Inside Havasu’s Table-Top Gaming Community

by Nicole Matheson

The summer heat is chasing many Lake Havasuvians indoors, but there is a community that is thriving in such spaces.

They gather to socialize but also to “game,” a term which encompasses a wide variety of play. From collectible trading card games to tabletop role playing games, these gamers have found an escape from the climbing temperatures as well as the stresses of day-to-day life.

Born and raised in Lake Havasu, Sam Nelson, owner of Quest Realm, formerly Trolls by the Bridge, saw a need for not just a gaming store, but a place for people to connect socially via games.

“We’ve been hosting tables and the community since we opened,” said Nelson. “It’s actually kind of why we opened, because there was no place to play.”

Table top role-playing games for example typically require a very large table to accommodate players and game materials. Among the most popular games, Nelson summarized, “We have our tried and trues; Magic the Gathering, Pokemon and Dungeons & Dragons.”

Jillian Danielson/RiverScene

RiverScene Magazine sat in during preparations for one of Quest Realm’s hosted sessions of Dungeons & Dragons, one of five groups that play on a weekly schedule. And why do these players keep coming back for more?

“The group experience,” Nelson said. “We all went through COVID. And it was kind of interesting because people started to miss people. Immensely. We were tired of screens and we wanted to talk to people.”

“There’s so much to actually being with somebody that it had a resurgence in table top gaming,” Nelson said. “Role playing games is playing on a table top with your friends, with artwork that you’ve made in a world that is separated from you day to day. You get the pleasure of being with your people, of making a story.”

Dungeons & Dragons in particular joins players together on a story-telling adventure. They are led by the Dungeon Master or Game Master, one player who acts as a sort of referee and narrator through the fantasy world. Game rules and mechanics offer practical understanding of world laws for things like casting magic spells or wielding weapons against foes. Enemies range everything from goblins to skeletons to, of course, dragons.

Jillian Danielson/RiverScene

A wide variety of tools and game pieces are used to further tell the story. Dice are rolled for successes or failures in a player’s unique character driven narrative. Miniature models of player characters or other story elements feature with maps to bring a fantasy area such as a castle or dungeon to life. These game pieces are sometimes meticulously hand-crafted and painted to support the theater of the mind where Dungeons & Dragons largely takes place.

Chris Mott is a Dungeons & Dragons player of more than 20 years and an experienced Dungeon Master, an important role that requires a specific skill set.

“You’re taking a story and you are acting out that story,” Mott explained. “Really the only skill you need to be a Dungeon Master is the ability to improv on the fly.”

In a game where imagination is paramount, it’s apparent how without a moderator of sorts, things could get off track. But Dungeon Masters are more than rule keepers, they are story tellers using improv skills to take the other players’ input to the story and adapt.

Players participate in D&D at Quest Realm. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene

“I love the aspect of stepping outside of myself and doing things that I could only dream of,” said another Dungeons & Dragons player, Melissa Westerlund. “When I became part of the D&D and TTRPG world, I found other people of like-mindedness. I found our people and I would never give it up for anything.”

Another player, Brandon Peck, pointed out that, “It’s a great social environment. It can get people off their phones, it can get them working collaboratively.”

A campaign is the term used in D&D to describe the story arc taking place. Usually there is a primary goal or enemy to defeat, so players work together using their imaginations to fulfill the needs of the story.

Many TTRPGs are similar in that players are adapting and role playing a story, though the rules and types of dice and other tools used may differ. Story themes are not always fantasy based and can explore numerous topics. Truly, the sky is the limit with these imagination-based games.

Dice are being set up for a game of D&D at Quest Realm. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene

Trading card games offer a different experience, with emphasis on card collecting and deck building strategies. But they are no less popular than RPGs, as Nelson notes that when first starting out her store, Magic the Gathering seemed to be the game of choice.

Gamers also frequent art and game conventions, which can cover just about any theme or fandom.

“Every convention has its own personality,” Nelson described. “Whether it’s on comic books, anime, table-top gaming, maybe pop culture.”

Such conventions usually have panels to meet stars of the industry, or learn skills associated with these fields. Fans will dress up or cosplay as their favorite characters from video games and other media at these conventions in costumes they’ve often made themselves.

Gamers are not just day dreamers. They are artists, actors and innovators. They build worlds as well as relationships within the safe space provided at Quest Realm and in homes across the city and beyond.