Premium Shelf Toads

Pete deployed a neat term in the Star Trek: Ascendancy thread, when he called it a "premium shelf toad." Though he didn't give an explanation for the term, I think that it means a nice-looking game with a high price tag that nobody wants to play after the initial buzz dies off.

What games in your collection do you consider to be Premium Shelf Toads?

Mine:

1. Mansions of Madness (1st ed.) - Three plays and I was done with this game. Can't quite bear to part with it because of the promising things that I heard about the Call of the Wild expansion. The puzzle idea was neat, but in actual play were either too easy or too hard for specific players. Lose a turn is generally not a fun mechanic, but MoM had a worse one where the DM player could effectively negate an entire turn by one of the investigators. And generally the scenarios were very scripted with only one correct way to proceed.

2. Twilight Imperium (3rd ed.) - Once a year or so, I am in the mood to play Twilight Imperium, but none of my friends are interested. It's too long and complex for them, and doesn't connect to any existing fanbase for a media property. Fortunuately, I live near the FF Event Center and have been able to play TI3 anyway, at least once in a while. Admittedly, by the end of the game, my mind is buzzing with fatigue, and I don't feel like playing it again for many months.

3. Space Hulk (3rd ed.) - Good game, but takes too long to set up a scenario relative to the play time. The ratio is even worse if you factor in the time to properly assemble and paint the figures, which I still haven't finished. The genestealers practically play themselves, and while the marine player faces a serious tactical challenge, there seems to be a solid solution to each scenario waiting to be discovered.

Duel of Ages 2. I have everything. I love the game. It sits.

Cave Evil is also something of a premium toad...hopefully Warcults will renew it.

Pretty much all my shelf toads are premium. If it wasn't premium, I would have shit-canned it instead of fruitlessly hoped it would find its way to my table.

I'll admit that even though I'm down for space hulk anytime, its a massive shelf toad for me.

Especially vexing considering all the work I have put into it to make it the game it should have been if gw could have nailed the license from fox.

Wiz-War is another one.

As is Heroscape.

These games get played 3 times a year max, and I wilt a bit inside as I pine to play them, but they get left in the dust for "teh hawtnizz".

Oh man, I'm about to depress myself, I guess. But here we go.

Twilight Imperium and its expansions. Yep, I have had such fond hopes for this game, but the size and (more importantly) the length of the game have really hurt my ability to get the group to play it. It doesn't help that my buddy played a six-player TI3 game with co-workers one weekend and dutifully reported back to our group that it was a 17 hour game complete with shouting matches and backstabbing worthy of a convention game of Diplomacy. I know he got a kick out of the experience, but I could hear the "nopes" clicking in everyone else's heads when he shared the story with our group.

Dungeon Lords and Dungeon Petz. I got these from CGE's anniversary edition Kickstarter campaign because I'm a Chvatil fan and because I didn't have 3-4 player brain-burners in my collection at that point. My group has been interested at times, but co-op-itis has struck my group pretty solidly and we never seem to get this to the table. I do have two or three members of the group who are into games like this, but I think it would require getting together with them separately from the main meet-ups.

BattleCON -- the whole shootin' match. This game is so damn cool that I still bring it out to play it solo, which is pretty sad given that it's a fighting game. The variety of characters and content is ridiculous and it's fun. BUT... it has become practically impossible for me to play 2-player games of any kind. Game days are big social events with lots of people, so something like BattleCON is no good there. But in between those game days everyone's busy with real world stuff or with vidyas. It sucks because there are so many good 2-player games out there. I'll have to make a better effort to set up time for them.

Yep, spot on. These are my shelf toads, besides gift games that I'd feel guilty getting rid. Archipelago, Starcraft, Runewars, some premium wargames.

Colorcrayons wrote: I'll admit that even though I'm down for space hulk anytime, its a massive shelf toad for me.

