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Your Move: A Gaming Table Like You've Never Seen Before

Normally, furniture isn’t something I’d be talking much about on a segment dedicated to gaming. But where you play can be just as important as what you play.

A company called Geek Chic makes tables specifically for gamers - people who play board games, card games, or role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons, primarily.

These tables are completely handcrafted from American hardwoods in Seattle. At first glance, a Geek Chic table may simply look like a nice dining room table. However, you can slide the slats on the top off, and what you find underneath is what they call “The Vault"-- a recessed gaming surface. In there, you can play any of your favorite board games, and if you need to stop and pick back up later, you need only place the slats back on, keeping your game pieces safe until the next time you can play.

When you order one of their tables, they don’t ask you what you want. They ask you what you do and what you play. They ask how tall you and your family are. They ask about the room you will be putting the table in. Their goal is to make a table that suits you and your needs perfectly.

That’s not to say there aren’t options. Everything on these tables can be customized. You can get a drawer on the end of the table. For a bit extra, that drawer can also be a slide-out desk. There are cup holders and dice cups and even dice rollers that you can snap into the side of the table. They also sell chairs for the table that they guarantee will be comfortable for eight-hour gaming sessions.

Unfortunately, if you want one, you’re going to have to wait for it. Geek Chic’s backlogs are nearly a year long at this point, after being featured on ABC’s "Shark Tank" program. They also aren’t inexpensive: the company’s least expensive coffee table starts at about $1,800, and the top-of-the-line Sultan table can top out at more than $16,000.

Ultimately, I found my Geek Chic table worth the money. Besides the fact that it is a nice dining table, this is a table that will bring my friends and me together. We may not have more fun playing on this table, but we’ll be able to do it more often, which is something I just can’t put a dollar figure on.

Samuel McConnell is a games enthusiast who has been playing games in one form or another since 1991. He was born in northern Maine but quickly transplanted to Wichita.