[Brick & Mortar] The Dreaming

The Dreaming
Address: 5226 University Way NE, Seattle, WA 98105
Phone: (206) 525-9394

RPGs: excellent selection
Indie RPGs: excellent selection
Used RPGs: limited (discounted items rather than true used items)
Miniatures: limited to none
Boardgames: limited
Gaming space: limited (don't know whether there are games run there)
Comics: excellent selection

Family Friendly: more often than not G rated
Knowledgeable Staff: yes

Overall Rating: excellent

The Dreaming is located on "The Ave" (University Way) in the University District of Seattle, between 52nd and 55th streets. It has a biker church on one side and a nail salon on the other IIRC. After backing into the angled parking space in front (or parking across the street) and stepping in under the awning, you can see the shop has two big windows that display a montage of comics characters: Usagi Yojimbo is there with Milk and Cheese (dairy products gone bad) and Hellboy, with Spider-man swinging through. Very nice art.

Pushing through the front door, the register/display counter is straight ahead and to your left, against the front windows, are two large display bookshelves holding the latest comic and game releases, with the current comics display bookshelves extending all the way down the far wall. Towards the back of the store, also on the far wall, are the graphic novels.

The RPGs take up the two shelves along the back wall and the next two bookshelves around the corner towards the front, with the indie games lower down on that shelf. Closer to the register on that wall is another bookshelf of mostly WotC products before you get to another section of graphic novels towards the front.

The glass topped display case/register table holds card games, computer programs and specialty items. Throughout the middle of the store are tables and display stands holding a variety of things, from Dr. Who books to models to back issues in storage boxes. The "used" RPG section is mostly discounted game items rather than actual used products and is towards the back wall near the other gaming books.

The RPG section has a large variety of indie games, as well as Savage Worlds, World of Darkness, Shadowrun, GURPS, Call of Cthulhu, WotC products (3rd and 4th editions) and more.

Aaron, the owner, is friendly, knowledgeable and more than willing to special order things for you or put you on a list for soon-to-be-released items or help you find things from his inventory. For the most part, the store is family friendly, but on at least two occasions language and subject matter among the customers were *ahem* spicy.

Several RPG notables are said to frequent the Dreaming and I'll leave you to figure out which ones. On the whole, the Dreaming is, in my honest opinion, one of the top two game shops in the Seattle area. Next time you are in town, check it out.