Editor’s note: This is the third in a series of three stories about tabletop gaming in the Shenandoah Valley. The first story ran Nov. 15 and the second one ran on Nov. 22.
Every hobby needs a home, and Harrisonburg hobbyists are no different.
After a shake-up at Gamer Oasis, a gaming and hobby store in Harrisonburg, that caused employees and regular customers to leave en masse, gamers are looking for a new home-away-from-home, a space where they can have their fictional armies meet in battle and purchase new products to grow their forces.
However, due to the diverse nature of tabletop gaming, several possible homes for the hobby have emerged in the Friendly City since mid-September. Two existing businesses have added gaming products to their offerings, and a new gaming shop is preparing to open within the next two weeks.
The Secret Lair Comics, on Terri Drive, and Hangry Joe’s Hot Chicken, on Burgess Road, both started offering tabletop gaming products like trading card packs and miniatures in September. According to owner Josh Roberts, Watchtower Games, a new business, is due to open on Dec. 9.
In the months following the shake-up at Gamer Oasis, different types of gamers have settled at various businesses, and the staff running these local businesses have taken notice.
In mid-September, almost immediately after the shake-up at Gamer Oasis, Chris Barcomb, co-owner of The Secret Lair Comics in Harrisonburg, repurposed his shop’s back room as a tabletop gaming space. He hired Josiah Truax, a veteran of the local gaming scene, to be the shop’s gaming manager, and with his help, Barcomb said, he connected with gamers to find out what they wanted to see on shelves.
Barcomb said the decision to add gaming to the shop he and his wife have owned for nearly two years came from a need he noticed from his customers.
“This all came about once I started recognizing more people were coming into the store and looking for gaming product, which, prior to us opening this whole back area, was more of a sideline for me,” Barcomb said. “It was comics, it was toys, it was gaming, but gaming was a sideline. What I’d notice is I’d get one box of Magic cards or one box of Pokémon cards, but then I was needing two or three.”
Since adding gaming supplies to the Lair, Barcomb and Truax said they consistently get strong demand for Pokémon trading cards. Barcomb accredited this success to Truax “knowing everybody” who played the game but acknowledged that there was more to it than just that.
“You can tell he’s connected within that community,” Barcomb said. “And that’s important because, when you’re doing something new, [gamers] are looking for a trust purpose. I know a lot of people might think that this nerd stuff is all the same, but it’s not. Gaming people have the people they look towards for advice and information; comic people have the people they’re looking for for advice and recommendations. They don’t always overlap. You’re trying to make sure you’re providing them with the best service possible.”
Kyle Breeden, general manager at Hangry Joe’s, has partnered with Nathan Twigg, another veteran of the local gaming scene, to host weekly board game nights and Magic: The Gathering card game nights at the restaurant. In addition, Breeden worked with the restaurant’s owner to start offering Magic and Pokémon trading cards where they used to sell beer, explaining that the cards generate more revenue than alcohol ever did. However, Breeden said the decision to host gamers came from a passion for the hobby.
“I’ve been a gamer pretty much my whole life,” Breeden explained. “I’ve always enjoyed going out, hanging out with people, interacting. I knew Twiggy was a big gamer himself, and we’re predominantly a take-out restaurant, so we have the table space.”
Rather than join a pre-existing business, Roberts decided to start a new venture from the ground up. With Watchtower Games set to open in less than two weeks, he and his father, Patrick Roberts, worked Tuesday afternoon, covering the walls in slatwall panels. While taking a break from the hard work, he said he decided to open a new business to keep doing the job he loved with the people he cared about.
“I thoroughly enjoyed my time working in the hobby industry in the valley,” Roberts explained. “I made a lot of really good friends, I learned a lot about the retail side of the hobbies that I enjoy playing, and I loved my job. It wasn’t a dislike of the industry that made me leave, so I decided not to leave it completely.”
Roberts added that once open, he plans to offer wargames, the most popular card games like Magic, Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh, and board games, as well as host wargaming on barstool-height, six-foot-long, four-foot-wide tables.
Some gamers, however, turned to a small business that has been established in the Shenandoah Valley for decades. Renowned by gamers throughout the area for reliably stocking the items gamers want and ordering what may not be on shelves, The Dragon’s Hoard in Staunton consistently sees crowds of gamers from Harrisonburg and beyond crowded around tables in its basement, or “dungeon,” as store staff call it, to play wargames, trading card games, or board games.
Renee Van Pelt of Mt. Crawford said she came to The Dragon’s Hoard because of its welcoming community and her desire to play her favorite game.
“They carry the game I play,” Van Pelt said. “That’s the big one. And the establishment’s got a great atmosphere, a nice, comfortable, relaxed atmosphere.”
John Hisghman, 26, of Strasburg, said he made the trek to the Hoard on a regular basis because the people there made it so easy to do so despite the distance.
“Folks down here are just really nice and welcoming and just chill,” Hisghhman said. “It’s a really sincere and close-knit community down here. Even if this was an even smaller store, I’d still be coming down just because of how welcoming everyone is.”
Jeremy Yapo, 37, a Staunton resident, said he came to the Hoard because of the store’s owners’ knowledge base and because they are willing to share with customers like him.
“I’ve been coming here since 2002 or 2003,” Yapo said. “What keeps me coming back here mainly is the people and the workers themselves. They’ve got the knowledge pertaining to gaming, regardless of what it is. Board gaming, tabletop, card games, it doesn’t matter. They really know the basis of what you may be looking for.”
In addition to The Secret Lair, Hangry Joe’s, Watchtower, and The Dragon’s Hoard, businesses like Horizon Gifts in downtown Harrisonburg offer some gaming merchandise and host weekly game nights.
While businesses in some industries may look at such a shake-up and seek to out-compete their peers, Barcomb, Breeden and Roberts all said they don’t think that would be the best decision for each other or their customers.
“We already know there’s another game store opening up,” Barcomb said. “You know, congratulations to them. It’s my hope that rather than being competition, we can try to work together, because at the end of the day if we’re competing against each other, the only people who may benefit are our sales distributors, whereas what we should be doing is making sure that the communities that are frequenting our stores are getting the best treatment and the best service possible.”
Contact Richard H. Hronik III at rhronik@dnronline.com,540-208-3278, or on Twitter @rhronikDNR
