Q & A with Antonio of Warpstorm Games & Lounge

Creating community with games, boba, and safe spaces.

Meet Antonio, one of the owners of Warpstorm Games and Lounge over on 6120 W Layton Ave in Greenfield. This wonderful store creates a safe place in the neighborhood that welcomes all. Whether you are a seasoned gamer or someone who’s been curious about learning more, the folks at Warpstorm are ready to sit down, answer your questions, and teach you how to play. Find out more from our insightful Q&A session.

Q: How did Warpstorm Games & Lounge come about?

A: I used to be the GM of the Warhammer Store here in Milwaukee between 2018 and 2021. I loved the experience but I was a D&D nerd at heart. I had been a GM for T-Mobile for 3 years before that. While I was working for Games Workshop I had been traveling a lot, and going to a lot of gaming conventions. Specifically GenCon and realized that there was a big world out there where people were making their own place in it.

My crazy idea was to make a massive MMO style D&D game. During that time I had met some guys who had a gaming store in Saint Francis called Faklandia Gaming. During the COVID lock downs my store was shut down for in-store activity so I used to go to Faklandia Gaming because it was next door to my partner’s Coffee Shop, called La Finca. I became friends with the owners Quinn and Alex. At that time they were looking to open up a store that was larger and not connected to Faklandia, and I was looking to open my own store so I could do my D&D thing, and we decided to join forces.

Q: Was it always planned to be a game store and a lounge or did the idea of adding the Boba cafe and game library come later?

A: Well, we had a lot of huge plans for what Warpstorm was going to be. Primarily we wanted it to be a hang out spot. A “Third Place” where people could hang out. I had been watching the brick and mortar retail sector moving toward experiential retail and leaving the store-front retail mentality, but Local Game Stores had not yet started making that shift.

I had also been very interested at the time the “erosion of third places” and had read a bunch of think pieces on the subject and really wanted to create a community space. While I was running the Warhammer store my favorite part of it was getting to hang out with a bunch of nerds, talking about our nerdy passions. My issue was that I always had to keep it on brand, so I really wanted Warpstorm to be the kind of place where you could really just hang out and be yourself.

The Boba cafe was my partner’s sister, Lizeth’s idea. She was an experienced business owner, being the other owner of La Finca, and she offered to join us and spearheaded the idea of a Boba cafe. The game library seemed like it would fit perfectly with what we were aiming to do, as did the manga library.

Q: How does Warpstorm create a safe third space for the community?

A: Safety for marginalized communities has been a big focus for us since we started. As an immigrant, comfort and safety have always been important considerations when I am hanging out anywhere.

When I first became the manager of the Warhammer store, it was almost entirely a white male environment and I did a lot of intentional work to turn that around. Places have to be intentional and vocal about the kinds of people that are welcome. It’s not enough to just say all people are welcome, because that is too blanket a statement. People who have not had the experience of comfort in white male dominated spaces need to be told that this space is specifically for them, often and enthusiastically because we are trained to feel like we don’t belong.

So, we make sure to let people know. Our messaging, whether in person or in our socials or Discord, is always specific when it comes to discrimination or bigotry of any kind. We don’t hide our politics, and although sometimes it creates a bit of friction, we make sure people know our space is a safe space as much as it is a game store.

Q: As a small business have you been affected by tariffs and increased inflation?

A: The day after Trump took office, I had a conversation with Quinn about tariffs and we created a plan to change a lot of what we carry in the store. As much as possible we wanted to insulate ourselves from imports, specifically products that were coming from China.

The type of retail that we are has a tendency to be a little more insulated from things like inflation. Not much more, but a little more. We sell, in essence, a luxury good. In the sense that, it isn’t strictly needed, and depending on the game, it is pretty expensive. very broadly and generally speaking, the majority of our community has disposable income.

On the other end, we also sell a lot of items second hand, so if you’re looking to spend less on Warhammer for instance, we don’t even sell New-In-Box models anymore, only second hand. That’s another way we make sure we have offers for people who are on a tight budget, and it is also a very tight local economy since it is the community selling their old gaming cards and models, and the community buying them.

Q: What kind of events are held at Warpstorm?

A: A lot of tournaments for card games. We’re huge card game nerds, and we run a ton of them. We also have monthly Warhammer tournaments, Leagues for minis games, and the worlds largest in-person D&D campaign. We run 24 D&D games a month out of one little D&D room.

Q: Do you have regular beginner events for folks looking to get into playing D&D or specific games?

A: Our store is new player friendly, and we make sure the community respects that. Thankfully we’ve never had an issue with gate-keeping, and we’ve been blessed that our community is as passionate about growing the game groups as we are.

Every day we have a “weekly” event for some game. All of those events are new player friendly. And since we play the games, we are always happy to sit down and teach the game to those looking to start.

We also absolutely love it when players have questions about the games they are getting into. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve explained how the secondary card market works to people getting into collecting.

Q: What do you enjoy most about running a table-top game store?

A: Well, it’s a dream job, really. I have two departments, marketing and running the D&D game. I’ve always had a creative passion, and both my departments are me getting to problem solve and create in a way that is massively fulfilling.

Part of my job is literally world building in a D&D world that generates over $60k a year and just keeps growing. Being a professional world builder is actually a dream come true.

Q: Are there any events or sales coming up that you’d like to promote?

A: The next season of our D&D game is about to start in April, so registration is open now on our link tree, Linktr.ee/warpstorm. Otherwise we have 30ish events a month, so if you’re nerdy and looking for something to do, jump in our Discord or come by the store to see what we’ve got going on.