Canadian Tabletop Gamer: LGS on the Road

By: Dozer

I've always believed that our hobby needs the Local Game Shops (LGS) to keep our games healthy. We need to support the LGS to keep our games on the shelf. We need our games on the shelf to keep the games alive.

Canada has a healthy relationship with their game shop and I want to post about my experience about the many shops that dot Canada.

This year I am travelling all across Canada for my day job. When I stop at a new city, I will be visiting and playing at as many LGS as I can.

Montreal has a really big gaming scene and there are plenty of great Local Game Stores. While I'm in the city I need to hit more than one and lucky for me there was Le Grimoire.

Cases loaded with great looking minis for sale.

A few kilometers from my hotel was a small and really active shop Le Grimoire. The moment you walk in you know where you are. Tables go down the whole shop and the walls are lined with products and cases filled with painted miniatures for sale.

It was showing Warmachine/Hords, Warhammer 40k, Age of Sigmar, Flames of War, Team Yanky and more. There was plenty of painting supplies. I spotted plenty of large bottled Vallejo paints, air brush hoses, and an excellent selection of traditional sized paints from more than one paint range.

Right after walking I was approached right away but the shop owner and other players who asked if I needed any help. There was an immediate sense of community. The day I showed up was the last event of a league for Warhammer 40k that had been going on for over a month.

It felt like a club house, or community shop where the players were direct participants on how things were going in the shop. I was even offered pizza just because they had some extra slices from their lunch order.

Le Grimoire is a shop that focuses on one thing, Tabletop Miniature Wargames. Speaking with one of the owners who explained that they do have a some RPG's and some Magic the Gathering for the local FNM.

He explained that the goal for the shop was to support what his players were playing. Everything in the shop was there because players wanted it and played that game. Every night of the week had a regular game being played.

Joshua aka the Doctor, one of the players at Le Grimoire

I spent a lot of time with Joshua who was there to hang out and help out while the event was going on. A med student who painted commissions on the side. I was there for almost two hours chatting away. At first it started on the hobbies and the games before we broke into other topics like ethics, leadership, languages, neuroscience, and teaching.

I hung out for a while before I had to head off but I have a feeling I'll be stopping by again before I leave Montreal.

I was able to snag a few more pics below between rounds of the event. Take a look and if you get a chance stop by the small shop called Le Grimoire and stay a for a few mins. It won't take long for you to get pulled into a conversation about what's happening on the table.

- Cheers

Dozer