This is my go to hobby store! I love this place and am happy to see that they are back on their feet after the fire that burned down their old building. They have everything from Games Workshop models, paints, terrain, Board games, Magic: The Gathering and other CCG. They mainly specialize in Magic: TG and Games Workshop Warhammer 40k models, but also carry a lot of other miniature lines. Did I also mention that they have some of the best prices around! The best part about this store is that I have never seen anywhere else is they offer a 25% discount on all Games Workshop products. Paints, Model kits, Books, etc. It’s really a great way for you to pick up some Warhammer 40k models at a decent price. Another great thing is that they truly love what they do!!! I can’t state that enough. Pam has been running it since I was in High school and first learned about the place. That was over 15 years ago, but the fire is still there and it shows. They have a huge gaming room for card players and terrain setup for the miniature games. If you are looking to get rid of some of your unwanted Magic: TG card’s they will offer you a very fair price and give you store credit for your turn in’s. The new store is clean, smells nice(unlike other pits I’ve played at) and offer sealed deck tournaments every week. So if you’re looking to make some new friends and enjoy a friendly environment with a great selection of hobby and games this is the place for you! Stop in and look around. The new store will not leave you disappointed. Don’t buy online and support your local hobby shop. You won’t regret it!
Samantha L.
Place rating: 5 Plymouth, MI
Staff was super helpful, friendly, and knowledgeable. Good amount of items and will do trade ins for magic cards. Board game selection is enormous! Will definitely be back.
Marshall E.
Place rating: 5 Livonia, MI
A really solid CCG store that I have been going to for a number of years.
Erica B.
Place rating: 5 Farmington Hills, MI
This is the best game store in Michigan. Period. They have a great selection of everything from board games to trivia games to card games and tabletop games. The staff is knowledgable and friendly and the prices are great. The owner knows how to run a great store and keeps up-to-date on the latest games and nerdiness.
Kevin G.
Place rating: 5 Westland, MI
Excellent friendly service and hands down the best gaming store in Michigan. I mainly play board games and RIW has the best inventory on the shelves. Recently the owner invested in a store expansion and redesign. Very comfortable and clean gaming area complete with big screen televisions. I always look forward to playing board games on Wednesday evenings with friends.
Robert C.
Place rating: 4 Clarkston, MI
Brilliant store with tons of stuff. Great selection of Magic the gathering stuff, Pathfinder/DnD stuff, and tabletop games. RIW is a serious host of MTG events, with separate gaming rooms for tabletop games and Magic. The MTG room is set up for about a hundred people and handles prereleases, releases, FNMs, and most recently SUPERIQ. RIW is a reliable source of Magic singles; it is most probable they will have what you need for deckbuilding. As an incredibly stingy butt, it bothers me a tad that they will sometimes charge $ 0.10 more than StarCity for commons, and sometimes double the cost of uncommons/rares. Commons are generally $ 0.25, $ 0.50-$ 1 for uncommons, and $ 3-up for rares. There is labor involved in sorting, but other MTG brick-and-mortar stores match internet prices just fine. Extensive dice selection — Chessex, giant D20s, full sets of Medium-sized polyhedrals, tiny ones, misc. Tabletop grids, scenery, lots and lots of stuff. It’s a very nice place to come play casually; their rooms are set up well, are spacious and comfortable. Player crowd is about the norm for MTG stores — not as friendly as Guild of Blades in Warren but that goes hand-in-hand with a larger store. Four stars based on the opinion of an MTGer and D&Der. Grab a smoothie from Tropical Smoothie down the road and then chill here. Yay!
Pete P.
Place rating: 4 Milan, MI
Nice gaming store… recently expanded and reemodeled. The game room is very nice with lots of tables and a big screen TV and comfortable couches in the corner. Mostly board games and not a lot of RPG. This is a great place for Magic and whatnot(not my cup of tea). But a great selection of many things! Pam does a really nice job with this store.
Joshua L.
Place rating: 4 High Ridge, MO
RIW is my FLGS. I make it a point to frequent this place whenever I am in the area because they host a board game night. Like most gaming shops their primary focus(and presumably income) focuses on CCGs but over the past few years their board game selection has expanded to be huge and amazing. The owner is often present and she(or any of her employees) will gladly look things up for you regarding availability and pricing of anything they don’t have in stock and will order on your behalf. There are several gaming areas both connected to the main store and next door where there are tons of events hosted. Whether it’s board games, netrunner, CCGs, minis, or role-playing, RIW has a night for it and though they certainly hope to get your business on those evenings, bringing your own games and just having an evening sharing them with other enthusiasts is encouraged — and all at no cost. If there’s a game or hobby you enjoy and you want to meet up with others in the Detroit suburbs who share your interest, RIW is worth a look. Check it out.
Amy A.
