Wolverine

Here is a bit of interesting comic history.  Wolverine was originally planned to be a real wolverine.  No really. The character's original origin tied into the High Evolutionary, who was a common foe of many Marvel heroes, especially the Avengers, during the 1970s. the High Evolutionary was especially known for his evolutionary experiments on animals, making them bipedal and giving them human or near human intelligence. 

 

Under this version of his origin, the High Evolutionary would have experimented on a wolverine, giving him human intelligence and stature but keeping his aggressive nature. Wolverine would have escaped from Wundargore Mountain, unaware of his true nature and becoming an agent of the Canadian government and later an X-man. This version of his origin was, of course dumped, although some trace of it remained in early issues, especially when he was captured and scanned and the results indicated unusual readings indicating something odd about his mutant status.  After those first issues, the matter was never mentioned agin.

Pokemon

 Pokemon is still moving hotly here. We did receive a tiny shipment of gift sets and a restock of Prismatic Evolution boosters, with more Phantasmal Flames on the way so get some while we have them. I keep waiting for this current boom to end but not so far.

Cryer from the Castle 12/8

New Games Workshop

 Here is the Games Workshop releasing on January 10th. If you want any , please let us know by noon Tuesday

The battlefields of the 31st Millenium are reinforced this week with the Legiones Astartes Siege Assault Battlegroup.

This is the first time people can get the new MK III Breacher squad alongside the new Cataphractii Terminators in an added value launch set.

Eberron: Forge of the Artificer

 If you purchased a copy of the #Dnd2024 Forge of the Artificer handbook from us, stop by and pick up a free copy of Fated Flight of the Recluse. WotC send these out as an apology for the delay in the release of the handbook.

If you remember, Artificer was scheduled for release late last summer but the entire print run had warped covers, so the company scrapped the print run and ordered another one.

Cryer from the Castle 12/3/2025

This week's new releases and events

New Games workshop

 

advantages of the Stockist program!

Space Marines: Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs An airborne assault squad - leap over obstacles and enemies to strike where the foe is vulnerable. Space Marines: Terminator Squad A classic, elite unit of heavily-armoured veterans with a number of weapon options in the kit. Slaves to Darkness: Be’lakor A beautiful centrepiece model available for both Age of Sigmar and Warhammer 40,000.

Relive the horrific carnage of the Dropsite Massacre in epic fashion with a slew of new miniatures and added value boxes! This week also debuts the first Legions Imperialis Journal Strategia with The Ruin of the Salamanders. This is a must buy for ALL Legions Imperialis players. Ask us how to bring these lines in your store to satisfy all your customers!

The final instalment, The Aranthian Succession: Spire of Primus has arrived. This campaign book tells of the coming of the new character Ozostium Aranthus, the Divine Prince, and how he will shape the Necromunda universe.

Small Business Saturday

 for Small Business Saturday, buy one of our tote bags for $5 , or bring in one of ours if you already have one, fill it, roll a d20 and take that percentage off your purchase.

Also, all of our action figures are buy one, get one free.

Cryer from the Castle 11/25

This week's new releases and events.

Castle Catch Up for 11/13

Brandon looks a 1 comic from last week and 3 upcoming releases

Pokemon

 We currently are not selling booster boxes of Pokemon, though we will be glad to sell you 36 individual pack, just not at a box discount.  Given how fast Pokemon sells, we want to maximize our supply for as long as we can and one way we have found to do so is to not offer a box discount.

Trampier Mural Ribbon Cutting

Members of the Carbondale Chamber of Commerce stormed Castle Perilous Games and Books on Nov. 20, 2025 for a ribbon cutting celebrating the store's new mural honoring fantasy artist Dave "Tramp" Trampier. Painted by Jordan Murphy, the mural features the self-potrait of Trampier from the Dungeons and Dragons Gamemaster Screen and the dragon Wormy from Trampier's comic strip of the same name.  One of the first artists featured in the Dungeons & Dragons game, Trampier's art helped define fantasy art for an entire generation. Trampier moved to Carbondale in the late 1990s and passed away here in 2014

 

Batman Deadpool

 A lot of people have been waiting for Batman Deadpool #1 which arrived today, so stop by and grab a copy (or two) before they all sell out.  We also have copies of the second printing of Deadpool Batman so pick up a matched set.

