I expected Disney Lorcana to sell well but not to have half a dozen people waiting outside the store when we opened this morning. So far, we have sold through a bit over half of our allotment of booster boxes and about half of our starter decks and all of our Trove boxes. Sales were similar to what we would expect on Free Comic Book Day or Free RPG Day.
There is enough interest in the game that we will start running a League for the game on Wednesday nights from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at a cost of $5 per session.
Thursday, August 17, 2023
Pokemon Charizard EX Premium Collection
Coming out for Pokemon later this fall. We have 6 coming so let us know if you are intersted.
Blaze a Trail of Darkness with Charizard ex! Charizard ex burns up the oppositions lead with the cunning firepower of a Darkness-type Pokemon! Evolve it from Charmander and Charmeleon, then use its strong Ability and attack to make a roaring comeback. A full set of card sleeves helps keep your deck looking great, and after the battles done, you can put this special Tera Pokemon ex on display in the durable card protector featuring a handy magnetic closure. The Pokemon TCG: Charizard ex Premium Collection includes: - 1 etched foil promo card featuring Charizard ex - 2 foil cards featuring Charmander and Charmeleon - 6 Pokemon TCG booster packs - 1 magnetic card protector with display base - 65 card sleeves featuring Charizard as a Tera Pokemon - A code card for Pokemon TCG Live
Wednesday, August 16, 2023
The Dungeoneer
The Hundreth Voice
"I’m Caitlin Like, a cartoonist from Portland, Oregon and creator of Dark Horse Comics’ upcoming graphic novel The Hundredth Voice. It’s a middle-grade dark fantasy graphic novel about a haunted music school, and I’m emailing to let you know preorders are now open.
Uriel Driscoll was born into a family with an amazing gift…and a terrible curse.
While his family all have superb singing voices, they are doomed to lose their gifts at the height of their success!
Invited to the exclusive Aisling Academy, run by his own mysterious grandfather, Uriel finds the curse is the least of his problems: horrible accidents keep befalling the students, ghosts roam the halls, and Uriel isn’t sure he can sing in the first place! And if Uriel can’t find a way to break his family’s curse, he’ll have to leave his new school, and his new friends, forever…"
Tuesday, August 15, 2023
Gen Con Theft
If you have heard about the $300,000 Magic theft at GenCon, you may have heard that the Persons of Interest desinged a boardgame. Here is the link to a description of the game, released back in 2015
Friday, August 11, 2023
Pokemon Trading
Although we are going to continue running causal Saturday afternoon Pokemon Play, we are also going to encourage people to bring in cards and trade with each other, no play required. Of course, as has been our policy for years, you can only trade cards. Unless you have a sales tax license, you can not sell cards to other people while in the store.
Wednesday, August 9, 2023
Commander Masters Box Prices
We adjusted the prices on our Commander Masters booster boxed downward some. A Collector Booster box is now $299.99, a Set booster box is $549.99 and a Draft booster box is a bargain at $399.99
Tuesday, August 8, 2023
Magic In 2024
Here is a rundown of what to expect for Magic the Gathering in 2024
Ravnica Remastered
Murders at Karkov Manor
Fallout Commander Decks
Outlaws of Thunder Junction
Modern Horizons III
Assassins Creed Commander Decks
Bloomburrow
Duskmourn House of Horrow
Innistrad Remastered-2025
Sunday, August 6, 2023
Star Wars at GenCon
One of the highly useful things about Gencon is to get a feel for how various games are doing. Since Gencon is the largest game convention in the US, what people player there give a pretty good indication as to how the game is doing, on average, througout the country.
Cases in Point Disney Lorcana and Star WArs. Disney Lorcana had people lined up and waiting for 14 hourse, a line of them sleeping in the hall overnight, which is something GenCon has chosen not to allow in the past. That indicates a lot of interest in Lorcana, at least initially. Wheter the game will have legs is another matter but I would expect to see great sales for it for the first release.
On the other hand, Star Wars play was prtetty minimal. Atomic Mind has an extine event hall rented out for playing the various Star Wars games, with space for a couple of hundred players. On Saturday afternoon, the peak playtime of the entire convention, over half the tables were empty. Couple that with stores discounting Star Wars Shatterpoint to get it off their shelves and the Star Wars line does not appear to have a strong future.
Saturday, August 5, 2023
Magic Releases for 2024
Just announced at GenCon is Magic Fallout. Rather like the Warhammer 40,000 Commander Decks, WotC will release 4 Fallout themed Commander Decks in March of 2024
Releasing in the first quarter of 2024 will be Murders at Karlov Manor, a detective themed set
The second quarter will see the second Standard legal set of the year, Outlaws of Thunder Junction, a fantasy western themed set that first saw concept art release in 2022.
