For the first time in 4 years, I attended a concert this past weekend. One of my favorite bands, Me Like Bees, was playing in St. Louis, opening for a band called Ha Ha Tonka that I was unfamiliar with.
While I was greatly enjoying the show, something occurred to me: The whole concept of pairing two bands at a concert is really clever. It introduces people like me to musicians we might otherwise not have been exposed to, and it’s a 2-for-1 deal: For the price of one concert, we get two shows! (At least, that’s how it feels to me.)
The experience got me thinking about how the concept of “opening acts” applies to other products and content (e.g., tabletop games). Here’s what I came up with:
- Inside the box of some games (or printed on the box itself) are advertisements for other games. The best examples of this, in my opinion, is when a game specifically advertises exactly one directly related product (e.g., an expansion or accessory) and exactly one indirectly related product (e.g., a game by the same publisher with a similar feel), opposed to a full catalog of games.
- I’ve seen some YouTube channels host crossover episodes with other creators, either meeting up in person to review a game or filming it remotely. This is essentially the business model for The Dice Tower, and in recent years I’ve been impressed with the efforts of Watch It Played and Rahdo Runs Through to elevate other creators.
- On some webstores, after adding an item to your cart, you might also see a suggestion to add a related product at a discount. Sometimes it’s directly related, but not always.
- I’ve read quite a few books where, after the last chapter, there’s a bonus first chapter of another novel. As long as it’s a short chapter, I really like this–it potentially answers the question, “What should I read next?”
- Intellectual properties used across multiple formats essentially accomplish this goal. For example, our Red Rising game is based on a popular novel series. People who know Stonemaier and play the game might discover the books, just as people who love the books may discover the game.
- I have a series of videos–one for each of our games–in which I talk about 10 games you might enjoy if you love X game from Stonemaier. I really enjoy making these, as it’s an opportunity to highlight a variety of games with a lot of audience overlap. Here’s one such video for Expeditions and another (more standard format) for Libertalia. I’ve seen reviewers say things like this as well: If you like X, you may also enjoy Y and Z.
- My game Rolling Realms does this with its promo realms, each of which is a distillation of another full tabletop game (many of which are games by other publishers, printed with their permission and after paying a licensing fee to them) on a single card with a few lines of text. Designing these realms is a fun challenge–one that many fans of the game have attempted–and similar to opening acts at concerts, you’re playing one game while potentially discovering another game you might love.
I’m sure I’m missing some obvious examples, so let me know what you think of in the comments below!
By the way, if you’re not familiar with Me Like Bees, check out their songs Feel the Heat, Animal, Disco Two Step, and Heartbeats to see if you like them as much as I do! One of the lead guitarists, Jake, is a big gamer (we took this photo after chatting before the show).
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12 Comments on “The Brilliance of Opening Acts at Concerts”
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Whenever you order anything from Steve Jackson Games, they throw some Munchkin cards (and the occasional Munchkin bookmark) and other random bits into the box. I do not play Munchkin (I really hate that game). That said, I have friends who play, so I pass those along to them. I am not sure how effective this tactic is overall, but if you are buying from Steve Jackson Games, chances are you already know about Munchkin and you have either started buying it or have come to the conclusion that it is not for you. So, not exactly a great ‘opening act’ strategy for them. But I do not have their numbers.
That said, if it were possible for Stonemaier to create a series of small products that had a usefulness in multiple Stonemaier games, then you might have something here. Take, for example, the Munchkin bookmarks I mentioned above.
Munchkin is a card game. It does not use bookmarks for anything in the base rules. But each bookmark that Steve Jackson has produced allows the bearer a one-time use that breaks some rule of the game. A player is allowed to play only one bookmark in any game. Now granted, given the nature of the game, this is fits thematically (the breaking of a rule, not the fact that this is a bookmark).
If Stonemaier Games were to come up with something — anything really — that was a stand-alone concept, were inexpensive enough to give away within packages shipped from the online store, ands had an easily explainable usefulness across multiple Stonemaier games… this could be a great way to include an ‘opening act’ in the box.
Consider (for example) a set of tarot-sized cards. On the back, you have the Stonemaier logo so that this is not associated with a particular game, just the company. On the front, you have a piece of art from one of the games (thus, no new art need be commissioned), and the text that explains how this card is used if you include it in a Stonemaier game (perhaps logos that indicate which games this is most effective for).
Each card would introduce a new rule or variant, grant the players a one-use power during the game, or what-have-you. The important thing being that any the players decide at the start to draw a random card from those they have and agree to use what-ever variation is presented.
