In 1981, the summer between my 7th and 8th Grade years, I discovered roleplaying. It was the D&D Blue Book (the Holmes edition) and the instant I started flipping through its pages I was hooked.
Back then, I lived in rural California and it was a six-hour drive to the nearest game store, so the couple of times a year that I’d get to go to one were always exciting. I would wander the store for hours, often abandoned there by my family, and look at all the games that I had never seen before, getting strange looks from the employees. The games were beautiful, strange and exotic; full of hope and promise. It was like returning to a home that I had never actually visited.
So I guess it was no surprise that even though I wanted to write games when I grew up, what I actually wound up doing was working at game stores. And it was only a matter of time before I went from working in a game store to owning one.
In 1992 I almost moved back to California to go into partnership on a store with one of my old gaming buddies, but there was no local work for my wife. His game store, North Coast Roleplaying, is still thriving after all of these years.
In 1999, I had saved up nearly $12,000 and was seriously looking to open up a store near Everett High School. But that summer, while working as guest liaison at a small Dallas convention, I had the opportunity to be sitting at dinner with Steve Jackson. Of course, I asked him for some advice. He said, and I’ll never forget these words, “The last thing the world needs is another under-funded game store.”
14 years later, here I am. Partnered up with a brilliant and motivated beer expert to bring you ‘Round the Table. Part game store, part bottle shop, part hangout.
And with more inventory than that entire startup budget from a decade before.
