Friends in Forks: A Geek’s Guide to Gathering in Grand Forks

Making new friends can be difficult, especially if you hate leaving the comforts of home, like I do. It’s casting a wide net into the sea, hoping that at least one of the beautiful fish you reel in is just as awkward and weird as you are. You’ll meet countless people in your lifetime, many of whom will come and go, but sometimes you’ll meet those especially strange people we get to call our friends. When I first moved to Grand Forks, I relied heavily on video, tabletop and card games when making new friends. I thought that if people shared an interest in gaming with me, I could easily segue into other topics, and games provided time to have casual conversation.

Now imagine you’ve just moved to Grand Forks, North Dakota. New faces, new places, and a whole new sea to fish in. So you don’t have to, I’ve braved the outside world in order to clue you in to some of the easiest places to make new friends. Let’s take a look at some of the most welcoming spots and activities in Grand Forks!

Cool name, right? Broken Sentry has been around Grand Forks for about as long as I have, having opened in 2016. They specialize in board games and tabletop games, and have an incredibly knowledgeable and friendly staff who will walk you through any game you’d like to learn about. If you grab a game from their free-to-play shelf, they’d probably even play a game with you; that’s how welcoming these wonderful people are. It’s not uncommon to see folks playing Dungeons & Dragons, Warhammer 40k, Magic the Gathering, or a variety of board games when perusing their wares. Broken Sentry was one of the first places I went to meet new people, and they helped introduce me to some of my closest friends.

Comic books, video games, vinyl records and live music. Hot dog, sausage and waffle buffets. These things can all be found at DogMahal, one of Grand Forks’ most unique hangouts. One could spend hours soaking in the vibe and rifling through their shelves. They are constantly putting on fun events, like their annual DogmaFest and Halloween music festivals which can draw up to 28 bands in a single day, some coming from as far as Japan! I don’t know about you, but spending a day reading comics and listening to live music sounds pretty rad.

Grand Cities Games is one of Grand Forks’ oldest game stores, having opened in 2006. They host and sell card games, tabletop games, comics, and anything else you need for game night. This is the place to go for individual cards you’ll need for your Magic: The Gathering, Pokémon, or Yu-Gi-Oh! decks. They even have something they call a “pull-list”, which means you can tell them which comics you’re interested in and they’ll set them aside for you as they are released, so you can pick them up at your leisure. They have table-space for anyone to come in and play whatever type of games they’d like, and even have free-to-use terrain for games like Warhammer 40K. Want to try a new game? Like other places on this list, they also have oodles of board games that are free for customers to stop in and play.

I’m a big library fan. Funny thing is, I never used to be, but after I heard that I could rent video games (and the consoles to play them) at a library completely free of charge, it was a game-changer, pun intended. Little did I know, I had barely scratched the surface of all that Grand Forks Public has to offer. They have an entire calendar that is completely packed with events and interesting things to do. There’s genre-specific book clubs for murder-mystery, comics, manga, and more. There’s drop-in chess games. There’s a Lego Club. There’s weekly pre-school story time in the morning and bi-weekly trivia at night. They even have a slide that takes you from the second to first floor of their building. If you want to imbibe in both brews and books, my personal favorite is the Pints and Pages Book Club, which works together with Half Brothers Brewing company for a monthly conversation. Get a library card and get after it.

With a perfect location inside River Cinema Movie Theatres (who were recent hosts of the local Comic-Con), Hollywood Heroes features the best of movies and pop-culture. They sell comics and memorabilia, and for those looking to make new friends, they host the True Believers movie club, which gets together to share in the traditional movie-going experience. Excelsior!

So far this article has mentioned only brick-and-mortar hangouts. But as we all know, nerddom cannot be held within the confines of IRL gaming. Grand Forks has an incredible eSports ecosystem which has been exploding with growth in recent years, and we would be remiss if we didn’t mention some of the folks making it happen. One of those at the forefront is University of North Dakota, which recently unveiled their eSports Nexus as part of their Wellness Center facilities. It features twelve top-of-the-line gaming PC’s that are free to use for students and Wellness Center members. UND also hosts an annual Drone Racing competition, which brings students from all across the country for a day of high-velocity entertainment

Another Grand Forks company, Fenworks, offers eSports hosting and coaching to local schools, which provides STEM.org accredited, inclusive programming. They also host a state championship, where each participating school’s eSports program will have an opportunity to take home the state title!

Finally, the Grand Forks Airforce Base has their own eSports gaming lounge! Many people are unaware that the United States Airforce has it’s own competitive eSports teams. Though it isn’t open to the public, it’s cool to know that our military uses games to promote mental acuity, fine motor skills, and critical thinking to our soldiers.