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Win with Grace, Lose with Style, Play for fun…The rules of the store and The Elections… (Or, don’t listen to them, listen to me…)

By Ben Calica / Leave a Comment / Features, Main Page

Win with Grace, Lose with Style, Play for fun…The rules of the store and The Elections… (Or, don’t listen to them, listen to me…)

I can’t believe I need to write this, but clearly I do. The election is about to happen, and regardless of the outcome, it’s important to know that not only have the people running acted in ways that we shouldn’t emulate, that honestly, if they’d been in the store, we would have had a little private chat about the rules.

(I actually work hard to keep politics out of the store….there are certain issues, particularly those with deeply held personal beliefs, that once you start engaging in, it becomes hard to see someone who disagrees with you as anything beyond someone who is “other”, and this is a place for treating each other with respect so we can have (gasp) fun with each other. I’m not going to change that policy now. I have my own preferences, but I won’t push them on anybody.)

No Bad Language: This rule extends beyond just swearing, but to smack talk in general. Basically anything that is aimed at the purpose of making someone else feel uncomfortable, unwelcome or to attack their self-worth or self-confidence is just not ok. It doesn’t do anything besides make the other person like you less and poisons the ability to talk with each other and have fun. Sure we compete and do our best to win, but none of that requires or is benefited by being mean.

Given that, I do feel like I need to say something about one aspect of all of this. The idea of elections is to choose people, in the case of the legislators (the law makers) who will act on our behalf to make the laws that will allow us to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And in the case of the president, that person is the citizen that we choose to act on our behalf in making sure those laws are enforced, in being our face to the world, to act when disasters happen, and to protect us and those we feel need protecting on our behalf. They are both part of the check and balance of power on each other, come up with by our founding fathers who saw just what went wrong when all the power was in the hands of one person with the kings that ignored the will of the people, or with the will of the people when the passions of a moment turned them from people to the mob, as happened in France, who’s persecuted turned to persecutors, filling baskets with the remnants of their vengeance.

No Roughhousing or unwanted physical contact: Not a place for grabbing, hitting or physically hurting other people. (And no, if another player says that they will pay to get you out of trouble if you go and hurt someone that is annoying them, you’ll both get kicked out.) Hurting someone, or encouraging someone else to hurt someone is utterly unacceptable.

The law makers are supposed to be our avatars….working together on our behalf, and the President should be the best of us, the person who we most trust to do the right thing when the clock is ticking and to lead and inspire us.

Good sportsmanship: If you win or you lose, reach across the table, shake hands and say good game. Those who do will have fun every-time, not just when they win, and get a chance to learn and get better. Nobody wants to play or even be around someone who comes up with excuses why they didn’t win, particularly before the match even begins.

There has been behavior that has happened, over and over again in this campaign that, far from inspiring us and giving us things to aspire to, is so bad that if it happened in the store, I’d have to pull someone aside and have a quiet talk about treating each other with respect and trying to work things out. For my young players, who’ve done so well at bringing out the best in each other, at turning away from teasing, name-calling and bad sportsmanship, know that for many of us adults, we are also looking in disbelief at presidential candidates who act with the language of frustrated little kids.

In terms of our Senators and Congresspeople, if we just wanted to have you vote on party lines, not actually talk with each other about the merits of each law, we can do that. You guys can sit on the side, writing petitions, and we’ll vote from home. Or we can just send one of those pecking water bird toys that hits the same button over and over again.

There are a lot of things wrong with the system at this point. Hidden money making it so our representatives need to give access to those with bigger pockets, often over doing the right thing for those of us who elected them. Legislators living in such fear of being singled out and attacked by their own parties, that the idea of reaching out to the other side and talking things through puts them at real risk. Would any of us act that way? Do we want those who are acting for us doing that? (Here is an amazing video about what has happened over the last 50+ years in congress)

Rise of partisanship in congress…

https://youtu.be/tEczkhfLwqM

But what we have to do is remember that the system was set up by some pretty smart people, (people like us), who tried to figure out the best way to do things and to set up systems of checks and balances that would keep things stable while they were working, but allow for changes (amendments) if something was clearly not working the way that they intended. If you get frustrated, remember that, and then work to understand why and make things better.

