You know how at Denny's, Ihop, or other resteraunts, when you start pulling Dice or Cards out they ask you to put it away because they lack a "gambling lisence"?

Well, what if there was a place where the gaming wasn't just allowed, it was encouraged.

Featuring...

Retail sale of Tabletop Roleplaying and Traditional Board games (Monopoly, Scrabble, Chess, Checkers)

An Extensive Library of Role Playing books available for check out.

Service of simple fare, Sodas, Coffee, Chips, Donuts.

Semi Private rooms available for rent (about $5 an hour), each room equipped with an overhead projector.

How interested would you be in such a place?

As a Customer what concerns would you have?

That sounds like a gaming shop to me, as opposed to a street cafe or resturant. I've been to a few of them and they don't seem to have any problem with gaming.

The local shop that I go to for my anime sells (apart from anime, of course) minatures in all shapes and sorts, though mostly Warhammer. They have an area sectioned off with a table if anyone wants to give someone else a match and sell things like drinks.

One of the concerns I'd have is the cleaniness of the rooms available for hire, espically if they're fequently used. More from a owner viewpoint, you'd probably have to watch out for people leaving the equipment on.

i know that i came to denver from alabama and in alabama we had a gaming/comics store that had tables set up in the middle of the store...some tables were regular, flat tables for card gaming/RPGing and some had scenery on them for minitures gaming. but now that i'm in denver, there's nothing like that...and i figured a 'big city' would have more stuff like that.

i would be all about a place like that, but i'd have the same concern as west...if there will be drinks and snacks/food available (which would be great!), then i'd want the place to be kept clean. i'd hate for the tables to be sticky or for the scenery to be stained and nasty.

also, the food/drinks should be affordable...don't over charge on that stuff and it will help you to keep people coming back.

and as always...good lighting! (or the option for 'bad' lighting for the vampire gamers )

The way I look at it, you almost speak of a "gaming pub", tho w/o an alcohol license.

That could work really well, I think. But, nobody really does that. At least, not in the NE.

Most of the gaming stores in San Antonio do that, minus the book check out. They don't mind you flipping through there stock, but don't want you running games without actually buying it. Although, if you are a regular patron,they'll let it slide.

Not a bad idea, all things considered. The only problem is that I seriously doubt there's enough of a gaming market concentrated at any single location to make it work financially.

~J

It could work in large cities. I know one such site in Berlin, called 'Mystery Island'. It also has a couple of computers for playing or surfing the net, too, sells drinks and stuff, and has some back rooms for gamers, too. Seems to run reasonably well, as it has been around for some years now.

I had your same idea. I eventually decided against it dut to lack of customer base. There simply isn't that many people who game. One thing that could alleviate this is combining it with a video rental store, coffee shop, or other "mainstream" money maker.

What the hell? The deepest parts of the Bible Belt have such wonders of gaming?

Does that seem wrong to anyone else? Like, on a cosmic scale?

We have one of those here in Uruguay:

- Food is mainly pizza, sandwiches, hot-dogs, beer, soft drinks, tea & coffee (including Irish Coffee). Prices are cheap.

- There's a well stocked library of RPG books and tabletop games.

- It's open Wed-Sat, from 8 pm to 5 am.

- Chairs, tables and the likes host several groups each night.

- The owners also organize several "special events", like a massive, monthly Vampire LARP and Fields of Blood tournaments (25 people each).

Something like that?

Well, Alabama is a special consideration.

My sister bought me a D&D book at a store in Alabama, entire sections of the book had been torn out, namely the monster stat entries for dragons and demons.

We had a place here in San Angelo, one side of the building was a computer store (sales, services, parts), and the other was a gaming store. Had 6 PCs hooked up online for rent (people played LAN games on em and such), sold Warhammer, RPGs, Magic, etc etc. Had many tables (like 15 big ones), coke machine, some snacks every now and then when they remember to stock the machines.

There was a group of regulars who bought stuff, that were all good friends. We'd be in there playing Warhammer until 3 am and such frequently. The owners screwed the place though, not paying taxes and the like.

Finally, the guy running the game part took a new job out of town, and that was it.

The only other game store is mostly kid toys (like dolls and trains), with all the games stuffed into the back corner. The "play area" is in the back...cramped, dirty, and smelly when people are back there. The owner is kind of strange, and his employees are those kinds of kids that go on and on about such and such they did in game XYZ while you are trying to browse through minis or RPGs instead of trying to help you find something.

He also doesn't give discounts to anyone, even people who've been buying stuff there for 8 years. I guess beggers can't be choosers.

I want to retire someplace where there are enough old-time RPGers or like-minded youngsters to run a small store that's there to support GMs and players, and not rake in the Pokemon or DBZ dollars.

I've already decided, any computers will be for looking stuff up online. Null 'puter games, and Null Collectable Card games.

CC games are where gaming store make some mad cash off some of these little larvae running around. They don't have the attentionspan the gods gifted a gnat usually, so the bright and shiney pictures on the cards satisfy some deep seated need to gather and horde. (can you tell I'm a little bitter about seeing several FLGS only carry WH(40k) and CC games but nothing else?)

And you can really reel in some folks on computer gaming, provided you manage the computers properly.

Nik said it. CC games are how these game stores pay the bills, and can afford to host/sell RPGs in areas otherwise too small or too non-geeky to support gaming.

