http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/community/gaming/gamerLife/numbersBehindAnFLGS

As for the name how about….

1. The chrometophobic thief
2. The holographic Gnome
3. Posion,Blades and Elven Bar Maids
4. Gamers Alcove
5. Save or Die
6. The Character Sheet

Good look in the search and the store!

I also liked “Random Encounters” submitted by mightybruce and “Critical Hit” by lampropeltis. I’d riff off the last and add “Critical Success”.

One of the things that I like about Gnomestew as a name is that it opens itself up to a lot of possible puns, an versatile marketing icon (gnome), and I thing you should consider which names allow that. For example, with “Sword and Board” you could have two characters “Sword” and “Board” which each have very different interests, “Sword” wants action-adventure and “Board” is looking for a good deal and/or quick playability. The icons can cue customers with similar interests to new offerings according to their interests. The draw back to “Board” is the unfortunate homonym with “Bored”.

I also loved the idea of “Ladies Night” from Trisj. The benefit of discounts for the ladies is the potential to draw more full paying gamer guys (which is why night clubs do “Ladies Night” in the first place). The risk is that you draw so many gamer guys that they scare away the ladies. I’d suggest some deep discounts that night for the ladies and/or double punch on member benefit cards and/or making Ladies night a night where every group at a table must have at least one female.

1. Products: The only thing I really feel comfortable buying in an FLGS is gaming accessories, some third-party products, and out of print books. Everything else I can get 30-50% cheaper online (e.g. Amazon). If the price difference was only ~10%, maybe I’d buy from my FLGS more, but it’s too drastic.

Heck, even Barnes & Noble sells the books loads cheaper online. You pay full list price in-store, but they just can’t compete on the internet.

2. Gaming space: My biggest problem with most gaming spaces is they’re essentially just “a big room with tables and chairs”. A good location will of course have food, drinks, etc. available, but that’s also rarely an issue. The biggest problem is that it can very easily get LOUD when it’s everyone in one room, especially when you’ve got a mash of TCG players, board gamers, and RPG gamers in the same location.

As a college student, almost nobody plays RPGs at the boardgame/wargame/tcg/rpg club. Plenty of people play RPGs, but the location has that very problem… only maybe 3 groups play there.

Dice Zombies (after the first week of working full-time-plus, you’ll appreciate the appropriateness of this)

A Hoard of Dragons (yes, we have paper dragons, dice dragons, pewter dragons…) This one will give you lots of opportunities for that “theme” environment everyone seems to like.

‘s Secret Hoard (unless her name is Victoria) Naming a business after your spouse is always good. It gives you lots of opportunities to remember who she is.

As far as other suggestions, I agree with the timing thing. Open late, stay open late. Not only does this allow gamers to come in during prime lurking hours, but you also get to avoid rush-hour traffic.

Keep a database and listing of gamers, and keep it current. Check to make sure everybody is still there, at least once every two months (and I’d suggest once a month)! I get tired of walking into a store in a new town (I’ve moved six times in the last five years) and asking if there are any groups, and the bored person at the counter tells me to check the bulletin board (and on one occasion, the board was missing). New gamers in town are going to make a beeline for your door, be there to welcome them and introduce them around!

Hold a con or mini-con. Get the groups in the area together and hold a convention. You’ll get good press, you may attract new folks, and even get folks from out of town. But do not get one of the “professional convention companies” to do it! The “convention” that was held in Reno this past year was so bad, my roommates and I were close to throwing away our books for good. Make sure more than one game system is covered, contact multiple companies for swag, and don’t let them dictate who can and cannot get the swag (WOTC seems to have a rule that only RPGA members can receive WoTC doorprizes, according to some of the organizers I talked to).

If you are going to have a special game night, make sure you have some copies of the books for folks to look over. Admittedly, this makes it difficult for you to sell at full price… Oh, wait, look! Doorprize! And you get to write off the full price as a tax deduction. Huh, wonder why more places don’t do that.

One thing I have seen a lot of gamers getting into of late is fan-fiction. You can really stand out in the crowd by having a fan-fiction contest. Have the writers draw up a character, write a short story about the character (this can even be a group activity!), and then publish the entries in a small photocopied booklet (costs very little to do, and you can probably get some volunteers to compile it). You get gamers involved doing something they love (are addicted to) doing (talking about their characters), they get to show off their varying degrees of talent, and you can get the whole community involved in voting for winners (and you can do it as an online poll, going back to that web presence idea, thereby driving traffic to your website!). The local paper would probably cover the entire thing for grins as well.

If you do decide to go for a web presence, there is a lot of free software out there that you can use to build an online community. Content Management Systems usually have forums, wikis, calendars, articles, etc., right there at your fingertips. Tap a few gamers in the area to write articles and wiki entries, and you are really pulling folks together, and in.

Please note that I did not suggest the name “Black Hole of Cash” because that would be just… well, you’ll see.

Good luck, Shane-and-wife-who-is-not-named! Wish I could come in and help set things up with you (I is organized!).

The Roasted Squire

Top 5 so far are…
1. Natural 20 – Submitted by Electrocuted
2. Sword ‘n’ Board – submitted by Kyle Wende
3. Pair ‘o’ Dice – submitted by Kyle Wende
4. Out of the Box – submitted by deadlytoque
5. Game On – submitted by Sarlax

IF I’ve made a mistake on any of the submitters, please help me clarify. If this kicks up, and I have the capital to start strong, I want a very strong selection. Everything from Savage Worlds, PDQ and GURPS, to Burning Wheel.