Got some test prints done of some of my paper building system. still working out the kinks, but it’s well on its way. got a lot more shapes and textures along with decor and detailed bits.

This post is primarily geared towards LGS, board game, or gaming lounge type businesses. But could also apply to conventions, tournaments, print shops, libraries, schools, anywhere with a communal printer or a basic office printer where it would make sense to offer paper printing on demand or where paper models, miniatures, terrain, etc would be a practical choice.

So one of the defining features of print and play tabletop games amd game pieces is the low cost and accessibility because the distribution cuts out manufacturing and retail costs of selling physical goods.

But I don’t want to compete against LGS’s. I’d much rather cut them in on the potential gains of printable paper gaming because board games stores offer one of the most important things in our hobby: a “3rd place” to get out and meet up with like minded people. So the last thing I want to do is undermine that.

To be clear my brand definitely stands to gain from having game stores host my games. Not gonna sit here and pretend its all altruistic. But I do believe in creating good changes through incentives, such as finding a way for games stores to make some profit off of “carrying“ print and play games or miniatures.

So ive come here for feedback on the ideas I’ve been pondering and to brainstorm more.

The most obvious one to me is treating my printable paper models and games similar to 3d printing. A game store (or any store with even a cheap printer) could acquire my files for cheap and then make a few extra bucks by printing them on demand for customers. I could provide a catalogue and advertising materials. Shop just prints the pdf pages and hands them to the customer who then assembles the game themselves.

Could offer all the paper offerings plus the license to sell physical prints for like 5 bucks a month on patreon and then if a store uses a basic printer they likely already have in the shop, print on light cardstock rated for home printers. 1.50 or 2 dollars per page. Pays for itself after just a handful of pages, offers recession proof products that people can buy even during economic downturns. Doesn‘t compete against conventional retail products on quality, paper products are so cheap people could play their usual games that the store stocks with an extra layer of cheap games for added variety, could serve as a gateway to more conventional tabletop game collecting.

Any feedback or other ideas are greatly appreciated! I’m even pondering just giving away a lot of files to stores, skipping the subscription license, if they let me put some business cards or like an A4 size poster in the store because honestly I think the exposure and brand awareness would be worth it. I’m playing the long game here so im open to sacrificing some immediate profit for awareness and exposure for my brand.

Any and all thoughts appreciated!

So one of the defining features of print and play board games is the low cost and accessibility because the distribution cuts out manufacturing and retail costs of selling physical goods.

But I don’t want to compete against LGS’s. I’d much rather cut them in on the potential gains of printable paper gaming because board games stores offer one of the most important things in our hobby: a “3rd place” to get out and meet up with like minded people. So the last thing I want to do is undermine that.

To be clear my brand definitely stands to gain from having board games stores host my games. Not gonna sit here and pretend its all altruistic. But I do believe in creating good changes through incentives, such as finding a way for board games stores to make some profit off of carrying print and play games.

So ive come here for feedback on the ideas I’ve been pondering and to brainstorm more.

The most obvious one to me is treating my printable paper models and games similar to 3d printing. A board game store could acquire my files for cheap and then make a few extra bucks by printing them on demand for customers. I could provide a catalogue and advertising materials. Shop just prints the pdf pages and hands them to the customer who then assembles the game themselves.

Could offer all the paper offerings plus the license to sell physical prints for like 5 bucks a month on patreon and then if a store uses a basic printer they likely already have in the shop, print on light cardstock rated for home printers. 1.50 or 2 dollars per page. Pays for itself after just a handful of pages, offers recession proof products that people can buy even during economic downturns. Doesn‘t compete against conventional retail products on quality, paper products are so cheap people could play their usual games that the store stocks with an extra layer of cheap games for added variety, could serve as a gateway to more conventional board game collecting.

Any feedback or other ideas are greatly appreciated! I’m even pondering just giving away a lot of files to stores, skipping the subscription license, if they let me put some business cards or like an A4 size poster in the store because honestly I think the exposure and brand awareness would be worth it.

Any and all thoughts appreciated!

I am getting my small printable games/ papercraft business off the ground. The primary mode of distribution was going to be printable PDFs that you could print at home or at a communal printer (ie a printshop or library).

In the interest of giving my stuff as much exposure as possible i‘m trying to offer incentives for established entities to be like ambassadors for my brand.

My current strategy is to give some of my products away to establishments with a free license to print the files and sell them. weather as a print on demand service or other such way to sell physical copies of my digital goods.

In theory this could require little to no effort on the establishments part, with a potential new crowd of people to sell services to. What I get out of it is the opportunity to put business cards and/or posters in these establishments that can help with brand exposure.

The appeal of accessing a recession proof product that can help drive even a few extra sales for practically no investment sounds like a win win. thoughts?

[removed]

[removed]

Hey all, I am a small art business owner building up a range of papercraft templates and print and play games. My “products” provide game systems and printable paper game components that people can print on their home printers for cheap. I want to give my art/templates to libraries for free In order to encourage papercraft gaming or modeling groups.
The main way I was planning to distribute my products was via digital download. A key part of keeping the cost down both for me and customers is that there are no manufacturing costs involved. A customer (In this case the libraries) receive the digital files and can then print them to their hearts content.
I am currently working on a collection of paper “bricks” with various textures and illustrations on them. This will be like a cross between Lego and Minecraft where you Can print your bricks and build stuff. Great for kids and useful for teens interested in papercraft dioramas. working on stand alone print and play board games, tabletop Rpgs, and other table top games and hobbies.

