Curation in the Modern Market

 TL;DR: a good local shop gives me hope for the Indie TTRPG market.

Suburban Gaming Lives!

Today I popped into The Fantasy Shop in Maplewood, MO (On Facebook here) for our not-so-regular in-person playtesting game. We try to have one every other week or so and I'm happy to say they are going quite well. I'd like to thank the shop for the ongoing welcome.  

The shop is a great mix of comics, manga, interesting board games, wargames, and TTRPGs. The RPG games have a few scattered books, but are mostly concentrated on two sizeable bookcases in the back. The left shelf is WotC D&D, with Forgotten Realms, Eberron, Planescape and more. The other is pretty much everything else. Because I like to support local businesses - especially ones that let me regularly use their facilities - and because I try to stay informed on the market, I bought a copy of Mörk Borg.

I found it odd that there was only one Pathfinder box, and that it was on the right-hand bookcase, but that's just me; I consider WotC & Paizo "D&D" even if the die-hards of one camp or the other disagree.

Curated Representation

The other shelf was fascinating, though. I saw one Pathfinder box, but multiple copies of Tales of the Valiant, Call of Cthulhu, Vaesen, and several others. This wasn't just one little shelf as a sop to the fact that other systems exist, it was a whole bookcase getting effectively equal time, even if all "other" systems had to collectively share it. 

That's not a random selection - that's curation. Someone at that shop knows the market. They're stocking the games that have enthusiasm behind them, not just the games with the biggest theoretical market share. A shop with four Pirate Borgs and one Pathfinder on the shelf is making a bet about their customers, not the global market. Of course, they might have ordered more, and I just arrived when there was only one left on the shelf, but I give Pat some credit, whether or not he's the one curating the collection (I didn't ask.) 

That's not just curation, it implies a philosophy of stocking: "We give the rest of the hobby just as much shelf space as the hill giant in the room." A lesser shop would give WotC three shelves and everyone else half a shelf to share. This one is making a statement, whether they'd phrase it that way or not. For that reason alone I do not begrudge the cost of a game I may never play. I want to support the place that keeps them on the shelf. 

As I so often say, our philosophy isn't to tell you how to play your game; it's just to tell you how to use our game to do it. If you prefer another system, that's ok. One of these days maybe I'll get a copy of Level One on that shelf, and then maybe you'll try it. 

In the mean time, support your local game shop. Hang out with friends face to face if you can. 
Have fun.