Rolling for Initiative is a weekly column by Scott Thorne, PhD, owner of Castle Perilous Games & Books in Carbondale, Illinois and instructor in marketing at Southeast Missouri State University. This week, Thorne offers up some products to consider stocking as holiday gifts.
Well, it is Gifts Week here at ICV2, so here are some of the items Castle Perilous Games will stock for the holiday shopper:
Fluxx. Fluxx is always number one on my list of recommendations to people coming into the store looking for gifts (as long as they are not looking for Magic: The Gathering, Pokémon or something specific). With dozens of different versions of the game, a staff member can usually find one which fits into the parameters the gifter has set. Although Looney Labs has fewer licensed versions than in the past (I believe Monty Python and Star Trek are the only two current ones), the addition of Wonderland, Oz and Pooh (I mean Hundred Acre Wood) appeals to older gamers. Although there is Mystery Fluxx, given the characters’ continued popularity and its presence in the public domain, I would certainly stock a Holmes and Watson themed deck.
Diceomatic. The Diceomatic mechanical dice from Yarro Studios feel very substantial when held and spinning the unit to “roll” the dice will attract attention at the game table. While most of the spinner sets have an MSRP of just under $100, Yarro does offer a couple at a price point under $40. Not an item the typical RPG player will buy for themselves, it does lend itself to a gift item for someone looking to pick up a unique present for an RPG player.
Reality Fracture Deck Boxes. Gatherer’s Tavern has a very nice set of sculpted deck boxes releasing for Reality Fracture featuring the planeswalkers Ajani Goldmane, Chandra Nalar, Garruk, Liliana Vess, Vraska and, of course, Jace Beleren. As with most Gatherer’s Tavern items, the price on these is on the high end, making them a great gift item. Release date may prove problematic though; although the company said at the Universal summit it hoped to release them in October, it projects mid-December as a more likely release date and the release date on the Universal website says December 16, 2026.
Anomia. Anomia is a fun family/group game brought back into print by The OP and we have sold a number of decks since we got it back in stock. It reminds me a lot of Tapple, another good game from The Op, but without the pressure of a timer. At $14.99 MSRP and bearing a MENSA Select award, we expect to sell quite a few copies of this during the holiday season.
Sell Me A Sasquatch. Published by Exploding Kittens and developed in collaboration with NPR’s Planet Money program, Sell Me a Sasquatch is a game designed to incorporate economic principles into a card game, while also allowing Planet Money to document the process by which a game moves from concept to store shelves. Planet Money did something similar in 2022, using the public domain comic character Micro-Face to show how comic books are produced. Given that NPR and Planet Money have promoted the game extensively, I expect some public radio listeners to come looking for Sell Me A Sasquatch either for themselves or as a gift for other NPR-listening game players.
For more Gifts Week coverage, click here.
Comments? Gift items your store will stock? Send them to castleperilousgames@gmail.com.
The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.
Source: ICV2
