PUCA PUCA
Derry board game shop 'Púca Púca' has a natural role of success with their weekly 'Dungeons and Dragons' nights.
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00:00I am Natasha I am one of the two founders of Pukka Pukka Games so it's
00:08myself my partner Ciarán we opened the shop about six months ago now so here we
00:13are in Pukka we're in the shop side so it's split in two we have our shop where
00:19you can buy like all things nerdy hobby related and then our cafe where you can
00:23play all things nerdy related so at the minute we're in the quieter side tonight which is the shop.
00:29Can you tell me a wee bit about your game nights because they sell out it seems like every week and you don't really hear much about that stuff like that in there.
00:36Yeah so tonight is Wednesday which is our Dungeons and Dragons night which is
00:40kind of what we're talking about specifically tonight yeah it's we do a
00:45different like event every single day of the week and we're adding more and more
00:48to it we're adding more during the days and stuff as well particularly coming in
00:51the summer for like younger people but we do like board games on a Monday
00:54Tuesdays we do Flesh and Blood and Yu-Gi-Oh TCG Wednesdays is D&D Thursdays we do a
01:00couple of different trading card games like Lurkana which is a new Disney one
01:03and Cardfight Vanguard Friday's Friday Night Magic which is probably the most
01:08it's the oldest card game so probably one of the most popular and then we do a
01:11Junior League for Pokemon on Saturday and Saturday Night is the adult Pokemon and Sunday we do like Warhammer and Chess as well
01:19but D&D yeah it was it was kind of a surprise to me how quickly D&D took off
01:23like I knew it was popular but I didn't know quite how popular it was gonna be a
01:27lot of people have credited that to things like Stranger Things or Young
01:32Sheldon and the Big Bang Theory or the new Baldur's Gate game and stuff as well
01:35it's just very topical at the minute like D&D is just it's kind of in the
01:39cultural zeitgeist at the minute so it seems to have really really taken off and I feel
01:43like it's a really like one of the things that the people who make it
01:47Wizards of the Coast says like don't get bogged down in the rules like just jump
01:50in and play it and I think that it's a really good entry point for anyone who
01:53wants to get into that type of hobby for that reason it's just you can just
01:57jump in and get going
02:23I know it's an impossible question to ask but for someone who might not know what D&D is, could you explain it?
02:37yeah so I kind of jokingly say that D&D is pretend with rules for adults and it
02:44is kind of like what's the name of those games the ones where like you it's like
02:51one of the original video games is like where the text adventures it's kind of
02:55like a text adventure but you have your dungeon master who is almost like a
02:59performer in a way they take you through that create the world so they'll sort of
03:03describe a room to you they'll like you're in this type of room and maybe
03:07there's like a locked box in the corner and you've been given clues along the
03:11way and then there's puzzles within this world and challenges and like monsters
03:15and things like that but over action there's like a mystery usually that you
03:20have to solve and you're on an adventure with your friends and you get
03:24to design your character you design them in a race based on certain rules and
03:28characteristics and you use those abilities that that character has to
03:32like try and solve this mystery. Hi my name is Kira I'm the store DM here at
03:39Bookapooka Games. Can you tell me what a DM is? I know it's a difficult question to ask.
03:47The Dungeon Master is basically the person who kind of oversees the campaign they're the one
03:53that kind of weaves the story together most of the time they will guide the
03:59players through the adventure whether it's a pre-made adventure or one the DM
04:04has come up with themselves and prepped on their own. The DM is just there to tell
04:10the players what happens. My approach is to let the players have as much fun as
04:29possible I generally find the best way to do that is by letting them do what
04:35they want to do like say if I have if the characters are all in a library say
04:41and one of them decides that they want to set the library on fire a lot of my
04:46nine times out of ten I will allow them to do that if somebody decides that they
04:54kill a character and decide that they want to be like a tooth collector I will
04:59let them do that and I will be like okay let's roll the dice to see how many
05:04teeth you managed to collect I've had that happen it's an ongoing thing it's
05:08one of my favorite things that's going on at the minute I have to make
05:11characters have as many teeth as possible
05:15so would you not be too strict on the rules because I know in D&D the rules are just kind of like a guideline so you're not going to be a straitjacket would you be more lax on the rules?
05:27I try to be lax on the rules most of the time. There are some rules that sometimes I do just like
05:32to ignore. Generally rule of cool and rule of funny are what you would want to
05:38ascribe to as a DM or what I tend to follow as a DM.