The store I mentioned did some good trade with kids playing EQ after school until parents got off work, etc.

However, it was also owned and run by a computer store, so the logistics might have been simpler.

If you create a place such as this in Wisconsin, you would have difficulty shoving all the money into the cash register.

Gimme a jar of Vaseline an a Sledgehammer, I'll MAKE it Fit

It doesn't sound all that fun to me. Part of our group's fun is in the 'homey' feeling we have when we all get together. Listening to music at our preferred volume settings, getting loud and noisy when we need to, and letting down our guard in how we talk are all a part of how we have a good time. In a public place like this, I would feel like I had a governor on my accelerator. Plus, I wouldn't like the idea of paying for something that we all do for free.

I'm not totally sure how a place like this would really make all that much money.

she's a jehovah's witness and they are strongly against anything spiritistic.

from what i've gathered: they believe that any spirits that may ever have been on the earth were demons and that anyone who may ever have wielded magical powers in the past did so because they sold themselves out to the devil and they never really had magical powers, they were really being granted those powers by demons. (note that i didnot say sold their soul to the devil...that's because the witnesses don't believe we have a soul - we are simply our bodies and there is nothing 'inside' of us that makes us us)

believe me, my attempt at explaining that this is all fictional and that no one in their right mind believes that any of it is real didn't sway her even a little. there's is a religion of seclusion - they cut themselves completely off from anything that may be bad as a 'just-in-case' precaution. technically, our relationship is 'frouned-upon' because my 'pagan ways' could make her stray from her beliefs.

basically we've set-up some ground rules: she won't hound me about playing RPGs with spiritistic elements, but i won't play them in our house - also, she won't try to make me a witness and i don't ever have to become one if i don't want.

i feel that compromise is good so long as the deal favors me

also note that their bible doesn't include any apocryphal bits (the parts with dragons in them)

So Weredigo, you're in Arizona right? Are there a lot of RPGers there to support it?

Yes, there are quite a number of them. But they are all Scattered around. And I've only seen 2 Gaming stores in my 5 years...

For those who don't play RPG's I'm going to have traditional board games, Monopoly, Scrabble, Chess, etceteray adnauseum, available to play in the "Commons Room" No charge, just ask for the board and set, and try not to get violent. I've seen some Monopoly games get absolute bloody.

When I was on holiday in Australia last year I had the fantastic but rather odd experience of playing shadowrun in the back room of a church, GMd by the Pastor.
After a few hours of playing we stepped out of the room to get some food, it really shocked me to open the door and see the altar, I'd completely forgotten where I was

Shame I had to leave really, it was a really good game and we were in the middle of a run

Anyway, back on topic a bit...
While there's nowhere really to play in the local gaming shop, there is a gaming club here who rents out a large room of the community centre. There's no food for sale but it's in the centre of town and close enough for people to nip out and grab some food.
Still, the lack of home comforts, bright and incredably non-atmospheric lights as well as the rather large possibility of having someone's arse cleavage staring at you for the evening means that we now play at someone's house instead.

Something that I think would be pretty damned cool would be to have a place to play that's split into sections and decorated according to different genres of game. Unless everyone made an effort to dress in character you'd have to ignore the other patrons but I'd imagine playing somewhere with the decor appropriate to the game you're playing would be great.

Wow, and I thought Baptists were hard on RPGs and rock music. I had to give up alot of game time for my wife, and I was happy to do it, but giving up gaming altogether? I couldn't do it. I shouldn't have to, either.

I live in Bible Belt country, and RPGs are somewhat popular, probably due to the college and the Air Force base here in town. Only one crappy store though, and even though I go to great lengths to purchase from them, half the time they don't carry what I want, or wait 3 months to restock a brand new game they sold out of in 3 days (seems like you'd want to restock as quickly as possible in that case), so I end up doing alot of RPG shopping online. :/

Im just bumming that my local gaming establishment has recently closed its (very small and cramped) doors. There wasent enough room for an extra Batman comic book in there, never mind a table to play a game at. Man I hate living in New England sometimes.

Which one, out of interest?

I need to get around to forcing Avalon Hill, through legal or illegal means, to start rereleasing Age of Renaissance.

~J

We Wisconsinites do not fear opression related to RPGs. Not surprisingly, my local game store is thriving, and Half Price Books is always sold out of Shadowrun books.

Calgary has a senrty box, it's pretty nice, decent stock, but mostly WH and fantacy rpgs (gurps, DD, Vamp) they've got some tables but it seems that it's mostly WH players that use them (with their own senery and stuff) not a bad place, but I prefer running at someones house. kinda spoiled from living in a dorm full of awsome people and being able to play and eat till any hour of the morning. no organization required (exept rooting some of the players off the x-box) of course some people didn't like it, but you get that at a bible college.

There's actually a store in the mall here (Orem, UT) that's set up that like that; front is all 'main stream games'. Pretty large selection (I'm one of those bloody monopoly players. I hate that damn game. Mostly 'cause I suck and hate dying a slow death. anyways...) actually in the front. The back half is all games, mostly warcraft table top and magic cards. Seems to do pretty well as it's been in the main mall in the area for over a year now. Just make sure it's got a good look to it. Only die hards go to places that look like dives. Good luck!