This week is vacation week for the GeekJock and also the first time I have been back home to Long Island in prob. 3 years. As I am sure most people are tired of hearing about, the whole working overnight thing had gotten in the way a bit and I wasn’t able to get back home as much as I had wanted to. However, new job or not I had planned a trip to LI this year and was going to come home hell or high water.

Now that I am back here, I thought well, since I have some time why not see what Friendly Local Game Stores (FLGS) have opened or been established since I was a kid. Now that in the last 4 years or so I have gotten much more heavily invested in playing board and card games, it has made me want to check out what all is out there store wise pretty much anywhere I travel. So I did a quick google search to see what was out there and it seemed like 4 stores fit what I was looking for. Yet from some research and talking to friends it seemed that one was primarily a comic shop with very little tabletop gaming to speak of so I crossed it off my list.

So I got 3 stores I was deciding to check out on my tour of Suffolk county. Ravenblood Games, The Brothers Grim, and the old-time Long Island staple Man at Arms Games ans Hobbies.

Off we go!!!

Ravenblood Games

I first headed a little bit west to Plainview to check out Ravenblood Games Store. They have a decent yet simple web site with hours and some of the inventory listed on there. It doesn’t seem to have been updated much, and there is no calendar to find on there so I wasn’t sure what I was in for.

Upon entering the store I was absolutely floored at how nice it was. The whole place was clean, the nice floors, and very organized. It smelled good (never to be underestimated) and it just looked very inviting in there. One thing I noticed right off the bat is that in the back on either side were these two closed in rooms for gaming. They still had a window so you could see in there but it was very cool to see a huge table in a secluded quiet room so that you could not disturb anyone else while you played an RPG or even a louder table top game. The main store only had a few tables to it tho and didn’t seem to have all that much room for gaming.

I walked around a bit and checked out the inventory. There was a TON of RPG books and mini’s and plenty of Warhammer and other miniature gaming accessories. There was also the usual assortment of MTG packs, deck holders, sleeves etc for the MTG enthusiast out there. The BIG BIG BIG letdown? Well of course there was very very little board games to be found. There was a main table which had some supply of things from Race for the Galaxy and Quarmageddon!, but the board game supply was a let down for sure. Not very many popular titles from recent years, just a bit of a smattering to be able to say “yes, we have board games”.

I then struck up a convo with the man behind the counter. He was a nice guy and friendly to talk to. He didn’t seem that I was bothering him at all. I asked him about what night was usually board game night, and he mentioned they really didn’t have one. He said they had a real “open calendar” for that sort of stuff. Well, I guess it’s as good of an answer as any. Coming from a pretty heavy board game area in central NC, where every store has a devoted night to Board Gaming, this was kinda a surprise. But after asking him some Q’s about BG’s he carried or sold I realized he knew ZERO about the current state of the board game market, not having heard of Kingdom Builder, Carnival, or even that there was a new Dominion expansion on the horizon. In fact he wasn’t even familiar with Kick Starter in general and that it had been being used for board games at all…. But I digress a little.

Verdict—> Ravenblood games store is an amazing store to look at, and one in which I think I would love to play at, if it was local to me. However, the lack of selection of board games makes it one I doubt I would go to again. If you are local however, and looking for a comfortable place to play I would urge you to check it out.

The Brothers Grim

Their web site is updated monthly it seems and has directions and a calendar on it. It doesn’t take long to see that this is a store devoted to CCGs (particularly MTG and Yu-Gi-Oh), plenty of miniature/Warhammer gaming, and some RPG/D&D. It had one night listed  on Thursdays as “Open game night” but no where listed as Board Game night.

Located just east of Nichols road on Middle Country rd. in Selden, TBG is an easy place to get to. It’s located in a pretty beat up shopping center on the north side of the road and encompasses 2 or 3 store fronts. Upon going in I was amazed at how enormous it was. I also was amazed at how dirty it was. It smelled of dust and I could just feel ten thousand sneezes coming on as I walked about. It had a TON of gaming tables with numbers all around, looking as if they must have hundreds of people playing in MTG or other CCG tourneys quite regularly. I was greeted by the guy behind the counter with a big smile and friendly voice. There was a few people in there also painting at a different, large set of tables, which seemed to be for gaming and or painting, who also greeted me quite nicely and recognized my shirt as being from “The Greatest American Hero”, TV show. Some good geek cred for sure, not many people are able to spot and recall the symbol. So immediately I felt a little bit more at ease despite the dirty store front.

The store also had, in the back, a bunch of computers set up I guess for LAN type gaming. It was a real nice set up and you could tell by looking they were good rigs and the area got a decent amount of use as well. I looked around a bit more and headed to the other area/store part which was more where the non mini/CCG games were stored.