Cryer From the Castle 11/18

Hope you can attend the Dave Trampier mural ribbon cutting at noon this Thursday and ThanksGaming at 5 p.m.

Castle Catch Up for 11/15

 https://youtube.com/shorts/0_y9tiuto4s?feature=share

Brandon looks at 1 comic from this week's books and previews 3 from next week's.

Avatar Pre-release

 Has a good turnout for  the first Avatar pre-release tonight with 16 players. We are out of red and green decks for the other two tournaments, save for those pre-ordered by players that pre-registered. If you come to tomorrow's event, you will get to select from white, blue or black.

Note that we are not "selling" any kits to take home until after 1 p.m. on Sunday so we can make sure all of our tournament players have one.

Cryer from the Castle 11/9

Events at the Castle this week

Holiday Battle Forces

 GW has announced their holiday battle forces for 2025 .  Here are the Warhammer 40K forces and here are the Age of Sigmar  If you want one, let us know by noon tomorrow

Castle Catch Up

Brandon looks at one comic they liked from last week and three they anticipate this week.

Magic Final Fantasy

 Well we finally got in a restock today of the Magic Final Fantasy play boosters.  Only took about 3 months.  Now to see if the demand is still here or if everyone has moved on from the set to anticipating the new Avatar set.

So far, we have received reprints of Takir Dragonstorm and Final Fantasy.  Now all we need is for a reprint of Edge of Eternities to show up for the holiday selling season.

Cryer from the Castle 11/04/25

Cryer from the castle for the week of 11/4/25

GW New Releases

 Please let us know if you want these by noon on Nov. 4th 

Kill Team: Dead Silence is the latest expansion for the Kill Team game. This exciting box continues the recent campaigns into the depths of ancient Tomb Worlds and is the first place to get the eagerly awaited, new XV26 T’au Stealth Battlesuits and Space Wolf Scouts. All collectors will no doubt enjoy adding these to their Warhammer 40,000 collections too.

All games of Warhammer 40,000 and Kill Team need an exciting battlefield on which to play. The Killzone: Tomb World set provides this, with both a gaming board and 25 pieces of terrain to create the perfect backdrop. This terrain was previously available in the highly popular Kill Team: Tomb World box and was well received by fans.

Halloween

Stop by the store after 3 today for Trick or treating. We will have candy, Pokemon Packs and comic books for trick or treaters, as well as hot dogs and cider.

Players in the D&D Game get an extra re-roll if in costume and players in Friday Night Magic get an extra promo card if in costume. 

Cryer from the Castle 10/28

New releases and events for the week of 10/16

Alice is Missing

 One of the most unique RPGs to have come out in the past few years is Alice is Missing. For those not familiar with the game, released by Renegade Press, it is a gamemasterless RPG, played silently by the participants, who only communicate through text messages. The Facilitator sets everything up and plays the role of Charlie Barnes, who returns to the town of Silent Falls inquiring about the whereabouts of their friend Alice Briarwood, from whom they have not heard in three days. Charlie reaches out to the other players, who take the roles of Alice’s other friends, who then work together to figure out what has happened to Alice. As all the communication in the game takes play via group and individual texts, every player must have a phone. The game itself only comes with a copy of the rules and the clue cards, which help determine what happened to Alice. A lot of the material, such as the timer, character sheets, soundtrack and props are provided online, meaning that players must have access to at least one computer during the game session. The game takes about 90 minutes to play, with the counter indicating when clue cards get flipped over to provide more information about what happened to Alice.

