Compass Points: Vermont Game Stores Build a Community Beyond the Table
The shops provide space for role-playing games — and for players to be themselves.
Every story that serves Vermonters has value, no matter who reports it. When we come across one, we’ll point it your way.
This article comes from Community News Service | Jackson Bartels, author.
Bartels drops in on the tables at Quarterstaff Games in Burlington and Old Town Café & Comics in Williston, where Pokémon nights, D&D campaigns and Free RPG Day have turned retail floors into something closer to community centers. Quarterstaff, open since 1989 and among the state’s oldest game shops, moved to Burlington Square on Bank Street in May, trading the old stairs for a fully accessible space its owner says lets it finally welcome players it used to turn away. The people Bartels talks to keep circling the same point: the game is the excuse, the room is the reason.
Why we’re pointing you here: it’s a small, well-observed piece about belonging — for kids who never had a spot like this, for adults finding room to be themselves — and it’s the kind of on-the-ground community reporting that student journalists do better than anyone gives them credit for.