Is Hillside Games of Asheville, NC, The Worst Game Store In America?

As with all the entries in my blog, this is an opinion piece.  I say this right off from the start for the benefit of any trigger happy libel-plaintiff-wannabe that may or may not read this.

Gaming stores in general, let alone good brick and mortar shops, are hard to come by.  This sucks for us, the gaming community, for several reasons.  Without friendly local gaming stores, it gets harder to find a local gaming group; it is even harder to introduce new people into the hobby; you get less exposure to new products; and you can miss out on meeting great new people that don't live too far from  you. 

Someone once said that FLGS are like attorneys.  A town that is not big enough to support one attorney can easily make two attorneys very prosperous.  Two different stores in different parts of town give more exposure to the hobby; can coordinate different offerings; can work together on same-type offerings and can even run team stores against each other, as in, say MtG weekend tourneys.  That is why I was so taken aback when I read this article about what - in my opinion - is the level of assholishness demonstrated by Hillside Games of Asheville, NC.  You can read the article here: Hillside Games, Asheville: The Unfriendly Local Game Store.  


It appears that Hillside Games has, in my opinion, earned a reputation for bad customer service, bad business practices, overcharging customers' credit cards without their consent, and filing fraudulent DCI suspensions against people they don't like.  Although these are my opinions, they are based on actual customer comments which you can find here: Hillside Games, Asheville: The Unfriendly Local Game Store. 


Enter The Wyvern's Tale.  On February 17, 2012, The Wyvern's Tale announced in their Facebook page their intention of opening a gaming store in Asheville.  The following day, Hillside Games, Inc. registered www.wyvernstale,com, .net, .org, .us, .mobi, .info.  After being outed for these underhanded business practices, Hillside Games actually threatened to sue The Wyvern's Tale for libel.  In my opinion, the guys at Hillside Games of Ashville have forgotten the face of their fathers.


Personally, I would never visit a store that engages in these type of practices, and I mean both as to their customers and their competitors.  I've always envisioned FLGS as one of the few places left that actually promote family values.  You get to meet new people, work together and help each other to achieve a common goal in a dungeon, learn new tactics and strategies from better players as they kick your butt in a MtG game, and just generally hang out, socialize and share with people that have at least one interest in common with you.  The actions of Hillside Games of Asheville seem to embody the opposite of all this.

Here at Bad DM's The Good, The Bad and The Gamer, we wish much success and best of luck to The Wyvern's Tale in their new endeavor.

Gourmet Food For The Gourmet Adventurer

I recently started re-reading the Neverwinter Campaign Setting to gather inspiration for my next campaign. As I looked at the city, I got taken back to one of my very first campaigns. At that time, I was obsessed with the old Spanish cities. Sure enough, the city my players were operating from had a bull fighting arena and bull fights were held every morning.

On one of the few occasions in which the players were actually in the city at lunch time, they decided to go to the local inn to spend some well earned gold on decent food and save on rations (this was 1^st Ed. AD&D). As they were waiting for their food, one of the waiters walked by with a big plate that had two HUGE eggs. They had been cooked with all sorts of spices and the succulent smell filled the medium sized hall. After the waiter served the patron who ordered the dish, the other patrons in the establishment stood up and clapped and smiled at the man.

As the waiter headed back to the kitchen, one of the players stopped him to inquire about the plate. The waiter told him that the plate was called “eggs from the run” and that it was indeed a very gourmet and expensive plate. The player decided to order a plate of “eggs from the run,” right then and there. Unfortunately, the waiter explained, they only ran one bull in the morning bull run. Therefore, they could only serve one plate of “eggs from the run” for lunch. However, there would be another bull run the next morning. For a small deposit, he could reserve the next day's “eggs from the run”. Of course, he reserved them.

The next day, the player got his huge and succulent “eggs from the run” for lunch. After eating his lunch, he realized that his prime attribute had increased by +2 and that the effect lasted between 4 to 6 hours. As you can imagine, the players started showing up every day for lunch at the inn and taking turns as to who would order the “eggs from the run” for lunch.

After about a game week of this, it was the party's stalwart fighter's turn to order the “eggs from the run”, which he promptly did. Contrary to his expectations, he was served two pretty small eggs. They were similarly cooked as the previous days “eggs from the run” but they did not smell or taste succulent at all. The patrons did not stand up and cheer when the fighter was served. The fighter ate his “eggs from the run” but did not feel any different. No +2 bonus to strength today.

The fighter stood up from his table, very upset, and called the waiter. He demanded to know why his “eggs from the run” were different from those the party had been served in the days before. “I apologize, sir,” said the waiter... “but sometimes, the bull wins.”

After a few seconds of confused silence, the players realized what exactly it was that the fighter had eaten for lunch and then they could not stop laughing for about five minutes. Of course, the fact that we were between 12 and 14 years old probably had a lot to do with it. Still, thirty years later, someone always brings up that story whenever we manage to get the old group together.

Today's lesson: gourmet food can make for unforgettable experiences.