It's almost here.  Or, there, really.  And I'll be there soon.  

This year we're going to be only playing in one tournament, because the Goodman one (the one we won last year) won't be happening.  Apparently we broke it?  Anyway, the other problem with the tournament scene this year is that the big D&D Championship is only two rounds -- the first round is going to be a huge bloodbath, I fear, and there won't be much time for getting our bearings.  

Of course, that doesn't mean we're not excited. 

At the same time, a new Game shop just opened on the West Side of Wichita -- Alternate Realities, at Central and Tyler.  It'll be the one game shop in town that isn't also a comic book shop.  I checked out their grand opening yesterday, and I like their attitude and the direction they're trying to take the shop -- lots of space for gamers to play, etc, with a good, clean comfortable location.  At the same time, I sure hope they don't have their retirement savings invested in that shop.  

I wouldn't be the first guy online to lament the situation a FLGS (Favorite Local Game Store) faces these days.  In a relatively small gaming town like Wichita, with just a couple of comic book shops that carry some game stuff, most of us have gotten used to buying our game stuff online -- and a bricks-and-mortar shop must have a terrible time competing on price.  I know from long-standing experience that I can get a book from amazon -- shipped before the street date so that it arrives on the day I would be able to get that book in the store.  How can a local shop compete with that? 

So, these Alternate Realities guys are brave -- foolhardy, maybe.  They're very eager to connect with gamers and provide a good space to play, and good service.  But, they're apparently a second shop, opened by a successful shop in Oklahoma, so maybe I"m just being needlessly pessimistic.  I have not found a website for the store yet, but they are on Facebook.  Looking at the wall of the facebook page, it looks like there's a whole gamer/cosplay underbelly to Wichita that I haven't bumped into yet. 

A gentleman who goes by the name Peter Pixie is the general manager, and was there behind the register in costume.  Very nice guy, and we talked for a few minutes about some of the gamer accessories (like the Alea Tools stuff) that they might try to carry. I wanted to also mention the Action Stands from Dark Platypus but the name escaped me.

Very interesting.  Keep an eye on these folks, they're passionate and we like what they're doing.  Buy stuff there if you can.