Friday, August 4, 2023
Lorcana at Gencon
It looks as if Ravensberger did not anticipate the demand at Gencon for Disney Lorcana as people waited 14 hours in line for the opportunity to purchase the game, only to have the company open up another exhibit hall, sending the people who had waited in line back to the end of the new line. In addition, Ravesnberger's registration system for demos of Lorcana, which let you leave with a Lorcana promo, now selling for over $100, allowed one person to register for multiple demos, allowing them to attempt to garner multiple promos. Once Ravensburger realized this, they wiped the entire system, forcing those people who had registered properly to have to go back and register again.
The company was also limiting purchases of Lorcana to one and attendees' badges got punched to show they had already made their one purchase. Here is what was available at GenCon and we should have limited quantities of these available on the 18 with a tournament on the 19th
Disney Lorcana: The First Chapter Booster Pack – $5.99 each (Limit 24 packs/1 display. Total display price: $143.76)
Disney Lorcana: The First Chapter Starter Decks -$16.99 each (contains 1 Booster Pack) Amber/Amethyst (Limit 1) Ruby/Emerald (Limit 1) Sapphire/Steel (Limit 1)
Captain Hook, Elsa, or Mickey Mouse Card Sleeve Pack (Limit 1 design) – $9.99
Captain Hook, Elsa, or Mickey Mouse Deck Box (Limit 1 design) – $5.99
Maui, Maleficent, or Mickey Mouse Neoprene Play Mat (Limit 1 design) – $19.99
The Queen or Stitch 10-Page Portfolio ( 4-Pocket Pages, Limit 1 design) – $19.99
Thursday, August 3, 2023
One Ring Sold
The 001/001 One Ring card has been sold by the finder to musician and Magic Player Post Malone for a reported $2 million. Since Malone apparently agreed to pay Canadian taxes on the sale, the total price is somewhere closer to $2.6 millioin
Wednesday, August 2, 2023
Commander Masters Pricing 2
We will have Commander Masters packs, boxes and Commander Decks on sale this Friday. you can read the pricing for individual packs here. Prices for boxes are: draft booster box $549.99, Set Booster Box is $724.99 and a collector booster box is $299.99
Tuesday, August 1, 2023
Commander Masters Pricing
Figured out the pricing for individual Commander Masters booster packs. Draft packs will cost $19.99, Set booster packs will run $26.99 and Collector Boosters will cost......$79.99. Priciest I have ever seen a set, save for the 30th Anniversary Box, which WOTC sold for $999 and online retailers sold for up to $1800. Pricey.
Monday, July 31, 2023
Obsidian Flames
We will not host a Pokemon Obsidian Flames pre-release. Apparently since no one has been coming in to play Pokemon in the store, we had no players to report and Pokemon will only tolerate that for so long. It was not just us. I read of several stores not getting offered Obsidian Flames pre-releases If you want us to be able to host pre-releases, again so that you can get the cards and extra boosters early, you need to come in and play here or at least sho up and give us your Pokemon ID number so we can register you and show Pokmeon that we do have players here.
Sunday, July 30, 2023
TimeLloyd
In case you missed it, Lloyd Rich, better known in Carbondale as TimeLloyd, passed away July 16. For 25+ years, TimeLloyd was a familiar sight around town, wearing multiple layers of clothing, even when the weather dictated otherwise and riding his beloved fringed bicycle. For someone who used the bicycle as much as he did, he never seemed to develop great control of it, as anyone who saw him wobbling inthe Lights Fantastic parade can attest.
He would often show up at the store whenever we held giveaways. One time, for a Halloween drawing, in order to get an extra ticket, he came in dressed as normal but brandished a prop Doctor Who sonic screwdriver, saying he was dressed as a Time Lord. What could we do? We gave him the ticket.
He suffered a couple of falls within the last five years, which made him far less mobile and the last time I saw him about two years ago, he appeared confined to a wheelchair.
Visitation is 9 a.m. on August 5 at the Newman Center, where he often attended Mass, with a funeral mass at 10 a.m.
Farewell TimeLloyd. So Long and thanks for all the fish. Carbondale was a bit more lively with you here.
Saturday, July 29, 2023
Commander Masters
Good lord the prices are crazy online for Commander Masters. At the price a number of sellers are charging for a booster box, they are making little profit. I can only assume they got ahold of large quantities of boxes, opened what they needed for singles and are dumping the rest to cover some of the money they owe on the purchase.
