Tell me about your experiences running games at a FLGS

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I think the reason its uncommon here in the twin cities is we have not only a ton of gaming stores locally, but we have some with very large gaming spaces. We got the usual 4 table strip mall joints, but we also got like 2000 SQ ft gaming space joints that can really pack em in.

I live in Southern California, where commercial real estate -- all real estate, really, unless you want to build a logistics warehouse -- is pricy, pricy, pricy. I don't begrudge the store in wanting to see immediate financial return on hosting games.

 

[payn]

I live in Southern California, where commercial real estate -- all real estate, really, unless you want to build a logistics warehouse -- is pricy, pricy, pricy. I don't begrudge the store in wanting to see immediate financial return on hosting games.

I can see that. I think there has been some reduction in the suburban mall nobody goes to anymore variety in the mid-west.

Though, one of out largest stores (former FFG HQ event center) tried to go full fee to play for any game. Turned the place into a ghost town and nearly ran them out of business before they opened back up free to play (pay for tournaments). They had a pretty weird pay structure. It was like 10 bucks, but you got it back in store credit, but that store credit wasnt stackable... They also had a monthly sub that waved the fees but almost nobody signed up for it.

 

[timbannock]

I live in Southern California, where commercial real estate -- all real estate, really, unless you want to build a logistics warehouse -- is pricy, pricy, pricy. I don't begrudge the store in wanting to see immediate financial return on hosting games.

In that case, just don't do what Emerald Knights in Burbank does/did. They charged a high enough fee to be questionable, and it was foisted on the shoulders of the GM to handle (purposely or not, I don't know). I ran two games there and never went back.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

They had a pretty weird pay structure. It was like 10 bucks, but you got it back in store credit, but that store credit wasnt stackable... They also had a monthly sub that waved the fees but almost nobody signed up for it.

Asking people to turn that store credit around instantly is crazy.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

In that case, just don't do what Emerald Knights in Burbank does/did. They charged a high enough fee to be questionable, and it was foisted on the shoulders of the GM to handle (purposely or not, I don't know). I ran two games there and never went back.

Oh, yikes. This store doesn't charge the DM, charges the players (and handles the fees through an online storefront) and gives the DM some sort of store credit. It appears to be a pretty good system.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Paying to play at FLGS isnt something thats common here. I hear about it, but only tournament formats do it. RPGs are basically free first come first serve game space. Though, I could see a fee going towards the store and materials and helping keep attendance up.

I think the reason its uncommon here in the twin cities is we have not only a ton of gaming stores locally, but we have some with very large gaming spaces. We got the usual 4 table strip mall joints, but we also got like 2000 SQ ft gaming space joints that can really pack em in.

Nor here. I was running at a gaming cafe, and while they expected people to spend money on snacks, for every person that made sure to buy something, there were two that just showed up.

 

[payn]

Nor here. I was running at a gaming cafe, and while they expected people to spend money on snacks, for every person that made sure to buy something, there were two that just showed up.

Yeah, you are always going to have folks playing and never paying. Though, most owners I speak to are cool with it as folks that do buy stuff tend to make up for it. Having a bunch of people playing is always better than having two people playing. It makes things look happening and then it trickles up in sales.

I was also told that our Battletech group is most welcome becasue every time they get a case of blind box single mechs, they sell out immediately. They never hesitate to order those up!

 

[Morrus]

Loud, has been my main takeaway. Hard to hear what’s going on.

 

[Golden Bee]

My local store has a discord for scheduling and tons of separate, themed rooms. I’ve run and attended games this way and it’s great, but I wouldn’t want to play in a general open area unless I absolutely had to.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

After way too long trying to get my FLGS to respond to my inquiries -- they mostly care about board games and their RPG slots are largely gobbled up by a guy who made his own game and wants to spend all of his time running it -- it sounds like this will finally be happening this spring.

It's possible I'll rotate through multiple games, likely Shadowdark, Pirate Borg and 5E. My plans for Pirate Borg and 5E initially will be to run published material like Buried in the Bahamas and One-Shot Wonders, which all can be done within the three-hour game window pretty reliably.

For Shadowdark, though, after I run Tomb of the Serpent Kings, I'm thinking of building a mega-dungeon made up of sublevels big enough to complete in three hours, including returning to town and buying equipment and carousing. (In other words, no one gets the light spell and the group gets two torches each adventure, so don't dilly dally too long.)

A three-hour section of a dungeon, in my experience, is actually a pretty small number of rooms, unless most of them are empty -- basically a five-room dungeon plus maybe a few empty rooms to flesh out the space. That's pretty small, so I might go with putting two sets of five-room dungeons on the same level, letting the players have some choice of what to do and what to explore each week.

The resulting mega-dungeon will probably be a little strange-looking, since it's purpose-built, with a lobby area that makes it easy for a group to get to this week's sub-level quickly and easily, although I'd want these sub-levels to also have at least one way to go up a level and one way to go down a level, just to let players get in over their heads or to find alternative ways to escape if something happens to the entry route they used on the way in.

Still noodling on this. I have had some ideas for mega-dungeons in my head for a while, but I'm not sure if this structure works with all of them. I might go with a classic Castle Greyhawk vibe of classic D&Disms or something more Diablo-themed, which I think would also work well.