Given the topic, a missing teen age girl, Alice Is Missing spends a lot of time on player safety, telling players to determine Lines (subjects which should not be discussed in the game) and Veils (subjects which can be mentioned but not described in detail). There is also an X-card, which a player can play, or type X into the chat, to remove a topic from the game. Players are then given their characters and time to look them over and the timer is then started.  Over the course of the next 90 minutes, every 5 or 10 minutes the timer prompts the reveal of a clue card. At 30 minutes, the suspect cards are gathered, and one is revealed as the person responsible for Alice’s disappearance, at 20 minutes, a location card reveals where she is and at 10 minutes, another card reveals Alice’s condition. During the game, players are never at the same location at the same time, giving a game reason for texting. Likewise, players are encouraged to “Make Stuff Up” if it stays within the narrative of the game and moves it along consistently with the cards revealed. The game requires players to adopt the motives and relationships of their characters, meaning the more role playing each incorporates into the game, the more enjoyable it becomes.

The Hollywood Reporter announced Alice is Missing has been optioned for possible development as a movie. Unlike past movies based on games (Battleship and Dungeons and Dragons come to mind), I think Alice is Missing has a better chance for a successful movie than the preceding two.  Battleship just took the name of the game and applied it to a space combat movie. Some years ago, I got an opportunity to play Battleship:  Galaxies, which WotC released at the same time as the movie.  What had been a simple game developed into an unwieldy monstrosity that took hours to play and was not that much fun, which is why it got discontinued soon after. Similarly, the Dungeons and Dragons movies took the game name and affixed to a typical fantasy movie. The only thing I remember specifically D&D related from the first movie was a beholder floating in the background in one scene. D&D modules have stories to tell, D&D is a rules system for telling those stories. That is why I think Alice is Missing has a good chance of translating into a successful movie. It has a strong story, and the best movies tell good stories. 

Halloween Concert

 South Illinois from College to Elm will close tomorrow about 3 p.m. until 10 p.m. for Trick or Treating on Main Street from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. followed by the Homecoming Concert starting about 6 p.m. 

We are one of the 40 stops for downtown trick or treating and will be giving away both candy and a comic book so stop by

Cryer from the Castle 10/22

Events and new releases at the store this week.

MegaTraveller

If you are a collector of out of print RG materials, we just picked up a collection of long out of print MegaTraveller books, as well as some Shadowrun and some assorted small press RPG items like the Hellboy RPG
 

Graded Magic Cards

 We just received about 10 CGC graded Magic cards. All of them are in our display case or you can see them listed in our ebay store.  Grading cards is not something we normally do but these Revised dual lands and a couple of Legacy artifacts have been in the display case for quite awhile so decided to get them graded and list them in our eBay store.

Cryer from the Castle 10/14

Brandon with store events and new comics for the week of 10/14

Pauper

 Since pauper locally has grown in popularity, we will add a session of Magic pauper play to Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m.  Cost is $6.  We did try running Pauper on Monday nights earlier this year but after the first couple of weeks, players stopped showing.  Hoping that those really wanting to play Pauper will cover here at 1 p.m. and then head over to G&G Games for their evening Pauper session for a day's worth of Pauper play

Cryer from the Castle for 10/7

This week's events and new releases.

Pokemon

 We received a restock of the Mega Evolution Elite Trainer Kits as well as the Halloween promotional packs.  Come in and play Pokemon on Saturdays between 1 and three and you will receive 1 Halloween promo pack as well as 1 promotional card for each match you play. 

We would like to get the in store Pokemon play back to a level that it is worthwhile for us to get pre-releases sanctioned again and host tournaments.  We currently can apply for pre-releases but do not want to until we get more instore play. If you want pre-releases in Carbondale, come play on Saturdays.

Haunted Carbondale

Haunted Carbondale walking tours will start up on the 10th , leaving the store at 6 p.m on the evenings of the 10th, 17, 22 and 29th . We decided to move the third and fourth ones from Friday to Wednesday so as not to conflict with the Homecoming music festival and Halloween.

Cryer from the Castle 9/30

This week's cryer from the castle

Archon

 Archon 48 takes place this weekend at the Collinsville Convention Center. We have attended since the 1990s when the organizers held it at the long demolished Henry the 8th hotel and look forward to seeing old and new friends again.

