Rolling for Initiative is a weekly column by Scott Thorne, PhD, owner of Castle Perilous Games & Books in Carbondale, Illinois and instructor in marketing at Southeast Missouri State University.  This week, Thorne talks about the Snake Oil: Elixer Kickstarter campaign and the return of TableTop.

Yet another company announces its Kickstarter campaign for a game that probably doesn't need the funding.  Out of the Box Games just announced a Kickstarter campaign for a follow up to their highly successful Snake Oil game:  Snake Oil: Elixer.  This annoys store owners for two reasons.  First, Out of the Box Games is a fairly successful small publisher with a number of award winning games to its credit.  Unless the company plans to run the campaign for publicity reasons, as North Star Games did with its recently released Extinction game, I am not sure why they are doing this.  Kickstarter has proven a fairly effective means for companies to promote new products.  Popcorn Press launched its new d6xd6 CORE RPG with a $1 funding goal so the game could get the publicity boost from funding.  It worked as d6xd6 CORE got 490 backers and raised about $12,500.

Kickstarter has gotten so ubiquitous though, that most retailers have accepted it grudgingly as a component of the business climate and will make decisions on whether to stock a game or not based on how actively the publisher uses Kickstarter, as the most avid fans of a game tend to want it, and the stretch level bonuses, when it is released via Kickstarter, rather than waiting to get it in the store when it hits distribution later (This is typical of most of the Cool Mini or Not Kickstarter launches.).  However, if a retailer thinks a game has "legs" and will see demand after the initial rush, we will stock it, if there is an option provided for retail purchase.  While most Kickstarter levels only offer a single copy of the game, with accompanying bonuses, a retailer level typically gives the bonuses plus multiple copies of the game.  We expect it to sell so we are willing to buy several copies.

That's the big problem with the Snake Oil Elixer Kickstarter:  no retailer option.  Stores can certainly buy into the Kickstarter but any copies we put on the shelf, with the exception of the International level, will hit our shelves at MSRP.  The International level allows the purchase of six copies but also includes international shipping, which retailers in the U.S. do not need.  I know retailers who have sold hundreds of copies of the original Snake Oil games and have spent quite a bit of time and money promoting it.  They are not particularly happy they will not have Snake Oil: Elixer on the shelf until months, most likely, after the Kickstarter funds and ships and the initial burst of enthusiasm for the game has waned.  How hard would it have been to add a six copy level to allow retailers enthused about the game to have it on the shelf at the same time as those who backed the Kickstarter?  I would think not very.

Stores that have done well with Snake Oil in the past will likely carry Snake Oil: Elixer, but probably not with the same amount of support they gave to the other Snake Oil versions.

On the plus side, we did finally see the release of Iello Games’ follow up to King of Tokyo, the long delayed King of New York (produced without benefit of Kickstarter, I might add) and Season 3 of TableTop (funded via Kickstarter) made a welcome appearance on YouTube with Wil Wheaton and company playing Tokaido.  Though the "TableTop Effect" on sales waned during season 2, stores are still scrambling to build up stocks and displays of those games announced for play during Season 3.  Mr. Wheaton and friends, welcome back.

The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.