I've been thinking where to take Farsight Games and one option was to open up a fully-fledged shop, with premises, window displays, rent costs and everything. I'd open it in my city of residence because we're pretty central for the towns around us (all buses come through here) and we're pretty easy to find off the motorways. I reckon we'd service the local gamers quite well - the more I looked into a roleplaying club the more came out of the woodwork. Not only that, I was in a gaming store (which is, by the way, more than an hours journey away from where I live) last Saturday and there were two 10/11 year old kids with their dad getting excited over 'Pathfinder' ('Dad! Dad! This looks better than the 2nd Edition we're doing!'). This kind of made me smile because it was nice to see the pre-teen generation getting excited about RPGs and it gave me hope for the future. There will always be people with overactive imaginations...
I've even had a look at a business plan and considered some properties online. I think it's doable. It's what my area might need to help revitalise the gaming hobby, not just RPGs but wargames, boardgaems and card games, too. My city has never had a dedicated gaming shop of any description so perhaps because of that I might have a whole slew of new blood to entice.
Who knows. It's all just daydreaming at the moment.
Your destination for fast, simple TTRPGs - home of Fireteam, Deep Space, Cyber Streets and adventures for the Those Dark Places RPG from Osprey Games
I heard that when my old gaming club started, it was only so that they didn't have to play at one of their houses. To keep a gaming club going, you need a group of people who regularly attend so that new players always had someone to game with. I think the link between store and gaming club is very important. All the FLGS (Friendly Local Gaming Store) I've really liked have had a club backbone.
ReplyDeleteIt's the club I want to base it off, make the community string and give it a focus. Kind of like uniting the tribes - I'll be the Genghis Khan of niche hobby games!
ReplyDeleteAs strange as it sounds I also want to give it that Games Workshop style of bright and airiness with helpful staff and enthusiastic smiles all round. Keep gaming fun and make it attractive to outsiders, stop keeping it limited by egos and elitist attitudes. Waylands Forge in Brum feels dirty, the carpet is bedraggled and covered in bits, the walls need painting, it smells of chips and sweat and the staff/patrons are a bit ignorant. I'm really trying to avoid that. I want people to come in as first-time gamers and have a reason to delve deeper into the hobby.
There's an idea for a store name - FLAGS (Friendly Local Area Gaming Store). Rob, you're a genius.
If you ever get a chance to pop into North London, then Leisure Games sounds like a North London equivalent of what you want. I used to go in there all the time and even worked there for a summer!
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