EricNoah
Adventurer
I realized recently that it had been probably a year since I'd been inside a dedicated FLGS, so I stopped by Misty Mountain Games in Madison this weekend to have a look. They're a relatively new game store in the area, and I hadn't visited them in their new location after they moved about a year ago. Here's what I saw:
1) An average-sized storefront, with a huge play area in the rear. I saw somewhere around 8-10 places for small and medium-sized groups to play. That's really cool -- a FLGS that's not just a store but also a place to participate in the hobby.
2) Card/minis games -- I didn't get a close look but I got the idea that most of the games in the rear were of the card or minis variety. I could understand -- it would be hard to run a role-playing game back there with the level of noise.
3) D20-a-go-go -- I saw rack after rack after rack of D20 stuff. This was primarily newish stuff, typically no more than one or two copies of any one work. They pretty clearly do a good job of rotating in items as they are purchased for I saw very few open/empty slots. The organization was mostly by publisher, but there was a separate section that was primarily modern & sci-fi d20 stuff; and it was hard to confine a behemoth like Mongoose to one (or two or three) sections. I saw some stuff there that had flown under my radar, but nothing that was really from publishers that we're not all familiar with here. I grinned when I saw Tournaments, Fairs & Taverns; I grinned (in a different way) when I saw the now-infamous Shadizar (Conan) boxed set. World's Largest Dungeon was there but the maps were kept behind the counter. Arcana Evolved was present, looking even better in print than in PDF. Flipped through Castles & Crusades. And as I mentioned, Mongoose, Mongoose everywhere -- they had their own rack plus they were scattered through other racks as well. I was pretty overwhelmed with all of the choices. And I realized that if the goal is for players and DMs to have lots of choices, then mission accomplished x 1000.
4) Non-d20. I did see some non-d20 sections but they were outnumbered at least 3:1. The biggest sections were Exalted, other White Wolf (vampire, werewolf, etc.), Steve Jackson, and I think Warhammer. I saw very little that didn't fit into one of those groups. And there were lots of miniatures and related supplies.
5) Discount racks: I saw a table with 75% off, and a shelf with 50% off. They had a mix of d20 and non-d20; d20 stuff there was indeed pretty old stuff. I didn't get the impression that anyone was just dumping d20 in general.
6) I didn't buy anything.
I already have too much stuff and not enough time.
1) An average-sized storefront, with a huge play area in the rear. I saw somewhere around 8-10 places for small and medium-sized groups to play. That's really cool -- a FLGS that's not just a store but also a place to participate in the hobby.
2) Card/minis games -- I didn't get a close look but I got the idea that most of the games in the rear were of the card or minis variety. I could understand -- it would be hard to run a role-playing game back there with the level of noise.
3) D20-a-go-go -- I saw rack after rack after rack of D20 stuff. This was primarily newish stuff, typically no more than one or two copies of any one work. They pretty clearly do a good job of rotating in items as they are purchased for I saw very few open/empty slots. The organization was mostly by publisher, but there was a separate section that was primarily modern & sci-fi d20 stuff; and it was hard to confine a behemoth like Mongoose to one (or two or three) sections. I saw some stuff there that had flown under my radar, but nothing that was really from publishers that we're not all familiar with here. I grinned when I saw Tournaments, Fairs & Taverns; I grinned (in a different way) when I saw the now-infamous Shadizar (Conan) boxed set. World's Largest Dungeon was there but the maps were kept behind the counter. Arcana Evolved was present, looking even better in print than in PDF. Flipped through Castles & Crusades. And as I mentioned, Mongoose, Mongoose everywhere -- they had their own rack plus they were scattered through other racks as well. I was pretty overwhelmed with all of the choices. And I realized that if the goal is for players and DMs to have lots of choices, then mission accomplished x 1000.
4) Non-d20. I did see some non-d20 sections but they were outnumbered at least 3:1. The biggest sections were Exalted, other White Wolf (vampire, werewolf, etc.), Steve Jackson, and I think Warhammer. I saw very little that didn't fit into one of those groups. And there were lots of miniatures and related supplies.
5) Discount racks: I saw a table with 75% off, and a shelf with 50% off. They had a mix of d20 and non-d20; d20 stuff there was indeed pretty old stuff. I didn't get the impression that anyone was just dumping d20 in general.
6) I didn't buy anything.
I already have too much stuff and not enough time.
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(Sorry, couldn't resist)