Especially vexing considering all the work I have put into it to make it the game it should have been if gw could have nailed the license from fox.

Whenever I'm in the mood to play Space Hulk, I play Death Angel instead. Nails the setting just as well, but sets up fast and offers more replay value.

Those of you with Space Hulk croaking on your shelves...let's determine shipping to 78640...then meet me over in the Pay It Forward thread.

I wish I could stand that game, but after attempting the rulebook, I quickly sold it. I am not coniekzkias (sp) target audience.

FFGs in house designs I avoid 98% of the time.

These have never been played, and I will probably never get rid of them:

Tide of Iron - seemed like a good idea at the time. I still want to play it sometime.

Hannibal: Rome v. Carthage - see Tide of Iron.

18SCAN - I was playing a lot of 18xx at the time, and hit burnout about the time the game showed up.

Steam: Rails to Riches - I've played it a few times at the local game club. The coworkers would play it, but better games than Steam (ex: Chaos in the Old World) get bumped all the time.

D&D: Attack Wing - Asked for it for Christmas. X-Wing would have been a much better game to ask for.

If I'm counting ones that have hit the table once:

Survive - the family liked it, but will not play it again. I'm not sure why; they have no problem with that much conflict.

Heroscape - I have two unopened Master sets, plus my opened one + expansions. The unopened ones are going to be the nucleus around which I am going to build the RobertB millions.

Twilight Imperium III - I could actually get that on the board with the coworkers, maybe, but my coworkers (and I) like Eclipse better.

Star Trek: Attack Wing - don't ask me why I bought it. Maybe I was high.

Rail Baron - Old school game, that's too darn long.

I've got a sweet copy of Mega-Civilization that is my precious, but will probably croak up there for years to come.

Wargames: tons of shelf toads there , although I've been pruning the last few years . OCS DAK or Case Blue are probably the biggest ( I've played smaller scenarios, just never the whole enchilada ) , although I've got a Hobby Japan LAST GAMBLE that last I looked went for $700+ on Ebay.

TI3 plus both expansions, still in shrink.

War of the Ring Collectors Edition. I've played hell out of the game, but transporting the CE is a pain in the ass so I usually use the regular version.

Have we learned how to identify Premium Shelf Toads in the wild?

Shellhead wrote: Have we learned how to identify Premium Shelf Toads in the wild?

Yes. The following site lists them and is updated daily.

www.kickstarter.com/

Shelf toads that get played a couple of times a year ??? You guys don't know when you are well off !!!!

I've got two categories (for these games that I just can't get rid of or get played):

Old Skool
Kingmaker - well over 10 years
Samurai Swords - well over 10 years
Space Crusade - well over 10 years (but working on it)
Escape from Colditz - well over 5 years
Illuminati Deluxe - well over 5 years

Contemporary
Battlestar Galactica - 3 or so years, few AT gamers around these days and I refuse to play with less than 5.
A Game of Thrones - 4 years plus, not enough players but have got hold of the 4-player expansion so maybe soon.
Warrior Knights - played someone else's at teh begining of teh year but 4 years plus for my copy.
Doom - a couple of years or more, not liked by one of my small AT group so still waiting.
Lord of the Rings (with expansions) - 4 years, neither my euro or my AT groups want to play this classic !
Twilight Imperium 3 - played this year, for the first time in 5 years or more.
Tide of Iron - a couple of years, few opportunities for 2-player games and this is behind Rebellion and War of the Ring.
Marvel Heroes - 5 years, not liked by all my AT group.
Mare Nostrum - 4 years, not enough players with my AT group but trying to get it to a 6-player night with the Euro group.
Fortress America - once every 2 years or so.
Star Wars: The Queen's Gambit - once a year maybe.

UPDATE (after reading Da Bid Dabid's list):
X-Wing - 1-2 years, I bought about 20 ships (incl. base sets) at the beginning but doesn't see time these days as I prefer boardgames in my limited gaming opportunities.