A community-focused gaming store is opening its first store in town tomorrow, and the magic extends beyond RPGs and trading cards.
Jeff Broad and Paul Slann were both introduced to Table Top Warfare because they love board games.
Paul, the manager of their new store on Pirie Street, says he is “one of the OGs”.
He discovered the magic of the brand more than three years ago when a friend introduced him to Warhammer. Frequenting stores in Gawler or Prospect, he played many games, but he says trading cards have his heart.
“I’m definitely a trading card guy,” Paul says.
“Whether it’s Yu-Gi-Oh, Magic [The Gathering] or One Piece, those are probably my big three, otherwise I dabble in a bit of everything.
You will find many collectible cards in store
As a tabletop gaming specialty store, Table Top Warfare sells and hosts events around gaming systems including role-playing games (RPGs) like Dungeons & Dragons, collectible card games like Magic The Gathering, Flesh & Blood, Yu-Gi-Oh and more.
But for many South Australians, it’s more than just a place to buy a game or play a few rounds.
“For some people, and especially in high school, some people just don’t find a home or a place where they belong,” Jeff says.
“And we offer that to people who don’t play football on Saturdays, you know?
“We offer this to people who may not have developed very good social skills in their formative years, but who come here and absolutely love the people they play with.”
There are plenty of places to bring your friends and get competitive, as well as TV screens to make playing easier.
In their new city store, a space they secured on Pirie Street with help from Renew Adelaide, they can seat 36 people. They have six additional wargaming tables for miniatures games, which are height-adjustable, and the shelves are spaced by 1.2-metre-wide catwalks.
Table Top Warfare strives to be as inclusive as possible and appeals to a wide range of players, including those who might struggle with traditional social situations, are neurodiverse, or have support workers.
Paul and Jeff say they’ve seen the positive impact being part of gaming communities can have.
“There’s a young man who goes to Prospect, he comes with a social worker and she says, ‘I’m going to drive there, I can’t get him to talk,'” Paul says.
“As soon as he arrives with all of us, he has fun and talks, then on the way back, he is much more receptive to the discussion and tells his social worker what he experienced last night.”
Jeff says building a community is a credit to the Table Top Warfare staff, as they are all passionate about one game system or another, or several like Paul.
“Often they are already embedded in that community in some way and they will often help drive the growth of that community,” Jeff says.
Beyond the cult classics, Paul says there are plenty of good, easy-to-execute game concepts out there, and you can find something for anyone from 8 to 80.
Jeff says the gaming space and the business side “go hand in hand.”
“I think customers like our store because we offer both and we don’t just have that retail side where you come in, it’s just the hard sell of ‘just pick up this item, scan it, pay for it and walk out the door,’” Jeff says.
“They know that we’re really community-focused and we do nightly events. So I think people feel a real loyalty to stores that do that, they become that friendly local game store and they just fall in love with your brand and what you do.”
When City Magazine Asked if it was difficult to bring people back into stores after Covid, when everyone had become accustomed to playing via social platform Discord, Paul said they didn’t feel like they were competing with online gaming.
“We were all looking forward to getting back into the store,” Paul says.
“I find it’s definitely a lot easier to play face-to-face, because I feel like when you’re behind a screen, there’s, you know, a little bit of anxiety behind that.
“Especially if it’s just typing, you don’t really have the tone that’s being conveyed, you can’t really have as much of a joke, but face to face you can definitely have that vibe and say ‘okay, I can know what they’re doing and I can see what type of person they are in real life’ rather than behind a keyboard or a microphone.”
For enthusiasts, collectors or learners, there are many reading materials available
For those who are new to Discord, don’t know the difference between a Pokémon and a Digimon, or have never encountered a game played with more than one die, fear not.
Table Top Warfare offers learning-the-game experiences for beginners who want to understand new game systems, including an Adventurer’s League to introduce brand-new players to Dungeons & Dragons with experienced players to help you set up character sheets and teach you the rolling rules.
“We are very welcoming of new players and spend time sitting down with them and teaching them new games or introducing them to the community,” Jeff says.
“It’s very important to us that people find a home here.”
Table Top Warfare officially opens on Pirie Street on Saturday 20th July. Visit their Facebook event for more details on their grand opening plans, which include board game offerings.