Beijing board game report

I returned from Beijing, China on March 19th.  I will report the Chinese board game circumstances I noticed on a journey.

How to buy board games in Beijing 

There are few real shops that specialize in selling board games in Beijing.  Perhaps, Chinese board gamers buy board games in online shopping in many cases now.

It seems that board games were sold at various places such as toy shops when "Legend of Three Kingdom(LTK)(三国杀)" became popular, but now such stores are decreasing.  On this trip, I saw some some shops that still have bad inventory of games produced several years ago.  

According to BoardGameGeek's forum, there is a board game shop called "One Moment (一刻馆)" in Beijing.  But One Moment real store was under renovation as of March 17th.  One Moment online shop in Taobao is still available.

There were a couple of cases where the board game bar sold board games.  I bought some games at these board game bars.  "The Deception of Antiques: 12 Chinese Zodiac Bronze Heads(古董局中局)" is one of them.

The Deception of Antiques: 12 Chinese Zodiac Bronze Heads - BGG

This is a game in which two teams of appraisers conceal the identity and fight. It seems that games that conceal the identity tend to get popularity in China. I think it the influence of "LTK".

Board game cafes/bars in Beijing

A few years ago when "LTK" became popular, many board game cafes/board game bars ("桌游吧 zhuo you ba" in Chinese) were born in China.  However, as soon as the boom of "LTK" ended, many of those shops were closed.  

But I do not think the Chinese board game world has declined.  The surviving board game bars are attracting enough customers as I saw.  This is not a decline, it is a stable period after the "LTK" boom.

Bootleg

This is a bootleg of "One Night Ultimate Werewolf" that came as a bonus when I bought another game.  There's no logo.  I found this to be a bootleg after returning to the hotel.  I went to the store again and returned this to the store on the last day of the trip.

“谋杀之谜(Mou Sha Zhi Mi)” , Chinese version of "Murder Mystery Game"

Chinese board gamers rediscovered "Murder Mystery Games" and call it “谋杀之谜(Mou Sha Zhi Mi)”.  Currently, there are many "Murder Mystery game" scenarios in China.

“桌游志(Zhuo You Zhi)”, Chinese board game magazine

In China, a monthly board game magazine "桌游志(Zhuo You Zhi)" is published.  A good-looking woman is on the cover of a magazine.  In the magazine, somehow the interview with the woman on the cover is listed.

As an appendix to the magazine comes promo cards of "LTK".  The promo card "张梁(Zhang Liang)" has too complicated abilities.  YOKA GAMES(游卡桌游) who has made too many "LTK" cards may have run out of ideas now.


My Beijing board game report is over. I'll return to the report of the Japanese board game situation from next time again.