Quest Realm — Local services in Lake Havasu City

TL:DR Trolls by the Bridge is by far my favorite shop in town, even putting the ice cream second.

I live in a small town. A small very Red town, full of good old boys and hateful folk. Being a nerd with a desire to meet like minded folk is a difficult place to be at. Having a love of diversion to escape the hum drudgery of living in a small town, Trolls By The Bridge has always been a safe haven. Sam is an absolute gem. She has always been inclusive to every game. Whether you are an MtG veteran like my family, or a Lorcana for new play (also like my family), Sam is always there to offer a helping hand. She does her research, and offers a hell of a helping hand.

This summer, Sam did something beautiful. She opened a Dungeons and Dragons camp for the youth taking time off of school. For any of us table top game fans, especially those of us that have kids, this is effin’ beautiful. Few of us in this town can afford camp, but she offers an amazing way to not only keep their critical thinking churning, but gives them more of a course on table top role playing games. She’s inspiring joy in the medium to the next generation even while we toil away at numbers and patients and customers. Sure beats the hell out of fishing. For us nerds anyway.

For some people, random name BRIAN, they may not understand that a business needs to create revenue to keep a business going. Yes, it might be slightly more expensive to buy a product from your local game shop than some obscure website, but it's a small upcharge I spend happily to have a game shop in my town. Let’s see what my money bought me:

I wanted an obscure batch of the Munchkins game to play with my family. She got it.

I wanted the freshest book for D&D. She had it.

I selfishly want a camp for new kids to get into table top games. SHE MADE IT.

Yes, I will pay the extra five dollars. Because that slight upcharge keeps my favorite shop in town open. It keeps my local business making money instead of Amazon. It keeps my family engaged and informed of new games. And my dice hoard only grows.

This shop is amazing. You’ll never find a kinder, more welcoming agent of table top chaos. She has always been the most informative and open woman I’ve met in the business. The products are great, and the service is exceptional. And they will continue to get my business, as long as they keep the doors open. Trolls By the Bridge is the best shop in Havasu, bar none. Sam made gaming for us old dogs, and the new...

Been in tabletop hobbies for the better part of two decades and this shop is one of the most disappointing LGS’s I have ever tried to participate in hobbies through. It’s become a daycare instead of an LGS and all support for adult-market hobbies has been abandoned. Sam has completely forsaken the MTG community that has given her store its life over the years, in favor of a short-term cash grab via Lorcana and Pokemon. If you have an 8-year-old you may like this store, but if you’re an adult, avoid the place.

Sam openly dates a customer who loiters in the store almost constantly and accosts and offends most of the players who even come in to the store.

The play environment for MTG is abysmal and neither Sam nor Jupiter have even a basic grasp on MTG rulings and so she basically just lets her boyfriend make up rules, like banning Poison Counters as a mechanic in EDH.

Literally almost zero support for miniatures. No Warhammer, the only paints are the old-product-line trash Army Painter paints. The only minis are two boxes of years-old Malifaux and some Wizkids DnD figures.

Her MTG prices are obscene - literally double the market price for most product - play boosters boxes for $240 when they’re $120 on TCGP. She buys the wrong product all the time - like buying a case of each type of product for MKM and then not even selling out of prerelease, then only buying like 15 MH3 prerelease kits and then telling customers there aren’t enough.

She threw out FNM - Friday Night Magic, and gave Friday nights to the Lorcana kids, which would be fine if there was at least some regular play or commander support but there is zero regular play scheduled for EDH. She CHARGES players to even use he tables for EDH games, which is basically unheard of in the LGS world. For decades there has been a silent agreement within MTG communities that you buy at least a booster pack each time you play in the store, but that apparently wasn’t good enough and she decided to just completely gut the MTG community.

Sam is negligently out of touch with reality and has completely spurned the MTG community that built and supported that store for the better part of the last decade. She is a nice person but her store is awkward, uninviting, overpriced, and poorly managed.

The bar for a good LGS in this town is very...

This place is exactly what you want and expect out of a local game store (LGS) in a small town. The owner, Sam, keeps the vibe here fun and engaging.

In general, this area is mostly retirees and snowbirds. The median age is in the mid-50s, and it's one of the most conservative cultures I have ever encountered. You would think an LGS couldn't survive here, but because of Sam and Jupiter's (this guy is Sam's Commander Riker) vigilance, this game shop is a thriving island of joy and geekery in a sea of not those things.

I've seen criticism in other reviews that these guys aren't doing Friday Night Magic anymore. That happens to be true, and that's pretty unusual for a card shop. But that is nothing to sweat; I attended a Wednesday Casual Commander event that drew exactly as many people as the last one I attended (In a city of 2 million). They are doing their thing and doing it well.

It's also worth talking about the players who play here. The players are extremely welcoming of new faces. They are all, to a person, smart, charming, friendly and funny. I blame Sam for this. It is all her fault.

I was really stunned by these folks. There was not a single d-bag which is crazy because up to this point every shop I've ever been in has at least one, and they're usually running multiple copies. It's also pretty typical for the LGS to have free deodorant in the bathroom, because unfortunately, the cliche that some gamers need this holds true in many places. Not a soul in this store needed deodorant, though. The gamers in this community have their lives together.

Lastly, I want to mention the other games that are available in the store. I saw the latest Dungeons & Dragons Players Handbook and Dungeon Masters Guide on the shelf as well as many of the add-on books from 5E like Tasha's Cauldron and Xanathar's Guide, and I overheard Sam talking about the upcoming release of the Monster Manual coming in.

The other trading card games are well represented, too. I recently tried Lorcana at Sam's insistence, and what do you know? I like it. 🤷‍♂️ They are also well stocked on supplies, binders, sleeves for your deck and so on.

Overall, six stars!...