S.A. gaming store welcomes all — even romance

Give Melissa and Graydon Langford a few hours at Knight Watch Games and the couple happily will lose themselves in fantasy, sci-fi and other imaginative adventures at the San Antonio tabletop gaming store. […] in a galaxy not too far away — actually a nearby private gaming room that same evening — husband and wife David and Rachel Dvorak joined a ragtag band of Rebels for a “Star Wars” roleplaying game that cast David as a wannabe Jedi named Garen and Rachel as a hotshot space pilot named Avlin. Forget the stereotype of the gaming shop plastered with posters of scantily-clad vixens, patronized by lonely gamer guys who pound Mountain Dew over game boards and maps in mom’s basement. At Knight Watch Games, it’s all about making otherworldly fun extra inviting with extra character from the castlelike decor, complete with faux-stone walls, long wooden banquet tables, wall-mounted swords and dangling banners. […] she also hosts a biweekly ladies’ night, where lady gamer newbies as well as gamer wives, girlfriends and moms learn the intricacies of dice rolls, initiative and other tabletop gaming elements and titles in a fun, judgment-free zone with a woman to guide them. The first was late Easter evening, when store regular Chris Sherrer popped the question to fellow Knight Watch regular and girlfriend Morgan Mooso at the shop’s coveted Noble’s Table, whose cushioned antique seats usually are reserved for a game tournament’s top players. “It’s kind of home away from home for a lot of us,” said Holler, who stressed that unlike other game stores, Knight Watch has picked up on that cultural shift of men and women both participating in tabletop gaming. That the Mulgrews have such a broad customer base in this nonstereotypical shop Paraic credits partly to blockbuster movie franchises like “The Lord of the Rings” and “Star Wars” and the hit HBO TV series “Game of Thrones” — shows that brought to the mainstream masses what once was strictly the turf of geek subculture. In addition to lavish wooden tables and bookshelves decorated with skulls, daggers and other props you’d find in a wizard’s lab, the rooms feature surround sound as well as flat-panel displays and iPads to give games a multimedia boost. Knight Watch also houses a special “armory” of corsets, tunics and other medieval garments for sale — including suits of armor from leather to plate mail, plus swords and other weapons made of foam, hard resin and metal — and its own fantastic beasts that peacefully roam the store: a giant wooly coat Siberian Husky named Urza and an Alaskan Malamute mix named Mishra.