Cryer from the Castle Sept 23 2025

New releases and events

Universes Beyond Spider Man

 Magic Spider Man released today and, according to one of our suppliers, WotC printed 3 times as much of this set as the company did Tarkir Dragonstorm. While I do not expect to see Final Fantasy numbers, because that was just nuts, we do expect to sell out of Collector Boosters within a couple of weeks and Play Boosters within a month.  Gift Bundles are almost pre-sold out, to the point we are not preselling any more as we want to make sure our allocation covers our orders.  Surprisingly, at least to us, we did not presell a single regular bundle but expect those to sell out within a week. 

Cryer from the Castle 9/16

this week's new comics and events.

Pre-registration

 Today is 

Just a reminder that today is the last day to prepay for the Spider Man pre-release or any of the Spider Man product and save money.  Pre-release entry goes to $55 tomorrow.

Cryer from the Castle 9/9

this week's Cryer from the Castle with events and new releases

Used RPG Materials

We do have a large stock of used RPG materials including items for 1st, 2nd 3rd, 5th and, as the photo shows, 4th edition D&D. We also have out of print materials for Vampire, Traveller, Champions and GURPS as well as many other systems.

 

Retailer Handbooks

The reason the Wallace's training guides and handbooks are important is that Wallace was one of the first people in the game industry to push for retailers to be viewed as, and act professionally. At a GAMA trade show years ago, WizKids gave out a limited edition Dropship to every retail store attending. While most retailers grabbed the ship and frantically either posted pictures of it or listed it on eBay, Wallace let his staff, which he paid to attend the show as well, handle that while he continued to discuss discounting and breakeven points.

Before the publication of these books, back around 2000, a game or comic store owner had little reference material on which to draw and opening a store was rather flying blind, as most game and comic store owners got into the business because of their love of the hobby and ran the store as a reflection of that love, rather than as a business. The Specialty Retailer's Handbook and the Store Manager's Training Guide were the Wallace's codification of what they had learned running their stores into a format others could use.

 

Comic Shop Handbooks

Although there are more books available now, during the early 21st century, if you wanted to open a game or comic store, these books by Dave and Kell Wallace were essential reading for anyone hoping to have a successful operation.

 

Cryer From the Castle 9/2

This week's events and new releases

Dave Wallace Memorial

 Dave Wallace, long time owner of St. Louis' Fantasy Shop, passed away last week after a long illness. There will be a celebration of his life this Saturday at 3 p.m. at the St. Charles Fantasy Shop location. Scott will leave the store about noon and has room for 3 people if anyone wants to ride along.

Cryer From the Castle 8/24

New GW Pre-orders

 We are taking pre-orders for the Kill Team Tomb World set as well as the Raverners, BattleClade, Orks Kommandos  ADEPTA SORORITAS: SISTERS NOVITIATE , and Battlecards for the Raverners and BattleClade. Let us know by 3 p.m August 26th if you want any.

GenCon Comments

 

GenCon 2025 continued the trend of recent GenCons by selling out attendance (See “GenCon 2025 Sets New Attendance Record”). I can remember the days when 50,000 attendees was considered an amazing number. Now it’s “oh 70,000+ people attending”  even though it is the largest annual convention in Indianapolis and the second largest regular event in Indy, only eclipsed by the Indianapolis 500.

I judge how well a game or other product is going to do based on, not on how much buzz it gets at GenCon or Origins but rather what items my customers ask for after the event ends. This is what happened with Magic The Gathering, Dungeons and Dragons 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th editions, Pathfinder, Shadowrun, Vampire the Masquerade, Pokemon and Yu Gi Oh.

Using this metric, things I expect to do well are:

Starfinder 2E—as is their wont, Paizo released the new edition to the channel at the same time the company launched it at Gencon. We have taken pre-orders on this for months and had customers come pick up their copies as soon as we notified them they had arrived.

Gundam—Both the Gundam TCG and the Gundam Assemble miniatures game have had significant interest. The Gundam TCG has proved hard enough to stock in that I expect it to go the way of the original Final Fantasy TCG which, available while it was in demand only through one distributor, saw a drastic drop in interest when supplies became more widely available. Much as with their One Piece TCG, Bandai seems unable to print enough product to satisfy the demand, increasing speculation on the game and making it harder to hold tournament or other sanctioned play, which has become the lifeblood of most TCGs.  Since Gundam Assemble is not a collectible product, at least I hope not, and I have had a number of customers ask about it, both before and after GenCon. Unfortunately, I am not seeing an official release date posted yet and it looks as if initial orders will be allocated.  If they are, I hope Bandai has more product in the pipeline to arrive soon.