Friday, July 28, 2023
Learn to Play sessions
We are going to start offering learn to play sessions of Magic and Pokemon, to complement our Monday night Learn to Play D&D. Thursday night from 5 to 6, we will have a Learn to Play session of Magic from 5 to 6 p.m. and Saturday we will teach people how to play Pokemon from 11 a.m. to Noon.
Thursday, July 27, 2023
GW New Releases
Looks like new War Cry items releasing on August 5. Let us know if you want any on the release date so we can make sure we have them.
WARCRY: ROYAL BEASTFLAYERS WARBAND
WARCRY: QUESTOR SOULSWORN WARBAND
WARCRY: CRYPT OF BLOOD (ENGLISH)
Wednesday, July 26, 2023
Gary Gygax Day
Tomorrow is Gary Gygax Day so we have some of our collection of Dave Trampier Wormy panels on display as well as a number of early issues of Dragon Magazine.
Take 10% off all instock D&D books that are not behind the counter and get a free D&D DM log.
Tuesday, July 25, 2023
Broken Glass
If you are driving the alley that runs behind Castle Perilous, La Unica, Electric Larrys and Indigo Lounge, be careful as there are a couple of broken beer bottles in the road behind Indigo. We plan to sweep them up tomorrow if they are still there so drive carefully for now.
Monday, July 24, 2023
Fall D&D Releases
Below is the list of D&D releases for this fall, as of right now. Please let us know if you want any of them held for you:
August 15th Bigby Presents Glory of the Giants
September 19th Phandelver And Below: The Shattered Obelisk
October 17th Planescape Adventures in the
Multiverse
November 14th Deck of Many Things
Saturday, July 22, 2023
DCC Materials
Sicne we have plenty of left over Dungeon Crawl Classics materials, you can stop by tomorrow to pick one of the free items and/or purchase one of the limited edition rule books and modules. After that, we will pack them up to list on eBay for those not lucky enough to have a locally particpating DCC store.
Friday, July 21, 2023
Playtest Cards
WOTC for whatever reason, has introduced a new treatment for some cards, "playtest". It is a versionof a tournament legal card that is not tournament legal. WotC put some playtest cards in 2021's Mystery Boosters, which also were not tournament legal. From the markings on the card it appears these will appear in a Secret Lair set at some time or another.
Wednesday, July 19, 2023
Yu Gi Oh Lost Art
Dark Magician Girl is one of the most, if not the most, popular cards in Yu Gi Oh, so I expect strong demand for the new Magician's Salvation Lost Art Card, featuring her. You get one with each $30 spent on sealed Yu Gi Oh product but we only have a limited quantitiy.
Tuesday, July 18, 2023
One Ring Tax Bill
According to this, the "One Ring" card was opened by someone in Toronto, Ontario. Assuming they get the full $2.2 Million CA that has been offered by a store in Spain, they would be lliable for a tax bill of about $530,000. Under Canadian tax law, half of the selling price of the card would be taxed at about 53% but they would get to keep the other half tax free. Yeah, it is quite a chunk of money but still a pretty good return on an investment of about $50 or so on the pack of cards.
Sunday, July 16, 2023
Mother Nature
Jamie Lee Curtis (yes, that Jamie Lee Curtis) has co-written a graphic novel based on an idea that has perculating in her head since she was 19. We are taking pre-orders now if you are interested and the book releases August 9. You can watch a preview of the book, Mother Nature, here.
Saturday, July 15, 2023
Gary Gygax Day
Gary Gygax Day is July 27th. To celebrate, we will put some of our Dave "Tramp" Trampier Wormy artwork on display. Most of the time this art is kept in storage so this is a rare opportunity to see the art of one of the early TSR artists. We will also display early issues of Dragon Magazine, give out one free RPG item per customer (2 to those with the Preferred Customer Card) and take 10% off all new and Used D&D books and supplementary materials ( including 3rd party books). You can get one more free RPG item for 3 stamps you earn on your Castle Card on the 27th.
Friday, July 14, 2023
GW New Releases
Releasing 7/22 If you want any of the items below, please let us know by Sunday evening as we will put orders in on Monday. We will have limited quantities available of the Space marine Librarian, Tyranids, Starter Set and Ultimate Starter Set.
