Guide to Gaming: The FLGS

"Where do you get all these games?"

I get that question a lot from non-gamers or people new to the hobby.  After all, while the latest hotness in books and movies can always be found at your local Target, Wal-Mart, Sams, Barnes&Noble, etc. etc. and so on, when you hit up the board game aisle you will find yourself surrounded by kids games, trivia games, and variations of Monopoly.  While you might actually score Ticket to Ride or Pandemic at some of these stores and Barnes & Noble has a much more substantial collection, if you're reading this guide you're likely looking to expand your collection beyond the basics.  And as mentioned in our guide to discovering new games, the FLGS is an excellent way not just to discover new games, but to purchase them for yourself.

Guide to Gaming: Research Before You Buy

Board gaming is a great hobby, accessible to a broad range of ages and demographics. As such, it is wonderful for both casual and structured social occasions, it can stimulate the mind, and it is ideal for family bonding. And it accomplishes all of that through fun. But like any hobby, it’s not cheap. Indeed, there are three major concerns that you, the average gamer, face when building your collection. One, you’re most likely on a tight budget. Therefore, you cannot take a “shotgun approach” to buying games, hoping to land a few diamonds amongst the rough. Two, your available free time is likewise probably constrained. So you want to be reasonably sure that the games you do buy are able to actually see the table from time to time. Which leads to three, there are so many games out there that it can often be overwhelming. Few things are more frustrating in this hobby than spending your limited budget on games that gather dust on the shelves because it turned out they weren’t interesting, good, or relevant to your gaming. How do you know which titles best fit your family, group, and personal gaming habits so that your money and time are used to best advantage? The challenge is to build a collection that is strong, suits a variety of situations, and that you will actually play – all without breaking the bank. So where to start?

Finding an FLGS

Greetings, dear readers, loyal followers, and you who just happen to be stumbling on this post.

We need your help.

We here at iSlaytheDragon have a passion for helping new people find their way into the world of gaming.  We review games so that people have an idea what will be fun and what to stay away from, so they don't get burned.  We talk about games and the gaming world to put ideas out there into what makes fun fun and what might make the gaming world better.  And we've got a few more things in the works.

One of those things involves making it easier to find a place where you can not only buy games, but try them, get good advice, and participate in a community: yes, I'm talking about the FLGS.

We are collecting information to build a database of [hopefully] every hobby gaming store in the United States.  Hopefully we will be able to turn this into a resource to make it easier for people to find stores near them that carry the great games we all know and love.

But in order to do that, like I said above, we need your help.  I can't travel across the country searching for every gaming store.  I just don't have the time.  Among other things.

But collectively, we can gather all the information we need.

If you know of a gaming store near you - a store specializing in tabletop games (board games, card games, RPGs) - you can add it to our database by filling out this form.

Right now we're just collecting and storing the information, but we're working on a way to make it easy to search for stores near you and see what kinds of products and services they provide.  Just fill out that form with everything you know or can find out and send it in.  Give us as much info as you can, but don't worry about filling in every detail - hopefully, between the lot of us, we'll collect all of the information.

Please, if you could as well, share this link with people so they too can fill out their own favorite FLGS stores. This only works if we find as many stores as we can all across the country.

Thanks for your help.  And happy gaming!

-Jonathan Wolf
iSlaytheDragon.com

PS here's the URL for the form: http://www.futurewolf.com/flgsfinder/

thanks again.

FDQ: Do You Have a FLGS?

FLGS? What, did you forget the A? Why are you talking about flags on a gaming blog?

Silly patron, FLGS means "friendly local game store." These are magical places where you are not a lone hobbyist trying to convince others that board games are awesome. These are places stocked with wooden bits, just waiting for you to plunk down your hard-earned (and sometimes hardly earned) cash. So do you have a FLGS? Do you shop there? Do you think others should? Answer in the comments!

@FarmerLenny answers:
I don't really have a FLGS that's super close, but I count Fair Game as my store. Since it's not all that close, I don't go in often, but I appreciate the friendly and knowledgeable staff. I also like that the store is laid out well, and while it's obviously a haven for nerds, you don't feel like you are bombarded with nerd vibes when you walk in. Basically, it's a place I can take my wife without her feeling she needs a shower afterward. (Though it's right next door to a yarn shop, and when we make a trip together, we usually split up.) This store also has open gaming on Saturday nights (though I've only played once; I've gone twice...).

The idea of supporting a FLGS is appealing to me, but I don't do it as often as I'd like, mostly because no store really feels "local." My store certainly is friendly, though.

@Futurewolfie answers:
I wish I had a more local FLGS, but even though my location is fairly close to @FarmerLenny's, I prefer the oh-so-epic Games Plus.  The place doesn't look like much from the outside (each friend i've brought there has been quite underwhelmed at the front door) but upon entering it is much like walking through the wardrobe into Narnia.  There are shelves and shelves of all the glorious things us gamers love.  There's the Warhammer 40k section, multiple large shelves of board games, and stacks upon stacks of RPG source books.  The walls are lined with minis, there's a section for landscape modeling, shelves of extra gaming bits like cubies and card sleeves, and boatloads of dice.  Okay, so it is definitely geek city, and your non-gamer wife/girlfriend/friend may feel overwhelmed and uncomfortable there.  But I don't go there for them, I go there for me.

Unfortunately it's really too far away to visit regularly, which is too bad because I wouldn't mind participating in their gaming events.  But I do take a special trip out there now and again, mostly to buy useful supplies like card boxes, bits, and RPG supplies.  (Incidentally, this is a clear reason why mine and @Farmerlenny's preference differs; Fair Game is a great store, but it's exclusively board games, while I have a gaming group that plays RPGs as well).

If you're in the chicagoland area, definitely give it a check-out.


Got a question you'd like answered or discussed?  Tweet us at @iSlaytheDragon, leave a comment on this post, or send an email to egosumlupus@gmail.com