By: Charles Romans
Carter County Times
There is a place where WWII Tanks compete for every inch of hard-won ground. Dice roll, calculating near misses and catastrophic hits, and fantastic tales are spun with the flip of a brightly embossed card. Measurements are taken and retaken, possibilities are considered, strategies are made and unmade by the cleverness of opponents. It is a place of soldiers, of elves and dwarves, of science and magic.
The place might sound like it is made for children – and in reality, it is. But that shouldn’t deter anyone from visiting because as Smith Dungeon co-owner Shaun Smith said, “Everyone who walks through that door is a kid. At least for a while.”
Smith Dungeon, in downtown Grayson, is a game store that, more than anything else, prides itself on being a place where everyone can come in and enjoy themselves in a family friendly atmosphere.
“We’re all family here,” co-owner Rebecca Steele Smith said.
In fact, the whole idea for the game store came about because friends and family regularly came to the Smiths’ home to enjoy playing various games and socializing. Rebecca Smith works full time as a nurse, and during the pandemic she became a ‘traveling nurse.’ After that ended, she said that they began to seriously consider opening a shop in Grayson that would provide an outlet for their community for the games both of them had enjoyed for nearly twenty years.
“We had always joked about opening a store,” Smith said. “But at that point we started to really make plans.”
“Our upstairs was filled with games,” she continued. “We called it the man cave, and one of our friends jokingly called it ‘Smith Dungeon.’”
Which, of course, was a name that stuck, and eventually became the sign over the door.
“We would get together every Saturday for nearly twenty years, but Shaun actually started playing role playing games when he was about 11,” Rebecca Smith continued.
“It was always something of a pipe dream,” she admitted. “But when I came home (from being a traveling nurse) I had a little money saved.”
Her husband Shaun, a mechanic with 23 years’ experience, could have returned to his job post pandemic, but the couple decided that instead it would be the perfect time to open a game store.
The process was a lot of work, she admitted. They knew quite a bit about some games, she said, but there were other games they knew very little about beyond the name. Ultimately though, in spite of some hesitation and the unknown factor, they decided to give it a try, she said.
“We decided we would rather try and risk failing than to never know if we could have made it work.”
Smith Dungeon began in a much smaller (only 900 square feet) location than where they are now at 131 South Carol Malone Blvd.
“We were over by the Police Station,” she said. “And in the first three months we outgrew that spot. We had so many people coming to play our games that we had people sitting outside at tables waiting to get in.”
Their location at the Goodwill Plaza handles the traffic better (for now), and they have been there for almost two years exactly. The current location can easily seat fifty people, she said.
“We went from six tables for game play to twelve tables. And we play a lot of different games here. There is a trading card game called Flesh and Blood, a Star Wars Unlimited card game, and Magic the Gathering. We also have the Rune Quest game and Call of Cthulhu that are both tabletop role playing games. They are played with maps, miniatures, and imagination,” she said.
Smith said the shop also plays 40K, a tabletop sci-fi/fantasy strategy game that she calls ‘big boy army men’.
“It’s great because you can buy maps, build or buy your own terrain, and we sell all of that here,” she noted.
Smith said the game has space based adventures and a fantasy element with various other races, so it spreads across a large demographic of tastes.
“We like for people to be able to try a game before they have to make a lot of purchases,” Smith said. “We have a room in the back with miniatures and a lot of other stuff so people can try a game before they buy.”
Smith Dungeon also has a full line of RPGs (role playing games) such as Dungeons & Dragons and Vampire the Masquerade, and there are regular games played there if someone is interested in learning.
“That’s another good thing about it, that there is always someone here willing to teach people how to play whatever game they might be interested in,” she said.
Co-owner Shaun Smith said he has been reading books and playing games his entire life and enjoys all of it. But he does have a clear favorite, which is Dungeons & Dragons.
“It was 1988 when I first started playing, and up until just a few years ago I had to travel a long way to find things like source books and other materials.”
That, he said, was another major incentive to start the game shop.
“I wanted everyone to enjoy the games I love and not have to go everywhere else to find them.”
And continuing to meet those evolving game needs, he said, is what they plan for in the future.
“There are always going to be more games,” he said. “And more and different versions of the games you already enjoy. We want to be what people think of first when they think of games.”
The Smith’s say the best way to follow them is on their Facebook page, where they update store hours, tournaments, and upcoming events. They invite everyone in to come in to see what they have to offer and meet the other people who love the same games – and maybe find new games to love.
Contact the writer at charles@cartercountytimes.com
