Upcoming board game tavern inquiring about current game list

Hi! I am one of the people that helped set up my LGS's board game library two years ago.

Want to know something awesome?

We opened with under 100 games (I believe around 75). We now have 250. We rarely spend money on games. Why? Our community just offer them to us. Legitimately. We never asked them to, but once the word got out that we accept "donations", they kept coming. And they keep coming. Including shrink wrapped games.

Our community is amazing.

Is there a particular reason you want so many games? 300 games seems excessive. Will patrons actually play all those games? Would it be better to have multiple copies of some of the more popular games? Do you have somewhere to store all those games? 

Also, some of the games on your list are out of print. They will be hard to find at a reasonable price and you should really consider taking those off the list. 

Crokinole!

Eclipse- I was surprised to not see this on there.

Villainous- a decent entry level game. Feel like it would go well in a tavern where some people want to stick their toes in.

Also recommend finding a way to use the dized app. Either having an iPad people can check out or such. Has over 100 games on the app so far that will teach you how to play a game as you go. Great for something like this where people want to try new games games but may not know the rules or want to waste time reading the rulebook.

I’d suggest Sushi Go Party if you haven’t already purchased Sushi Go. It has other menu options

Qwixx is a great entry into roll and writes

Welcome To is a great flip and write and can be played by any number of players which is helpful

Deep Sea Adventure is a fun small game, and from what I’ve read it’s a fan favorite of the Oink games

A board game tavern without The Taverns of Tiefenthal is not a board game tavern.

I recommend grouping by category and then doing a count. The list should consider the audience and neighborhood. If it’s mostly high schoolers they may prefer more social deduction games or if it’s more couples or families, that should be a consideration on variety.

That being said your list looks great!! But seems to lean to heavier gamers which may be a waste. And I wouldn’t buy duplicates until you see there actually being that large a demand. The likelihood of two tables wanting the play the exact same game at the same time isn’t as high as we may think. This isn’t a game con! Haha

That sounds like a pretty great list. Scout is a fun, easy-to-learn game that doesn’t take up too much room.

I’d encourage you to think twice about keeping Cards Against Humanity. It just invites a table of loud assholes to come in and start being racist, transphobic or otherwise making a miserable environment for your other patrons.

Ones that come to my head right now:

Star Wars The building game, Deep Rock Galactic, Munchkin, Skytear Horde (some quick solo games), buttonshy games, Praga, Earth, Splendor Duel, Challengers, MLEM Space Agency, Alchemists, Quacks of Quedlinburg.

Some games that id definitely play in a tavern setting: Perudo (Bluff/Liars Dice), 6 nimmt (take 5).

Just One, Quacks of Quedlinburg, Trekking (various editions), Telestrations, Eldritch Horror

Have you considered Tokaido?

Space base

Some favorites around our house include:

Star Wars Deck Building Game

Scout

Honey Buzz

Camel Up

Green Team Wins

No Thanks

No thanks! Is a great include

You need Crokinole - those boards are too big and too expensive for apartment living!

I wouldn’t bother with CAH I feel people will bring their own copy and yours will be stolen the first night.

For family weight games you’re missing Qwirkle, Rhino Hero and Ice Cool. The latter two are great end of night dexterity games for adults as well as being kids’ favourites.

I don’t see Raiders of the North Sea, Horizons of Spirit Island - easier to teach and shorter than the big sister game, Earth or Thunder Road Vendetta though perhaps this was because you already have similar games.

Edit: Rhino Hero Super Battle is the superior Rhino Hero and I think you should have more family weight games. Wandering Towers, Just One, Bad Company, Meadow, Castle Panic.

Didn't Snakes and Lattes do a whole blog series about this? I can't seem to find it now on their website, but the takeaways I remember were you need easy family games, as a hobbyist you will over estimate the weight most normal customers will be interested in, you need to heavily invest in staff to teach and manage the customer experience (more so than a normal service business) and you can't over estimate the maintenance cost of the library, since bits will get stolen, lost broken, spilled on etc.

Basically it sounded like a nightmare, but that's not really the question you came here to ask.

Perhaps some kid games Boop Sleeping Queens

15-20 min games that are 1.5-2 in complexity on BGG

See that Camel Up and Tokaido have already been listed. Definitely agree.

Looks like a great list. I checked my BG stats app and one you're missing that I have a TON of plays of is Kodama: The Tree Spirits. It's fairly quick with simple rules, adorable art.

Thunder Road Vendetta

Twilight Struggle: Red Sea 

Rhino Hero

E: I’d also consider looking at the Family games on board game geek and add the highest ranked things that are in print until you hit your goal. 

You should consider adding:

Akrotiri

Battle line

Mandala

Bananagrams

Cribbage

Innovation

200 copies of catan and 60 of monopoly and everything else will be wasted money gathering dust

Great list!

Ones that never fail my group that I couldn’t see on your list are Unsettled, Sub Terra, and Telestrations.

Habitats, Qwirkle, Ingenious, and Mille Fiori is what I would recommend.

I didn’t see Coup on the list!

You didn't say what your business model is as far as how people are paying whether its per hour or whatever

But you really want to have more games that are easy set up and quick to play for casual players to come and go

Because walk in traffic is going to be just that, they may come in, check it out, play one game and leave

this isn't a convention space where people are going to be there the entire day or multiple days

I would suggest things like Bears Dice Game, Zombie Dice, Hive, The Duke, Mars Attacks Dice, Gloom, Poo card game

I wouldn't have that much inventory to start either you're going to want multiple copies of titles as well