And one final thing. Every one of you that comes to the store on a regular basis, behaves better then what we are seeing in front of us. So if that little voice inside says, “this isn’t a good person to try and be like”, pay attention to it. You’ve been part of creating a good an welcoming place at D20, so as far as I’m concerned. you are doing good so far.

Ben

P.S. For those of you who are voting, I won’t suggest who you vote for, but would ask one thing: None of this is as simplistic as it is portrayed. Don’t get stubborn in either direction because of what someone else tries to tell you to do. Take the time to really look at the candidates and decide who you want to represent and act for you for the next 4 years once all the ads are done and it is just working at the highest pressure, most intense job in the country, and who you would least like to see in that role. We’ve seen from previous elections that they are not all the same and who is there has real and lasting consequences for all of us. And go and vote….

So I shoplifted as a kid. An open letter to my D20 kids about shoplifting..

By Ben Calica / 3 Comments / Features, Main Page

“I couldn’t understand how I went from feeling such a good feeling of being clever and getting away with being better then the system to having what felt like a physical pit in my stomach and a flush of shame that I was convinced would never, ever go away…”

The other day, we caught some kids figuring out how to scam the card machine at the store. These weren’t bad kids, but it didn’t even occur to them that they were stealing, or if it did, they didn’t draw the line to the wrong of it. So I decided to pull out a story that I’ve only told a few people about what happened with me when I shoplifted at about the same age that these kids did.

Stealing and shoplifting are a fact of life for a store like D20, and what you would only know if you actually did the books at the end of the month, is that while the stealing is a fairly small percentage of our sales, so is the profit that we end up with each month, and that little bit of stealing here and there, really hurts us a lot.

But that is never my first thought when we catch someone stealing, particularly a kid. I know, from personal experience, that moment in time can be the point where someone chooses what kind of person they want to be. This is the time when …

So I shoplifted as a kid. An open letter to my D20 kids about shoplifting..Read More »

The Case for Family Game Night

By Ben Calica / Leave a Comment / Features, Main Page

The case for Family Game Night.

I see a lot of families come into the store and see how they interact with each other.

“It’s his/her thing” There are a lot of kids dropped off with parents who through their hands up in the air about understanding the games the kids are playing, but are just happy their noses are out of screens.
“If only they knew…” There are kids who have no idea that their parents sill have 10-12 year-olds living inside that are a little surprised every time they look in the mirror and see adults looking back, who used to play when we were kids and are a lot cooler then they can see though offspring-tinted glasses.
“Alright..enough you two!” There are parents who have the weary look of having tried to get the kids playing with each other or them and had such a bad time with tantrums born of games being taken as some sort of form of personal attack.
“Game on!” And then there are parents who’ve somehow, by joyful force of will or family legacy, who have incorporated regular playing games together as a family into their lives.

There is something beyond special about these families. I’m truly not saying that as the dude who sells board games, but there is something about they way these families interact with each other. An ease of conversation, a gentle teasing that goes both ways, that creates a sense of longing and envy in me every time I see it. And it makes me determined to do whatever I can to try and help foster that in every family, including my own. I’m resolved this year to do eveything I can to help make a culture that says that in our community, in Alameda, that we pick one night a week to look at each other’s faces, rather then our screens, that we put down the lists and logistics for a couple of hours in exchange for interaction, connection and hopefully a bit of laughter. That we realize that time we spend on this is not bonus playtime, but the work of making ourselves and our kids, the people we want to be.

Of course I’m going to push games into this slot, because that’s what I do, but obviously the same connections can come from hiking, playing sports, or building a rocket together. Just get away from the screens and look each other in the eyes.

Here are a few hints/observations that I’ve seen for those who have been able to make this work:

