“I asked my wife jokingly, ‘Oh, maybe I could do this instead?’ and then, somehow, a year later we have a shop,” Justin Schotz said.
Games are sorted by easiest to hardest, so patrons can pick games that are within their comfort level, and the shop also has a library of games and puzzles to crack open and enjoy in store.
Rather than carrying a large selection of bestselling board games like Monopoly or Catan, Room and Board Gaming looks for smaller, less well-known titles, and carries “one of as many interesting, well-rated games we could find,” Schotz said.
“You can find the best sellers just about anywhere — you can go to Target and get a lot of them — but we want to carry the stuff that you’re not gonna find at other places,” he said. “We had one called Raccoon Sky Pirates that lasted about an hour on the shelf.”
Schotz said he was inspired by the closure of The Gaming Goat in Centerville last year to open a store with a similar feel, one that’s both family-friendly and casual-friendly.
“It kind of left a little void,” Schotz said. “I like all of our local game shops, all of them — but there was a different vibe. And that’s kind of what I wanted.”
In the future, the pair plan to bring more events to the shop, including opportunities for families to learn how to play new games.
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