Hit Point Hobbies — Local services in Aberdeen

Hit Point Hobbies might have just hosted the worst ran event I have ever played in. There was no actual judge at the event. Just someone who "knew more about the game than the owner." When the start of the event has an announcement that says, "We are very casual here," that doesn't bode well for an event that is supposed to be ran at competitive rules enforcement levels. That's what FNMs are for. There was no announcement about collecting deck lists and for that matter, there was no actual players meeting. We were told they would be raffling off prizes in between rounds (very cool, thankful for that, but seriously raffle off things that people might want or use...you can do this without really breaking the bank or taking away from the store. The items that were raffled no player there would have actually purchased and would have probably been something the store was trying to get rid of.) but we were also told that we could not collect our prize support or promos for entering the event until after the last round of swiss had concluded (I think this may have changed towards the end of round 4-ish). Those promos have always been handed out at players meetings or at least in the first round of any event I've ever been a part of. The event did not start on time (I'm use to MtG events usually starting about 5-10 minutes later than the posted time, but almost 30 is a bit much). When Round 1 pairings were posted in the companion app, there were no table numbers. I had to yell the name of my opponent to find where he was located and then grab an unoccupied table before anyone else did. There were not enough tables in the main area for the event so everyone was spread out throughout the store. You couldn't see the time left on the round unless you had opened the companion app. There was no announcement of the rounds being started. People who had to use a table in a separate area were told after their first game in Round 1 they needed to move down because of a Yu-gi-oh! event. Eventually during the first-round table numbers were being put out with some being set up at Warhammer tables that you had to track down a chair to sit at. This makes playing any card game very difficult when you can't really get to your opponent to give them your deck to cut or shuffle. And with the format being modern, that happens a lot.

This is not a knock on the owner, the workers, the merchandise, sales, cleanliness, etc. This is based solely on my experience at this store with an event that they hosted. I just hope that events in the future can be ran with more organization and consideration of the player base that you are catering to for that event. There were a lot of unhappy participants with this lack or organization that we are used to from other stores in the state that host...

I've been going to Hit Point since they were off of Morganton road next to Flowland. It's great to have a hobby store in the area that caters to a wide variety of hobbies. I'll break down my review into the categories of the things they offer.

Tabletop Wargaming: HPH caters heavily to 40k which is somewhat rare among other hobby stores. I don't personally play any wargames but I appreciate the selection they have. 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Star Wars Legion, Star Wars X-Wing, and Star Wars Armada, just to name a few.

They run 40k tournaments all the time, look on their Facebook page to see photos from them.

They have a good selection of Citadel paints and a few other paints from Vallejo game color (I think) as well as some painting supplies.

They have other wargaming models but I'm not familiar with that side of the store as much.

MTG: I used to come to HPH about 10 years ago when I was in a Magic the Gathering phase. I enjoyed looking over the many boxes of old common cards they had, as well as the current sets. I know they host Friday Night Magic every week as well as events for new set launches.

Dungeons & Dragons/Fantasy TTRPGs: My current hobby; HPH is the first place I ever bought a D&D product. In 2011 I bought the 4e red box starter set here. I didn't end up using it much but it's what started me on my path to buying tons of D&D stuff since.

HPH has a good selection of fantasy minis, from most of the Reaper Bones lines, as well as minis from Wiz Kids. I've bought lots of minis here.

They have most everything you would need to play a 5e game, as well as Pathfinder 2e. I think they may have some PF 1e stuff as well. In addition to this, they have accessories like paizo flip mats, chessex dry erase mats, and more. Also, a large selection of dice for a fairly reasonable price

The one thing I wish they had more of was OSR products, as that is where my current interests are in the TTRPG scene. However, I realize I am in the minority in this, and might be the only one that would buy any of the products (Old School Essentials, Dungeon Crawl Classics, Mork Borg.

Final thoughts: Hit point Hobbies is my favorite hobby store, even though I wish it catered more to my specific genre of nerd-ness. They have large play spaces and host events all the time. If you're in the area, it's worth checking out. Remember to...

Yesterday I played in another RCQ except this was my second worst store experience. I will never go back to Hit Point Hobbies for anything. Reasons for that are gonna be listed: *We started almost half an hour late. *The owners announcement was "we are very casual here" which doesn't seem right for an RCQ. *There was no certified judge, just a guy who knows the game better than the owner. *We were told that we will not receive our prizes and promos for entering until after the last round of swiss (there was 5 rounds before cut) even though every other RCQ I've been to the stores would give them to players before the start of round 1. *There was no call for decklists or even a players meeting. *For round 1 there was no table numbers and we had to look at the companion app and personally shout our opponents name to look for them so it was chaotic. *There was raffles between rounds which is fine and all but raffle away stuff that the players would use and care about not just junk. *With the store already having like no space already they also had Pokemon/Yu-Gi-Oh going on so we had to share tables with them and some players had to play on Warhammer tables and look for their own chairs.

This whole situation reminded me of what happened in vass and it makes me sick that some stores are hosting sorry RCQ's, like cmon people travel for these kinds of things . There needs to be some accountability for stores that are allowed to sign up and host these events because this was...