Meet Gerry, the founder of GuildHall, a tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) and board gaming space. Discover how GuildHall evolved from a private club into a vibrant community hub, offering unique gaming experiences and fostering a dedicated community of tabletop and board game enthusiasts.
Q: Please give the readers a short introduction about yourself and your company. What is your role? What is your company about? What is your “origin” story?
Hi! I’m Gerry, accidental founder of GuildHall, a tabletop role-Playing Game and board gaming space that aims to build the best community experience in the tabletop space.
When I say accidental, I mean it! GuildHall (initially known as Dungeoneers Rest) was actually a not-for-profit project started as a private space for me and my friends to play Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) and board games. Back then, no one could have imagined that the space would grow into what it is today, all we wanted to be was a cool space for us to hang out and enjoy ourselves.
We only recruited 15 players initially and no one but the members could walk into the store given that it was a private club. Back then, the windows were entirely blacked out and there was a thumbprint lock on the door that prevented anyone else but the members from entering the space.
At the heart of our DNA is this still continuous focus on serving our members and regulars well. We take customer feedback very seriously and have worked to create the coolest experiences for them. In fact, while other businesses might judge their success by their sales numbers, we are more focused on how many repeat customers we have and how many members we retain. This has led us to grow our core product line from seeing 15 players per week initially 2 and a half years ago to now anywhere between 120 – 140 players a week in this space and more board gamers as time goes by.
The truth is, in spite of expanding 6x in space and 5x in staffing over the last 1 year, I still hold true in our goal of being everyone’s second living room, a space where everyone feels at home.
While we’re a lot larger today, we’re still functionally a startup with all the energy, chaos and dynamism that goes along with it. We don’t claim to be perfect, nor do we call ourselves the best, we are and always will be a work in progress and cliché as it is, we won’t stop trying to improve.
Q: What made you decide to open the board game store? What made you decide on the current location?
As mentioned previously, I didn’t really, I actually just wanted to start a small community space, but as it grew and grew, it took on a life of its own and by the time I was running 10 games a week, I knew that we had no choice but to become a business with staff and a larger space.
The truth is that on the board games section in the store, that sort of grew through the members! In the past, members would vote for what to spend money on when the store had an excess of funds and many rounds later, our board game collection grew from 30 or so games to over 200. This was then later supplemented with the arrival of other board game communities like Singapore International Boardgames Meetup (SIBM) and some generous individuals who have graciously offered to help us out.
As for the location, well, there’s an interesting story behind that. When I was first looking for a store back before we opened at Peninsula Shopping Centre, I walked past this space and wanted to rent it, but it was too big for our needs then.
The reason for my particular fascination with this unit is personal. You see, a long time ago, I was an overworked youngster at 16 who worked as a cyber cafe counter staff at this particular unit, and so I think things have just gone full circle in a way. So when I came back two years later and saw it was available, I was more than happy to take the unit.
That said, I do appreciate the central location of the store near almost every major MRT line and the fact that it’s near several different schools.
Q: What differentiates you from the other board game stores? Any interesting services, products or customer stories you would like to share?
The answer to this is fairly complex, we have worked very hard to make ourselves very different from the average store and perhaps few people truly understand how much effort we put in to do this.
In the TTRPG space:
We personality profile our TTRPG players so as to help them get their best fit in a campaign setting. In fact, based on my knowledge, we are the only store in the world to execute this on a large scale. This stems from the fact that I believe that all tabletop experiences are actually social experiences. As such, for campaigns to work out, we need to create better group matching structures. This has been met with great success on our end and today the average campaign group that we form, playing on a weekly basis lasts more than about 1 year but that number is steadily and consistently improving beyond that 60% of the original players who first joined us are still with us and our retention rate over 1 year is more than 70% which is quite a feat when you consider the games are happening same time same place every week. While initially we tried working on this using existing systems like DISC or Myers–Briggs, we learnt later on that we needed something much more specific towards TTRPGs and have since created our own proprietary system.
We have a unified and living world system across all RPGs and while some other stores have that as well, we try to bring our players as close together as possible unlike some other stores where perhaps a dungeon master runs one region and only his players are in there. This has led to plenty of shenanigans on the players part! Allowing them to influence the history of the world in ways that were otherwise impossible.