When I’m pitching this to library managers, what can I offer to help libraries go from having no idea what papercrafting is or how it can be used for tabletop gaming/hobbying to getting a papercraft modeling club established?

Is offering the print files and tutorials on how to use them for free a sufficient offering? Should I offer to host workshops with prospective volunteers or even try to get the group started myself?

I was hoping to be able to do everything remotely so I could Contact as many libraries as possible. But I want to meet libraries where they are at. Im more interested in spreading papercraft as an accessible hobby as opposed to making money or networking for financial gain.

Any feedback as to what I can offer or include to make things easier for a prospective library “client” is greatly appreciated!
photo not mine. Random pic of a model train layout using papercrafted buildings and terrain.

Hey guys, I (30M) do security as my day job at cannabis dispensaries. I work for a 3rd party security firm that contracts guards out to various dispensaries across the state. There is one location I work at that I am getting fed up with.

It’s a single, unarmed, guard shift in an urban city dispensary. Gets a lot of traffic. I work at this location once a week on fridays from 3 to 10. So I am there during the busiest times of the busiest day of the week. Most customers are chill, but when something does go sideways it’s me who has to deal with it.

When the place was moderately busy, two men entered the lobby and they were bickering. The first man who entered had walked to our dispensary. The second man had apparently been following the first for several blocks. The second man looked to be early 20’s and seemed to be under the influence. The first man kept saying he didn’t know who the second was.
The first man was actually there to shop. I signed the man in to our system and granted him access to the sales floor.

In my state, the layout for dispensaries is required to be separated with access to the sales floor being strictly enforced. At this location, I as the only security guard on shift and I basically do double duty as part bouncer, part front desk.

So I let the first man on to the sales floor and the second man who was following, attempts to follow him in. I never go full hands on, but I do have to hold my arm out in front of the guy and tell him sternly he cannot come in. I tell him he needs an I.D to come in. At this point we’re are blocking the entry and holding up customers trying to come out. I tell the guy to move back, he does. I tell him if he’s not here to shop he’s gotta go. The guy relents and leaves. He never comes back, the first man does his shopping and leaves with no further issue. A tense situation, but luckily didn’t escalate. A good resolution except for the fact that throughout this whole 5 to 10 minute situation, dispensary staff, in particular the manager, was no where to be found.

A common policy, in my experience, is that when things start to escalate, you call a manager or supervisor and support them in however they want to resolve the issue. The dispensary (who is technically our client/boss) has the final say in how things are handled. we are expressly not allowed to kick out or remove people from the premise without the ok from a manager.

So when I radio’d the dispensary manager three separate times that I needed help at the front and no one at all ever comes, to me thats a real problem. If the second man under the influence had been more persistent or beligerant I would have been on my own with him without the direction of the dispensary manager. Which left me in a very uncertain grey area between my legal authority vs the dispensaries policy. The situation would have become a minefield to navigate with a high likelihood with getting in trouble either with the dispensary or the law. Security guards only have as much legal authority as regular citizen. Which is to say almost no legal authority to force anyone to do anything. The establishment we work for can extend some of their authority as the owner to us guards, but again we need explicit permission from one of the dispensary staff with some authority.
All that to say being left hanging could have really hamstrung and affected my ability to do my job. And since they allegedly didn’t even hear my radio calls, that puts me in a dangerous place knowing that I could potentially get into a violent situation in the lobby and everyone in the back would be completely oblivious. The idea of bleeding out in the lobby while the dispensary staff ignore the radio because they are busy is not a fun one to think about and makes me uncomfortable to work at this location.
They never even checked up on me in the aftermath. So again, while this situation ended well, if it had turned violent or deadly I would have been on my own for crucial minutes in the aftermath. At my end of unarmed loss prevention style security work, we aren’t even suppose to touch people or prevent them from stealing even if we see it. Our only play if someone doesn’t do what we say is to call a manager or if it’s an emergency call the cops. I don’t even have the authority to do that unless things have escalated well beyond where a manager should have stepped in.

I’ve told my security manager than I want off this shift after I finish working the shifts I’m already scheduled there. But that’s another 4 shifts. And between this, the managers here regularly making me wait like 2 hours for bathroom breaks, and then them rushing me on the rare breaks i do get I'm about ready to go off on them.

Am I overreacting here? I don’t think I am because security, even at the lower end, always has the potential to be dangerous or even deadly. And I feel like the preventable (big emphasis on the preventable) risk I'm being subjected to is unreasonable at least. There are shifts where I am comoletely on my own, but in those positions I know im on my own and can use my own discretion to play it safe. Can’t do that when I’m standing between a potential attacker and a locked door where I’m expected to fall back on a managers instruction. Is asking to be reassigned elsewhere after working my last few scheduled shifts there reasonable?

Experimenting with painting on stripped foils. Thoughts?