Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Magic, magic, magic. It's an endless stream of people playing MtG and going through MtG cards The MtG events have like 20x the number of people as any other events.

In comparison, everything else is tiny in terms of people playing it in the store. 40k, WMH, Malifaux all get some play. I've seen a little Bolt Action, the occasional X-Wing and AoS.

I've never seen KoW played, and the models stocked at the two stores that carry any of their stuff never move. Sometimes, I think I'm the only one that buys the Mantic Scifi stuff, as that stuff never moves either (I like their modular terrain, so I always check the section).

 Nick Ellingworth wrote:

RPGs: Another popular choice, currently there's a Shadowrun campaign on the go, last session we actually changed rules from Shadowrun 5th ed to a modified version of Savage Worlds. This was because despite Shadowrun being a great setting it's an appalling rule set.

Testify TuskBrother. I began in Shadowrun campaign recently and whilst I love the setting, the ruleset is approaching Deathwatch-level clunkiness and sloppy writing. It's really a shame as the basic system feels good.

I'm bit out of my FLGS scene but what I can gather:

-There are active leagues in 40k and WM/H.
-Magic is #1 game in the hood
-X-Wing's popular
-Blood Bowl still has active players
-So does BFG
-few Infinity players
-Pathfinder is crazy popular
-haven't seen anyone play WHFB or AoS of late
-the shop carries Flames of War but I've never seen anyone play

For my club its...

Battlegroup for WW2 (perhaps because I write it...)
Warhammer 2nd & 6th Editions
Rogue Trader
Force-on-Force
Dropzone Commander

With the odd dash of Wild West, Napoleonics, ACW, AWI and other bits and pieces.

My local store seems pretty average, from my experience. Magic is the biggest seller, of course, followed by 40K. Malifaux and Infinity are also pretty big, with their own (shared) game night, which is great for me.

The biggest surprise is Dark Age, which seems to have gained some momentum locally. Personally, I'm thrilled, as the game really seems to be expanding in new and interesting ways right now.

Flames of War, Bolt Action and X-wing are the most popular in my area. I love WW2 games so I am a happy camper. Sadly 40k is dead, AOS/Fantasy has been dead for five plus years, Warmachine is almost nonexistent, Malifaux and Infinity are nonexistent.

Batman and X-Wing are the most surprisingly popular here. My club has a historical focus so historical games are normal and anything else is a surprise. Frostgrave might join them in the future.

The historical games that are popular now are:
Hail Caesar - Anything pre Pike and Shotte
Pike and Shotte - ECW and TYW
Black Powder - Napoleon and replacing TSATF for Colonial
Fire and Fury - ACW
Bolt Action - WW2 and Vietnam
Flames of War - WW2

It's not uncommon to see other ruleset but not the same one often.

1. Magic.

2. Magic.

3. Yugioh.

Sigh.....

The only non-CCG game I have seen within 30 miles at a "local" (seriously, my three stores are each almost thirty miles away) game store is a 'very' small X-Wing and 40K 7th edition group at one of them, and even that is barely suffered by the store owner, as he would rather just have Magic as it's the money-maker, in his words. He also wants to even stop carrying X-Wing as it doesn't interest or sell enough for him, so no opponents there. And I've been away from 40K for three editions now, so it'd be a big chunk of change to even get modern rules material for the models I've owned for 10-15 years for a game I'd then have to drive thirty miles one-way for. Big bummer.

I'd say the biggest surprise is the Necromunda community I started within our group, we're consistently 5-10 people playing. Other than that, no real surprises. 40k and Xwing are the biggest by far. A couple of guys play WMH, Malifaux and AoS. We have a separate group for Magic where the average age is around 20 years younger than that of the rest of the group :-D I don't play it myself. No one plays Infinity or Kings of War.

Nothing analytical, just an observation on weekends as to the number of folks I see playing various games.

1. Card Games. Not sure which as I've never played, but they always have a large number of players. Magic and Yu Gi Oh seem to be the more popular.

2. 40K. With all the complaints on the internet, you'd think this game was done. Not so locally.

3. Board Games. Every weekend I show up, there will be a group playing a board game.

4. Warmachine/Hordes. I can find 2-4 folks playing this on the weekend.

 AegisGrimm wrote:
The only non-CCG game I have seen within 30 miles at a "local" (seriously, my three stores are each almost thirty miles away) game store is a 'very' small X-Wing and 40K 7th edition group at one of them, and even that is barely suffered by the store owner, as he would rather just have Magic as it's the money-maker, in his words. He also wants to even stop carrying X-Wing as it doesn't interest or sell enough for him, so no opponents there.