Does the card allow players to swap a resource for another once in the game? How about the ability to give up a certain number of points to gain some one-time advantage? Does the card grant bonus points at the end of the game for doing something? Who knows! Just try to make the effects applicable to any and all Stonemaier games… and do not disrupt the game *too* much.
Some of these cards could be cross-over rules: how to use the miniatures from My Little Scythe within a game a Pendulum, or tiles from Between Two Cities within a game of Wingspan. Any crazy idea is a viable one here; after all, it is purely optional, completely promotional, and meant to be a little odd anyway.
With the logos indicating which game(s) the card is most effective, such a product could serve as an introduction (of sorts) to other games in the Stonemaier library, while providing some funny little elements to the games you already have.
Obviously, this idea is not fully developed or polished. It was just an idea I had while thinking about this blog post. Please accept it in the manner in which it was intended.
This is really clever, David! I think it has to strike a very careful balance in that it’s something that’s just for fun, not anything core to the game that people might be disappointed they don’t have without buying a game they may not want. The Munchkin bookmarks seem to strike that balance well.
Agreed. It has to be a bit of fun without becoming a core element of the game(s). The bookmarks are cool because beyond being a part of Munchkin, they are also functional as a bookmark (although I am not so sure how useful that is these days).
If you can create something like the cards I suggest above, they can be useful as a part of the game(s) they serve, but will need some element of whimsy; something that makes them desirable beyond their use in the game(s) they modify. Right now, I am drawing a blank on how that element might be set up, but if I think of anything I will post here.
* Note: I meant to include a note on why I said these cards should be Tarot sized. I figure you will want to have enough room to include any and all text that such a card might require without having the font get too small or any artwork used becoming an afterthought. Anyway… there you go.
I think a key piece of the headlining band/opening band formula is that the two are NOT on equal footing. The headliner is the major draw for most fans and plays the majority of the show. As I understand it, in many (most?) cases the headliner helps logistically support the opener conduct a tour they otherwise logistically may not be capable of and serve as a de-facto mentor for the duration of the tour. In some ways, it’s a modern day apprenticeship. The more established artist gets relatively cheap labor and the up and comers get experience and exposure.
I think the closest approximation to this in gaming is developing fan projects into full fledged games/expansions. It’s a situation where everyone benefits
It’s clever but alas also massively abused. There are exceptions, and certainly at smaller concerts it’s not the case, but at large gigs, rather than the support band being paid by the promoter (y’know, for putting on a show) the support band actually have to pay, for the privilege of being allowed to play.
And while you can sort of see the logic there (you’re getting to impress a whole bunch of people and perhaps get a new audience) – it should be a mutual benefit thing. But as ever, a profit-driven industry ruins it.
(And there are bands that refuse to do this, and just take out on tour the bands they like, think are a good match for the show, and then pay them – and I try and support these acts whenever possible!)
Artists get screwed constantly. I have not been in the world of concerts or anything, so I was not aware of this shitfuckery, but yea… good on you for supporting the payment of artists.
When are people going to learn that you cannot buy food or pay rent with exposure?
Now that you mention it, I’ve found plenty of new bands because they were playing in shows for bands I already like. You do something similar when you share a guest post on your blog too, Jamey.
It used to be common to cross-promote with other crowd-funding campaigns that were running at the same time as your own or just promote them without any expectations for them to do the same, especially if they are made for a similar market or the creators are connected in some way. I see that happening less frequently these days though. In my experience, it doesn’t have a very big impact.
A few times in the past we’ve had another company running a campaign at the same time as us include a character from our game in their game, usually as a promo card. That was always a guaranteed way for us to mention their campaign in at least one of our Kickstarter updates. I wouldn’t recommend that though because it’s a big commitment for what would likely be a very small boost from us.
That’s true about guest posts! :)
I thought about mentioning creative cross-promotions like those that you described, but I think it’s pretty rare that they inspire people to act or discover (though it’s nice when they’re truly genuine recommendations).
My Lil Everdell came with a small set of cards to be used with the Everdell base game—kid critter cards and kindergarten construction cards. This seemed like a cool thing to me because most people buying the family version of the game would already have the full original game.
That’s great! A very clever addition. I’ve seen Red Raven Games do that too–some of their characters can be used in other games.
I think this example was a big source of frustration to Everdell fans who didn’t want to buy the kids game but wanted the promos. Particular those who had just bought the complete collection
Ah yes, that’s a bit of a misstep. I think promos like this work best when they’re also available separately.