Dungeons & Flagons offers ‘premium’ tabletop experience

Colton Hughes learned interior design by crafting the relaxing, classical, element-themed rooms at Element Massage, the downtown Lansing massage parlor he has run for 10 years.

His next venture? A dungeon.

It started with extra space. He was renting Suite B in the Atrium building’s garden level as an expansion of Element Massage, which takes up Suite A. But that meant three rooms and a lobby, and Element only needed two rooms.

“I just had this extra room, and it was in spring that I was like, ‘Hey, what if?’” he said.

Hughes and co-owner Wyatt Russ will launch that space as Dungeons & Flagons with a grand opening on Thursday (Dec. 4). Hughes and Russ collaborated to create a premium venue for tabletop role-playing games, complete with over 600 miniatures, a custom-built table, a map with an overhead projector and an immersive, dungeon-inspired gaming room.

The grand opening will feature a costume contest; the winner gets a free game in the new space.

“Our target market is the group of people that want the most out of their D&D session,” Russ said. “We have all the bells and whistles.”

The space was crafted with the same focus on immersion as the themed rooms in Element Massage, the co-owners said.

“Massaging for so long, typically I was working in areas that were just a white room with an overhead light,” Russ said. “The people that come into Element and just marvel at it — we wanted that for this. We wanted people to step in and feel like, ‘Oh, this isn’t a garden-level suite in this building, this is a dungeon that we’re in.’”

Alongside a litany of decorations and features sure to please any long-time game master, the business offers for-rent dungeon masters for Dungeons & Dragons, the iconic tabletop roleplaying game.

Interested players can book games online. A two-hour room rental costs $160, while a 6-hour rental costs $340. Split among a 7-person group — the most the room can fit — that’s about $8 per person, per hour. It’s much higher than the typical D&D room-and-board price of free.

Hughes said the game room is meant to be a premium option and distinct from homes or game shops, where people often play for cheap or free. Hughes and Russ’ premium tabletop gaming experience is for those celebrating a final session or a birthday, or who just want to take their experience to the next level.

One group, celebrating a five-year campaign’s final session, has already booked the space, Hughes said.

The project aims to continue the revitalization of the historic Atrium building, the former Strand Theatre, which reopened as office and retail space in 1984. The opening of Dungeons & Flagons, and of Craig Ryan Fine Clothing in September, follows the in-progress Tower on Grand skyscraper, which is expected to be connected to the building via a walkway over Grand Avenue.

Hughes and Russ’ eyes gleam as they talk about their next steps: scavenger hunt “sidequests” to encourage people to explore the area, which they hope to debut in the spring, and the next parts of a three-phase plan for Dungeons & Flagons.

Their ultimate goal is to have a Renaissance faire-style medieval-themed tavern in Lansing. Alongside food and drink, the tavern would have a communal space for tabletop gaming as well as themed rooms like their dungeon room.

“That was always our lofty goal, and we just kind of figured, why not start small?” Hughes said. “So we started here.”