05:42How do you strike the balance between telling a story that you have in your head and allowing players that freedom?
05:50honestly that is one of the main challenges of it it's just finding like
05:55as you say striking the balance it's such a hard question to answer really
06:03it's depending on some players prefer like more combat focused adventures where
06:13other people really prefer the role-playing and the storytelling so I
06:16do try to incorporate a bit of both in each campaign for the longer ongoing
06:23campaigns I try to I do let people know in advance like yeah hey tonight's is
06:28gonna be it's gonna be lots of combat or tonight's gonna be more about the
06:32role-playing side of things and I just I just try to like have plenty of both to
06:39have a nice balance.
06:41Last question, if you were to give tips to someone who was deciding to become a DM what would you say to them?
06:49just have fun with it honestly just don't stress the rules are good but
06:55honestly like they're not the all-end-all you don't want to get too
06:59pedantic about rules just have fun with it.
07:01Do you play yourself?
07:03I have played I haven't had enough time to play since opening the store.
07:08I dabbled in it a little bit before opening the store it was something I really wanted to get into and I've been wanting to try for a long time which is something we hear quite a lot of like I've wanted to try D&D for such a long time but I just don't know where to start.
07:18So whenever we decided to start taking people in for D&D one of the things we did was we hired Kiera our store DM because she has the expertise in it so I have played a few times and I really really enjoy it.
07:30I play a tiefling called Violet which I think a lot of people like tieflings because of Critical Role which is a very popular D&D like podcast or YouTube channel and stuff but yes Kiera is kind of her expert so we brought her in for that reason because she would know more about it I suppose.
07:48What kind of age groups do you mostly get in there?
07:50So all of our events it's really anywhere anyone between like the late teens so like 16, 17, 18 right up until 40s like we've had 50s even 60s we've had older people come in as well we've had anyone from like their 20s to their 60s come in plus like people of all age ranges.
08:13We're going to be doing a junior D&D campaign coming this summer though because a lot of kids are now really interested in it as well probably because of Stranger Things too and just again it's just it's everywhere at the minute you know you're watching YouTube or anything people are talking about it so we're starting a D&D junior league during the summer for littler ones and it'll be more targeted at them you know.
08:34I know some of the content can be a bit more dark sometimes so we'll make sure that it's nice and light like there's a really popular father on TikTok who does videos he plays with his two daughters and he creates the world for them I think they play as like My Little Pony type characters and stuff it's really really sweet and they're like you know solving puzzles to do with like fairies and stuff rather than like dark monsters so we're gonna sort of target a campaign.
09:04at like a really much younger audience like eight-year-olds ten-year-olds and then we'll do one specifically for teens as well because one of the big parts of our store is about like community and getting people together to help meet people so we want teens to be able to meet other teens as well so especially because a lot of parents come to us and they're quite often like my little one they're into the nerdier stuff and they tend to hide themselves away in the room quite a lot so I kind of want to get them out get them meeting people and stuff and I I feel like this is a really
09:34great way to make those nerdier hobbies social which they are or not it is anyway especially with online gaming and stuff as well but I think this is a way to get people in person together playing them as well
09:45What's it like, how do you feel cultivating a community like this for lack of a better word and this kind of community that you're expecting here in Derry? What's the kind of feelings that you have when you bring all the people together and they're here in your shop? What do you feel when you see the day like it's here with all these puzzles?
10:02Yeah so when we first opened we actually had quite a lot of, we were kind of expecting it to start slow and sort of build it over time but we kind of started off with a bit of a bang and a lot of people were like Derry has been crowded for this sort of thing so it seemed that there was a lot of little pocket communities in Derry and then there was quite a lot of people that were like you know seeking community and stuff as well that have started to come to our store and it is so lovely and so heartwarming to see like I've had, we do a women in gaming night and stuff and I've had like one of the women that came up to me come and tell me that they've been
10:32to Derry and she was like I'm so grateful because now we're organising like nights out together and like we've like we're a proper friend group like we have our own group chat, most of the D&D groups in here that have like their own discord like for their particular group as well and like people have made friendships and there's even been like a couple of romances that have blossomed and I always joke I'm like I want credit in the women buyers place but it is so lovely to see. It is something that I feel growing up I would have absolutely loved you know to be able to meet other people with similar interests and
11:02similar hobbies and stuff as well so it is really really lovely to see all of
11:06the friendships grow and all of our staff in here will probably tell you as
11:10well we also like feel like we're friends with everyone that comes in too
11:13like sometimes people pop in just because they're walking past and you'll
11:16chat like I would say I know about 70% of our customers by name like just because
11:21they're always coming in even just where we chat and it's so lovely getting to know everyone. It's been really nice, it's been really rewarding.
