Tenth Planet Games and Comics

The owners said an unexpectedly broad demographic of routine customers visit the shop. The expansion of the comic book and gaming culture may be more inviting to families, especially father-child gamers, co-owner Trevor Cantrell-Paulson said.

"A lot of people have stereotypes about gaming because, for a long time, it wasn't the most socially acceptable activity. But now there's this big cultural explosion of comic book movies and tabletop gaming that's becoming very socially acceptable and mainstream," he said. "It's kind of like this is a weird renaissance of the tabletop gaming industry. It's almost trendy."

The owners played games together for years before deciding to open Tenth Planet. The store is named after a recurring theme in science fiction media and has a few house rules, including "be excellent to one another" and "party on, dude."

"We started out as a gaming group, but we became friends, and I think we kind of represent our ideal customers," co-owner Jeanna Lundgren said. "We basically wanted to create the store we want to hang out in, and so this is our creation."

Robert Lundgren said they recently expanded the group gaming space and hope to introduce even more people to new games and comics. Official "Magic the Gathering" and "War Machine" groups—among others—meet weekly, sometimes drawing crowds of 40 or more players.

"The most surprising thing to me is probably how enthusiastic people are to support a local business around here," Cantrell-Paulson said. "People strongly identify with having their own local place. I almost feel like a bartender sometimes. It's like 'Cheers' except for gamers."

Tenth Planet Games and Comics, 200 S. Bell Blvd., Ste. F-1, Cedar Park, 506-8500, www.tenthplanetstore.com