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Red Dragon Gaming has soft opening

Staff photo by Connor Cummiskey A group quickly set up a game of Munchkin Quest during the soft opening at Red Dragon Gaming. Pictured left to right, Alex Bidwell, Joshua Ranweiler, Tyler Santos and Travis Theurer.

NEW ULM — Red Dragon Gaming, LLC., invited players to participate in board games with like-minded hobbyists Tuesday during a soft opening.

The game shop is currently awaiting a gap loan from the city to afford its inventory to be officially open. However, sales play second-fiddle to a place to play, co-owner Travis Theurer said.

“This is what everybody wants to do anyway, they want to come play games,” Theurer said. “Being able to buy stuff is just kind of an added bonus.”

Despite the lack of inventory, the shop is ready with snacks, tables, chairs and the shelves that will eventually hold the products.

Regular board game nights will be Tuesdays, table-top role-playing games will be on Wednesdays and miniatures on Thursdays — all at 6 p.m.

Magic: The Gathering players will have to wait a bit longer for official competitions. The store needs to open before it can submit its application to Wizards of the Coast, the company that owns the game.

Theurer estimates in a couple of weeks they will have the inventory to put the hours on the door and be fully open for business.

Once the shop starts selling, the hours will become: Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. – 10 p.m., Friday, 11 a.m. – 12 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. – 9 p.m. and Sunday 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.

The business began raising money in February to open by May, but was unable to secure enough funds.

Meanwhile it has been attempting to keep the gaming community’s attention as it works through securing funds with a one-day tournament at the end of May.

Sometime in July Theurer expects to hold a grand opening ceremony. Depending on scheduling conflicts he said he anticipates a few game designers to show up as well.

A little further into the future, the store hopes to open its basement to players for games by the end of the year.

As is, the store will need to remodel its stairs to meet regulations before customers can play below ground.

Red Dragon’s owners hope to serve the gaming community, which has not had a local public gathering place since The Dork Den closed a few years ago.

Connor Cummiskey can be emailed at ccummiskey@nujournal.com.

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