Tabletop Wire

This week we chat with Mary Couzin. Mary is a powerhouse in the industry as she runs the Chicago Toy and Game Week (ChiTag) along with a bevy of other industry conferences, meetups, awards and more. 

She says it is synergistic, an ecosystem. We agree. And at the heart is the stories of the people behind the product.  

This week we chat with Dan Yarrington, the tycoon of Tabletop Tycoon. Dan has been in the hobby for many years in retail, publishing, fulfillment, wholesale and more. 

Last year he sold Ship Naked and Hit Point Sales to Funagain, and is turning his focus to publishing. His imprints include Starling Games, Flying Meeple, Spark Works, Victory Point Games, and Poly Hero Dice.

Dan recently gave $500,000 worth of board games to help local games stores reboot after being forced to shutdown by the pandemic. Today, we chat with him about branding, adding value, past mistakes, and grace….or the lack of. 

This week we chat with Chris Whitpan, the event and convention manager at Renegade Game Studio. He took the job this year just as the convention season imploded…or has it?

Renegade Con was a success and more are planned. Chris takes us inside the planning and more. And if you stay to the end he will advise you on running your own one day virtual convention.

This week we chat with JT Smith and Jeff Anderson about the acquisition of Tabletop Events by BoardGameGeek.

Smith grew the tabletop convention management service over the last five years, but was almost forced to close when the pandemic forced all the tabletop gaming events on his system to cancel.

We talk about that, and BGG convention manager Jeff Anderson gives us a look into what they have planned with their integration of the application.  

This week we talk with Marissa Kelly, an owner at Magpie Games. We talk about their new Curated Play Program, ashcans, and more. She talks about the indie tabletop gaming space, the wall the company hit and how they are getting over it. 

Most importantly we talk about people, and teams, and how important they are to what Marissa and Magpie do. 

Link: Magpie Games 

This week we talk to Canadian retailer Scotia Buchan. She and her husband own A Muse N Games in Winnipeg, Manitoba. 

We talk about the intentional way they went about building community and how they curate their inventory for a smaller footprint. We talk running a store in Canada.

And yes, we talk about the pandemic and how it’s changing their business on almost a daily basis. 

Link: A Muse N Games 

Music by Joseph McDade.

Our guest today Justin Gary. He is the CEO of Stone Blade Entertainment, but you may know him best as one of the designers of Ascension. But, that is only one of his many design credits. He is an author of the Think Like A Game Designer, and runs a podcast of the same name.

Today we chat with Justin about their new game Ascension Tactics, but that leads us into conversations about partnerships, risk taking, Kickstarter, but most importantly, knowing who you are.

Link: Ascension Tactics on Kickstarter

This week we chatted with Steve Ellis from Gaming Days, a special event company he helped start last year with three good friends, Paul Alexander Butler, Rob Harrington, and Travis Severance.

Gaming Days purchased Free RPG Day last year, and have since started Board Game Expo. Both events help retailers connect with their community using special incentives from publishers.

Steve is a game designer, developer and manages the game division at Oni Press. He also owns Rainy Day Games in Portland, Oregon. Today we talk about the impact of the pandemic on Gaming Days…and much more.

Link: Free RPG DayLink: Board Game ExpoLink: Rainy Day GamesLink: Oni Press

Music by Joseph McDade.

Our guest this week is Rebel business development director Krzysztof Szafrański. Rebel is a Polish distributor, e-commerce store, publisher and more. Founded in 2003, the company was bought by Asmodee in 2018. 

The interview was recorded last Monday, which happen to be the day Spiel announced they were cancelling. We talk a bit about Rebel, the Polish gaming market, gaming behind the Iron Curtain, and more. 

Our podcast for this week features Ray Wehrs, the president of Calliope Games. Ray tells us how dealing with counterfeits and tariffs over the last couple years have helped put the company in a good position to deal with the aftermath of the pandemic shutdowns. And so much more.