11:28Hi, my name is Daniel and I've been coming here for a while and I've been playing D&D for a long enough time, a few years at this point, several years actually.
11:42Can you tell me a little bit about the player experience in Dungeons & Dragons?
11:48I haven't really touched much on that here yet.
11:50Differences between playing D&D?
11:52What's the player experience, especially maybe is it someone new coming to D&D?
11:56The player experience is good, the player experience is good.
12:00Essentially you make a character and you play the character and you do all that
12:03but it's essentially you're taking through the adventure that they set up for you,
12:08taking through what's going on for you but you do have a lot of control over
12:11where your own character goes in their own story and everything like that but
12:15it's more, you still have a lot of control and it is still very fun to be a player
12:21especially because there's a lot of different ways you can play it
12:24especially when there's other people in the party and the abilities and the chances
12:30you have for just fun and roleplay, it multiplies, it's great.
12:34That's very funny.
12:55Tell me a bit about that first night, did you first proper D&D night?
13:01I'm trying to think back on it, it's not really that long ago but it's all been kind of a blur.
13:08When was it?
13:10So we opened in mid-December and I think D&D was one of the first things that we got off the ground
13:15so trading card games were probably the first because my partner, he jokes that the reason
13:20he opened a store so that he could play Flesh and Blood, he's very into trading card games.
13:24But yeah, D&D, I know that we weren't expecting it to start off with a bang when it did
13:30and now when people come in we know who's group they're going to, we have different DMs
13:36and we'll be like, oh you're part of Daniel's group, you're part of David's group,
13:39you're with Ciara and we'll sort of filter them in but when they first came in
13:42nobody had a group, it was all just individuals and you would sort of go down
13:46and you could see everyone was really nervous and you would go down and you'd be like,
13:49hey is this your first time in, do you have a group, are you a new player or are you an experienced player
13:54and then you would go over to people who would be like, yeah I'm a DM, I'm here to DM today
13:59and you'd be like, hey do you want to take on this player?
14:02And eventually we did that over time and people sort of established their groups.
14:06There was one DM in particular, Ciaran, he would run a one-shot every single week for new players,
14:10he was such a fantastic help to the store and to the community,
14:15he really helped get a lot of people comfortable with the game and stuff as well.
14:19So yeah, it was a lot of people on their own who were quite nervous coming in
14:23but now everyone knows each other and there is the groups formed and stuff
14:27and the friendships formed and stuff as well, so it's really nice.
14:30Last question, it's very kind of you, are we good to ready?
14:34What do you see in the future for your D&D nights and your game nights?
14:38So our game nights, we're always adding to.
14:41We've kind of run out of nights in the week though at this point,
14:45so we're trying to add stuff during the day, not even just nerdy stuff as well,
14:48we do an art knitting crochet day, we do a sketchers club,
14:52we're going to start a book club and a just chatting club as well
14:56because one of the things that a lot of people have said is like,
14:58I'm not particularly nerdy but I really want that sense of community,
15:01that ability to come in and meet people, so just like a wee club to come in and just chat and meet people.
15:05So we're always adding to it, we have bed laid coming up as well,
15:08which is really exciting, I know a lot of people played it when they were younger
15:11but yeah, we're adding to it all the time and we would love to see all of the different groups grow more.
15:16Some of them have really blossomed over the last while
15:19and we really have the community to thank for that,
15:22like that's not myself and Ciarán, that is definitely the community,
15:25like they say it takes two consistent players to really help build the community
15:30and I've seen that in action, people call them community heroes or community leaders
15:34and they've been amazing, like we would not be where we are without those people in the store
15:39and I could name so many people from all of our different nights that have really, really helped in that way.
15:43So we would love to see them all grow more
15:46and we would love to start doing things with younger people too
15:49because that's an audience that I would really love to capture as well,
15:53particularly coming into the summer because again, I was a nerdy kid growing up
15:56and it's nice to meet other nerdy people I guess
16:00and sort of make those friendships and stuff as well and just feel that sense of community.