The Geeks at the Gates Episode #63 - #64: Geek business in lockdown

The Geeks at the Gates is a part of Destination Venus, Harrogate's independent comics store. You know this, because you are reading these show notes on the Destination Venus website. But Desties' isn't the only geeky business in town, and we're not the only business affected by lockdown.

So, in search of a "good news" story, Regie sat down across the internet with man known to all as "Smiler" - the proprietor of The Geek Bar to chat about the awesomeness of our geek community, keeping a business running when you're not allowed to open, and plans for the future!

Early on in the conversation we both had a bit of a chuckle about the popularity of My Little Pony amongst middle aged men. I think we'd both like to make it clear that we were in no way mocking anyone for their choice of reading matter or the games they choose to play. We both just appreciate the incongruity of this stereotype busting behaviour.

Mention was made of the Scout's "D&D badge". It's technically the "Entertainer Badge", but it features the D&D logo and is sponsored which makes this old Scout very happy. Read more about it HERE.

OK. We also chatted about how much Dame Judy Dench loves playing Dungeons and Dragons. There's no particular reason to put this in the show notes, but it's too awesome a fact not to type out.

There was some bemoaning of the less obviously sensible rules and regulations that are in force during lockdown, much of which we cut because frankly we sounded like a pair of grumpy old men.

Mention was made of "Harrogate Grumbler", I suspect that if you're in Harrogate you know of it - it's a community Facebook page for folk in Harrogate. Like all such pages on Facebook it can be massively supportive and it can be a little bit toxic, but safe to say that most folk on there mean well and it's a valuable community resource.

We then got into a discussion of the 3D printed products that the Geek Bar sells, including "Dice Jails" (if you've heard Regie rolling "Natural 1 to hit" in our D&D adventures you'll understand why he might find this attractive...) They have versions that are chests with teeth, "Time Out" chairs with dunces caps and many other designs.

They also print "Dice Towers" The Geek Barts that you drop your dice into the top of the tower and it comes out of the bottom into a receptacle. It's a way of rolling dive without having them disappear onto the floor (again, an issue you'll be aware of if you've listened to our D&D adventures. Also, they look really cool...

Conversation then moved on to conventions - about which more next week!

For information about the gaming opportunities, food delivery services and 3D printed accessories available from the awesome folks at The Geek Bar visit them online HERE.