For Scott Thorne, owning Castle Perilous Games and Books in Carbondale represents a lifelong quest to ensure the dice never stop rolling. Scott often swaps his “owner” hat to immerse his imagination in a game of Dungeons & Dragons on a game night at his brick-and-mortar store. Whether he is narrating a high-adrenaline dragon encounter or acting as a secondary-world fantasy hero, Scott proves that the best way to sell his store is to live it at every opportunity.
“We have 66,000 square feet of retail space,” said Scott as he showed us around what he claims to be the largest tabletop gaming store in Southern Illinois. “We carry over 400 different board games and about a hundred different role-playing systems. We also carry a large selection of comic books and graphic novels, which we added about 15 years ago.”
Scott derived the name for his store from the legend of King Arthur—specifically from a board game he used to play frequently called King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.
“Years ago, we were playing this game and a friend of mine said, ‘Hey, Scott, if you ever decide to open up a board game-like store like you’ve been talking about, you ought to name it Castle Perilous.’”
Scott took the advice of his friend, and 35 years later the store is so ingrained in the culture of Carbondale that many customers simply tell friends they are headed to the “Castle.”
A kingdom built on cardboard and quests
Castle Perilous Games and Books opened its doors in 1990, with the products accumulating the way memories do—layered and overlapping, with some well-worn and others less touched.
“Over the course of 35 years, we’ve accumulated a lot of products,” Scott said. “There’s a lot of stuff that we still play, and some stuff that we haven’t played in years.”
A lesser retailer might have long since cleared out the slow movers and chased only what’s trending. Scott pivoted in his own direction, which has paid off for his customers.
“We keep older games around because every once in a while we get that customer who comes in looking for that specific item they remember from when they were young,” Scott explained. “We get to see that expression of delight on their face when they find something that reminds them of a game they played when they were 12.”
Scott said he did not fantasize about owning a game store when he was a child. Instead, he said the path that led him to a career in retail was purely academic.
“I did not dream about owning a game store,” Scott said plainly. “I enjoy retailing. I started off in retail. I worked as an assistant manager for a number of years, then went back to school and moved to Carbondale.”
As a devoted game lover, Scott said he discovered a retail gap in town.
“They didn’t have a game store here,” recalled Scott. “They had a bookstore. It carried about 20 feet worth of shelf space of assorted games.”
For someone already selling games for fun and steeped in gaming culture, the absence of a dedicated store represented an opportunity.
“I had some money saved up, and I’d already been selling games as a hobby, and I decided to take the plunge and open up a storefront,” Scott said.
With a degree in marketing coupled with a love of tabletop games, Scott’s background gave his new venture a solid foundation.
“One of the reasons I opened up the store was to see about putting into practice the things I had learned in theory in my marketing classes,” Scott explained. “How to design. How to light the floor layout. Management practices.”
Nowhere has Scott’s business philosophy proven more enduring than in how he treats the people who work beside him.
“I think the better you treat your employees, the better a job they’re going to do for you,” Scott said. “That seems to have worked out. I had one employee just retire last year. He’d been with me since 1990, so it was a pretty long track record.”
Game lovers paradise
There is something Castle Perilous offers that no sales statistic can replicate.
“One of the big advantages of a brick-and-mortar retail store is that you are exposed to all of these different products as you walk down the aisle,” Scott explained. “You might see something that you never knew existed, unlike when you go online.”
“For instance, if you come in and look for one comic book, say the new issue of Absolute Batman, you’re going to see other books right next to it that you might be interested in. You may not have that same experience when shopping online.”
That philosophy of discovery extends to every corner of the store.
We met store manager Sydney Rather, who knows the dynamic intimately. A passionate gamer herself, Sydney served as the store’s game master before stepping into her management role. In her six-plus years working alongside Scott, she said miniature tabletop games, strategic war games, and fantasy battle games such as Warhammer and BattleTech sell the fastest.
As for Scott, he has been playing Dungeons & Dragons since roughly 1979.
“Everybody who is playing in my game currently is probably 30 years younger than I am,” Scott said with a grin.
Because of Scott’s passion for games, he loves that his store has become a gathering place for gaming get-togethers.
“It’s a far cheaper, more interactive, and more social activity,” Scott noted. “Plus, by hosting games, I’m giving people a reason to buy all the elements that are needed to play those games.
“We run Dungeons & Dragons about four days a week. We do board gaming two days a week, and we play various card games. Our goal is to try to have activities going on every day of the week.”
That steady pulse of activity has built a business that draws customers who want not only to play but also to buy what Castle Perilous has to offer.
“It gives me satisfaction when a customer comes in and says, ‘Hey, I’m looking for the new Dungeons & Dragons book,’ or ‘Do you have the new Pokémon set in stock?’ or ‘Can you recommend the paints to paint my figures for my next game?’ and we’re able to answer those questions,” Scott said.
“If a customer walks out with products in their hand, that means we have done our job. We had the products they wanted, and we pointed out how that product is going to make their life a little bit better.”
“Castle Perilous Games and Books matters to people because we’re an institution in the community,” Scott added. “We’ve been here for 35 years, and we offer a product line as well as services that you’re not going to find anywhere else in Southern Illinois or the adjoining states of Missouri, Kentucky, or Indiana.