Every adventure runs only once in our Dungeons and Dragons world (except for our Beginner one shots)! Here at GuildHall, no adventure is ever run twice. This is because of the living world structure that we adopt in which all player actions are recorded in our Wikipedia and form the ongoing history of our living world. In fact, arguably the players have had a much larger impact on the world than the Dungeon Masters!
Exceedingly qualified Dungeon Masters; at GuildHall we are extremely selective of our GMs! In fact, in our last hiring spree, we hired only 2 out of a total of 39 candidates who applied for the role. To be a DM here, you need to be able to roleplay, understand mechanics, use all the production value, including our miniatures, lights and sound systems but beyond that you also have to be able to write stories well!
Lootboxes! Don’t worry, we’re not pay to win! When we recently increased our membership prices for TTRPGs, we decided that we wanted to provide more value to our players! This resulted in us deciding that we would give real world items to our campaigners every month to enhance their experience. In the month of June, this is slated to be custom 3d printed miniatures of their characters and next month we will release for the first time our homebrew setting in the form of a 50 page book delivered in hard and soft copy to the campaigners.
In the board gaming space:
We want you to play the big and heavy board games that take 6 – 8 hours! In fact, we believe so much in hardcore board gamers that we decided from the get go that the majority of our tables should be 6 feet x 4 feet tables where even large games of Warhammer 40K can take place.
We charge only $12/day! Sound ridiculous? It’s because we want you to enjoy yourself without thinking too much about time! If this place is going to be your second home, you never should have to think that times up and you need to go home. Especially if you’re playing a board game like Twilight Imperium that can essentially take the day from you! We welcome you and we want you to take your time here, chill out, relax and enjoy yourself. Or if you’re playing TI, well, get stressed and lose some friends HAHA.
We are now working on and are in the final stages of releasing our board game AI assistant as part of our new app release.
In our community:
We gatekeep and protect our community. Joining us is by application only; we want to ensure the community is fun and more importantly safe, a group of people you know can be trusted and who are going through life together.
We also released our app more than 1 year ago to help aid community management and I believe we are the first and only tabletop store that has released such a tool. This reflects my and other community members' background in the tech industry and our desire to adopt a more dynamic startup methodology within the space.
Community events running 2 – 3 times a week. These are free events that allow the community to come together to mingle. These have even taken the form of us going to eat outside and just hang out. Not going to spoil anything but we are currently working on a group trip somewhere overseas.
Trust me when I say that these are merely the tip of the iceberg in terms of what makes us unique. The truth is we run so many experiments in the store with new tech, new organisation, new plot structures and other things that we are constantly evolving and growing. But I should not go any further since this seems pretty lengthy as is!
Q: What is the biggest challenge you faced while starting up or while operating a board game store? What have you done to overcome them?
Although I now have a dedicated team to assist me in running the store, the biggest challenge I faced when starting up GuildHall was creating a sustainable business model that could support our vision. Operating a physical store in an up-and-coming market comes with its own set of challenges, from managing overhead costs to attracting and retaining customers.
To overcome these challenges, we implemented several strategies. Firstly, we adopted a community-based membership model to foster a sense of belonging among our customers. As long as our members have fun, we do too! Additionally, we focused on creating a welcoming and inclusive atmosphere to attract a diverse range of gamers.
We also embraced technology to streamline our operations and enhance the customer experience. From a 5.1 surround sound audio system in our D&D rooms, 55 inch TVs, immersive smart lighting and online booking systems for events to social media marketing campaigns, we leverage digital tools to connect with our audience and stay relevant in an ever-evolving industry.
We have also pivoted towards other RPG-campaigned games, such as ‘Call of Cthulhu (CoC)’ and ‘Cyberpunk’ to cater to the diverse tastes of gamers seeking immersive storytelling and themed experiences!
Q: GuildHall seems to be organising many tabletop community events. What are some of the interesting events your have helped to organise and what are some of the exciting events you are looking to plan?
We are and continue to hosted and participate in many different events but I believe June will be absolutely amazing for tabletop. Frankly, I think I was most amazed by the recent board game auction held in our space and how many people showed up. Up to that point I had only attended a board game auction once and I thought it was pretty amazing! Years later to see it happen in our space, it really just made me feel like we were playing our part in helping the scene grow in Singapore.