The board game section was bigger then Ravenblood but still seemed quite haphazard, like the rest of the store. Most of the boxes seems dented, unkept and most of the games themselves had half opened plastic wrap, if they were even wrapped at all. Like I mentioned the selection was decent but I didn’t want to take any chances with any games I might buy in here in case pieces were damaged or missing. The rest of this room, up front, had a bunch of tables which looked to be the main RPG or BG area. Along the wall they had an impressive collection of OLD OLD D&D items. From red box, to Gazateers to rare manuals, I got a nice smile seeing that other people cared for, or displayed some things that I still have in my collection to this day. I couldn’t tell if it was a museum for this stuff or for sale. Some of the items had component lists to them but not any prices. As if it was a weird pawn shop for old games. They also had a few boxes of old Dragon and Dungeon magazines, many of them in decent condition and most for 2$. The whole wall had a bunch of older books and even some older rare RPGs so if there is something out of print or rare that you are looking to find, it’s very possible that they might have it here.

I wandered around a bit more and struck up a conversation with the store clerk. He was nice as mentioned before but didn’t seem very chatty. I asked if they had a copy of base Gloom, to which he thought a second to himself and said no. It took me all of sixty seconds to find where they had the smaller card games and found two copies of base Gloom sitting right there. So if you want something here you might want to find it yourself. Looking at the counter area they had an impressive assortment of rare CCG cards for individual purchase, and no doubt this was their bread and butter. The display cases took up in the area of 1/2 to 2/3 of one side of their store and it was filled with various MTG and Yu-Gi-Oh cards.I picked up my copy of Gloom and was on my way.

Verdict—> If you are a CCG player on Long Island this is certainly the place for you. If you want a rare or hard to find RPG this could also be the place to find it. I don’t think I would do more as a board gamer here then possibly find some dice or a card game or two. Just being in here felt dirty and I wanted to get out quick. Not a place I would want my kids to play at, I think I might even take the extra time to go to Ravenblood if I was going to play some CCGs.

Man At Arms Games and Hobbies

Ahh Man at Arms Games. This is a blast from the past. A store which has been open since 1978, it’s the one store I remember most from my childhood. It’s where I bought my 1st copy of Blood Bowl in the 80s! It’s quite a ways out east in Middle Island on Middle Country road but I was glad I went out there.

MAG is a smaller store in a small strip mall and doesn’t have any real area for gaming. It’s got one small area which I think could be used for some mini’s war gaming, but no BG tables. The store itself is thirty years or more, old and it’s not that it’s dirty as it’s just old. But the owner greeted me as I walked through the door and was as nice as I remember as a kid. I walked around a bit and was pleasantly surprised at the board game selection. They had a ton of good games and I even got a copy of ECLIPSE! It by far had the best and largest selection of board games of the three stores I went to, which is quite a surprise since MAG games has, of late, turned into a specialty model/mini’s and war gaming supplier. He’s one hell of a mini painter and has all the tools and paints of the trade to keep any enthusiast happy.

Naturally I struck up a conversation with the owner, who gladly stopped painting some mini’s for some chit chat. He’s a grizzled old store owner who I think has felt the sting of the economy and of The Brothers Grim being open, but he’s more then happy to chat and to cater to the different game and hobby lover then the CCG crowd (He only had a box or two of CCG stuff and I think it’s how he likes it). I have to say I 100% enjoyed talking to him for 30 to 40 mins not only b/c he was passionate about being in the industry, but because he liked to talk about it and didn’t seem like I was bothering him at all. I was more then happy to pick up Eclipse and take it home with me (It was only 80$ compared to the $97+ it’s been going for on Amazon as of this posting), as I felt that every dollar I spent at MAG was going to keep a store I remember and love from my child hood stay open. I wish him the best of luck and hope that the next time I come home to visit I can get out there and he will still be open for business.

Verdict–> Man at Arms Games and Hobbies is IMO a Long Island treat/treasure. If you are looking for models or mini’s or even some tips or tools to pain them please check this shop out. It’s worth the trip. And even if you are a board gamer, give him a try you might find something you have been looking for, for a while! The only thing I think he would benefit from the most (other then a new location) would be some web presence. A simple web site would go a long way to helping him keep the word out for business.

Final Thoughts….

Well I have to admit I was a little surprised at the lack of board game presence on Long Island. Granted I don’t live here, so I didn’t go looking for any “meet up” or facebook groups for the area, but judging by the FLGS here it seems to be lacking. It does seem to be a good area for RPGs and CCGs tho, so if you are into those then you might have a few good places to play at.

I did find one decent reference you could check out for LI gaming here. It’s got a decent list of stores and some other LI gaming sites to check out, but it seems that both listings of BG meets are dead.

I was happy to have checked out these three stores tho, b/c I do love to browse and check out how other stores do it different then the ways we are used to. Hopefully I can check out some stores out in Nassau the next time I am in town.

Until then happy gaming all!!!!

–GeekJock

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