SM LIBRARIAN IN TERMINATOR ARMOUR
TYRANIDS: BARBGAUNTS
WARHAMMER 40000: ULTIMATE STARTER SET EN
WARHAMMER 40000: STARTER SET (ENG)
WARHAMMER 40000: INTRODUCTORY SET (ENG)
WARHAMMER 40000: INTRODUCTORY SET (FRE)
INFER S/M + PAINTS ENG/SPA/PORT/LATV/ROM
INFER S/M + PAINTS CANADA/POL/SCANDA
TYRANID PAINT SET+ ENG/SPA/PORT/LATV/ROM
TYRANID PAINT SET + CANADA/POLAND/SCANDA
40K PAINTS + TOOLS ENG/SPA/PORT/LATV/ROM
40K PAINTS+TOOLS CAN/POL/FIN/SWE/DEN/NOR
Thursday, July 13, 2023
New Pokemon Releases
Releasing tomorrow will be the
Annihilape EX Box contains 3 foil cards and 4 booster packs
Pokemon Battle Deck- one each of Chien Pao and Tinkaton
Pokemon Frist partner Accessory Bundle -contains a deck box, storage box, deck protectors and a playmat.
Wednesday, July 12, 2023
East Asian Comics Glossary
In case you have every wondered about what the various terms used by East Asian, primarily Japanese, comics, here is a handy glossary. You will note that the term hentai is missing from the list as it refers to more hard core sexual titles, which Pengiun Random House, the source of the list, does not sell.
Tuesday, July 11, 2023
HeroClix
If anyone is interested in playing HeroClix, we have someone who has moved into the area interested in playing and have prize support available for games.
Sunday, July 9, 2023
Used Boardgames
We have added a number of used boardgames to our selection and to the list on the store website These are not in the eBay store since most of them would cost us too much to ship across country.
Friday, July 7, 2023
Warhammer 40K New Releases
Releasing next Saturday
DARK ANGELS LION EL'JOHNSON
T'AU EMPIRE: COMMANDER FARSIGHT
ORKS: BOSS SNIKROT
We can get a maximum of 5 of Lion El'Johnson and 3 each of Commander Farsight and Boss Snikrot on inital release so if you want one, on the 22, let us know as soon as possible. One Commander Farsight is already spoken for.
Thursday, July 6, 2023
LotR Magic Celebration
The Lord of the Rings Magic Celebration runs July 7 through July 9. While quantities last, register for the event in Eventlink using code YQV8J5J or give us your Wizards account email and we will register you. Purchase 2 Jumpstart packs and you will recieve a set of 3 Lord of the Rings dice and an Elven Planeswalker dicebag. We only have 30 sets of these though and you do have to have a Wizards account to particpate.
Wednesday, July 5, 2023
Comic Sale
Our $1 comic sale was okay but apparently the holiday made it more difficult for people to get in for the event. We will have another one next month so keep an eye on our blog, store calendar and social media sites.
Tuesday, July 4, 2023
Declaration of Independence
Saturday, July 1, 2023
Warhammer 10th Edition
The rule books and index cards for Warhammer 40,000 10th edition went on sale today so if you want one of the rule books and do not want to shell out $250 for the Leviathan boxed set, now is your chance. We were limited to one of each of the bundles of index cards for each of the main army groupings so we have multiples of cards for armies such as Space Marines and Orks but only 1 for smaller armies such as the Thousand Suns.
Friday, June 30, 2023
One Ring
According to this, the 001/001 serialized One Ring card has been pulled. I have read a expressions of concern that the price of the LOTR Collector Boosters will drop after it was pulled. Given the prices of other cards in the set, I rather doubt that we will see a collapse in prices immediately. I know the store would take a couple of displays of Collector Boosters should they come available.
Tuesday, June 27, 2023
Catan Hawai'i
Catan Hawai'i arrived today. New scenario for Catan. Requires both the main game and Seafarers of Catan in order to play. Features a much smaller landmass to develop but fishing becomes a very important component of the game
Sold one already so expect to see it show up at a Gaming with Gary session in the near future.
Sunday, June 25, 2023
Social Deduction Games
Apparently games such as Blood on the Clocktower, Werewolf, Secret Hitler and Good Cop Bad Cop have gotten prevalient enough that they now have their own game category: social deduction games. In a social deduction game, one player takes on a role in which they attempt to harm the other players or prevent them from winning, while keeping the fact that they are doing so secret. This has been a part of gameplay for a number of years as games like Shadows over Camelot and Saboteur come to mind but the genre has gotten popular enough to warrent a name finally.
Friday, June 23, 2023
Pokemon 151
The Pokemon Company just announced Pokemon 151, a box only set releasing in September. This will follow. This set will follow the format of the Pokemon Go and Pokemon Celebrations sets in that there will be no individual booster packs available for sale. Booster packs for the set will only be availalbe in Elite Trainer Kits and gift boxes, unless retailers opt to break open those sets to sell boosters individually. The set is expected to release Sept. 22 2023.
