Haha. I am not sure I even remember a lot of it. I had a lot of source material, kept buying books and sets, Shatterzone, Dragonlance, AD&D2.0, TMNT, Marvel RPG. I stopped engaging on RPG kind of the same reason I don’t talk about the few books I read, people were just really snotty about it, rude and hostile towards things I like, and the gaming stores here were just weird, awkward and expensive. Fortunately board games and video games don’t seem to have the same problem.
I think it’s like video games. A lot of people who are adults now grew up engaging, on some level, with these hobbies. As an adult, you realize a lot of people had similar experiences so when you talk about them, it’s not weird anymore. I also had to explain to a few of my friends that DM/GM isn’t supposed to “win,” and if that was their experience, it didn’t sound right to me. The goal is fun and challenges not to kill everyone.
The Goat in Tinley Park owners told me that sales of singles of Magic, Pokémon, etc cards were nearly half their profit. The next big tier is the card packs, and games like X-wing.
(if PM stops by you should probably have some rare board game handy — “The Boxer rebellion: 1899-1901: What if? America at the Crossroads: Platoon tactics in the city of Bejing”)
Wow, I live in the Chicago area and didn’t realize I had 2 “Goats” close by! But I also haven’t done much with board or tabletop games in the past 20 years either :)
Congratulations, @Vesper!
It’s always exciting reading about someone making the “big leap”, and I wish you the very best.
You’ll be busy as hell, I know, but please do try to keep us updated on how things are going, at least once in a while. The importance of doing something you love cannot be understated.
Same thing here. We really only have 1 gaming store in the Boston area, Pandemonium, and every time I’ve been there it’s horrible. I’ve tried taking my wife there for D&D twice in the past and she’s been made incredibly uncomfortable by the other patrons and the staff.
There’s another shop near my place in Malden that severely lacks customer service. They’re nice enough, in that they don’t talk to anyone so there’s no creepy comments. Just silence. It also heavily caters to miniature war gaming which is not really my thing, I’m an RPG guy.
Good luck Vesper. As others have said you’re living the dream. Open a store in Boston and I’ll shop there.
I’ve gone to my local Goat, and it’s not exactly unwelcoming, just empty. I went for a game event Saturday a couple of months ago. Got there on time, and it was just four dudes who clearly knew each other with a game already set up, just staring at the pieces and not acknowledging me. (Like I get they might not stop the game for me or invite me to play, but maybe a hello?)
I waited around pretending to look at stuff for another fifteen minutes. No one else came in, so I left.
This has pretty generally been my experience with game stores and events (though sometimes with more people/tables present).
Just curious, since I’ve never been to a gaming store event. Do people bring their own gear? does the store provide demo games in the hope that people buy them at the end of the day?
