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 shares his thoughts on a big week of new releases, from Bones to HeroClix.

This proved a pretty good week of releases for retailers.  A bonanza of Bones, an inFlux of Fluxx, a shot of (Planet) Steam, a modicum of Munchkin, a horde of HeroClix and a plethora of Pathfinder as well as an onslaught of other releases has made me work through my stock of available alliteratives.
 
The big news for those stores that bought into it was the arrival this week of the Undertaker level Bones Kickstarter from Reaper.  I know a number of stores that participated in this and many of them were getting quite antsy about the receipt of their product as they kept getting reports of individuals receiving the Vampire backer level of product, with some customers even trying to sell off excess or unwanted figures from the Vampire kit to the store.  Still the wait proved worthwhile as, when our backer kit arrived, it contained enough Bones figures to cover two six-foot tables and nearly fill a four-sided spinner rack. We sold about half a dozen figures while stocking.  Not bad for the first day.
 
We have waited for the arrival of the Fluxx board game ever since trying it out last year.  It allows for a bit more strategy (but not much more) than the card game does and allows players some options that the card game just cannot, such as the option of changing a rule as part of your turn, rather than moving a piece.  The game comes with a nifty little "dashboard" that allows you to see at a glance what rule changes are in effect currently, but don't plan on them staying that way for long.  I don't see this as hitting the sales levels of Fluxx itself, especially with the inroads the game has made in Target and the number of variants in print, but it should appeal to avid Fluxx players looking for something a bit different but still retaining the flavor of their favorite game.
 
Now don't get me wrong.  I like HeroClix.  I really like HeroClix.  I really like selling HeroClix, but do I really need three (that's three) new sets of HeroClix arriving on the same day, less than a month after the Pacific Rim set arrived?  Bioshock, Kick Ass 2 and Wolverine and the X-Men gravity feed displays all arrived in store on the same day.  That's a lot of Clickyness for even the most avid HeroClix player to absorb at one time.  I know we cut back on our orders when we heard all they would hit the shelves the same day, as we didn’t, and still don’t, think our market can absorb that much at once.  I hope I am wrong but so far sales have indicated I chose rightly to err on the side of caution.
 
I also don't have high expectations for FFG's Planet Steam board game.  It looks interesting and might capitalize on the currently hot steampunk genre but with little buzz about it, I expect it to move to the shelves quietly.
 
It's always nice to see new products for Munchkin and Pathfinder as well.  Munchkin still sells steadily for us, but new releases for the line don't move out as quickly as they did in the past.  We have found that ordering a couple of copies at release time, setting a reorder point to one and reordering when any release hits that stock level works well with most Munchkin products.
 
Meanwhile, Pathifinder product, we have found, save for the hardbacks sells best within the first two weeks, then tapers off.  Still, with the hardbacks still selling regularly, even with the availability of PDFs, we have found it better to keep a solid in-stock on them and only keep a few of the soft covers regularly in stock, such as the Player Codex and the new Pathfinder Society Primer.
 
Looking forward to seeing what comes out at and after Gen Con.  I have customers asking about Shadowrun 5th Edition so hope to have it and Yu Gi Oh!'s Judgment of the Light in stock soon.

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.