Thursday, June 22, 2023
Improving Free RPG Day
Do not use the cover of your product to send people to your website to buy your product. This ought to be self-explanatory, but for at least one publisher included in this year’s selection, it wasn’t. It’s OK to mention your website on your giveaway but, for Pete’s sake, tell people to look for your product first at their local game store THEN tell them to go to your website. Putting a bold notice on the booklet directing people to your website when I am going to the trouble of promoting your product guarantees a trip to the recycling bin or, as we did here, a removal of your product’s cover.
Wednesday, June 21, 2023
LOTR Magic
Tuesday, June 20, 2023
Ultimate Invasion
Marvel is relaunching the Ultimate Universe, which the publisher originally created back in the 1990s as a grittier Marvel Universe that introduced Miles Morales as Spider Man and more violent versions of Marvel characters, best illustrated by a panel in Ultimatum in which, having killed her, X-men foe the Blob starts eating the Wasp. that scene still resonates with Marvel fans that followed the Universe. Eventually, Marvel wound it down and brought some of the most popular characters, such as Morales and a black Nick Fury, into a relaunched Marvel Universe.
Jonathan Hickman is a good writer, as he showed on is Fantastic Four run, but I am not sure where they are going with this. In a meeting to present the concept to retailers, it appears the writers and editors may not be sure either as most of the questions were met with a variation of "We really cannot discuss that".
Anyhow, the first issue is on the shelf now if you want to pick up a copy.
Monday, June 19, 2023
Tales of Middle Earth pre-release
Magic Tales of Middle Earth pre-releases all ran smoothly this weekend, though turnout was light compared to past pre-releases, especially on Friday. We had 9 people in for Friday compare to the 18 to 24 we have had in the past. Saturday has been light as well in the past so the 9 people that showed for it were not particuarly suprising. We did have 2 teams show up for the 2 headed giant on Sunday. However, we may move that until later in the day for the next pre-release and run another sealed deck tournament at 1 p.m. Sunday instead.
Saturday, June 17, 2023
More Quick Start Rules
More of this years of this year’s offerings for Free RPG Day should include quick play rules and pre-generated characters in their booklet. Pazio is well enough known to their target markets that they could use this year’s offerings as a teaser for upcoming products. Since almost all of the other offerings fell into the category of “I’ve never heard of this” RPG, having introductory rules helps should potential customers what to expect from a full fledged version of the game. Oh, and be sure to clearly indicate on the cover this is a quick start set of rules for your game. I didn’t realize the Numenera adventure had rules included until the day was half over.
Thursday, June 15, 2023
Restocks
If you are a miniatures painter and collector, Next time you are in the store, check out the paint racks. We have restocked the Games Workshop, Army Painter and Vajello paints and supplies and restocked the D&D miniatures wall with over $2000 worth of figures. Only a few Aasimar figuers though and almost no Dragonborn
Wednesday, June 14, 2023
Free RPG Day One per Box
Unless you are Blue Panther and contributing dice trays, dice towers and dice cups, or Off World Designs and putting in a t-shirt, both of which are pretty costly, send out just one item per box is a waste of your promotional dollars and my time and table space. I am not getting things in the kit for me to look, I expect stuff in the box to come in a large enough quantity that a reasonable number of people coming in for the event will get one. I buy the box for the express purpose of giving away the books in it, not to look at your sample and decide if I am going to stock it in or not. You should look at this as a promotional opportunity to get a teaser for your RPG into as many of my customer’s hands as you can. Pazio, Magpie Games and Renegade all provided lots of copies of their products and lots of customers will go home with them.
Tuesday, June 13, 2023
Games Workshop's Confusing Business Model
Games Workshop, meanwhile, has a significant business model
which, for the life of me I do not understand. Most new releases get announced
the week before the release date, which has been on Saturday for most of the
past decade. Especially on highly anticipated releases, there are often caps on
the quantity a store can order. The recent Kill Team Ashes of Faith set
had a cap of two units on it. While we had to turn away a few customers that
wanted one, I shudder at thinking about how stores with much larger Warhammer
40,000 customer bases dealt with the customers they had to turn away.
The problem here is another supply chain snafu, this one
self-created by Games Workshop though. By not announcing releases with a
reasonable amount of lead time, stores do not have enough time to determine how
much interest there is in the new release with customers only having about a
week to find out about it. More lead time would allow us and GW to better judge
product demand (I am still sitting on copies of Dominion). With Leviathan, we have no idea what
is in it or what it will cost, making budgeting funds to purchase copies pretty
difficult, especially after just having paid for Pokemon : Paldea Evolved,
Shatterpoint and Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle Earth. Retailers knew about those and could allocate
funds. With Leviathan, stores are flying blind.
