Battlefield Bangkok
Bangkok's Premier Hobby, Board and RPG Games Shop
The shelves are Full
Author: Games Master
Wow what a long fun day that was. Myself, Alex and Cleveland (aka Billy Bob) spent the day unpacking 500 Kg of stock…it was Christmas, every box full of cool games and statements of “Did I really order that! Wow cool!” So the shelves are now full…very very full and now we need to price everything….still also missing the front desk/cabinet as well as the coffee table and coffee mugs. But May 1 is the big day!
read comments (0)It’s Here!!!
Author: Games Master
The news is in, the initial stock should arrive on site on Friday!!! So then comes the fun of wondering where to put it all and finding out I’m short of about 300 meters of shelf space no doubt!
Closer and closer
Author: Games Master
So it’s all happening. The stock should arrive in Bangkok tomorrow. We’re testing out a new air freight option and the shop interior is just about done… except the Air Con which has a few issues that should be resolved Wednesday. So now I still need to get a desk, display cabinet, a show case, some smaller gaming tables, the membership cards, carrier bags and plenty of other stuff that no doubt will become apparent once we open.. chaos is sure to follow! The Air freight order will include a chunk of dice, some battle maps and the Small Wonders Board game.
Opening gets closer
Author: Games Master
Well just 23 days till we arrive at the targeted opening day and still lots to do in the store, however I expect we can get all, if not the important stuff done on time. The biggest tasks are going to be painting, shelving and the new air con fitted.
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Meanwhile th stock continues to sale in this direcion and we’ve also sorted out a new major supplier who will fill 99% of our gaming gaps. We’re also going to do some air mail tests to see how fast, costly and painless it is compared to sea mail.
Thai Language Site Done.
Author: Games Master
No new news on shipping, seems to have stalled for a week, which isn’t good news considering our targeted opening date… fingers crossed.
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However the Thai language site is now complete 
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I should have a new supplier set up next week too that will massively add to our game pubisher reach! So between them and the 4 present suppliers we’ll have the vast marority of game systems covered!
Broke Blog and Fixed it
Author: Games Master
Been a day of minor chaos, this week I managed to break the blog, so in an attempt to fix it I upgraded it, which didn’t work, but then I found the problem on the Word Press forum and got that fixed and now the blog is upgraded too.
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Also launched a new forum over on Thailand Boardgames which is an awesome community of local game players, mainly a Thai community but with some bits in English.
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Shipping still giving me headaches, appears the US freight firm wants to increase their prices…this after they have already delivered everything to the port. I have to wonder why they didn’t ask about the price increase when they first got the deliveries from our suppliers… anyway I’ve told our Thai based shippers that we’re “not amused”, I must say that the shipper here has been awesome, a HUGE help to a total shipping newbie! Anyway tomorrow get the store signed. Founds some great gaming tables 5′ by 5′ slightly higher than usual with nice chairs to go with it.
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Anyway with luck we ship very shortly. Then 25 days to get here… then Thai customs….
Store Launch Update
Author: Games Master
Well the initial stock is on the way, around 500 KGs of stock in board games, books, hobby gear and miniatures. Just waiting on the final price info from our shipping agent and we’ll have the transportation costs done, that just leaves Thai customs and we’ll finally know how much it’s going to cost to get everything here. Hopefully the costs will be low enough for us to keep the prices near US retail rates. We’ll see soon eough, shipping should take around 26 days we’re told.
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The store location has been picked and the rental agreement will be done this week, then we have most of April to get the store in shape ahead of the arrival of the shipment. Assuming everything goes fairly much to plan then we hope to open on May 1.
Launching the Shop – The latest
Author: Games Master
For perhaps a couple of years I have had a crazy dream to launch a games store in Bangkok, selling Board Games, war games, miniatures and RPGs. Yes nuts perhaps but well, a dream, a plan, and potentially not too far off happening.
Challenges are a fair number. Shipping the games here isn’t cheap as they need to be ordered in bulk to get good shipping rates. Taxes are going to add to the price and then finding a retail spot that will allow the games to be sold at an affordable price and cover the rent will be pushing the edge if I want to sell the games at near US prices.
But I’m getting there, a couple of supplier agreements are done and a major one should be nailed this week. A shipping firm has been found that appear to be able to do the job at reasonable rates and that just leaves the the location.
As “walk by” traffic isn’t going to be a major target, the key is going to be accessability for hobby gamers, rather than finding a spiffingly expensive front row store. I think I’ve found a good spot, but I need to check the cost and how much room they have. The store will need room for products, staff and of course room to play games in store.
Service wise, well selling games, free access to play test games, bring in your own games, all with no charge, and hope to sell coffee at 20 baht a mug to cover the rent! Sounds like a plan!
Ah yes and staff, still not got around to that yet, shop staff needed to play games with customers
Stay tuned for updates!
Vampire the Story Continues
Author: Games Master
All the PCs had a vivid and horrid nightmare of some freakish monster chasing them down and destroying them all. They all awoke the next night drenched in blood and drained of will. They soon found out that ALL Kindred in the city had the same nightmare and experienced the same effects, including the Prince. Lots of phone calls to sires occurred as everyone was trying to figure out what was happening. The powers of the city didn’t know but were looking into it.
Things went on a wild tangent at this point when Adam, Jake and Vega met up. Adam had transformed overnight as the Nosferatu curse in his blood defiled his body (he now looks like a walking cancer tumor) and he was freaking out. When Vega arrived, all hell broke loose. She didn’t know that Jake had been Embraced so she wasn’t prepared to see him as a Vampire and she frenzied. A fight broke out in which Adam tried to electrocute Vega with a broken lamp but he slipping on blood on the floor, fell, cracked his head, and the broken lamp and its flying sparks when tumbling into the curtains and suddenly Jake’s apartment was up in flames (bad shit happens when you roll a dramatic failure!). Vega, Jake and Adam fled for their lives.
Downstairs, as Jake’s apartment was engulfed in flames and the fire was spreading to connecting businesses and house, Jake looked at Vega and lost himself in anger frenzy. She fled to her car. Jake ran after her with murderous intent while Adam got into Jake’s car and hot-wired it. Jake tried to jump kick himself through Vega’s car window but bounced off it and ended up prone on the ground. He looked up to see Adam driving his (Jake’s) car straight toward him. Adam drove right into Jake with the car and trapped Jake under the wheels. Vega drove away. Adam ended up calmed down Jake and the two of them went to Sanguine to feed.
Meanwhile, Chen and Propit were separately feeding when Propit heard a bloodcurdling scream into a nearby alley. He ran to investigate. As he neared the corner, he felt the blood inside his body run cold and it became a struggle to move. Looking into the alleyway, Propit saw a body with a nearby head. Both the body and corpse were quickly turning into dust. Propit fled as fast as his cold body would allow and phoned Chen. Chen came soon thereafter and they investigated the alleyway but found little.
Board Games Day
Author: Games Master
Sunday 20th is lined up to be a board games day, looks like 6 or 7 folks will be turning up. Exact games to be decided, but games that support 7 players are going to be needed. Definitely Game of Thrones is on for later in the day once some of the folks have to head out for company parties. Steve’s in town from the Philippines and will likely have a sack full of new games for us to try out!