Riftbound—Despite the excitement about the game at GenCon, we have not had any customers asking about it. The buzz around it reminds of that around another TCG based on a MOBA, the World of Warcraft TCG which launched with great fanfare and filled tables at GenCon and Origins in 2005, released in 2006, slowed down enough to get sold off in 2010 and petered out in 2013 (See”WOW TCG Calls It Quits”).  The store did make a decent amount of money off WOW but primarily from people wanted to buy the packs in the hope of getting codes to unlock special in-game items.  Actual card play petered out within a year or two. From what I can tell, Riftbound packs do not include Riot Codes, so that will exclude that segment of the market. Will it sell?  Certainly. Will it displace Magic, Pokemon or Yu Gi Oh?  Yes, temporarily but over the long term I doubt it.

More Diamond Shenanigans

 

The Diamond Comic Distribution bankruptcy saga just took another interesting turn, at least based on the daily emails the company is sending (See “Diamond Bankruptcy Continues to Rack Up Fees”).  Emails like their “New to Order” come from Diamond Comic Distributors and have the following address at the bottom:

Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc. 10150 York Road, Suite 300 Hunt Valley, MD 21030

However, the Diamond Daily email is coming from Diamond Comic Distributors II, using the same email address but has the following mailing address:

Diamond Comic Distributors II, LLC.

10150 York Road, Suite 300

Hunt Valley, MD 21030

Same mailing address but it appears Diamond has quietly created a second LLC through which to send some of its correspondence. I figure some legal reason for it. Just one more small, strange twist in the continuing story.

Cryer from the Castle 8/19

Shashibo

Fun In Motion was kind enough to send us this video display showing off the capabilities of its Shashibo cube. Unfortunately, when the autoplay comes on, so does the audio which is quite loud.  Hopefully we can figure out a way to turn off the audio permanently. 

Pokemon

We managed to get in a small, pricy assortment of Pokemon Black Bolt and White Flare sets. When they are gone, that will be it.

 

Cryer from the Castle 8/12/2025

This week's Cryer from the Castle

Pokemon

 We finally found a source for Pokemon manga collections and have volumes 1 though 5 in stock.

Birthday

 It is Scott's birthday on August 10th so stop in, have a cupcake and take one of each of the items on the table (while quantities last) as your present.

Mike Herron

 Those of you who were in the SIUC SGS during the 1980s and 1990s should remember Mike Herron or "Wheelchair Mike" as he was also known. He played many different war , board and RPGs but I remember him as an avid Car Wars player.

According to his Facebook page, he had suffered from lung disease for several years and recently developed congestive heart failure, to the point that his weary body just gave out.  Rest in peace Mike

Cryer From The Castle for 8/5

Young Guns Magic

 If you are a Magic Player between the ages of 10 and 16 (younger ones are welcome as long as they understand the rules), come join us for Young Guns magic on Saturday afternoon from 3 to 5.  All Participants receive a free Magic booster as well as promo cards for each set of games they play.

Pokémon League

We play casual Pokemon every Saturday from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.  We can teach you how to play, loan you a deck or you can come play with your own.  All participants receive a promo pack for playing and playing rounds earns you promotional cards. 
 

Final Fantasy Restock

 Given how hard Final Fantasy products have been to restock, we were happy to get in a restock of the Final Fantasy 2-Player Starter Set as well as the Final Fantasy Standard Commander Decks. Given the popularity of the commander decks, we do not expect to have them past the weekend.

Eisner Awards

Here is the list of the 2025 Eisner Award winning comics and graphic novels for 2025. We have a number of these in stock at the store.

 

Cryer from the Castle July 29th

Edge of Eternities Errata

  Diplomatic Relations has the following errata

We are aware of an issue in which the card Diplomatic Relations from Edge of Eternities was printed with missing rules text that affects its functionality. The printed version reads:

Target creature gets +1/+0 and gains vigilance until end of turn. It deals damage equal to its power to target creature an opponent controls.

