Visiting the nerdy stores (General Nerdery, Midnight Oil, and The Troll Market)
Enjoyers of nerdy things. Beware, your wallets if you go to Lancaster Pa. There’s a ton of amazing nerdy stores that support their local community.
Yesterday, I went on a day trip to Lancaster, Pennsylvania to see the Lancaster Troll Market, General Nerdery, and the Midnight Oil.
Overall all these places were fantastic and I highly suggest them if you are interested in renaissance, medieval fantasy, anime, comics, ttrpgs, and board games.
The First Nerdy Store: Lancaster Troll Market
The troll market was a fantastic vibe. It felt like the spot to go prep for a renaissance faire or just get general nerd stuff. They had entire renaissance fair outfits, potion holders, calligraphy/fountain pens that look like knives, crochet cuthlus and crochet beholders, a large selection of dice and dice towers, board games, a selection of teas, steampunk items, figurines and a figurine painting area. They even had rooms that you could rent out for a good price 3.5 hours for $60. The throne room had 6 seats. The tavern room could hold at least 12 people rather easily. So I think it would be great to run ttrpg campaigns with friends in them and just splitting the costs.
The most amazing thing was all the local artists tags and branding all over each section. It was nice seeing the people behind each little section of the store. Seeing a store that supports local artists was amazing.
After making our purchases, we signed the big leather tome right beside the checkout.
Overall fantastic vibe, and would love to rent it out to run a ttrpg oneshot in one of the rooms.
The 2nd Nerdy Store: The General Nerdery
The General Nerdery is on the second floor and you go up a staircase decorated with a murals and other pieces of art. They have a large selection of comics, books, stickers and pins in the front. Gachapons, figurines, and board games on your left. To your right there’s a large selection of minis and materials to prep your minis.
They even highlight local authors and artists as well. There’s a pole that acts like a community board with local events as well as requests for game masters and other ways to help the community.
They provided a list of other nerdy things to do in the area as well as other local stores to try out after going. I plan to go to the local thrift stores and handcrafted clothing.
The Midnight Oil
This board game cafe had a really cozy vibe. Each drink had a really cool cup and coaster. The tea I had was fantastic. There was a big calendar of all the events for the month as well as cards of more local stores and events.
They had a really cute merch like a cat mug, coaster with the midnight oil icon. There was a really big bookshelf wall of board games that you could play and people playing magic the gathering games. The bathroom had some funny memes and spotify playlists to recommend.
It was a fantastic vibe to end my nerdy trip to Lancaster.
The City with a Sprinkle of Home
The fact that all the stores were showing support of local authors, artists, events, and each other really made it feel more like a community. Lancaster felt like a city with a sprinkle of a cozy community.
I highly recommend going to try these nerdy stores if there of any interest to you.