Get regular. A lot of the resistance to getting off screens or spending time together goes away when that time is considered sacred. It will very likely be hard to get this going at first. Part of what I want to do is have the kids be the ones who are pushing for this and rewarded in the store for making happen.
Get out of your comfort zone. Let different members of the family pick the game each week and have everyone look at it as a way to find the most fun out of the game. Sometimes only finding the one game that everyone likes becomes almost impossible. Besides, if you only experience that smallest section of that intersection, then no one gets what they most like,and everyone else misses out on tasting something new.
Teasing ok, shaming not so much. A lot of hurt feeling get hidden under playful poking at each other…if you need to set some limits on this, do so a head of time.
If competition is a problem, go co-op. Fair play and good sportsmanship are super important, and can be incredibly draining and no fun to deal with as referees each time you play. There are a ton of great games where the game itself is the opponent, and each of you are working to beat it together. These games are great for this situation.
Advice on request only: One thing that can kill games for everybody if one of the players is the “You should do this” guy. People like to be smart for themselves, so instituting the “Can I give you a suggestion?” rule is a very good idea, particularly when you team it with “its ok to let other people make mistakes…its just a game”
Designate a “prepared guy/gal”. If you are going to be playing a new game, make sure somebody is assigned to be the person who checks out the game before everyone plays to be the rules jedi. Nothing bores players more then trying to puzzle out the rules of a new game together for 50 minutes before you play.
Share the mantra: Model for the kids the D20 Mantra
- Win with Grace
- Lose with Style
- Play for Joy
Share joy, not expectations. A lot of parents get frustrated when their kids would rather stick their heads in the screen then do the things the parents wish they could share. .
For the parents…lighten up. 😉 We get so locked into being parents that we forget what it is like to be kids. Be kids with your kids…show them what that’s like. And related to that, don’t turn up your nose at some of the games the kids like if they have adolescent humor or even violence. They are adolescent, and conflict as one of the things that makes games (and) entertainment fun is utterly normal. (Shakespeare’s characters knocked each other off with stunning regularity.) I’m not condoning hateful or truly offensive stuff, but just remember what it was like to be a kid, and also remember that while when we were kids, we tended to play in gender separated groups, that as familes, we need to cross a lot of things we might not normally like to find common ground.

What I’m going to do to get this started is create a pledge card for the store. Anyone who pledges (and really means it) to do a family game night at least twice a month, I’ll give them a special in-store goodies (or discount) tbd. If this rings true with you and seems worth it, I’d like to ask for help in trying to make this something bigger then just the store in the community. My goal would be to have Alameda take some pride in being a community that has committed to this, and let’s see what kind of results it has on our lives. If you want to help and have ideas, email me back and we’ll set up a time to get together and figure it out. The best things I’ve ever done, have been done by cool people around me.

Have a great week and go play. 😉

Zombie Conspiracy – A D20 Special

By Ben Calica / Leave a Comment / Events, Features, Game Guides, Magic

Zombie Conspiracy is A D20 homebrew special game. We took Conspiracy, Wizards special multiplayer drafting set, and blatantly messed with the rules to make a game that is perfect for 3-6 buddies who just want to spend a couple of hours cheerfully womping the heck out of each other without all the waiting between rounds and not getting to play with yer buddies of regular magic. Conspiracy was a cool idea, a draft format that not only was designed to play with 3-6 people all in one big group, but also had cards that messed around with the draft.

So here is the thing….We really liked the idea of Conspiracy…but when we played it there were a couple of things that just weren’t that much fun.

The first problem we found that was that as much fun as it was to play, if you spent all that time drafting a cool deck and got knocked out in the first ten minutes, it didn’t just make you “ah, I’ll get you back” mad, more the “don’t sleep with both eyes closed anymore, because I will kill you in your sleep” mad. Second was what we call in Commander, the Fluffy Bunny Syndrome….people tending to hang out, doing their best “Don’t mind me, I’m just a harmless little bunny” impressions, trying to be the least threatening person at the table while waiting for enough stuff to come out to do their alpha strike. Boring….

Enter Zombie Land—How our version works is that you get points for knocking out other players and if you are knocked out then, well, you rise from the dead and come back in. We’ve played it a bunch and it works great.

How it works

1 point for each other player you knock out. You get a bonus of one if you never get knocked out.
If you get knocked out, you pick 2 lands to put in play and then take 3 rebuilding (no attacking or interacting with other players) turns and come back in. (If your turn comes up before you are back to rebuild, skip it until it comes back to you so other players don’t have to wait.)
Being milled out does not count as a kill unless you directly force the player to draw that last card.
The game goes on for 1-1:30 hours, depending on players preference (and how long the store is open.) Players with the top half scores get bonus packs from a pool of 1 pack per player.

About Conspiracy.

Conspiracy Video

What are the Cards?

