ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — This weekend, Gamers’ Haunt, a popular Asheville tabletop and card game shop, will celebrate its grand opening at its new Patton Avenue location. The move is a major “expansion pack” for the community gaming hub.
The Gamers’ Haunt grand opening will be held from 1-5 p.m., Saturday, July 11, and Sunday, July 12, at the shop, now located at 167 Patton Ave. in downtown Asheville.
The event is free and open to the public, including those who have never played a card game before in their life. The weekend celebration is framed around two games that are Gamers’ Haunt specialties: “Warhammer 40,000,” a tabletop role-playing game based around space warfare, and “Magic: The Gathering,” a collectible trading card game featuring wizard duels and battling monsters.
During the grand opening, Gamers’ Haunt staff will offer “learn to play” sessions for both games, as well as demos of other board games, giving new players an opportunity to join the community. “Warhammer” will be the focus of Saturday, while Sunday will center on “Magic.”
Gamers’ Haunt is all about the community of gaming, said owner Charla Schlueter. For the Asheville gaming shop, that means offering a free and regular space for players to hang out. When the shop is not hosting grand openings, a team of dedicated staff are running multiple events six days a week. In August alone, there are over 60 events on the shop calendar, ranging from “learn to play” sessions to tournament-style showdowns.
“We don’t rent out our table space. Everything is free to be here. I want to meet people at the level they are financially,” said Schlueter.
Instead, the shop makes money through game sales. Collectible games like “Magic” regularly release new themes for their cards, creating an incentive for players to buy the latest set to keep their collections up to date.
Gamers’ Haunt is famous among East Coast “Magic” players for the colossal size of its card inventory. However, rather than listing them online for the highest bidder, Schlueter keeps hundreds of thousands of “Magic” cards in the store vault, available for in-person purchase only.
“We don’t sell online because it’s, again, community forward,” Schleuter said. “Asheville first.”
The breadth of “Magic” cards available means that there are many ways to play. Schlueter said that this sort of variety often drives the “Gathering” part of the game.
“There’s a million different ways,” Schleuter said. “I think one of the coolest things about ‘Magic’ is it is really driven by the community. Most of these formats are just made up by people who are like, ‘What if these cards work together this way? This could be really cool.'”
There are many who gather at the shop for just that. According to Brandon Amico, director of marketing and customer engagement, hundreds of people frequent Gamers’ Haunt every month. The marketing director said that the shop culture is one of inclusivity, especially for skilled players: “play hard, but play nice” is a Gamers’ Haunt motto.
Several regulars will be in attendance at the grand opening specifically to provide tutorials to games for new players.
“We want to show off these folks, these great, welcoming players,” Amico said. “The goal is, it’s a learning curve. It’s a complicated game. You come out and get destroyed, if you still want to come back, we’ve done something right. Our community is doing something right. Like, if I want to get better at this game, I wanna be with this group of people [where] the vibe is good.”
For more information about Gamers’ Haunt and its other upcoming events, visit www.gamershaunt.com/events-calendar.