Place rating: 3 Maumee, OH
I went here last weekend and they are moving(right next door) /changing everything around. Their dice selection is now a fraction of what it used to be, which made me want to cry. That was the whole reason we stopped in(and to look at gaming books) It seems they are focusing on card, strategy and mini-based games. I guess that is okay, but for those who like their old pencil and paper gaming… I guess I will have to find a new place. Maybe once they are done moving etc, the book based games might make a come back, but that has yet to be seen.
Marshall L.
Place rating: 4 Ferndale, MI
RIW is my LGS of choice in the metro area. There was a time when i lived downtown and the 3LGS for tabletop gaming were all pretty much equidistant and i found myself more often than not driving out to livonia and RIW. I am a budget minded gamer and appreciate any discount i can get, whether its online or local. RIW has always offered discounts on their games workshop products(25% or so) and also on their privateer press products on nights that our gaming group meets there. They had great deals going on during U of M football season where you got the discount equal to the number of points U of M scored. They have a pretty nice selection, a wide variety of other smaller miniature makers, as well as a pretty respectable selection of hobby supplies and paints. And not to mention, they are the host store of our Privateer press gaming group, and open up their seperate gaming rooms for our use, as well as to host tournaments, etc… Pam(owner) is knowledgeable and i’ve found that when i had questions or needed to special order something, she has been very helpful. In regards to Carl A’s review, I’ve seen the same thing where the CCG folks crowd the table, and yes, sometimes you have to wait to check out, but i’ve never waited so long as to get aggravated over it, I mean its not like the employees are going to drop helping people with cards to ring you up. I also work retail so i am pretty sympathetic.
Carl A.
Place rating: 1 Brighton, MI
I hate to give a local store a single star; I really do. It pains me. But I’m sorry, RIW: you kinda deserve it. I’m a big-time board gamer. And when I moved back to my home state of Michigan after living in Arizona(where I started my love of board games), I knew I had to find a store that was as nice as my beloved game shop in the Phoenix area. I had high hopes for RIW: their selection is outstanding(probably outstripping my AZ reference point), they had lots of new releases, and they were in a fairly convenient location. But after visiting a few times, I began to have a sour taste in my mouth. See, they also sell CCGs, like Magic – and it’s obvious that not only is this their bread-and-butter, but also where they put their general attention. It got to the point where I’d take an item up to the counter to pay for it, or I’d step up there to ask a question, and it would take quite some time for the clerk to acknowledge me – since another customer was there with CCG stuff. I’d even had situations in which I’d enter the store, browse for a bit… and have the feeling like I’m being watched like a hawk, as though they think I’m going to steal something. I have no problem with a store wanting to make money, and if they make most of their money selling CCGs, then so be it. What I do have a problem with is when customers outside of that segment aren’t treated the same. It would be akin to a grocery store treating badly only people who buy frozen concentrated orange juice. In other words, their customer service just plain stinks. Beyond that, though, are their prices. After Christmas, I had some money burning a hole in my pocket. I surveyed some online retailers, and also wrote down MSRPs of the games in question.(Brick-and-mortar stores generally go MSRP, and I have no problem with that.) Thing is, RIW was consistently /higher/than even MSRP on every one of the games I’d considered. It was only a few dollars, but a few dollars on a $ 50 game adds up to 10%. To top it all off, I’m not even certain the owner(if that’s who the woman was) knows as much about board games as she claims. I’ve had her claim that a certain game was to be reprinted, when in fact it was a completely /different/game and a completely /different/timeframe. Not a huge issue, but if I were curious about plans for a game franchise(think Memoir ’44 or something), this might lead me quite astray. So, what it all boils down to is that RIW doesn’t seem to care about having customers who only buy board games. Their attitude toward the customers, their prices, and their general manner all support this. It’s too bad, really, since they seemed to hit the marks in other ways.(And lest you think I’m being too harsh on RIW and comparing it too much to my AZ reference point, know that I truly think that RIW simply falls down on its own merit, or lack thereof – it actually had a better selection comparatively.) It’s too bad, really, since I like shopping locally. But RIW has lost a customer in me. The sad thing is: they probably don’t care, since I don’t buy CCGs.
Big S.
Place rating: 5 Seattle, WA
Honestly, the western Detroit suburbs have more gaming related stores than I’ve ever seen. RIW is definitely in the upper echelon of these places. They don’t sell video games so put down that phone. They carry card games, miniatures, role playing and the like, now pick up the phone! They also have a section for coins and stamps, but I never paid much attention to that area. RIW seems to have found their niche. With all the other gaming stores in the area, they’ve managed to carve out a piece of the pie all their own. They love games and it shows. Sure they’ve got Magic, 40K, Confrontation, Yugi-Oh and the like, but they’ve also got a great selection of eclectic games and books that most other places don’t stock. Their staff is always friendly and knowledgeable. This isn’t their job, it’s their passion. They’ve even expanded to opening play areas for tournaments and other events in the adjoining storefronts. Parking is pretty good and they have extra spots in back if you don’t see any open ones up front. They also have a really good Chinese restaurant(by MidWest standards) across the street and a Burger King nearby in case you’re in the middle of an event and need sustenance.