The Mechanics of the new set

You can’t have a good conspiracy on your own. And that is the secret sauce to the special Magic set , coming out on June 6th. This draft -centric, multi-player set is all about what we can do for, er, to each other. This is a special set, much like Modern Masters, with limited initial qualities, though they say that there will be some reprinting after (we are being wary..squirreling away our boxes to let people play with until we know the score.)

Messing with a Draft: Drafting is one of the most fun things you can do in magic. And this set takes the standard “get 3 packs, open 1, pick a card and pass to the left/right” and tosses it in the blender. One of our customers described it beautifully by saying that it “broke the 4th wall” of a draft, and I think that’s true. In this set, there are cards that start the game during the draft itself, letting people mess with each other as the draft is going on. (BTW…all Conspiracy drafts are casual format–will of WOTC.)

Parents back to school Guide for Trading Card Games

By Ben Calica / Leave a Comment / Features, Game Guides, Main Page

Or how to send your kid off to school with their beloved trading cards and get both back happy and whole…

Private Note to (fellow) Parents: Ok…now that school is back in session, a few parent to parent bits of advice about collectible card games during the school year.

First…what are TCG’s (Trading card games)? Imagine making a game with baseball cards, where the what’s on the card can affect the game. The games are played by putting together decks of cards to battle each other.

What is good about the games (from a parent standpoint?) If you strip down the fantasy elements and pictures, what you get is math, logic, motivated reading and a chance to get the kids face to face, not face to screen. They are also great motivators for getting homework, chores and other needed carrots to counterbalance our sticks. See our other post, the Guide to Trading Card Games, for the full skinny. But the rest of this is specifically to help us parents in understanding the deal, and getting ahead of potential issues that might come up. (You may notice that we don’t include Yugioh in our list of these games. Yugioh is a very popular game, but we do not encourage kids to play it, and in fact have banned it at D20 Games, something we did not do lightly.)

source chzbgr.com

Trading Issues: 80% of issues between kids that come up with kids at school regarding cards have to do with what end up being unfair (either intentional or unintentional) trades between the kids. Some of these cards can be worth real money, and nothing makes a kid feel worse then discovering that an older or more experience player took advantage of them. As we say to the kids: there is no piece of paper that is worth a friend.

We have three specific bits of advice for the kids regarding this:
- Trade-backs are ALWAYS ok.. Make sure that your kid understands to always make the agreement that it is ok to trade back cards within a week or so, provided that the cards are still in the same shape, This way, if they go back home and find out that it was a bad deal, like they got pressured, or if they just want their cards back, they can do it.
- Check prices if you aren’t sure; For Magic cards, we use Channelfireball.com for our pricing (though we do $1 min for rares and .50 for other cards). Or for Pokemon (and if you aren’t sure) you can always look on eBay. (BTW..always look at Sold listings, not regular. You can see what people really buy things for.) For Pokemon, we use the Sold listings on Ebay.
- If bad trades happen, remember the feeling, and be a good guy: No matter what you do, there will come a point where there is a rotten trade that will make your kid feel just horrible. Believe it or not, this is a key (and good) moment for them to have under your care. They have the choice next time to take advantage of someone like they were taken advantage of, or to make sure to never make someone else feel the way they felt.
Avoiding Stolen stuff at school: Kids will want to bring in their cards to both play with other kids and to show off their good cards. Inevitably, when they aren’t looking, something will disappear, and much badness and sadness will ensue. A few ways to avoid this are the following.
- Names in deck boxes….make sure to put enough info not only on the outside,but on the inside to make sure the decks can get back to you guys. (The outside tends to rub off)
- Card sleeves…These cost about $4 and not only protect the cards (and keep decks from disappearing into the big mush of cards back home) but keep kids cards from getting mixed up with the person they are playing with. It also provides quick identification if a card starts walking away.
- Side-Loading Binders: Lots of kids bring their good cards in the same box as their deck. What happens is that while they are playing a game, someone comes over to look at their trades, and while the kid is distracted, a card or two gains feet. Bringing in a small binder for the trades/show off cards is a better idea. We strongly advise getting binders that have what are called side-loading pages. Rather then putting in the cards in slots in the top, and having the turn it over, dump out problem, these go in from the sides in a way that doesn’t fall out. More importantly it is kind of tricky to get the cards out, making it MUCH more obvious if someone is being a little light fingered. Remember, just as with the deck boxes, make sure there is enough info somewhere inside the binder to get them back to you.
Keeping Score: A huge number of silly fights happen between kids because they try and keep the score for the games in their heads. At some point, inevitably, you will get the “but you are at 6! No, I’m at 13 argument that leaves each kid thinking the other is a lying jerk. Paper, Dice or even some special deckboxes with score wheels built in are a great solution to this.
Losing is just fine: Reminding kids that every time they lose, they learn something new is great. Kids will often get so tied up with the social value of winning that they get tempted to cheat, not really putting together how much worse the rep they will get for cheating.
Packs are great homework/housework motivators. Kids that are playing Pokemon or Magic are always seriously motivated by getting to open a new pack. While my own kids may hear me with the “wah-wah” sound of a Peanuts parent, for other people, I’m the guy behind the counter at D20, a bully pulpit if there ever was one. Give me a nod and I’m happy to back-up whatever you are working on. Tying a pack a week to getting the homework done is a great way to do some positive motivation. (We’re working on something more official as time goes on…keep tuned)

