The Dice Latte serves up adventure
The Dice Latte co-owner Joey Croner serves up drinks and snacks at his RPG and board game cafe. / Photo by Le Linh.
By Jon Dunbar
Mythical creatures such as giants, hydras and gelatinous cubes are rarely sighted in Seoul, but if you ever want to slay one, The Dice Latte in northeastern Seoul has everything you need.
Opened in June 2015 near Hoegi Station, this board game cafe caters to gamers of all kinds, offering not just board games but also dice-based role-playing games (RPGs) such as Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) and card games such as “Magic: The Gathering.”
“We're the only one I know of where we have RPGs,” said Joey Croner, who co-owns it with his wife. “I have about 500 games right now, games and expansions. There's still a lot of work to do on it.”
Croner, originally from Idaho, worked at Sookmyung Women’s University and Korea University before opening The Dice Latte. He mostly runs it himself, with a couple part-timers to back him up during busy hours. They serve snacks and drinks, including coffee and beer.
Their clientele comes from all walks of life, both foreign and Korean, male and female, and they play in multiple languages.
“Ninety percent of my clientele is Korean, as I’m located near three Korean universities,” he said. “Maybe 75 percent of the walk-in clientele is female.”
Of course many of his regulars are foreigners, but they’re more of a revolving door.
“The (foreigners) that first started coming when I first opened, maybe one or two are still left in Korea,” he said.
Due to the collaborative nature of these RPGs, Croner plans a lot of events at his cafe and gives incentives to dungeon masters who run RPG campaigns.
Wednesday is always D&D night, which he says has a pretty good crowd.
On Thursdays, they hold language exchange events, allowing gamers to practice their language skills in a game setting.
Fridays are when they encourage new players to come and try an RPG they’ve never played before.
“You get people who really want to try playing RPGs, but they're a little shy and think people won't have patience for them,” he said. “But everyone's always so happy to have new players. They're very supportive.”
This Sunday, they’re organizing long D&D campaigns starting as early as 10 a.m. There is a 10,000 won entry fee and some of the money goes toward the SickKids Foundation.
“What I like more than games is how the games bring people together,” Croner said. “It's a pretty good community. A lot of it was already there when I started. Through the business I've been able to help make it grow.”
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