By JAMES RASBERRY/Staff Writer
Local game shop Geek World hosted its season finale for the community-wide Luminaria Dungeons and Dragons campaign on Feb. 1. The campaign is run in-store by Geek World Employees and provides weekly games for the entire community.
Since the campaign started last September, the local D&D community has been able to play a variety of games from several Dungeon Masters (DMs), providing a place for both experienced and new players to enjoy the hobby and introduce it to new players.
The first season of the campaign came to a close with a large multi-table session involving around half the campaign’s player base and brand new players just signing on the night of the event. As this first season of the epic adventure shared among the community comes to a close, the Geek World staff and Dungeon Masters celebrate the campaign’s success in bringing the local D&D community together.
“I was very happy with a lot of people who can’t normally get a group to be able to play,” said Chris Williams, Geek World owner and one of the campaign’s DMs.
As this first season ends, the Geek World staff are already excited for the next season. Williams continues saying, “I wrote the big arc for this next season, but I can’t tell you what it is,” he said with a big grin—leaving the players at the table very excited about what is to come.
However, it is not just about this single campaign; the staff of Geek World have big aspirations for what this event can become.
“I hope it can grow into the biggest D&D event in the area. I hope to get it to 50 people next season,” said Lance Lewis, a Geek World employee and another DM for the Luminaria campaign. They hope the store will grow to beat out the current largest D&D event in the area, with the current holder of the title being Gamer XP in Shreveport with around 50 concurrent players.
The campaign started as an idea from the Geek World staff to provide more open games to the community after the success of their monthly tabletop role-playing game event, which is hosted on the last Saturday of each month.
These games gave players a number of open tables to try different games and even put together recurring groups for themselves. However, not everyone was able to join in on these games. Then, the new edition of D&D was released, and an opportunity to put everyone new and old at the game on equal footing, so the Luminaria campaign was made to introduce the game.
“It has been a huge success for getting people into D&D. It has been great as well for getting kids and their families into games together,” said Lewis.
The games have proven to be a great way for friends and family to enjoy the hobby together as with little to no time commitments and being able to join any open game, the players continuously rotate out and allow friends and family to meet at tables that work best for them.
Many other campaigns have also started from this campaign. Tables full of D&D player are becoming frequently common sight more than ever at Geek World alongside various other hosted events. Players will not have to wait long for the next season as new games are already scheduled and ready to accept new and experienced players this weekend with the first on Saturday, Feb 8.
With the number of players growing even on the day of the season finale, Geek World may well be on its way to reaching its goal of holding the largest Dungeons and Dragons game in East Texas.
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