Guide to Tabletop Games# 2 Deck Building Games

By Ben Calica / Leave a Comment / Features, Game Guides, Main Page

If games like Magic and Pokemon (Trading Card Games) are games where you build a deck to go and play each other, deck builders are games where you start with tiny decks, and part of playing the game is competing to acquire the cards to make your deck better. Most people who like the trading card games end up really liking deck building games, though they may not realize it. The other big difference with deck building games is that while there are usually expansions, there isn’t the collectible card component so when you buy the game, you are usually all set.

The standard mechanic in the game is to have a set of cards that are used to buy stuff(usually better cards that you then add to your deck) and another that are used to defeat stuff (usually to gain you points). A typical starting deck for these games is between 10-12, with have drawn and played each turn. As soon as you acquire a new card, it goes into your discard pile, and when you’ve used all the cards you have, that pile is shuffled up and becomes your new deck. The more cool stuff you acquire, the better your deck becomes. Another common feature of the games is that there tend to be factions of cards that help each other out, oh, and the really great cards tend to cost a lot more. It is almost always a strategic struggle between decking to add cards that give you more of the getting stuff power vs. the attacking power.

The first major deck building game was the medieval themed Dominion back in 2008

Other great deck building games include the Ascension series as well as the Marvel Legendary Deckbulder series.

The most recent (and store favorite) add to the game is Star Realms, which changes the attack stuff mechanic, to attack, well, the other players…very, very, very fun.

Guide to Tabletop Games: #1 TCG/CCG (Trading Card Games)–Magic/Pokemon/Yugioh etc…

By Ben Calica / Leave a Comment / Features, Game Guides, Magic, Main Page, Pokemon

Hey guys…I’ll keep adding to this as time goes on, but I get asked a lot (particularly by parents) about what games like Magic and Pokemon really are. Here’s a shot at doing geek to English translation.

Magic, Yugioh, and Pokemon are what are known as trading card games(TCG) or collectible card games(CCG). Basically imagine a game made up of collectible baseball cards, where the ability of the card actually comes into play in the game. Their big innovation was in creating a game where the cards that are added to the game can have rules or abilities on them that add to the game rules. Magic was the first game of this type and was created by Richard Garfield over 20 years ago in 1993. There have been billions of the cards printed and there currently over 12 million Magic players. When you strip the game down, it is a lot of math, logic and strategy, and tends to attract a fairly intelligent player base. There is even a college scholarship for magic players. 😉

The games are in their simplest form like the old card game War, where players put down two cards and the higher one wins. Each player has a starting amount of life (or in the case of Pokemon, a fixed number of “prize cards” that the players get to collect when they knock out an opponents Pokemon), and they cast cards in attack, defense and response to try and get the other player to zero.

What is interesting about the game is that ability for cards themselves add and modify the rules of the game, creating an evolving set of game play where it is figuring out the cool combinations of different cards that is the most fun part of the game. Once they get past the pre-made starter decks, it’s all about learning the cards and trying to come up with new ideas for decks and seeing how well they do against other players.. (So yes, its normal for the kids to get excited about the new sets of cards as they come out, as each set adds new possibilities that they can puzzle out.)

