The Business: From The Other End, Boardgames Are What Conventional Play Claims To Be

I mentioned boardgames yesterday. Coincidentally, Roll For Combat had two Chaosium boardgame developers on this week.

I want you to take this in, Anon: a increasing number of Conventional Play publishers are coping with tabletop's collpase by pivoting to board, and card games.

Some got out entirely, some merely depreicated their adventure game products. You know some of their names very well: Games Workshop, Steve Jackson Games, Fantasy Flight Games, Atlas Games, Catalyst Game Labs (regarding BattleTech).

Some you don't know, but you know the Brands: Heroquest, Dungeon, Pandemic, Talisman, Settlers of Catan, Orcs At The Gates.

Why are boardgames eating Conventional Play's tabletop territory from the other end? Let's again look at the costs.

The Tabletop RPG

Current Edition's trio of core rulebooks retail for $50 USD each. That's $150 for the Referee, plus tax. Most players also use a premade campaign module; those vary in price, so let's call that $30. Now we're at $180 for the Referee before taxes and other fees. Players, as often as not, freeload unless they're subscribed to D&D Beyond (and many are).

Then there is the cost in time wrangling players, convincing them to play the module that the Referee wants to run, screening out shitters and similar problems- i.e. time spent Not Playing. That's time where players can easily dip out because someone ready to run something appealing right now does that, forcing you to waste more time wrangling players.

(I direct you to every RPG forum ever for all the threads and videos all about that nonsense.)

Now all the 20 Minutes In Four Hours stuff, Scheduling Your Fun, etc. stuff comes up, and good luck going past six sessions.

That's a lot of money wasted unless you're on the ball both in the selling and in the running, and thanks to Matt Mercer that's a high bar to to clear these days.

The Boardgame

Heroquest is available at Amazon for $84 USD (plus tax). All you need to play is in the box.

You have an easier time finding players for one big reason, same as yesterday regarind Vidya: No Ongoing Commitment. Players can show up one night, play a scenario, and then be gone for months at a time missing nothing because Heroquest (and those like it, such as Dungeon and Descent: Journeys In The Dark) doesn't assume static groups with job-like commitments and con-commitment scheduling.

The game is simpler, easier, and faster than Current Edition across the board. The game teaches itself as you play. That's a massive win right there; the boxed set will have as much or more Actual Play value than the Current Edition campaign module and you didn't have to spend additional money to get it. For most, this is plenty enough.

And mind you, the cost for that boardgame is in the components; Cheapass Games proved many years ago that you can get all the quality gameplay with an envelope full of cheap bits and ask users to raid the Poker and RISK sets for tokens and dice. (God bless Spree! and Huzzah! )

The lack of Serious Business means that you can have Board Game Nights and maintain a party atmosphere; a sufficiently large turnout opens the door to making it a Clubhouse, and the most popular such games regularly find itself brought out at social events (e.g. Apples To Apples) because the combination of simplicity, learn by doing, and easy social lubrication (like why Poker and Rummy are perennial favorites).

(I need to update the Wish Lists again. Kill Doctor Lucky is great fun.)

They are cheaper, easier to use, easier to play, have no ongoing commitment, and have social proof IN SPADES. This is why they eat Conventional Play's lunch.

You could bother to learn from this, Conventional Play bros, but those of you that could already have and made the pivot a long time ago.

Those that remain, well, you're in for a bad time unless you wake up and adapt fast.