Welcome to GameMasters Guild, your friendly local gaming shop in North Okaloosa County since 2007. We have all kinds of tabletop games, and we host tournaments for many trading card and miniature games. We also have a growing player-base for roleplaying and board games. We have an appropriately decorated retail and player space for all your gaming needs. Come check us out, and play a game at GMG!

Dave has been a gamer – predominantly roleplaying games – for over 30 years. Growing up he could be found playing games with his friends nearly every weekend, often playing into the wee hours of the night, while consuming copious amounts of Doritos and Mountain Dew of course. His love of story-telling and immense imagination gave him the confidence to be a Game Master, which he has now done in countless rpg games for decades. He enjoys all types of sci-fi (including Ghostbusters, Alien, Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate, DC, Marvel, and RIFTS) and fantasy (including D&D, Lord of the Rings, Lovecraftian horror, and alt-history). He has been a practicing magician for over 20 years and is the self-proclaimed “King of Halloween.”    

Val has always enjoyed board games, often begging her family to play Clue and Parcheesi with her. She knows for a fact that her brother will never play Monopoly ever again because she made him play it for hours on end when they were kids. Dave says he refuses to play Axis & Allies with her because she always wins. After several attempts to show her Magic: the Gathering, Dave eventually convinced her to try TCGs when Pokémon arrived on the scene. Her obsession with Pikachu began that day, and she now has approximately 300 Pikachu figures, plushies, and accessories, many of which were given to her by customers and are housed in a curio at the shop. Don’t ask how many Pikachu cards she has, though; it is definitely more than a few thousand. She enjoys sci-fi television and movies, adores all things Disney, and appreciates rad shoes. She has a B.S.B.A. in Management from the College of Business at the University of West Florida.      

Together with their love of games and all kinds of nerd culture, they have made GameMasters Guild a safe-haven for gamers in their community for years and years.

Fun fact – They got married in 2002 on their 7th dating anniversary. 

Matthew P. has been with us since summer of 2022. He is a Pokémon TCG Judge Professor, with a special love of Penny and Umbreon. Besides Pokémon, he plays Magic: the Gathering, D&D, and a variety of video games. We are doing our best to expose him to all the pop culture of the 70s/80s/90s, making us feel a little bit older every time, lol.   

Ryan A., aka Panda, has been a regular of GMG since the beginning, and he became a part-time staff member in 2023. He is an avid gamer with an impressive board/card game collection. He currently plays Lorcana the most, but has an extensive knowledge of Magic: the Gathering, enjoys roleplaying games, dabbles in playing and collecting Pokémon, and is a Japanese Riichi Mahjong worlds player. If he looks familiar, you might have had him as your math professor at the college. 

Macara E. joined us in 2023 as well. She is a data-entry specialist that works behind the scenes with Val, but you’ll occasionally see her friendly face behind the counter in the shop. And don’t let her fool you – she loves to game too!  She’s often board gaming with family, and she plays & collects Lorcana, though she wishes she had more time to do both.

Our Employee of the Month is…Baylie! Bay Bay is our adorable puppy dog, who we adopted in 2021. She earns her EOTM badge every month by coming into the shop at least once a month to put a smile on all the customers’ faces. She is beautiful little chihuahua/pug mix, currently 13 years old.       

Dave always thought it would be neat to own a game store one day. Val wanted to be her own boss. The rest is history.

Wait, did you think that’s all we were going to say? The full story isn’t glorious, but it is filled with sweat, tears (lots of tears), money (very little money),  and a determination to make a great place for their community that everyone could be proud of. Oh, and of course, a love for tabletop gaming! 

It started back in 2005, with a dream and lots of eBay packages. Dave was slowly purchasing “inventory,” while Val thought he was just buying a bunch of stuff for his gaming collection. Little did she know, he was planning the beginning stage of what was to become GameMasters Guild. With his recently acquired used rpg books, trading card game packs, dice, and more, along with pieces of his own gaming collection, Dave and Val rented a table at the local flea market and set up their wares for the weekend. The shop has operated almost continuously since that day. 

That local flea market was sold off, and it shut down on Dec 31, 2006. After packing up the fixtures and merchandise, they thought they closed that chapter of their lives. Six months later, though, Dave was introduced to a local businessman that owned a small storefront on Main Street, of which he wasn’t doing anything with at the time. From that day, it took less than two months of sweating and swearing into the night, and GMG was ready to open. They had a special preview night on Aug 31, 2007, where the daughter of Dave’s co-worker and one of Val’s old friends from high school were their first customers. They couldn’t have guessed that night would be the beginning of something special, but it certainly was.     

The early days of the “real” GMG were short and rough, both because Dave and Val were working full-time day jobs then operating the shop at night. Housed in that tiny 800 sq ft storefront at 386 N Main St, they slowly built their inventory along with their customer base. It didn’t take long to realize that they were going to need a bigger boat, um, shop. It was three and a half long years, though, before they could find a suitable (and affordable) place to grow. It was time to move in January 2011, but on their target date, Dave ended up out of town on a work trip. With the generous assistance of a dozen or more customers, along with Val’s parents and brother, they were able to move almost the entire contents of the shop to the new location a couple of blocks down the road in two days, surprising Dave when he arrived home from his trip. Thus began GMG 3.0. 

Situated in the same Main St district but in a space almost twice the size of that little green-carpeted shop down the road, the next iteration of GMG felt amazing. At 148 Woodruff Ave, in a newly renovated storefront, Dave and Val were able to create a more inviting space for all their current and future customers. With new bookshelves, a growing selection of tabletop merchandise, and eight gaming tables and two semi-private gaming “dungeons” that could seat up to 40 or so players in total, they were sure this would be their home for years to come. It didn’t take long to realize that they needed a bigger boat, um, shop – again. With their now-dedicated customer base and glaring lack of space, they knew they needed to make a change. Val was able to scale back her day job little by little, eventually leaving to operate the shop full time by the summer of 2011. Dave continued to work evenings at the shop while managing the branch of a local business still. Practically busting at the seams with product and people, GMG would get its well-deserved upgrade four years later. 

With another amazing crew of volunteers, GMG moved into its current location at 743 Ashley Dr, in a small mixed-use business complex along PJ Adams Parkway on the south side of town, in the first week of January 2015. They had finally found the boat, um, shop size they had long desired – nearly 4500 square feet, double the size of their first two shops combined! It wasn’t a perfect space, but certainly much better than what they had known for the previous three versions (flea market booth, tiny shop, not-so-tiny shop). GMG 4.0 was destined to be great, much better than D&D 4.0 their customers often joked. With separated retail and gaming spaces, they were able to expand their product and organized game offerings right away. They broadened the board game and miniature wargame sections, added in a huge selection of back-issue comics, and beefed up their walls with even more of all the popular TCGs and RPGs. With several new tables and now four built-in semi-private dungeons, they more than doubled their player capacity, and they used all that space to host a plethora of events, including D&D Adventurer’s League and tournaments for Magic, Force of Will, Star Wars X-Wing, WarMachine, and much more.    

With several years under their belt on Ashley Dr, this shop feels like home for Dave, Val, and so many of their customers. They have gone through alot of change, seeing so many games come and go, watching so many customers come and go. They’ve recently begun a new adventure as well, expanding the shop to include a magician’s parlour, selling magic products and offering a performance space for magicians in the area. It’s been a wild ride, but it’s far from over. We are still here and ready to serve you for all of your tabletop gaming needs.

GameMasters Guild – Your Portal to Adventure in Crestview, FL – Since 2007

GameMasters Guild • 743 Ashley Drive • Crestview, FL 32536