The corrected rules text reads:

Target creature you control gets +1/+0 and gains vigilance until end of turn. It deals damage equal to its power to target creature an opponent controls.

This is an official update to rules text that should be reflected in play. Corrected text will appear on MTG Arena, Gatherer, and Magic Online.

Artificer

 Due to  problems with cover warping, the Eberron Artificer book has been delayed until late November.

We want to share an important update about Eberron: Forge of the Artificer. 

A few weeks ago, we received the first printed copies of the book. At first, everything looked great and met our production standards. But over time, a serious issue emerged: the covers began to warp. This was a defect that developed after production and wasn’t visible during initial inspection. 

After reviewing the full scope of the issue, we made the tough decision to recall and reprint the entire physical run. No copies with this defect will be shipped to customers. This is a complete reprint, not a patch job, and we believe it’s the right call. 

We know many players expected digital access earlier, but to preserve the integrity of the experience and ensure a unified release, we’ve aligned both physical and digital editions to a single timeline. Both versions will now officially launch on December 9, 2025. 

Key Dates for WPN Release 

November 25, 2025 – Early Access Begins [North America Only] 

Customers purchasing through participating WPN stores will be eligible to pick up their corrected physical copies starting this date two weeks ahead of global release. 

December 9, 2025 – Global Release 

All remaining physical copies and digital editions go live. 

DCC Day

 Today is DCC Day. While quantities last, come in and take one each of the Adventure Packs free. Each features a low level adventure for Dungeon Crawl Classics and Either X-Crawl or Mutant Crawl Classics. We also have a number of limited edition DCC items available for purchase but quantities on those are extremely short.  

Final Fantasy

 We expect a small restock of Final Fantasy boosters to arrive later this week, both play and collector as well as 1, that is one, bundle.  Based on the amount of interest, we do not expect these to last the weekend.

Cryer from the Castle 7/15

Brandon with this week's events

Fantastic Four #1

 We sold out of the relaunch of Fantastic Four on Wednesday but got in more copies on Thursday so we have them in stock if you want to snag a copy. Remember, to get one of the spiffy FF cloisonné pins, bring in a ticket from the movie, buy $10 worth of Fantastic Four books and pick a pin.

superman Movie

 So far I am hearing very good reviews of the new Superman movie, despite those complaining because Kal-El is shown as an immigrant to the planet, which he is. "Strange visitor from another world" and all that as the original original had it.  If you see the movie, bring in your ticket and purchase $10 worth of Superman books, we will give you a reproduction of Adventure Comics #210, featuring the first appearance of Krypto.

Cryer from the Castle 7/8

Horus Heresy

 If you want any of the new Horus Heresy items, specifically the SATURNINE box set, we need to know by 3 p.m CT tomorrow. Same thing for the new codexes releasing 7/26

July 4th

 Tomorrow we will host our third annual reading of the Declaration of Independence at 11 am central time. You are welcome to join us at the store or watch live as we stream it on our Facebook page.

Cryer from the Castle 7/1/2025

Brandon looks at this week's events and releases

Archie Vs. Minor Threats

 This looks like a cool series. Remember Archie had some really weird crossovers over the years, including Predator, Punisher, Sharknado and later this summer Jay and Silent Bob. They all worked. We ordered up on this one, as well as the Jay and Silent Bob book because I think they will be fun.

Stop by the store and pick up a free Archie/Minor Threats button, while they last.

Final Fantasy

 The Universes Beyond Final Fantasy has been quite a sugar rush for stores.  Even pricing collector boosters at $50 each did not slow down the interest and the Gift Bundles moved steadily at $149.99 as we sold through 80% of our order in one day. 

We would love to get more of the shiny collectors cards for the set but, since there are serialized cards in the Collector packs, Wotc will not reprint them. We do expect more Play boosters and regular commander decks in July but no more Collector.

Will Spider Man and Avatar be as big?  I am not sure. I doubt it but I and the rest of the staff, to be honest, did not expect Final Fantasy to sell as well as it did.