Let me say this clearly, there are many people and stores that played a role in growing the scene in Singapore and where we are today is very much thanks to them and their broad contributions in bringing the hobby forward. Guildhall and I are happy to play our part in continuing this work in the hopes that one day tabletop gaming becomes more deeply embedded within our culture.
I think there's a lot of great work in the tabletop space that is being done by Singaporeans at the moment that really isn’t being seen by the broader public and so we are more than happy to lend our space to International Tabletop Day in June. I’m very excited to see them there and am both honored and happy they chose us as their venue.
Let me also add, that my community helped me to build this store, a dream I didn’t know I had until they gave it to me. I hope that I can pay it forward to the broader tabletop community. With that in mind we offer the space on weekdays to game designers who are looking to playtest games for basically free. Please reach out to talk to us if you’re about to launch a game, you’re working on something cool or you just want to place your stuff here. We are a small team, we’re trying our best and we will make mistakes but we are with you.
Q: With tabletop games becoming popular around the world, there are more and more games being published every year. How do you select games from the thousands of new games that are being launched each year? Do you play all these games before deciding to bring them in?
So, we have a really strange situation in this aspect. There are of course those games we see on Kickstarter or BoardGameGeek and go like, 'yes we need this in our lives' but we also have the benefit of having some hardcore board gamers who call this place home.
This has given us a strange acquisition method, because these particular individuals have great taste and they often bring down some new games for me and the staff to try (because they’re always looking for players to play with). Their recommendations have become some of the best games in our library and we are soon getting in even more from our growing BoardGameGeek list.
Q: What do you think the gaming trends and tastes of Singaporean gamers gravitating towards?
Broadly speaking, TTRPGs across the world including Singapore saw a gigantic boost during COVID. That momentum was carried by the D&D movie and later on to a larger extent Baldur's Gate 3. This has widened interest within the space.
More broadly as well, there is a growing trend of hit video games like Slay The Spire, Horizon Zero Dawn and Monster Hunter becoming board games and this has really helped to bring in different kinds of players.
I’d say at the moment, the board game crowd we see is about 60 – 70% light gamers and 20 – 30% hardcore board gamers. We know that this will change over time as we can see our repeat customers moving from the easier games to the more difficult but thematic games.
Additionally, I think with the rise of technology, we've seen a convergence of tabletop gaming and the digital world. Hybrid games that combine physical components with digital elements, such as app-assisted board games and augmented reality experiences, are becoming more prevalent, catering to the tech-savvy preferences of modern gamers.
We see the scene growing and many more of these players will soon be graduating out of the easier games and into the deeper and harder ones.
Q: What are the future plans for store?
Our future plans for GuildHall revolve around expanding our offerings and enhancing the overall gaming experience for our community.
Here are the top three things you can look forward to:
Expansion! After much debate, we are finally ready to move forward and expand the store a further 600 sq ft in the next few months. This means an increase in the number of RPG rooms and better facilities for all involved!
Introducing the GH App V2, now with AI included. Version 2 will include improved chat features, more community events and better coverage of our D&D world, better gamification through our Karma system and a long-awaited inclusion of GPT4O powered board game AI assistant.
We aim to introduce more events for community members and the general public. This was part of a previously longstanding tradition and now we’re bringing it back with a vengeance!
All things said, We are committed to continuously improving our facilities and services based on feedback, ensuring that GuildHall remains a welcoming and vibrant hub for tabletop gamers. Ultimately, our goal is to foster a thriving and inclusive gaming community while providing memorable gaming experiences for our members and visitors alike.
It’s always nice to see your dream transform into reality, and it might be difficult to predict what lies ahead of us. I, however, believe that GuildHall is poised to quickly adapt as and when the scene changes, and I’m excited to see where this takes us!
Q: Where is your shop located?
We are located in the corner of the basement of Parklane Shopping Mall! Our address is 35 Selegie Rd, B1-33 Parklane Shopping Mall, Singapore 188307.
Q: Where can we keep up with the latest news and updates from GuildHall?
Website: https://guildhall.sg/
Instagram: @guildhallsingapore
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/guildhallsg/
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