Funagain Games

Love this place! Friendly staff, great selection of board and card games (and no computer/​console game distractions).

This is one of those places I came to know first via the internet. Online — they are an amazing resource for gamers, with one of the widest and deepest selections available anywhere. Funagain is the Powell’s City of Books for Games.
And it’s probably overlooked by most people passing through. The brick and mortar store is pretty easy to overlook — it’s just a normal, shopfront non-​presence in a strip mall-​ish little place with a parking lot big enough to accomodeate a movie theater.
But inside — in the bowels of Funagain’s well of games — there are amazing numbers of games I promise you’ve never heard of. Games and accessories for every hard-​core board gamer, role-​player, war gamer, zombie freak and collectable card-​game master out there. Their focus is said to be board games — but the selection of all games will blow you away.
This is one of those «just gotta stop and spend — an hour — or 2» places. Dice. Imports. Self-​published and small press games. Zombies. Family games. Intense collectors. Kids stuff … It’s all in there somewhere, just waiting for you.

wow… I have never seen so many games in one place at one time! Awesome place.

Super friendly, they let me wander, alone, through their warehouse. Fortunately, no games were hurt in the process, and I left the store with 2 games :) One, was even cheaper than the online price!
3 rules they gave me before I enter the warehouse:
1. None of the games are marked with price, bring them to the front to check (or, just equip yourself with smartphone and you can check their online price).
2. The game might be sold online, so don’t get your hopes up until they double check it in front it hasn’t been sold.
3. Don’t try to return a game you took if you don’t know exactly where you got it — it’ll mess up their system.
They have limited open hours, so double check their opening times before coming. If you even remotely like board games, you should definitely check this store out!

Totally missed by most Southern Oregon tourists. This is an amazing game store. As a grandmother, I love the ability to walk in, ask the incredibly knowledgeable staff for recommendations, usually something like this: «My grandson is nine and likes Wits and Wagers Jr. What else would he like?» Then they bring out several great games, tailored to his age and interests. Or I’ll browse, see a game I like and ask. If it’s not that good, they tell me so. No cheap salesmanship.
But the best thing, the very best for those of us who love board and card games, is to ask to browse the warehouse. The storefront is cramped but still fascinating. Browse the shelves in the huge warehouse though and feel like Alice in Wonderland.
Everyone knows OSF and Britt and Hellgate and Crater Lake and the Oregon Caves. Almost no one knows Funagain. If you play board games, go. If you don’t, start. A great learning tool for kids and will keep us old fogeys’ minds sharp.

I make a yearly pilgrimage to Funagain when I visit Ashland. This place is great. A relatively small storefront, but if you ask, they will let you wander their back room that is filled with rows upon rows of games! For a huge boardgames enthusiast like me, this is Nirvana. Huge selection. And they will give you internet pricing even in the store.
If you are into boardgames, you owe it to yourself to make a trip here if you are in the area.

My husband and I come to this game store every year when we come to Ashland. You need to go in the back where the shelves are to really be in awe of how many games they have. If you are unsure what you want, just talk to the clerk! Keep in mind they do a lot more e-​business than in store business, so their hours are short, like noon to 6.

Funagain Games doesn’t have the most variety you can find in a game store– they don’t carry very many roleplaying supplements, they don’t sell miniatures, and have very few TCGs, but when it comes to traditional and board games, they really have it all. The front of the store is jam packed with games of all sorts, but its the back that will really have gamers wowed. Three or four times the floor space as the front is devoted to row upon row of warehouse-​style shelves, packed with games of every variety, including a wide selection of German games from the incredibly large and strong European games market. (I asked the front desk, and I was told that translations of rules are available for those who are interested, but don’t speak the language).
I spent a good half hour wandering the shelves, and saw lots of great stuff. Being on a budget, however, I didn’t expect to be able to afford any of the bigger board games. That was when I encountered the damaged/​used section. I ended up walking out of the store with Twilight Imperium Third Edition, one of the biggest and most expensive board games on the market, for about $ 15 dollars off, because the top of the box was somewhat dinged. I also got a great deal on another game, Age of Gods. The sale price was normally something like $ 30, but they were selling it for $ 10 because it was used.
As far as the other staples of a game store go, Funagain games is pretty middle of the road. They have two small tables for gaming, and not a lot of amenities, but because of the absolutely enormous selection of board games, they earn 4 stars.

Saw this place listed in one of those touristy Ashland maps with the note on it «World’s Largest Game Store» — pshaw, surely that’s just hype. Then I went by on the way out of town only to discover it was closed till noon and I was aiming to be long gone by then. D’oh!
It’s kind of strange to review a place you didn’t actually make it into, but I have my reasons for suspecting this place is cool: there’s this board game from Germany that friends of mine had gone through much trouble to track down, and what do I see in the freakin’ window of the store but that exact game. Then I found out that other friends of mine had gone through their own trouble to order their own copy and they’d actually ended up buying it from this exact store over the Internets. Neat!
Anyway, I’m not a total board game geek but I have my moments — have been known to play a good round of Ticket to Ride or Settlers or Bang! from time to time. It would’ve been really cool to roam through here. It looked small up front, but potentially deep towards the back. Next year!