“Life begins on the other Side of despair” - Jean-Paul Sartre
Sanctorium Games began as an idea in the minds several game store employees after the closure of their local store in 2022. Despite its ongoing success, the owner, for personal reasons. decided to shut its doors after over two decades years of supporting local gaming communities. Thus began the quest to replace what had been lost to them
What should have been a “simple” endeavor became a succession of setbacks: failed investor meetings, lease negotiations gone awry, a couple false starts, and tragic the loss of a near and dear friend and avid supporter. It looked grim, we questioned our motivations and determination began to falter. It was a true dark night of the soul.
Fortunately, there will always be a tomorrow and through an unrelenting effort on behalf of everyone involved, and with the encouragement of supporting parties we were able to found our first brick and mortar store.
No matter how long it took to get here, we continue to focus on the future, and the great things to come.
We want to thank everyone who never stopped believing in us; and for the people not around to see this day we hope you’re out there somewhere smiling with us.
Love you all,
“Cool Story, bro…” - Some guy on the internet
Yeah, that’s enough sentimentality for us too. Who are we you ask?
We’re a bunch of tenacious grognards with decades of experience and the insatiable desire to see all the best parts of nerdon preserved, celebrated, and enjoyed till the end of time.
While we will have all the battle tested facets of a quintessential game store, we want to bring you the experience WE want to have when we walk through the doors of a new game store. The ancient game stores, we grew up playing in are all but relics of the past at this point. Many things we were happy to see go; cantankerous employees and unwelcoming environments filled with dusty disheveled shelves packed with a disorganized menagerie of shelf worn boxes. But there was a certain charm, a je ne sais quoi if you will, that was lost with the death of stores of the past. We at Sanctorium strive to find the intersection between the character of vintage game stores and the welcoming environment of the modern.
We hope you walk in looking for a new copy of Catan and walk out with the 70s pewter figure you thought only existed on retro game Instagram pages. We hope you discover minuscule game creators, who share their passions through rules published in printable zines, while flipping through records arguing with a new friend about whether Alpha Legion are loyalist.
We hope you have a good time. Come hang out