Heroes, villains, mythical creatures, monsters and mayhem — it’s not Halloween; it’s one of Dungeon’s End’s nightly gaming activities.
The locally owned game store, located on Central Avenue one block from Interstate 35, hosts a game every night of the week, and everyone is encouraged to come and join the fun.
“You have Friday night Magic, and then you have Thursday’s board game club night — that’s a lot of fun — and then you have casual Magic on Mondays,” said customer-turned-employee Luke Morgan. “There’s always something going on here. It all depends on what day you come down.”
Those are just a few of the games that have been offered at Dungeon’s End’s many game nights. They host all sorts of fantasy games and deck-building card games, including Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder and Warhammer.
“Events are what bring people in,” said store co-owner Mason Froberg. “It’s almost as much an event-driven industry as it is a product-driven industry.
“Originally, our calendar started out with like three or four things on there per week. Now, about 90 events a month, we run.”
The full calendar of Dungeon’s End’s events can be found at here.
All those events have helped the store lure in all sorts of customers.
“We have people that play Dungeons and Dragons and Pathfinder, and then we have people that play Magic. We have a pretty good group for Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon, and people that come down for Warhammer and other big tabletop games. We have tournaments for them,” Morgan said. “We run stuff for really anyone, so there’s all sorts of different people of all age groups that come down.”
Said employee Sherrie Priem: “I’ve been working up front, and it’s been fun seeing all the people come in and having new people join every week.”
Priem also said the Thursday board game night has gained popularity.
“Last week, the whole back space by the end of the night was full at some point, almost,” she said.
Though the store has had success bringing people in for all its events, one event in particular seems to be the fan favorite.
Magic: The Gathering brings in crowds of 40-50 people most Friday nights, according to Froberg. Sometimes its even more.
Morgan explained that whenever a new expansion card set is released for Magic, the store hosts a midnight pre-release party and tournament.
“Those are a lot of fun,” Morgan said. “It’s like a big party over the weekend. It spills over to the other side of the shop.”
Regular customers Elliot Veech and Trevor Wilson can both attest to the popularity of Magic pre-release nights. When asked for their take on any particularly memorable event night at Dungeon’s End, they simply looked at each other and laughed.
“Pre-release nights.”
“Yeah, prerelease nights.
“It just gets really hectic in here,” Veech continued. “There will be like 100, 200 people in this tiny hallway thing. It gets packed and real hot.”
If board games, fantasy games or deck-building games interest you, you might just have to check out the Dungeon’s End event calendar and stop by sometime. You might just become a regular.
Veech has. “Oh, I’ll probably be here tomorrow,” he said.