POCATELLO — You can be anything at Gate City Games — a half-vampire knight or even a flirtatious Orc ranger named “Holly Monster.”

The local game store is celebrating six years in the community and continuing to welcome gamers, hobbyists and anyone looking to form lasting friendships.

“I always wanted to have my own game store,” said Scott Van Der Horn, co-owner of Gate City Games. “Sci-fi, fantasy literature, that kind of stuff, has always been a big thing for me. I just loved the idea of the friendly local game store.”

Van Der Horn and his team got their start in an awkwardly shaped former chiropractor’s office, selling board games and merchandise from popular franchises including Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: The Gathering, Pokemon and Warhammer.

They have since expanded to their current location at 777 Yellowstone Ave., Suite A, where nearly six years later they have cultivated a passionate and dedicated clientele that often views the store as a second home — or at least a fantastical escape from reality.

“The biggest growing point has always just been word of mouth, even over any other advertising, because our clientele that we’re trying to reach are not your normal customers,” Van Der Horn said. “They’re more of the geeks, the nerds, or people just looking for a board game to play with their family.”

It has always been Van Der Horn’s and the Gate City Games staff’s vision to create a family-friendly, safe environment for everyone.

“That’s the most important rule in our store,” Van Der Horn said. “Respect each other, respect the store, respect yourself, respect the game.”

That respect starts with the employees, who are often the first face a new customer sees.

One of those welcoming faces is sales associate Rhi Boswell, who in addition to her regular duties participates in social games like Dungeons & Dragons and helps customers create their characters.

“I think D&D is really cool, because it gives you a chance to escape from the everyday,” Boswell said. “Who wouldn’t want to spend four hours fighting dragons and killing monsters? It’s also a time to interact with your friends in ways that you don’t normally get to. I think today we are so heavily focused on technology that being able to remove ourselves from that and interact with people face to face is such a reward. It’s amazing for my mental health and my husband’s and I think it makes my friendships stronger. D&D is a really fun way to use your imagination too.”

Much like Van Der Horn’s Orc ranger “Holly Monster,” Boswell created her own Dungeons & Dragons character — “Yeda,” a Dwarf cleric who bludgeons her enemies with a frying pan.

In the game, players build a character based on a combination of factors such as species, class, background and personality. From there, a dungeon master creates scenarios for the players to navigate — cavernous dungeons, lush forests or enchanted kingdoms — with the possibilities limited only by the participants’ imaginations.

“D&D gives people the chance to be what they want to be,” Boswell said. “My husband plays a half-vampire knight.”

Gate City Games hosts several Dungeons & Dragons groups throughout the week, ranging from sessions primarily for adults to adventuring parties filled with teenagers and younger children.

“It’s so wholesome to see,” Boswell said. “If somebody wants to come in, I would encourage them to. We can help them make a character.”

Boswell said she has watched young customers who started out shy and awkward grow in confidence and friendship over time.

“My own confidence has grown here, not just in working here, but being a customer here as well,” Boswell said. “There’s a sense of community that Gate City Games has. Our friend who moved to Oregon said that coming into Gate City Games is one of the few things he misses about Idaho, because it felt like coming into an episode of Friends or Cheers. Everybody knows your name, everybody wants to talk to you. It’s our own jolly little place and we love having new people. We always want new people to come in and hang out and vibe with us.”

For Joshua Ghan, who has lived in Pocatello for four years and visits Gate City Games three or four times a week, the connection to the store’s culture was immediate.

His primary hobby is the tabletop game Warhammer 40K, which he describes as what you would get if “Risk and Chess had a baby, the baby had superpowers, and everybody’s evil.”

When Ghan first walked into Gate City Games, co-owner Tambra Lockheart grabbed him by the arm, pulled him to the Warhammer table and began making introductions. Despite never having met Lockheart — or anyone at the table — before that moment, Ghan quickly felt at home.

“The biggest reason that I like coming here is because the community is open, friendly and inviting to new members,” Ghan said. “There’s multiple different sub-communities here, but they all intermingle well with each other. I felt like I was immediately part of the group.”

Van Der Horn has also watched his customers grow and change in the six years since Gate City Games opened.

“Just seeing kids that were with us when they were younger, just starting high school, and now they’re married and having kids of their own,” Van Der Horn said. “They’re still coming into the store to play and hang out, and eventually, maybe their kids will too. We give them that opportunity to get out and connect with people in the community.”

Mondays and Tuesdays are open play at Gate City Games. Wednesdays are dedicated to Warhammer, with Magic: The Gathering nights on Thursdays and Fridays. Magic: The Gathering draft nights are held every Saturday. A Warhammer painting-centric event called Battle the Gray is the event scheduled for the third Saturday each along with a variety of other special events and tournaments scheduled throughout the year.

Gate City Games has committed to a booth at Mystic Realms Fantasy Fair, a summer Renaissance gathering scheduled for the end of June. The store has also been in talks with organizers of Gate City Pride, whose members are active participants in the store’s Thursday night Dungeons & Dragons group.

“We are accepting of everyone, as long as they are kind,” Boswell said. “We don’t care about color, creed or bubblegum flavor, we just want you in here hanging out.”

For more information on scheduled events or to purchase items, visit gatecitygames.us.