We sell fun.
Red Raccoon Games is an award-winning, locally owned tabletop game store in historic Downtown Bloomington, Illinois. For 20 years, we've been helping people find new games, meet new friends, and build communities around the games they love.
Today, Red Raccoon is one of Illinois' largest tabletop game stores, with more than 5,000 products in stock. Our shelves are packed with board games, role-playing games, trading card games, miniatures and miniature games, dice, paints and hobby supplies, children's games, puzzles, geek culture items, and plenty of things you probably didn't know you needed until you walked through the door.
But the games on the shelves are only part of what Red Raccoon is about.
A Game Store Built Around Community
On any given week, you'll find people at Red Raccoon playing Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: The Gathering, Pokémon, Warhammer, One Piece TCG, board games, role-playing games, miniatures games, and much more.
We host more than 60 events every month, ranging from casual learn-to-play events and weekly leagues to competitive tournaments and large regional events. Whether you've been gaming for 30 years or don't know the difference between a d20 and a Pikachu, you're welcome here.
Our staff isn't here just to ring up purchases. We call them Gameologists™. They're gamers, teachers, collectors, hobbyists, and professional game recommenders. Tell us who you're shopping for, what you've enjoyed before, or what kind of experience you're looking for, and we'll help you find something you'll love.
Our Story
The store began in 2006 as Gryfalia's Aerie, founded by Ken & Kristi Roth in Downtown Bloomington.
Jamie and Kelly Mathy purchased the store in 2014 and renamed it Red Raccoon Games in July 2015. Since then, Red Raccoon has grown dramatically — in inventory, staff, events, and especially in the community of people who call the store their gaming home.
In 2026, we celebrated 20 years of gaming in Bloomington-Normal, and we're still growing. We're working toward the next chapter of Red Raccoon Games, using our new location with substantially more room for gaming, events, and the community we've built over the past two decades.
More Than a Game Store
We believe games can do more than entertain us. They bring people together, teach problem-solving and cooperation, create friendships, and give people a place to belong.
That's why Red Raccoon has made supporting local schools, libraries, educators, and community organizations a major part of what we do.
Each year, we donate approximately 2,000 dice to area summer reading programs and other educational activities. Over the past eight years alone, that's roughly 16,000 dice put into the hands of young readers and gamers.
Our education and community partnerships have expanded beyond Bloomington to include organizations and schools throughout Bloomington, Normal, Carlock, Heyworth, Towanda, and the surrounding communities.
We offer educators a special discount, work with school gaming clubs, support school carnivals and community events, and make games available to qualifying schools and libraries at our cost. We've also worked with educators exploring how tabletop games can be used for Gameful Learning in the classroom.
For us, supporting gaming means supporting the community around it.
An Award-Winning Local Business
We're proud that both our community and the tabletop gaming industry have recognized what our team has built.
Red Raccoon Games was named:
- 2024 GAMA Power Retailer Award — Retailer of the Year
- 2017 McLean County Chamber of Commerce Micro Business Excellence Award
- Multiple-time Pantagraph Readers' Choice winner for Best Hobby Store, Best Toy Store, and Best Place for Gaming
Those awards mean a lot to us, but we're even prouder of the thousands of people who have walked through our doors, joined a campaign, learned a new game, attended their first tournament, brought their kids in to pick out their first set of dice, or simply found a place where they felt welcome.
Gaming Is Better Together
Red Raccoon Games has changed a lot since 2006, and we're nowhere near finished.
You can shop thousands of games and hobby products, join one of our 60+ monthly events, listen to the Red Raccoon Radio podcast, learn something completely new, or just stop in and ask us what we've been playing lately.
Whether you're a lifelong gamer or you're buying your very first game, we'd love to have you be part of the Red Raccoon community.
Red Raccoon Games. We sell fun. Come play!