What's in a name? I hear people mispronounce the store's name all the time as Adventure Quarters/Adventurers Quarters as if my singular store was a plural entity. It's not a huge deal, but perhaps the name leaves some confusion to be had. What the hell is an Adventurer's Quarter anyway?
In reality (well, fiction, but it's where we got the idea): it's a district in the fictional town of Waterdeep (better known in D&D, and nowadays in Lords of Waterdeep the board game). It's where the Adventurers go to get their magic items, meet other adventurers and generally feel less like members of the city and more like members of a group that knows what adventure feels like. Why name a store after something like that? Probably because that's what I would always hope a game store could be for people: to meet other like minded adventurers in the world of gaming. It's cheesy, but nerds always need other nerds to play games with and having a place they can meet up is essential. At its' core a game store is that district for modern day gamers.
To play a video game nowadays you just load up the game and bam-you're on an adventure on your own. It's self-contained. To get into a table-top game's adventure you need a party. Be it in D&D, a board game or a Magic tournament. At the end of the day you need to gather your fellow adventurers and prepare to quest towards a singular goal. Be it stopping the pandemic, saving the princess/dragon, or taking out that X-wing before it kills your pilot.
So while some stores in Denver and around the world go for the more generic: Blah Games, Science-Jargon Gaming, etc. I like to think that using a more evocative style of game store name gets to the heart of what a store can be about. You might not see rolling some dice or playing Ticket to Ride with your family over the holidays as an adventure, but it is just that: a quest for fun.
Hopefully 2015 is filled with plenty of Adventure for you and your party.
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