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From the parents point of view, the positive aspects of the games are encouraging reading, math, and logic skills. It is also good for creating opportunities to learn fair play, though that benefits a lot from our guidance. Some of the rarest cards can end up being valuable ($100 or more), so talk to your kids about keeping them safe at school, as well as being both careful and fair in their trading with others. Keeping their cards in sleeves and in a deck box with their name on it will both keep the value of the cards intact and make it less likely for their cards to get mixed up with other kids by accident.
Common Questions

Big difference between Magic, Yugioh and Pokémon: The way things get into play…Magic uses land that gets reused every turn to put different cards in play, Pokémon has energy that attaches to the Pokémon and let them do what they need to do, and Yugioh lets the player give up some of their smaller creatures to get bigger ones, called tributing . Magic also lends itself to limited play like Drafts and Sealed events where everyone starts out even with new packs of cards and builds decks on the spot.
Do adults play these games too? Yep…there are lots of adults that play each of the games.We get most adults on the magic side, but quite a bit on the and Pokémon as well. For those who play, we see a lot of very nice connecting time with the kids.

For Parents:

Anything for parents to worry about? As a dad of a couple of 13 year olds and an 10 year old, here is my honest answer. There are terrific things about the games, (math, reading, logic, learning to play fair with other people, and in general not having their faces stuck into screens. However, there are a couple of things to that get brought to the surface by having access to things at a younger age that may be of value that provides so really important teachable moments for parents if they are aware of them.

Trading Fair: This is one of the first time that kids will get their hands on portable items that might be worth some money. It can bring out some strong desires that lead to some experiences with theft or making unfair deals on both sides. When this happens, and it likely will, it is a key parenting opportunity to make sure that they understand how that feels and become determined to never make anyone else feel bad, rather then deciding, “well, I got taken advantage of, I’ll do the same thing to the next person I trade with.
—Ben’s Advice—Make sure that they always agree to trade backs being ok (within a week or so and provided the cards are still in as good shape as when they were traded.) The standard thing that I say to kids is “there is no piece of paper that is worth losing a friend over.
One More Pack, just one more Pack… It’s super fun to open the packs…they could be anything until they are opened and the fun of opening and discovering a golden ticket of a card is a great feeling. But when the desire to open the packs completely eclipses the fun of playing the game or even sharing the cards with their friends, it can expose something that we, as parents, don’t usually get to see until much later (and usually when they are in the never listen to us phase.) If they keep wanting to trade all their good cards for a chance to open another pack, that is an impulse very akin to gambling, and one where I’ll have a chat with the kids to make sure they are more interested in playing the games that is an early version of being susceptible to gambling. Though both of these are a little scary, they are a great chance to get to work through these things at an age where the kids may still actually listen. 😉 On the other hand, the math, logic, reading and general sense of using their brains, combined with staying engaged with other people rather then computer or video screens makes it a great thing for kids to get into.

(April Fools) Big Changes at D20..Played out…

By Ben Calica / Leave a Comment / Features, Main Page

April 5th…yes there is Date Night Magic tonight.

Update….Happy April Fool’s Day…;-)—A joke…relax…just a joke…really… 😉

It is with very mixed feelings that I need to announce some big changes for D20. After almost three years of working to make things work as a game store, I’ve needed to face some very difficult realities and admit that we’re just not making it financially. The community has been great, and I’ve really come to love the people who have come to make us a home. But at some point, I realized that all we were doing was playing games, Thank you all so much for your patronage and kindness, and I hope that many of you will continue to do business with us in our new venture.

After looking at what works well in this area and thinking carefully about what this community really needs, we’ll be reopening D20 in two weeks in it’s new incarnation as a Nail Salon. We’re hoping to bring the same care and attention that we’ve brought to picking only great games, to selecting the best in nail colors and really soft, big poofy chairs. We’ll be open for business exactly two weeks after April 1st. After coming in for one session, we’re hoping you’ll feel that we “nailed it”. 😉

My Uncle Richie Died Sunday…Need to do something good in his memory…

By Ben Calica / Leave a Comment / Features

My uncle Richie was a good guy. Not just because of what he meant to me, but in the big picture, doing major good in the world sort of way. The last thing he did, before needing to retire because of his cancer a month ago, was to be the head of Illinois Department of Child and Family Services…basically the head guy in the state for looking out for making sure that kids are taken care of when things go wrong for them. He cared deeply for kids, and fought with everything he could to make sure, more than anything else, that they could feel safe. It seems like such an obvious thing for most of us, but without it in a kids world, nothing is right. And with it, there is virtually nothing that kids can’t face.

