The vault opens once more...

Howdy folks. Dylan here. We’re taking a break from our usual tidbits of gaming content to give you some an exciting news. We’re opening a store! That’s right, a bricks-and-mortar, physical location where you can come and purchase, play and even hire games (that’s right, hire). But before we get into what we’re doing at the store, let’s handle why.

Why are you opening a store?

There is a multitude of reasons we’re opening a store but here is a few of the main ones…

1 - More gaming. We love gaming and we love being able to get more people gaming. With running just an online store with our fortnightly events, it was getting difficult to satisfy that need of gaming. So, we’re opening a store so there is more opportunity for you to game.

2 - More products. It’s no secret that some of the biggest products in tabletop are locked to physical locations. We want to run Magic: The Gathering and miniature gaming but we just can’t in our current format as a store. Not anymore though! Both Magic and Miniatures will have a regular spot on our weekly event calendars and we will be able to sell them to you as well :) Have no fear board gamers, there will still be plenty of board game goodness at the store.

3 - More convenience. From the day we opened, Vault Games has always wanted to be the best we could be for customer experience. The reality of running the store as a second job for the crew is that we can’t be there for our customers all of the time. If someone wanted to pick up an order, they had to wait until we were at an event. If you ordered online, we had to pack up the orders before going to our day jobs which mean even if you ordered at 8am, you’d be waiting for us to fulfil the order the next day. With a store, we have someone available during opening hours to handle pickups and even get our orders booked with the courier before their cutoff to make fulfilment faster and easier.

What events will be on?

We’re still finalising our weekly event schedule but here’s the list of events we’ll run regularly:

• Star Wars: Miniatures - an event devoted to Star Wars: X-Wing, Armada and/or Imperial Assault with an ongoing league with prize support
• Living Card Games - a gaming league for whatever flavour of FFG LCG you want to play (even Conquest despite it’s lack of publisher support)
• Magic Commander/EDH - We’ll run this in swiss 1v1, multiplayer melee and Two-Headed Giant formats, whatever the players feel like playing on the night
• RPG Society - a night devoted to running a 3-4 hour adventure in either a one-shot, or ongoing campaign. If you’re interested in running a game at the store, let us know :)
• FNM Draft - We’d be crazy not to right?
• A special FNM format - Once a month, we’ll change up our FNM format to bring in new players to the magic community. We’ll let you know about this at the launch party ;)
• Social Gaming - Each Saturday, the store will be devoted solely to social gaming. Come in and play games from our library with your fellow gamers or bring your own. Whatever you want to play, there should be space.
• R&D - A regular fortnightly event where game designers from around Brisbane can have their games tested by players and get feedback from local board game publishers
• Miniature Madness - A day devoted to playing miniature war games like Warmahordes, as well as painting workshops where you can learn how to paint your minis.

Outside of the regular event schedule, we’ll also tap into the local publishing community and do game launches, learn-to-play events as well as the regular Magic prereleases.

Just keep an eye out on our Facebook calendar because all of our events will go up on there when they’re ready :)

What else will be available at the store?

Firstly, we will have a coffee machine! While you hang out and play games, we can make you a coffee, tea or hot chocolate.

Next, we’ll be working on getting a liquor license over the next few months. This means that not only will you be able to grab a coffee while you play, with the license, you’ll be able to grab a beer or cider too.

We’ll also be working on a second-hand trading license. This means that if you have games you don’t want anymore, or are looking for a cheaper way to build your collection, we will be able to help you out. This will provide a unique Vault Games service.

Finally, you will be able to hire games. That’s right, our entire library will be available for you to borrow if you sign up to our library subscription. You join one of the three available subscription levels and you can hire out 2 games for 2 weeks (up to 4 a month) that match the level you’ve signed up for.

Why have a tiered pricing system for the library? There are games that cost a lot to replace and maintain, so these games will be in the higher tiers so that, if you’re more likely to hire the smaller games, you’re not footing the bill for the big ones :)

A complete list of games and what tier they will be available to hire on will be released when we get closer to launch :)

Will you still be at the local community groups?

Yes. We will still pop up at League of Extraordinary Gamers and Toowoomba Boardgamers. We are all about community gaming at Vault so yes, our team will still be at both of these events.

There’s plenty more to come and we’ll try and keep everyone updated over the next week or so as the store comes together as we’re gunning to be open to the public from the 15th with a massive launch party on the 22nd or 23rd (again, keep an eye out on the Facebook page for this)

Until next time, happy gaming :)

-Dylan