Cryer from the Castle 6/23

Final Fantasy

 We are currently out of Final Fantasy sealed product. We expect our Gift Bundles to arrive this week and hopefully some Play boosters as well. We do not expect any more collector boosters or commander decks though.

Free RPG Day

Free RPG Day is tomorrow, June 21. Come in and take two items off the table free.  Get one more for sharing the event on social media, showing your Preferred Customer Card, wearing a Castle Perilous Shirt and for every 2 stamps you earn on a Castle Card.

 

6/17 Cryer from the Castle

This week's Cryer from the Castle

Chobobo Racing

 We will host Final Fantasy Chobobo Racing every Saturday at 1 p.m.  That means a booster draft. You get 3 points for playing in the draft and 1 point for each round you win.  Get 10 points and get a chobobo print. Reach 20 points and you earn a Chobobo VR pin.

Father's Day

 Bring your dad in on Father's Day, or any Fathers coming in by themselves, and we will treat them to a free bottle of soda or tea. How better to cool off on a hot, almost summer, day?

We have a large selection of Excel sodas, as well as Muddy Monster root Beer and the line of Excel small batch iced teas so come in, get Dad one and buy one or more for yourself.

Supergirl

 I am really liking the new Supergirl series from DC. I started reading comics back in the 1960s and I am amused/happy to see Sophie Campbell bringing back a lot of concepts from the Silver Age version of her , like Streaky the Supercat, Titano the Super Ape,  Dick Malverne and Lesla-Lar, one of Supergirl's earliest foes, though not as conflicted as Campbell makes her in this version.  But then it was the 1960s and we were not expecting complicated personalities in our comic books.

Of course, if they bring back Comet the Super Horse and Jerro the Merboy, that might stretch things too far.

Cryer from the Castle June 10th

This week's Cryer from the Castle

Portal Games Response to Tariffs

 

The email below discusses some of the actions Portal Games plans to take in response to American tariffs and notably, advises American customers who want to back their upcoming release Race for Berlin to put in a $1 placeholder pledge until the company determines if the administration will change its mind about how much tariffs should be:

Bohemians was sent to print this week. I lowered the print run to 60% of planned print run so we don’t risk bankruptcy with tariffs when games reach US customs,

Age of Galaxy is ready in China. I asked the manufacturer to not ship it to the US yet. We are risking missing Gen con release, but this additional 145% cost added to the whole sprint run is devastating. I have two, maybe three weeks window and then I miss Gen con with the game,

Race to Berlin on GameFound started this week. We have 200 backers as for now. For the US players we decided to not collect regular pledge due to uncertainty with final tariffs and asked them to put $1 Pledge in and see how the things develop later. We don’t want to leave them behind, but at the same time I am responsible and respectful - I am not going to charge you $40 for a game that may cost you $200 later with crazy tariffs added.

Final Fantasy Pre-release

 We had 19 people in for our first Final Fantasy pre-release, the largest number we have had in quite some time.  We still have space in tonight's and tomorrow's events but will not be selling any pre-release kits until after 1 p.m on Sunday, in order to make sure we have space in both of our remaining events. After 1 p.m. tomorrow, we will put out any remaining kits on sale.

Final Fantasy

 WOTC has said that the Universes Beyond Final Fantasy set is the biggest selling Magic set ever. It should be, given that the going rate for a booster box of Collector boosters for the set is selling for about $600, some of the Collector Commander Decks are selling for over $300 each and at least one foil version of a card is currently selling for $175

Cryer from the Castle 6/3/2025

GW Releases for June 21

 If yo want any of these, please let us know by Tuesday June 3 at 3 p.m.

CHAOS KNIGHTS: HOUNDPACK LANCE

CODEX: CHAOS KNIGHTS (ENG)

DATASHEET CARDS: CHAOS KNIGHTS (ENG)

WARHAMMER 40000: CHAOS KNIGHTS DICE

CHAOS KNIGHTS: CHAOS KNIGHT RUINATOR

Castle Perilous Games and Books Walkthrough

Never been to the store and want to see what it looks like.  Here's your opportunity.