“We have customers who drive 100 miles to come shop here. We have people who are bringing their second and even third generation of family members back to the store. We had people come in over the weekend who said, ‘We come back to Carbondale every year to visit our families, and we always make sure the first stop is Castle Perilous.’”
When Scott first opened in 1990, his choice of location was deliberate and research-driven.
“My research at the time showed that most successful game stores were located either in college towns or near military bases,” Scott said. “At that time, most of the players were young men with a high percentage of disposable income and lots of free time.”
Scott’s early customer base skewed heavily toward students from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.
“As we have become more established, the market base has shifted away from that to the point where we’re probably now about 65% to 75% town residents and about 25% to 30% college students,” Scott said.
Despite shifts in demographics, Scott maintains a close relationship with SIU, working with the student recreational organization and other campus gaming clubs and offering Castle Perilous as a welcoming space for students to come and play.
“Some of my customers who are coming in had been in the store back in the ’90s as kids buying Pokémon cards,” Scott explained. “Now, 25 years later, they’re bringing their own kids into the store to buy Pokémon cards.”
Scott let that image sit for a moment before adding, “That makes me feel kind of old, but at the same time happy that they had a great enough experience coming here as a kid that they’re willing to bring their own child here to replicate that feeling.”
The store’s physical transformation has been equally striking.
“I have people who come back remembering when we were a small, about 300-square-foot store down close to SIU, and they say, ‘Wow, what is this place? I cannot believe how big you’ve gotten over the years.’”
For all its success, Castle Perilous operates against a strong geographical headwind.
“There are challenges to being a retailer in rural Southern Illinois, especially the fact that we are not located in a metropolitan area,” Scott acknowledged. “Carbondale has maybe 35,000 people in it, and that’s not a lot. There’s no other metro areas close by.”
The nearby town of Marion, the closest sizable city, is itself modest in scale compared to St. Louis, Evansville, or Chicago.
“We don’t get the amount of traffic that we would if we were in a larger metro area,” Scott said. “Our business would be even better if we were in a place like Memphis or Chicago. But we do the best we can with the traffic that is here.”
“One of the things that you need in order to sell a game is either a lot of buzz about it online or somebody pushing it,” Scott explained. “If you’re in a metro area, you’ve got more access to people willing to run games. Trying to get somebody down here to demo their new game is fairly hard to do.
“I have looked into bringing comic book artists and writers and actors into the store, and we’re looking at anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000, which is not something that’s in my budget.”
The answer, as with so much at Castle Perilous, comes back to the inventory itself.
“We get around the problem of comparative isolation by doing a lot of outreach and advertising,” Scott said. “Our inventory is actually a draw, and we let people know that it’s a large and eclectic inventory. You’re going to find lots of stuff you’re not going to find in the typical game store.
“We had a customer say that we have a better selection of games than any store they found in Florida, and considering the size and metro density of Florida, that’s amazing to me.”
On the marketing front, Scott refuses to pick sides between old and new.
“We have embraced social media,” Scott explained. “But we also do a lot of traditional advertising, like radio and newspapers. I still believe there’s a place for traditional mass media in the marketing mix.”
If the inventory is the draw, the staff is the soul of the store. Scott has built his team with the same long-term thinking he applies to everything else.
“One of the secrets to the store’s success is keeping employees for a long period of time,” Scott observed.
The flexibility he offers is intentional. He adjusts hours around employees’ schedules and honors their outside pursuits, offering a generous staff discount on merchandise, free snacks and sodas on shift, and even access to an IRA for retirement.
“I think providing benefits and flexibility to your staff is key in keeping them around for long periods of time,” Scott said. “You want to keep your staff for a long time because you don’t want to have the problem of retraining new people.
“It’s really hard to become a successful salesperson. I can train people about the products we sell. I can tell you about the comics we sell. I can’t teach you how to open up and talk to other people. That’s something you have to have a natural ability to do.”
A word to Springfield
Decades of retail experience have given Scott a perspective on state policy that is direct and plainspoken.
“I would like to see the lawmakers of Illinois reduce spending so that they can cut taxes, especially sales taxes,” Scott said. “I know that cuts into a lot of our customers’ discretionary income.
“I would like our legislators to consider the impact of their decisions on the retailer and the customer base,” Scott added. “I get the feeling that a lot of times they don’t spend any time behind the counter or even talking to retailers and businesspeople in Illinois.”
A little guidance
When Scott reflects on the lessons he wishes someone had handed him at the start, he speaks as though he is offering seasoned advice to another aspiring entrepreneur.
“If someone had given me advice when I started this, I wish they had told me to start investing in my IRA earlier,” Scott said. “It would have been a lot smarter.”
“As far as retailing goes, do not buy products that you love. Buy the products that you think your customers are going to want.
“Always remember, you’re in business to serve the customer within the limits you are willing to set for yourself. Just because you want to try something doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a great idea.”
For all the challenges that have lined his career in retail, Scott has high praise for the life the industry has afforded him.
“Working in retail has allowed me to have a fairly comfortable lifestyle,” Scott said. “I’m able to donate money to the community and to charity. I can employ one full-time employee and four part-time employees with retirement benefits.
“I think retailing has allowed me to make a better life for myself and to make a positive impact on Carbondale.”
“I think that I have built something here, and I’m going to be passing it on to the next generation,” Scott added. “I’m already talking with my store manager, Sydney, and training her to take over the store. I want to make sure that I have built something that is going to last beyond my tenure here.”