Monday, June 12, 2023
Lord of the Rings Tales of Middle Earth
Current offer for the 001/001 One Ring card is $1000000 as long as it is turned over to Dave and Adam's Card World by July 17. I assume so they get maximum publicity out of it. Meanwhile, Dan Bock the "Black Lotus Guy", has made an offer in a Facebook group to beat the "highest offer from a a reputable source". Meaning I guess that if someone pulls the card, they can expect to get at least $1000001 for it.
Saturday, June 10, 2023
Leviathan
Due to unplanned for demand GW capped orders of the Leviathan boxed set starting Monday afternoon so stores putting in orders for the set Tuesday or later this week had their ordered capped somewhere between 3 and 9 copies. We put our order in early enough that we will receive all 15 copies we have on pre-order.
Thursday, June 8, 2023
Knight Terrors
DC is suspending publication of most of its regular line of books for the Knight Terrors series this summer of 2 issue mini series. We still have a copy of the Free Comic Book Day preview of the series if you want to take a look at it before deciding which books in the series you want to order.
Tuesday, June 6, 2023
Leviathan 2
Here is some more information on the new Leviathan Boxed set. It contains 72 miniatures and the new rulebook, which will be the only place to get the rulebook until it releases later this summer
Monday, June 5, 2023
Leviathan
Put in our pre-orders for the Warhammer 40,000 Leviathan boxed set today. We only get one shot at ordering them so ordered 15. MSRP is $249.99 and, like the previous big boxed set Dominion, there will not be a second production run. We already have 5 copies presold, so if you want one, let us know as soon as possible. Release date is June 24th.
Paldea Evolved
Paldea Evolved arrived today without nearly the amount of pre-release hype that Magic sets get. We have Elite Trainer Kits, booster boxes, 3 booster packs and single boosters available.
Tuesday, May 30, 2023
Commander Clash
Bring your commander deck to play on June 4, register with your Wizards account or be a minor without email access, and get entered into a drawing for 1 of 5 Strixhaven commander decks. Must be present at the drawing at 5 p.m in order to win.
Saturday, May 27, 2023
Memorial Day
We will be open regular hours Memorial Day. If you attend the Carbondale Memorial Day Celebration at Woodlawn Cemetary, bring in your program afterward for a free bottle of water or can of soda. Also with your program, purchase $25 of Magic, Yu Gi Oh or Pokemon and get a promo card for the game. Purchase $50 of RPG materials and get a free set of dice.
Thursday, May 25, 2023
D&D Releases
WOTC has announced the remaining releases for Dungeons and Dragons for 2023.
August 15-- Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants and The Practically Complete Guide to Dragons (combinescombines the very best content from three classic bestsellers: A Practical Guide to Dragons, A Practical Guide to Dragon Riding, and A Practical Guide to Dragon Magic. )
September 19th--Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk
October 17th --Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse (3 book boxed set)
November 14th-- The Deck of Many Things (Boxed set containing both the Deck and Book of Many Things)
We are taking preorders for these books now.
Tuesday, May 23, 2023
Ashes of Faith
Monday, May 22, 2023
Comics
Don't forget to watch Comics from the Castle on our Facebook page every Tuesday. We show you the week's comics, talk about them a bit and talk about upcoming events here at the store.
Friday, May 19, 2023
Store Championship Cards.
Since no one showed up for the store championships scheduled for May 13, we have rescheduled them for 5/20 at 1 p.m. Cost is $20 and format is booster draft so we need at least 4 people for the draft to take place. First place will get prize boosters and the Thalis and the Gilrog Monster card as well as Aether Channeler and Strangle. Top 8 with each get an Aether Channeler and everyone will get the Strangle card.
Thursday, May 18, 2023
Store Championship
Since no-one showed up for the March of the Machines Store Championship last Saturday, we will host another one this Saturday at 1 p.m. Booster draft, $20 entry fee. Still the same promo cards and number of booster packs given away.
Wednesday, May 17, 2023
Banned Books
Banning Maus bumped sales by 50% week to week the week after Tennessee school board banned it and Gender Queer saw sales jump about 130% after it got banned. Banning books just draws attention to them and hence more buyers and readers.
Monday, May 15, 2023
Knight Terrors and Spiderman/Venom comics
Since we still have extra and to wet your appitite for the events from Marvel and DC this summer, we have put some of the Knight Terrors and Spider Man / Venom FCBD books in the spinner rack in the entry way. Help youself and be sure to let us know if you want to put holds on any of these books.
Saturday, May 13, 2023
Free Comic Book Day 2
Since we have plenty of books left, you can come in on Mother's Day and take two comics off the table in the game library room. If you are a mother, you get one more comic. You also get one with your Preferred Customer card, getting stamps on your Castle Card or by wearing a Castle Perilous T-shirt
Thursday, May 11, 2023
Epilogue Boosters
Prices for the Epilogue boosters for March of the Machines are as follows: regular booster $4.99; regular booster box $119.99, Collector booster $24.99, Collector booster box $274.99.
