Opening Late

 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.

Pokemon 151

We have a limited quantitiy of Pokemon 151 Elite Trainer Kits available tomorrow, priced at $79.99. I see asking prices online are $110 and up, although a few have sold as cheaply as $41.

 

Stickers

 

You like stickers? So do we. We have Wilds of Eldraine stickers free. Just stop in and ask for a set.

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.

Phandelver and Below

Phandelver and Below goes on sale Sept. 19. We have both covers available for $59.99 . Be warned that there is a varnish smell to the alternative cover. Apparently the varnish used on it, as the cover is significantly shinier than the regular cover, has a pine smell. At least it did coming out of the shipping carton. We expect it will dissipate by the time you pick up a copy tomorr.w

 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Lorcana

The last time I remember seeing this amount of buzz and demand for a product was during the early years of Pokemon in the late 1990s. The big difference between the two is that it was kids primarily interested in Pokemon. Granded they brought their partents along as the parents were the ones controlling the pursestrings but the parents had litttle interest in the product.

Not so with Lorcana. We have seen far more adults coming into buy product than we have children. I would estimate aobut 80% of our customers were adults with no kids accompanying them.

Another major difference is much less instore play of Lorcana than we saw of Pokemon. We would have tables of kids, again few if any adults, come in to play in the store Pokemon leagues. We started up a store Lorcana league and, so far, it has been adults playing, no kids. 

Of course, we have also seen a marked drop off in people wanting to play Pokemon. Most of todays customers want to look for the shiny cards and trade them, rather than learning how the game plays.

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)

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. 

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!

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)

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.

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. 

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.

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

The Dungeoneer

The Dungeoner is/was the newsletter of the Knights of the Griffon, a RPGA sanctioned club to which a number of southern Illinois AD&D players belonged. Contents of this issue (January 1987) include a discussion of werewolf lore by Scott Thorne (back in the Blue Sky Games days), magic items by Bob Tottleben and Mike Tyler, the Samauri character class by Clyde Hall and a couple of pieces of fiction with no author given.
 

The Hundreth Voice

From the creator of The Hundreth Voice. If you would like us to order you a copy, let us know.

"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…"

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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)

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.

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.

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 15^th Bigby Presents Glory of the Giants

September 19^th Phandelver And Below:  The Shattered Obelisk

October 17^th Planescape Adventures in the Multiverse

November 14^th Deck of Many Things

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Declaration of Independence

Scott read the Declaration of Independence aloud at the store today. Here is a link to the reading if you want to listen. About 9 minutes long. Hope to recruit other people to help read next year.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

LOTR Magic

We sold out of the LOTR Collector boosters today as well as the Starter Sets. Bundles sold out earlier this week. We still have 1, that's one, Commnader Deck and are expecting about 1 more case of those to arrive. We still have draft and set boosters and should see restocks of them and the Starter sets later this summer but no more Bundles or Collector boosters

We still have a number of the Pre-release or Limited Play kits as well and customers get a foil 30th Anniversary card while quantities last.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Ashes of Faith

Games Workshop heavily allocated this week's new release of Kill Team:  Ashes of Faith to only two copies per store. Both of our copies are already spoken for so will not be able to get additional copies for the release. 

Edited:  We cannot get French copies of Ashes of Faith as noted earlier. Those are reserved for France only. Why they put them on the order form for US stores is beyond me.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.  

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.

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.

Confirmed Guests
Brian K. Morris
Marz Stardust
Isaac Hicks (artist of this year's FCBD free print)
G. "Doc" Smith
Morgan Straughan Comnick
SoIll Roller Girls

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.