Yeah, I had one of those kind of game shops just open up here too–though they focus a lot on sports cards too. My usual game stores in this college town have all specialized in some way (magic and WH40K, magic and comics, magic and other ccgs), all of which carry some amount of board and ttrpg options. The new one feels like it’s just D&D, though with the amount of indie ttrpgs out there, even my older FLGS’s collection is still not much.

All that is to say, finding play spaces in somewhat public places (that are also pleasant and clean) to gain traction with indie games is still a challenge. It’s hard to keep the doors open on any amount of D&D sales, let alone indie ttrpgs.

My home games and groups have been getting better and better at playing different games. We’ve also gotten better about going out and helping other players just get back together after the pandemic. We might still meet over D&D, but there’s enough interest in changing that up and trying FATE and CoC and other things that it’s at least a way to go.