I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that we have a lot of great things going for us as tabletop gamers. Our hobby is more alive than ever thanks in no small part to the rise of Kickstarter. This crowdfunding platform has given us more games to choose from than ever before. This also has had the side benefit of attracting many more gamers to our hobby, which in turn, has also opened the door for many small and independent publishers to make their mark.
Recently, I was given a chance to check out the Board Game of the Month Club from Button Shy Games. If you are not familiar with the titles, Button Shy Games is a small, independent family owned publisher led by Jason Tagmire (Pixel Lincoln, Maximum Throwdown).
Button Shy is most known for their line of “Wallet Games”. These are titles that are small enough to fit in your wallet, yet can still have a surprising amount of depth.
Normally, I’d stay clear of a board game of the month club. The thought of spending 30+ and getting a random game that might not even appeal to me is too risky. Plus, there is the chance you are getting overstock from a publisher who printed too many of a game that just didn’t sell. No thanks.
However, the Button Shy Club has taken a different approach and there are two things that I really like about what they are doing. The first is the price. Membership levels start at $1, $5, $10, or $20 and offering increasingly better rewards. Even their highest tier is less then I’d expect to pay from a “of the month” type of service.
But what really draws me in was that the games are all new (or at least have been so far) and designed specifically for Button Shy’s catalog. It’s nice to know you aren’t getting another copy of Zombie-Munchkin or whatever.
The other plus about the club I’ve found is that you are not just getting a game every month. In addition to the game (depending on your membership level) members can get unreleased microgames or promo cards, print-and-play copies of upcoming games, a newsletter with interviews and comics, and discounts off their monthly Kickstarter wallet games.
In fact, we were told that every month you get 2 cards for some of their other titles. The sample pack we got had promo cards for Movie Plotz and Wild Cats.
If you’re the kind of person that likes to be surprised every month when you head out to the mailbox, then this is right up your alley. If you’re looking for a recommendation, I’d say go in at least at the $10 level. At that level, you get getting most of the good stuff and half-off their wallet games. That’s a nice bit of content for basically what you’d spend on a lunch at work one day.
If you want to know all the details, check out their Patreon page that they’ve setup for the club.
