In Business: Dragon Forge Games in Brainerd Offers Tabletop and Board Games for All

By Sammy Holladay

Dragon Forge Games in Brainerd sells tabletop games, a category that includes board games as well as collectible trading cards. The board game business has become a $1 billion industry per Statista and can be overwhelming to get into, but for nine years, Dragon Forge Games has done its best to help find something that best suits its customers.

“It’s a pretty huge, huge world, once you kind of dive into it,” said co-owner Jeremy Arndt. “And being able to just kind of sit down with people and talk about what their interests are, what they’re looking for, and really being able to dive in and look at some things is really just a really cool aspect of what we can do.”

In addition to its retail space, Dragon Forge Games has rooms set aside where people can come in and have a good time while enjoying their favorite games.

“We also have a very large gaming room full of tables where people are welcome to come in and play all varieties of games,” added Arndt. “They can bring games from home. We also have a pretty extensive library of board games that people can choose from, games here to play. And in addition, we also have a private room that is available for more RPG [role-playing game] groups. So RPGs would be things like Dungeons & Dragons and that sort of thing, so people are welcome to come in with their groups and play that here, too.”

Being in business for nearly a decade helps you meet a lot of people. At Dragon Forge Games, they feel that they have been a part of the lives of so many here in this community.

“We’ve been open long enough now where I’ve watched some of our customers, kids, grow up from a really young age to now high school or even beyond, which, it’s a really cool thing to be a part of,” explained Arndt. “We’ve got some regular customers, regular families that at a certain point you just you feel like you’re part of the family.”