Tabletop Game Shop in Astoria: Gamestoria Open Play, $10

Gamestoria at 42-11 Broadway in Astoria is a tabletop game shop with a back room where you can play for as long as you like. Open play costs $10 a person, or it is free if you spend $20 or more per person in the shop. The store opens at 1 pm on weekdays and has a scheduled Magic or Dungeons & Dragons night from Monday to Friday, so there is almost always a table already running.

The address is 42-11 Broadway, Astoria, NY 11103. Time Out lists the cross streets as 42nd Street and 43rd Street, and a 2015 report from DNAinfo placed the original shop between those same two streets. The store phone is 718-606-2853. The official site describes Gamestoria as a local friendly tabletop game store in Astoria, and it sells online as well, so you can browse the shelves before you walk over.

Hours are posted by the day. Gamestoria is open 1 pm to 11 pm Monday through Friday, 12 pm to 8 pm on Saturday and 12 pm to 7 pm on Sunday. The late weekday close matters because the main events start at 7 pm. If you want to browse in peace before a tournament fills the room, the early weekday afternoon is the quietest window the schedule offers.

This shop opened as The Geekery. In September 2015, DNAinfo reported that Wendy Chua and Syrus Gabales were opening a gaming store at 42-11 Broadway to build what Chua called a strong gaming community in Astoria and Queens. She noted that people in Queens often traveled to other boroughs to play, which is what the store set out to change. A test-run Magic night the weekend before opening drew about 40 people, twice what the owners expected.

The original plan was a shop selling Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: The Gathering, Pathfinder, Yu-Gi-Oh! and miniature games like Warhammer 40,000, with more than 100 board games on the shelves and nights devoted to specific games. Today the shop trades as Gamestoria and its site says it specializes in board games, collectible card games, puzzles and role-playing games. It is the same address and the same community-first idea under a new name.

The back area is the heart of the store. Time Out notes that Gamestoria does not have a cafe, but it does have a space where gamers can compete and play together. You can bring your own game or choose one from the shop's board game library. The site gives you two ways in. Pay the $10 open play fee per person, or earn access by making a purchase of $20 or more per person.

Paying the fee comes with perks. You get 10% off any other same-day purchases that are not entry fees, plus any one free drink or snack. The site says there is no time limit, though seating depends on availability and scheduled events get priority. In practice, a Friday draft night will fill the tables, so come on a Tuesday afternoon or a weekend if you want a long, relaxed session with a heavy strategy game.

The site lists a full week of events with prices. Monday is Legacy at 7 pm for $18. Tuesday is Commander with pods on demand for $10. Wednesday is Dungeons & Dragons at 7 pm for $10. Thursday is Modern at 7 pm for $18. Friday has Commander pods for a $10 entry and the Friday Night Magic booster draft at 7 pm for $25, or $32 for Universes Beyond sets. Sunday brings Standard at 12 pm for $10 and Pioneer at 3 pm for $18.

Special dates are posted too. The calendar shows a Standard Regional Championship Qualifier on October 24 and a Star Trek prerelease from November 6 to November 8, with another qualifier on November 14 still to be announced. The Wednesday Dungeons & Dragons night is the friendliest entry for newcomers because the $10 price is the lowest on the competitive calendar and the game is built around storytelling and not deck building.

If you are in just to buy a game, Time Out describes an entire wall of the most popular games out now, plus minis and cards. The shop calls itself fully stocked. The site menu also links to gift cards, a rewards page for regulars and a Discord server, so regulars can keep track of event news between visits.

A sensible route for a first visit is to walk the wall once, ask the staff about a game for your group size and then take it to the back room to try before you buy. With the open play fee waived on a $20 purchase, a boxed game and a table for the evening can cost the same as the game alone. That makes Gamestoria one of the better value tabletop stops in Queens.

Choose by what you want from the evening. For a quiet board game session, pick a weekday afternoon after the 1 pm opening, when no tournament is running and the library tables are free. For a first taste of Magic, the $10 Tuesday Commander pods are the gentlest introduction, since pods form on demand and nobody is waiting on a bracket. If you love competition, Thursday Modern and Friday Night Magic draw the most focused rooms.

An honest warning: Friday night at 7 pm is the busiest slot on the calendar, with both a $10 Commander pod and a $25 booster draft competing for the same back room. If you only want to play a board game from the library, skip Friday evening and come on Saturday between 12 pm and 8 pm or on Sunday afternoon before the 7 pm close. Events have seating priority over open play.

Broadway in Astoria is a long commercial strip, and the shop sits between 42nd and 43rd Streets. Eating first is wise, because Time Out confirms the shop has no cafe, and open play includes only one free drink or snack. Plan your meal around the 7 pm event times, and leave the sit-down dinner to the restaurants along the strip.

Address: 42-11 Broadway, Astoria, NY 11103. Phone: 718-606-2853. Hours: Monday through Friday 1 pm to 11 pm, Saturday 12 pm to 8 pm, Sunday 12 pm to 7 pm. Open play: $10 a person or free with a $20 purchase per person. Official site: gamestoria.com. Use the Karpo APP to save the shop, compare it with other New York game stores and plan a night around the event calendar.