This pretty much says it all. The shopowners LOVE CCGs because the inventory takes up very little space, relatively, and makes tons of money, comparatively. As soon as you're hooked, your on a card-buying treadmill that doesn't end until you quit. The other stuff is there basically as a, "maybe if they come in, they'll buy and get hooked on Magic!" All three shops locally that I go to could give a flying fart if X-Wing got swallowed up by the Dark Side or if Infinity vanished, because the amount of money they generate is barely a rounding error.

at the FLGS I go to occasionally, the big ones are

40k, Armada, STAW, XWing, AoS, and there's a dedicated night for Bolt Action and Saga, always a game going on then.

Gates of Antares just launched and they sold several boxes and rulebooks.

Kings of War has picked up a lot of interest since I ran a demo day for them. I'm going to help start a KoW weekly group there.

Hot:
1.) Yugio
2.) MTG
3.) Heroclix

MTG and Yugio are probably tied.

Mordhiem. First there where none of us.
Then two brothers got some stuff and played a game.
Then I inquired, and was accepted.
Then there where three of us.
Then the store owner saw us, and deaned it good.
Now there are many of us.

Where I live are two shops, and they cater for different tastes - the one I don't go too advertises MtG, malifeaux, infinity, dropzone X-wing. whilst the one I go has bolt action FoW, saga, X-wing

 Guildsman wrote:
My local store seems pretty average, from my experience. Magic is the biggest seller, of course, followed by 40K. Malifaux and Infinity are also pretty big, with their own (shared) game night, which is great for me.

The biggest surprise is Dark Age, which seems to have gained some momentum locally. Personally, I'm thrilled, as the game really seems to be expanding in new and interesting ways right now.

MD.... I'm guessing you're at G&S most Thursdays?

Pretty much the schedule at the local FLGS:

Monday is "hobby night" so they paint and stuff. Bolt Action appears to be the big deal for this.
Tuesday: The evening of rest... promptly kicked out at 6:00 don't care what you are doing.
Wednesday: usually was WHFB and now is Pokémon night.
Thursday: WH40k had a campaign going so had some 18 players at a time. Note: a regular group of about 6 players come in on Thursday to play Pathfinder as well.
Friday Magic the Gathering has pretty much taken over the FLGS it is like standing room only (30+ people?!!!).
Saturday: X-wing on really busy, some 20 players with Armada also getting a toe-hold.
Sunday: Battletech this was a surprise, some three guys started playing and now it is around 10 players plus they make room for people to just drop-in and play: this is working out well.

@Talizvar - sounds like a great FLGS

 Talys wrote:
@Talizvar - sounds like a great FLGS

I would say they are great for hosting all this but rather confused.

They had a little argument with the supplier for Fantasy Flight Games so X-wing / Armada product is not to be found.
GW had been kicked out of their shop twice for trying to tell them what to do.
GW is back in for now as long as they do not pull anything.
They have one box set of Battletech.
My goodness the amount of MTG cards though! The rare card display and swap binders is scary to behold.
The one employee is an encyclopedia of MTG cards and strategies.
A fair amount of fully painted Bolt Action is kicking around the place, seems to be competing quite well with the Flames of War product.
They also have a ton of classic models and received OOP ones from private collections.

Good people, nice big game space, product orders and stock is rather hit or miss.
Rather overshadowed by a huge hobby retail about 20 minutes away that has really good deals but they do not have game space.

I have developed a strong interest in FLGS economics and culture, better than any soap opera.

From my reckoning, we're running:

1) WM/H
2) Infinity
3) X-Wing
4) 40k
5) Heroclix / AoS
6) Malifaux
7) Kings of War / WHFB

WM/H and Infinity have totally separate groups, but both have regular nights and quasi-monthly events. The strength of Infinity alone continues to impress me, given where the gaming community was when I started playing it. Then X-Wing enjoys solid weekly and event play, 40k has its group of '40k players' that have their night or weekend afternoon, Heroclix and AoS have dedicated nights with their own handful of players, and at the bottom we have what's left of my Fantasy club. We were hit extremely hard by the decimation of 8E, though most of us have thrown in with Malifaux, with some Kings interest bubbling along underneath.

The only thing making me rank Malifaux so low is our total lack of organization, which may change if one of our clubmates is cleared for Henchman duties. It also helps that one of our two LGS finally started stocking Wyrd stuff again - apparently they were bitten pretty hard during M1E days, when demand was high but Wyrd couldn't keep up with production. Which is kind of familiar given the current situation

- Salvage