Games suggestions

[Dilvish the Deliverer]

Hey all,

 

A friend of mine just opened a comic/MtG/vintage video game store.  The main focus is on comics but he would like to have some games available for customers to purchase.

 

He was looking at games that were less than $30, and I feel that as it's not his core business that he should stick to party games and games that have a comics related tie in.

 

My suggestions were:

 

Card Against Humanity (plenty of expansions)

Red Flags

Legendary: Marvel Deck building and expansions

Munchkin (any super hero related version)

 

 

I know that there are a lot of people that play more board and party games than I do (most of what I listed I learned about at either RCon or NEMPA paint days), so I figured I would mine the experience of the Forum.  Any suggestions?  Feel free to give a brief description; I'm lazy and BGG is blocked from work anyways.

[Sylverthorne]

Red Dragon Inn is a good game, best played with a mid-size group.

Pairs, maybe?

 

I don't really play a lot of board/party games, so that's really all I've got. ^^;

 

[Clearman]

I'm not a huge board gamer either, but when one does catch my eye, I like to ask the owner/attendant if they have played it to gauge how the game flows/fun level..  A good recommendation for a game goes a long way.   

[Werkrobotwerk]

chez geek, in a similar vein to munchkin. you have a job, that gives you a win condition usually avoiding work. play cards to get there.

 

404 law not found, be a malfunctioning robot trying to achieve your own nonsense goals. It's a card stack order execution game sort of like robot rally, except you are trying to accomplish nonsense. examples, destroying all weapons, sending the monkey into space, firing alien artifacts at enemy ships, and causing failed cloning attempts.

 

Dr. McNinja ultimate showdown. super simple quick card game, play increasingly silly modifiers to be the last ninja standing (or last kitten)

 

Joking hazard, like cards against humanity, except you are building a comic strip.

[Pingo]

I don't know if your friend is intereseted at all in kids' games, but there is this board game by Ravensberger called "Labyrinth" (which used to be called The aMAZEing Labyrinth) which we got for our eldest when five (which was probably a few years too early) which was playable between kids and adults and was fun and challenging for both without the adults needing to handicap themselves or throw the game.  Skill and forethought were useful, but there was enough variability and unpredictability that anyone could be challenged and anyone could have a surprise bit of luck.

 

TBH, it was our go-to fallback birthday gift* for our kids' friends for the entire 8-12 crowd.

 

 

 

 

 

*meaning for those times when on receiving the invitation we would ask our kids Well, what sorts of things does your friend like?  and they wouldn't have a clue or would say Yu-Gi-Oh or something.

Edited March 20, 2017 by Pingo

[BLZeebub]

Not sure it fits the price line, but Settlers of Catan is gaining in popularity I think.  And it seems to be picking up cool expansions.  Bonus that it kind of relates to the fantasy/historic theme.  He could also keep a box or two of the classics Risk and Axis & Allies, and their respective iterations.

[Mehman]

I would also say Settlers of Catan. The only problem there is that it's going to get people interested in Euro-games and then they'll go to another store to sate their newly-awakened appetite. Then, before they know it, they're online buying from Miniature Market and have 500+ points that they don't know what are about. The insanity never stops...

 

Anyway, Settlers of Catan is a resource managing game with meeples - you know, wooden blocks that look like a person or a road or whatever. It's for 3+ players. Really quite a fun game.

 

I would suggest Carcassonne as that's my GAME*, son! I mean: I quite enjoy it. It's a tile-based game that lets you build fields, cities, and roads that you score in different ways (usually on completion). Could it be the most famous meeple game of all time? Perhaps. The average game takes 45 min - 1 hour to complete and is a fun time for all.

 

Of course, these two games are Euro-lite games so I don't know if they fit the comic theme. The comic book / Local Game Store** has them both in stock at all times as both are popular and easy sells***. Hope that helps some.

 

* Well, that and GURPS.

** It's an hour-plus drive away from me now so I don't know how local that is really. Me being disabled doesn't help any, either.

*** Can you say "cash cows"?

[Beowulfthehunter]

With Cards, there is no distribution to game stores. If they want to carry it, they have to buy it from them or Target and sell it for more than retail to make a profit.

[OneBoot]

We Didn't Playtest This At All is a fairly cheap party game, plus the box is quite small so the footprint on the shelf is ideal. It's similar to Fluxx in that the rules constantly change based on what cards are in play. Lots of fun, and easy to pick up and play. There's also several expansions.

 

Huzzah!        

--OneBoot :D

[sumbloke]

Love Letter, particularly the Batman and Hobbit variants. It's a micro-game where you play cards to try and knock the other players out. There's also the basic game and a Munchkin re-skin, but Batman and Hobbit variants are actually slightly different games.

 

Top Trumps might be good, but I'm not too familiar with it.

 

Looney Labs has a few decent games for this sort of market other than Fluxx. Chrononauts and Treehouse would work.

 

Steve Jackson Games also has some more options other than Munchkin. Ninja Burger is another good one.

 

Maybe have a look at the Tiny Epic series.

 

I was thinking of mentioning the Playtest series, but OneBoot beat me to it.

[Sylverthorne]

IIRC, Pairs is by the same company that does Kill Dr. Lucky and the variants of same; I can't remember which...

That might be a popular sort of game too, although not having played it... *shrug*

[kitchen_wolf]

HeroClix is an obvious tie-in, in that the intended audience would buy some.  Which doesn't mean that it would necessarily be profitable because details and marketing agreements and distribution terms and this is why I own index mutual funds.

 

Also, as a newish game store owner he should probably read a selection from this guy:

 

http://blackdiamondgames.blogspot.com/

 

Not everything that Mr. Ray has to say is a perfect solution, but he at least mentions problems that are worth thinking about.

[Dilvish the Deliverer]

Thanks all!  He was very appreciative of your assistance.  I sent him a link to the topic, and he says that he is interested in playing some of your suggestions.

[pinkymadigan]

8 hours ago, sumbloke said:

Love Letter, particularly the Batman and Hobbit variants. It's a micro-game where you play cards to try and knock the other players out. There's also the basic game and a Munchkin re-skin, but Batman and Hobbit variants are actually slightly different games.

 

 

A second for Love Letter. Great time waster while waiting for the rest of the gaming group to get there/game we'll play at the end of the night when we don't want to play something with a serious time element.

 

Another similar is Fluxx (and the one billion variants), though that is even less serious. https://boardgamegeek.com/geeksearch.php?action=search&objecttype=boardgame&q=fluxx

 

Coup is awesome as well. https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/131357/coup

 

Edited March 21, 2017 by pinkymadigan

[dwarvenranger]

I like 3 Dragon Ante and Inn Fighting but I don't know if they're still available.