Board Game Tavern

Don't forget www.superdupergames.com

I am running a Cannon tournament there right now.

Hi ...

I do not know of any that focus on board games, but I have seen some "games bars" that focus on video games and more physical bar-type games, like darts, billiards, and bowling. (I am located in the upper-midwest of the US; familiar with Minnesota and Wisconsin, primarily.)

However, I have contemplated what it would take to start such a place like this. In the US, it would have to be in or near a major metro area in order to have a large enough customer base. I think the gamers in the area will seek it out, if it's advertised/promoted well enough.

However, I also think you would need to be careful not to make enemies of the local game stores ... these are the only places that I've seen that currently serve as a neutral-ground playing location.

Also (again, with my location in mind), I think you would need to have a very wide acceptance of the type of game being played ... even becoming known as the "place to play cards" would help.

Otherwise ... this might be a better question to serve up in the forums over at BGG ... I think I've even seen this discussed there at least once.

If I knew of such a place in my area, I'd be sure to drag my wife to it at least once! ;-D

-Bryk

This sounds like a very cool idea, and it would be great if such a thing existed, but my guess is that, unfortunately, it's probably not a viable business model at this time. There just aren't enough gamers out there.

Now, as Bryk says, if you expand the meaning of "gamer", you may have some hope, but it means you're definitely going to host more Texas Hold 'Em poker nights than strategy board game nights.

The problem with attracting the few board gamers there are out there to a business like this are, as I see it, that your possible sources of revenue are somewhat antithetical to gaming. Presumably you'll charge a fee to walk in the door. Well, my home is free, and so is the game store; why not just play there and save the $20 that our group of 4 would need to pay?

Maybe you could offer a broad selection of games to play, but again, most game groups have, among their members, a pretty extensive library; I suppose they could be attracted to playing "your" games because then it's not their problem if a component gets covered with soda, but that inability to control accidents would of course just end up costing you more money.

You might also make money selling food and drink, but I'm in the "food and game components don't mix" category, and many others are as well. Here you could actually provide a nice service, though, perhaps by designing your tables to be food-and-game-compatible. For example, maybe the tables could have a plexiglass overlay under which the game board could be placed, or could have special built-in cup holders to prevent spills.

The biggest problem might be the gamers themselves. Game stores host open gaming with the theory that it's going to increase their sales, but gamers don't always work buy from a store simply because they're allowed free access to the store's tables. The exception is miniatures or CCGs, which aren't quite as easy to buy on-line.

So for me, it's tough to see how you'd drum up enough business and tough to see how you'd make money off the customers you could attract. Which is unfortunate, because it's a cool idea. If you decide to take the plunge, good luck!

-Jeff

In London many pubs have upstairs rooms that can be booked for a small or no fee, and I'm aware of a couple of groups that have fortnightly or monthly board-game meetings in them, to which anyone is welcome. But I'm not aware of anywhere that operates a 24/7 games policy.

I have seen a bar in my china town that had some small games available. I don't remmeber exactly what there was, I rememeber seing poker chips and some chinese pieces like mah jong. The idea is that people in a bar will never play a complete board game like axis & Allies or settlers of catan. They are more likely to play simple games like poker.

You must also consider that there is a category of adults that considers that that games are for kids, not adult. So this is a reason why the major attraction in bars is generally either sports on a 200 Inch Tv (^_^). Bars also have poor lighting, so playing games could be not convenient.

Rob,

Where are you located? (I’m in Southern California.)

I’ve tried for some time to convince myself that this could be made to work in America. It just seems so unlikely to me that Americans would line up to pay an hourly fee just to be in a Board Game Café (the way they do in Korea and Singapore). But I can’t make the numbers work without an hourly fee either.

Still, I can’t shake the dream out of my head and I’ve been getting very tempted to try it lately. (Or maybe I’m just going insane.)

What do you BGDFers say? Could it be done?

I’m not sure I’d even like that. From what I hear, the Korean version of Monopoly (Blue Marble) and games like Life and Jenga are what’s most popular in the Korean cafés. But hey, as long as folks are having good clean fun...

Good question. Contrary to what a lot of people think, one virtually never runs into celebrities out here. SoCal is a big place. I think I’d rather have a community oriented place anyway.

So Dralius, I notice you’re from Ann Arbor. Do you plan on going to Protospiel? Have you gone before?

As already pointed out I am helping organize this year’s event. Funny enough I didn’t pick the location. That part of the logistics was handled by Mike Petty who is one of the founders of the event and who’s game Take Your Pick has recently been released by Simply Fun, it was tested at last yes gathering. It just turned out that the rates for the conference and hotel rooms are the most reasonable he could find in mid Michigan (reserving you rooms early before the rate increase). The location is also easy to get to from the highway for those driving and there are plenty of restaurants nearby.

As for my experience with attending Protospiel it has been a positive experience in many ways. First it was simply great to meet with many of the members here, see what they are working on and hopefully aid them in taking there design to the next level. My designs also greatly benefited for the input I received and help me prioritize them. Of course there were speakers which were informative and had unique perspectives on the field. Even with all that one of my favorite things was the team design project, we had one hour to design & demonstrate a game using randomly drawn elements which included dexterity, clowns & farming. We were not able to fit the farming into the mix but my team did win with our rodeo clown bowling game.

If you have any question about what going on this year let me know?

Where are you located? (I’m in Southern California.)

I'm in Canada's great white north - quite a ways away, I'm afraid.

I think there are two approaches:

Approach 1 is to focus on being a good coffee shop. Set up shop in a trendy area, establish a funky atmosphere and then start throwing the games in as a quirk.

Approach 2 is to focus on being a reputable hobby shop first. Find a part of SoCal that is under-served in terms of hobby game shops but still has a resident geek population with money to spend. From there, add the comfortable gameplay cafe as your quirk.

What you don't want to do is go for middle of the road - an empty room with ugly tables and a ratty collection of greatly abused games.

Best of luck,
Rob

#1 Just pick a place where you do business regularly and start
playing games there. Use common sense - pick a slack time,
and play something short. After a few times, you'll develop
a relationship with the staff.

#2 Marginal coffee shop type places just want people at the tables,
and officially host social events. A local coffee place here hosts
a small Go club every week on Tuesdays. Other nights they have
stitch-n-bitch or open mike.

There is a strip club (Tommy's Place) that I drive past every day on the way to work that has evidently embraced this idea. Their sign reads:

10 Dancers Daily, Play Chess Here.

It might work for boardgamers. "Honey, I'm going to game night." "Ok, Have fun." "I'll try, but it has been running sooo late since we moved it to Tommy's place." :)

Thast great lol, very funny!