Tuesday, May 9, 2023
Trade Ins
Just a reminder that, if you bring in items to trade or sell on Tuesday morning, expect to wait for several hours as Tuesdays are the day new comics come in and we spend several hours that day processing them. It is a time and labor intensive process. We will happily assist you with purchasing cards but ask that you bring it items to trade or sell on a different day of the week.
Friday, May 5, 2023
Free Comic Book Day
Join us for the annual Free Comic Book Day. Come in and take 2 free comics off the tables in the back. Get one more with your Preferred Customer card. Get one for each $10 you spend with our guests. Get one with each stamp you earn on your Castle Card today. Get one for comic in costume or wearing a Castle Perilous t-shirt.
Brian K. Morris
Marz Stardust
Isaac Hicks (artist of this year's FCBD free print)
G. "Doc" Smith
Morgan Straughan Comnick
SoIll Roller Girls
Tuesday, May 2, 2023
New Collectiable Miniatures games
Remember the Pirates of the Spanish Main Collectable miniatures game? You got everythig you needed in one pack and could assemble a miniature pirate ship. Well coming out later this year:
Snap Ship Tactics:
Constructible Miniatures Games Launching in 2023—I fondly remember
the Pirates of the Spanish Main collectable ship line of a decade ago.
Although the collectable miniature product mix has collapsed to Dungeons
& Dragons blind box miniatures and HeroClix, I would like to
look at a new product line entering the market.
Monday, May 1, 2023
FOC
FOC or Final Order Cutoff is the term used to describe the final date by which stores can put in their final orders for a number of comic publishers. Generally, stores put in orders for comics two months before publication dats. So the books we put in orders for this month are expected to release in July and August. this gives the publsihers about 2 onth to gather orders and set print runs. The problem is that stores have little idea how a books, expecially a new one, will set two months out.
Hence, a number of larger publishers now allow stores to adjust orders three weeks prior to publication date. This allows stores to get a better feel for sales on a title and what effect changes may have had, such as adding a new creative team.. Most small publishers, such as Boundless and Antarctic, do not have the flexibilty to all changes in orders so close to publication and donot particpate in FOC.
Friday, April 28, 2023
Getting Your Name Out
WOTC has been doing a pretty good job of weekly
disseminating both basic and novel ideas used by other stores to keep their
customers coming back and making customers feel special. However, even though it is far easier to generate
additional sales from existing customers, at some point you need to get your
name out in front of new potential customers and get them into the store.
Without a flow of new customers, a store will eventually tap out its existing
customer base and see flatlined sales. I wanted to suggest three ways to get
your name in front of new customers. As a savvy store owner (or publisher) you
are likely already but just in case you’re not:
1.
Social Media—the great thing about social media
is that it is free, to start. Set up an account on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube,
Pinterest, maybe even Vine, Snapchap and Instagram. Unfortunately, due to the ways in which the
various social media sources have tweaked their software, you now really do
have to spend money in order to get your name and posts out in front of
potential customers. The great thing about social media it that you start out
for as little as 5 bucks to boost a Facebook post and have a lot more control
over who will see it than you would with advertising in traditional formats.
Facebook, and other forms of social media, allow you to have friends and
friends of friends see your boosted posts or you can keep them from seeing them
and spend your money to reach a targeted market that’s not already familiar
with your company. I know stores spending 4 figures just on monthly boosting of
social media.
2.
Join Civic Organizations—Become a member of
organizations like your local Chamber of Commerce or Rotary Club or Kiwanis or
Jaycees or Main Street. Not only do they work to better the community, and he
better your community is doing , the better your business will do, but becoming
a member allows you to take advantage of the services the organization offers.
For example, as a member of our local Chamber of Commerce, I can send out
promotions and notices to all other Chamber members , many of whom would have
no idea what the store sells. Also, if
you have some sort of negative event take place, a position as a recognized
member of the local community helps
mitigate the effects of bad publicity.
3.
Press Releases—The local media is always looking
for local news and your store (or company) is newsworthy, whether you are
hosting an event, are hiring new staff or even have a list of the top 5 games
in your community for the year. This last one is one we sent out and we got a
spot on local TV as well as mentions in two local papers, all for about half an
hour’s work and another 5 minutes or so emailing them to the local media.
Remember, you may not follow local news much but there are a lot of people that
do, people who may not know you exist but have money to spend on what you are
selling. Don’t know how to write a press release? Search for “sample press
release” on the interwebs or hire a local journalism student to write one for
you.
