I held a family membership at this store for about 18 months. My son and I went there to play D&D…read moretwice a week. We cancelled our membership tonight. We had been planning to cancel for a few months since the games just were not fun and the adult men were acting inappropriately in front of minors. I cannot state strongly enough that this is not a place to take your kids.
Pros:
The games were reliable. DMs were on time and would arrange another DM to cover if they were unable to attend. This was the main reason we hung in there as long as we did.
Cons:
Too much AI used by the DMs.
Too many players at the table. The DMs get $5 store credit for each player so they pack in as many as they can and state the reason is for the $5 for each player. Sitting at a table with 11 players is ridiculous and nothing gets done.
DMs do not move the game along. One round of combat, on the average was taking 45-60 minutes. On numerous occasions, a 4 hour session would consist of 4 rounds of combat which took up the entire session.
My son was one of two teenagers that played. He was 13, turned 14 and the other boy was 14 turned 15. With these two young boys in the room, the grown men would make masturbation and sexual references in front of the boys, and joke directly with the older (15 year old) boy about masturbation and sex. They never joked directly with my son since I stated it was inappropriate. On top of that they would constantly use obscene language in front of children, dropping F-bombs three in a sentence. I made it clear that it is inappropriate to curse and make sexual references in front of minors, but they did not stop. At times, there would also be drinking by a player, and a DM. It did not get too out of hand, though.
There is an inner circle of 6 players that have been there for a while playing together. If you are not in the inner circle, you will most likely be treated as an outsider, unless you are a young attractive female, then you get the royal treatment. An example of disparate treatment was on one occasion when the party was split and the inner circle characters were in one room and new characters were on the way, the leader of the inner circle stated "It's ok, let's move forward, all the characters that matter are here." I saw the expression of another player who looked disgusted, and she later told me how offended she felt. She never came back. This is just one of many examples.
We played for about 18 months, and there were a few good sessions. Most of the time we were both thinking about how long it was before the session was over so we could go home. In retrospect, we stayed too long.
In full disclosure, tonight the owner, Josh, called me aside. In 18 months we had never spoken more than "hello". He shared that a few players (inner circle) complained that my son expressed frustration at times during the game, and he was told it discouraged roleplaying for others. I shared that my son does enjoy combat more than roleplay and both are important in the game. He has never stopped anyone from roleplaying. He has never told anyone not to talk to an NPC. He chooses not to. Their style is not more important than his. I shared that I have many issues with what goes on in the gaming room and when prompted I shared some of the above. Josh was obviously not aware of the behavior that is going on. I did not mention to Josh, but should have, that players who we met there, who are not inner circle, have approached my son and I to play in home games and they will not be inviting others from the store. My son and I play in two other games (one of them I DM) at a different store, where we have no problems at all and players act appropriately in front of minors.
In conclusion, take my opinion for what you will, knowing that you may consider it tainted by being approached. But Josh and I had a private and calm conversation where we both shared our concerns.
Once again, I do not recommend taking children to this store. It is NOT a family friendly environment.
