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Try Game Store Gaming

January 11, 2009 By

Well Friday I was invited to join a group of local RPGA people to play a LFR game at Armored Gopher Games in Champaign, IL. Getting me out of the house to play at a local store is a big deal. Number one issue is that my wife also enjoys gaming, and we have a young child, so it is an either, or, deal for us; either only one of us plays, or we pay 20-40 bucks for a baby sitter so we can both play. The way we solved this issue was to buy a house with gaming in mind on a quite road with ample parking, and a game room big enough for a table of 8 players. So for us gaming in local stores is not an appealing option, especially when playing a game like Dungeons & Dragons, because of the numerous volumes of material you need to have on hand. For instance, my 3.X library is over 30 books big so I don’t run dungeons outside my house unless they are RPGA games. With that said getting me out of my house is a big deal.  What made me do it was I needed to get more time as a player under 4e so I had no other option other than to go to a game store.

Now, game store gaming is fun if you are the player, because you don’t have to lug tons of books with you. An added bonus is that you are usually surrounded by game inventory to that you can touch and feel. If that is not enough for you, then you can take part in game store is the “shop talk” about news in the industry. For instance, Some game store talk I came across in my travels last week was about new game releases for January ’09. I would not of picked up this info as easily online so I find going to stores to be very informative and most shop keepers are very talkative about the products they sell. That is a bonus in my book. Here is the news I heard last week about new stuff:

  • Age of Cthulhu: Death in Luxor
  • BattleTech: Record Sheets 3039
  • Call of Cthulhu: The Doom from Below
  • Call of Cthulhu: The Littlest Shoggoth Holiday Tale
  • Dragon Warriors RPG: Sleeping Gods
  • Royal Palace Board Game
  • Wicked Munchkin Die Holiday Edition

The good about game store gaming: Many game stores like the Armored Gopher Games here in town, and Gryfalia’s Aerie in Bloomington, IL have online forums that locals can join to help in finding other gamers in your area. Some stores will also have a cork boards to post game adds the old fashion way with paper and a thumb tack. Meeting at the game store adds some safety to the game if you are concerned about that. Games stores also have tables big enough for your game and some stores even offer storage that you can rent for your books and miniatures making life easy on the DM. You also don’t have the distractions of little children running about or issues with pet allergies. The stores usually have soft drink and junk food for sale. If you don’t have a required book, or game piece, you can buy it at the store the day of the game, usually this is much more expensive than online stores like Amazon, but he convenience of instant access usually wins out over price. Some stores start clubs with annual fees, and then give members discounts on items purchased through the store. Those are my favorite stores, they are hard to find, but I tend to buy more often from stores with game club discounts.

The bad about game store gaming: Parking, some stores are are downtown where parking is limited and metered. Some places pack in the players so tight that noise from other tables ends up interfering with play at your table. Scheduling is also an issue; some stores are very popular, which make them very difficult to actually play in, because of waiting lists to play certain games with certain DMs or GMs. Stores usually allow access during “store hours”  which further reduces the availability of space for play. Another problem with game stores is that they seem to be going extinct at an alarming rate unless they are really business savvy they don’t stay open long, this eventually effects continuity of game play.

The best thing about game shops is that they are a great way to meet players in your community, especially if you move around a lot. Over the past twenty plus years of gaming, I have moved over a dozen times, and if it were not for the ability of local game shop to put me in touch with players in the area, I would not have been able maintain my gaming  hobby as consistently as I have been able too.

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About shent_lodge

Shent_lodge, AKA Jon, started this website, in 2000, initially as a player's guide to his home game. He has run through, and run for hundreds of players of the Dungeons and Dragons game since 1980. These days he mostly plays the Pathfinder RPG at cons.