Sunday, February 5, 2012

Tables of War: The tabletop gaming community | Horizon Magazine


Story by James Redmond

Photos by Gabby Serrano

Cards shuffled. Hands dealt. Games lost and won. It is not poker. It is ?Magic the Gathering.? This is one of many games played at Grand Junction?s Jester?s Court Gaming Shop.

The gaming store does not sell or feature video games though, as most establishments of similar kind do. This is a tabletop gaming store. It is a hub for enthusiasts, hobbyists, friends and enemies. Gaming stores, like this one, are social centers for a less than often seen subculture.

Games played at this store range from different collectable card games (CCGs) to role playing games (RPGs) like Dungeons and Dragons to miniature war games like Warhammer 40,000 and Warmachine-Hordes.

If it were not for the brightly colored cards and miniature figurines you could almost mistake these games as some of the most intense study sessions known to man. The games have hundreds of rules and handfuls of rulebooks per game. New players to any of these different genres of games can expect to spend hours just learning the rules. Even more hours are required to play competitively, and even more just to win.

The material can be daunting to anyone who is interested in playing these games. If you muster up the courage to talk to any of the players found at Jester?s Court, or even the owners, Sean Wagner, a student at Colorado Mesa University, and his wife Trudi, you will quickly find that the one thing they like almost as much as their hobby is talking about it.

A gaming store is just as much about the people there as it is about the products, and Sean and Trudi know that. This is not their first time around the gaming block.

Sean and Trudi have owned two other gaming stores before their current store in Grand Junction.

?Our first store we bought was named The Jester?s Court and we kept the name through the rest of our stores since,? Trudi said.

There are gamers like these in any town or community across America. Stores such as Jester?s provide an outlet for these groups. Often hobbies like these are not something that comes up in the every day conversation.? Gaming stores like Jester?s give these hobbies a home. For new or perspective players these stores are a place to go and learn a game, to make friends and find people to play with.? These stores are a community center to the hobbyists who play the games.? They are just as much a second home as they are a store to gamers.

Before Jester?s Court there had not been a gaming store in Grand Junction for over a year.

?A lot of our players came from the old Magic players that kept meeting up every week to play,? Sean said.

Trudi remembers the night when Sean brought up the idea of opening the gaming store.

?Sean came back from playing Magic one night and told me it was really sad that all the Magic players did not have any good place to play at anymore, and maybe it was time to re-open Jester?s,? Tudi said.

Jester?s Court had a very short creation period, going from conception to opening in what could be considered very fast.

?It was five weeks from when I first brought the idea up to Trudi to when we opened the store,? Sean said.

?[Jester?s Court] was a much longer turn around than our first store,? Trudi said. ?Our first store happened kind of over night. I was at the original Jester?s court and the owner told me he was moving and asked if I wanted to buy a gaming store. I went home to Sean and the next day we were looking at the store.?

Yet, as any hobbyist knows the cost of doing what you love comes at a price. It will cost any new player a pretty penny to start into one of these hobbies. The money does not stop after you start. These gaming hobbies can be a constant tax on the enthusiast?s wallet. The prices differ from game-to-game and genre-to-genre. For some like CCDs, the cost of a pack of supplemental cards are three to five dollars, of which most players will buy a few packs weekly. Then, there are deck and tournament fees. Decks can be up to $15 and tournaments or scheduled play can be between $12-$20 depending on the kind of game.

That might seem like a lot, but CCDs are often seen on the cheaper side of the hobby. RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) do not have cards to buy, but D&D players use a series of dice and books to play their game. Each player has at least one book.

The dungeon master (DM) who runs the game needs at least three different books and often more. These books are hardcover, multi-hundred page books that range from the lowest price of $30 to the higher price of $60-$80 per book. Some players have whole shelves full of these supplements. At those numbers and prices, the cost adds up quickly.

?Magic cards are what put our other games on the shelves,? Tudi said. ?We know there was a big Magic community here, so we started with that. There seems to be a really big mini-community here. So we are really happy to say that we are starting to stock Warhammer products now.?

The flagship of expensive tabletop gaming is the miniature war games. Games like Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 (40K) in start-up costs alone can run a new player $200-$300, and that is just for the models and rulebooks. Players will also need hobby gear such as paints and brushes, files, saws, and special glues to build and paint their models.

Depending on which of the different factions a player decides to play, there can be a few hundred models to build and paint.

War gamers without a gaming shop or venue to play also need a four-foot by six-foot table to play on and to build terrain for the game. As most war gamers play more, they need more new models for new army lists and strategies, leading to most players spending at least a thousand more dollars a year in the name of supporting their hobby.

Yet, even with the expensive cost, that does not stop these enthusiasts from the love of the game.

?Every store we?ve had has been a special place. We get all sorts of people. Most of our regulars are college students or older,? Trudi said.

Sean agrees with Turdi?s sentiment.

?Gaming shops are like homes to people. The people here don?t care what kind of car you drive. They don?t care how you dress. When you come here, it is just about the games you play and having a fun time,? Sean said.

The hundreds of dollars, the hundreds of rules, the hundreds of pages are worth it to these gamers. It is their love, their sport and pastime. Some people get together and watch football on the weekend or after work, some go fishing or shooting, some people bowl. These people game, and stores like Jester?s become their second home.

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Tags: Colorado, Colorado Mesa University, Game club, Grand Junction, Jester's Court Gaming Shop, Magic: The Gathering, tabletop gaming, Warhammer, Warhammer 40 000

Source: http://horizonmagazinegj.com/home/tables-of-war-the-tabletop-gaming-community/

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