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=9342306#

For me, he was an easy laugh and a safe feeling of warmth whenever I would see him. That was, after I forgave him for the great race track incident. (Where a 3-4 year old’s sense of unfairness kicked up to, and stuck at a ten when his uncle brought me a super cool electric race set that was clearly to old for him to play with, and proceeded to set it up with his dad and play with it in front of me, while I sat there like a jr. Nascar spectator, howling with desire to get in their and grab the wheel).

It seems that the best way I have to deal with great sadness is to try and put back in more goodness back into the world, as a fierce embrace of those sad feelings. With Richie, who cared so much about kids, I’m going to do it by doing what is in my wheelhouse…getting people some joy through games. For the next couple of days, if you buy something to give to toys for tots or any other group of kids/adults, I’ll put something good into the bucket from me. And if you buy two, I’ll give you a third to go into the charity bin. I don’t mean this as a promotion…just a challenge so we can both do something good. If not, just give or do something that will bring some sense of peace to some kid who is trying to make it through a dark day. I’m doing it for me, but I hope Richie would have liked it.

No more Adult Yugioh Tournaments or play at D20?!? Why…

By Ben Calica / 11 Comments / Features, News

Important announcement:
No more Adult Yugioh @ D20

We sincerely apologize to the majorly of Yugioh players who are lovely and respectful people that the continued tone set by the rest have forced us to this decision, but the persistent problems created by bad apples in the group (language, aggression, unfair trading, shoplifting) have reached a point to force us to decide to ban all adult Yugioh play at the store. We will continue to allow kid play only on Saturday from 1-4 for now and evaluate this as time goes on.

Why Yugioh and not any of the other games? This has been puzzling us as well. While we have had a few incidents with other groups, about 95% of the issues at the store have come from the Yugioh days. This has been an issues with many of the other stores in the area, about half of which (such as Games of Berkeley have come to the same choice. While the majority of people who play any game are lovely, there were enough people who set the tone of the group in the wrong direction that in spite of a year and a half of gentle to more serious talks, and banning of several people, we were unable to get the group as a whole to understand that we are very serious about the store as family friendly and a “Safe” zone.

No swearing, aggressive or threatening comments
No anti-gay, racist, sexist or sexual inappropriate comments
No intimidating or shaming others

We have been successful at creating that in every other community, but a year+ of working between gentle and firm with the adult Yugioh community has been ultimately incompatible with what we are trying to have as the safe comfortable store we are working to create. A few weeks ago we installed some new security cameras and discovered a large amount of shoplifting happening within that group, much of it being observed by other members of the group.

Can Yugioh players come for other events or days?

Players are welcome to join the other communities of players, but there will be zero tolerance for the attitudes and behaviors that caused this problem.

We will be closed for free play on Sunday and Tuesday, and will restart with different tournament play in s (including Cardfight! and potentially Pokémon, Magic and/or chess and other game tournaments). Pack purchase will be required to be in the store on those days and there will be no Yugioh play or trading allowed in the store with the exception of those 14 and younger on Saturday’s between 2-4 for now..and hopefully in that group the good behaving kids can keep anyone who heads in the other direction in check so we don’t have to do the same thing for the kids.

UPDATE

Shortly after this was posted, the store was broken into and robbed of aprox $13,000 worth of product. What became clear in the investigation was that it had been people who had been regulars in the store and those people had been in the group of regular Yugioh players. (Among other things, the only accessories beyond a few binders that were stolen were an entire rack of Yugioh sized white Player’s Choice sleeves. Anyone who knew the Yugioh community well is nodding their heads in understanding how this is the equivalent of a big spray painted “it was Yugioh players that did this” on the wall.) The confirmation of this came the next Sunday, when I planned to announce to the Yugioh community that we had banned the game entirely from the store. I was unable to do so because of the 40+players who usually came, none showed up.

We banned Yugioh from the store in 2012, and two things happened. The tone of the store became, for lack of a better term, more gentle. And we started becoming profitable for the first time about 3 months later. It turned out, as we became better at tracking the inventory, that there had been much more shoplifting then we every imagined.