Tuesday, April 25, 2023
Yu Gi Oh Premiere
Premiere Event for Yu Gi Oh Cyberstorm Access this weekend. While they last, $25 gets you 5 booster packs of the new set, a Field Center Card and entry into a drawing for playmats and promotional cards.
Monday, April 24, 2023
March of the Machines Epilogue
We are taking pre-orders for the first ever epilogue set for March of the Machines. Pre-release prices for Draft booster boxes are $109.99 and Collector Boosters are $274.99. Bundles are $39.99 . there are no commander Decks or set Boosters.
Thursday, April 20, 2023
Salukicon
Salukicon takes place this weekend with gaming starting Friday afternoon, if you pre-registered for the convention. Otherwise events start at 10 a.m. on Saturday until 5 p.m. and the same hours on Sunday. No scheduled boardgaming though, save for the Catan National Championship Qualifier at 10:30 a.m. and the Competitive D&D torunament starting at 3 p.m. Saturday afternoon
Monday, April 17, 2023
RIP Klaus Teuber
On a sad note, Klaus Teuber, the creator of Setters of Catan, later Catan, passed away this past week after a short illness (See “RIP Klaus Teuber”). Settlers of Catan was the first of the Eurogames, which relied more on strategic play and less on chance, to sell successfully in the US. NPR ran an obituary for Teuber this week, replaying part of his 2020 interview with Rob Schmitz. Catan had its roots in the pretend battles Teuber waged as a child with toy solders over fields, woods, and mountains. However, Catan grew out of his boredom with his job as a dental technician. Spending his free time in his basement developing games, his first games won three Spiel des Jahres awards but sales tapered off quickly. Inspired by stories of the Vikings and what they would need as they explored and colonized, he developed the Settlers of Catan, originally a much more sprawling game than the single island in the core set (the other pieces were eventually added as expansions such as Seafarers of Catan and Cities and Knights). Core tenets of the game were that no-one could ever be eliminated from play and players could take actions on every one’s turn, ensuring no one spend time just sitting there. The game worked, and has sold over 30 million copies since its introduction in 1995.
I remember stocking the game back in 1995, wondering if boardgames would fit into our product mix of RPGs and miniatures since our customers at the time showed no interest in boardgames. It did and we have sold Catan for over 25 years. Thank you, Mr. Teuber for all the fun and sales over the years and yes, I
Thursday, April 13, 2023
Buying
Just a reminder that the store does not buy or trade for anything after 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and after 5 p.m on Sunday. Also, we will not look at anything between 10 and 3 p.m on Tuesday as that is the time we are processing comics.
Tuesday, April 4, 2023
Pokemon Paldea Evolved
Well, we just got Scarlet and Violet this past week and have been informed by our distributiors that we will not see any restocks until June or after Paldea Evolved releases. If you would like to pre-order booster boxes of Paldea Evolved, we are taking prepayment on them for $149.99. We do still have Trainer Kits, boosters and booster boxes of Scarlet and Violet in stock.
Tuesday, March 28, 2023
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet
We received Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Monday and still have booster boxes and single boosters available as well as the battle boxes and Elite Trainer Kits. They did move very briskly yesterday so not sure how much longer we will have them available and The Pokemon Company has informed us we will likely not get any restocks until after the next set releases.
Thursday, March 23, 2023
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.
Wednesday, March 22, 2023
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
Monday, March 20, 2023
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.
Saturday, March 18, 2023
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
Friday, March 17, 2023
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.
Wednesday, March 15, 2023
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.
Tuesday, March 14, 2023
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
Monday, March 13, 2023
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.
Sunday, March 12, 2023
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 40th 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.
Friday, March 10, 2023
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.
Monday, March 6, 2023
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.
Saturday, March 4, 2023
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
Thursday, March 2, 2023
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.
Tuesday, February 28, 2023
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.
Saturday, February 25, 2023
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.
Thursday, February 23, 2023
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.
Wednesday, February 22, 2023
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.
Tuesday, February 21, 2023
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.
Monday, February 20, 2023
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.
Sunday, February 19, 2023
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.
Saturday, February 11, 2023
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.
Thursday, February 9, 2023
Tuesday, February 7, 2023
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.
Saturday, January 28, 2023
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.
Thursday, January 26, 2023
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
Monday, January 23, 2023
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.
Saturday, January 21, 2023
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
Saturday, January 14, 2023
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.
Tuesday, January 10, 2023
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.
Saturday, January 7, 2023
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.
Wednesday, January 4, 2023
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.
Tuesday, January 3, 2023
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.