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.
The blog for news, events, releases and commentary from Castle Perilous Games & Books. located in downtown Carbondale IL. New posts every Monday and Wednesday.
Thursday, March 23, 2023
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.