Goodbye Paragon Gaming Group! (A brief history of Odyssey and a farewell to Paragon!)

In Feb. of 2003 I had no idea what I was getting into when I opened "Odyssey Collectibles" a comic and toy store in South Daytona, Florida.

Within a few weeks I had many requests for gaming, and before long we changed our name to "Odyssey GameShop" and began to stock games such as Warhammer 40k and MageKnight. Within a few months a local gaming community took roots and our focus went completely to gaming.

During that time we made a lot of friends, some of which still are good friends now, nearly 6 years later. I remember Wil, Chris, Chalen and James all coming in for the first time. Wil had an interest in Board Games, Chris in historic WWII era games. James was into Necromunda and Chalen into RPG's. Before long all of our different interests merged and we formed a group called "Odyssey Gaming Group".

Many other people would join our group. I remember the first day I saw Ricky, I think he was 14 years old and moved to the states from England. He was the only 'kid' other than my son we had in our group because he was a very experienced and mature player for his age.

Some players left... James moved to Jacksonville, Chalen found the wonders of online gaming in the Star Wars universe.  Games came and went, but there was alway a core group of founding members who stayed on in one form or another. Special thanks to Wil, Ricky, Chris, James and Nate for all those years of gaming.

Near the end of 2004, only two years after opening. We closed our doors. Despite the fun we had, the money generated was not enough to justify the rent on a 1,000 square food gaming area, and although I enjoyed my time there, it was not a smart business move to keep our doors open.

In 2005 we offically disbanded "Odyssey Gaming Group" and reformed as "Paragon Gaming Group", focusing on games such as Warhammer 40k and Fantasy, RPG's such as Dungeon's and Dragons, and Board Games like Axis and Allies and Conquest of the Empire.

The group went strong for almost three more years, until now I am finding myself leaving my group of friends and moving across country to start a new life for my family and my children. We have wanted to move for such a long time, and although I'll miss my weekly gaming sessions, it is the best move to make for my family and my career.

These guys have been a lot of fun over the last 5 years and I will always cherish the memories of gaming with this neat group of players. I hope to be able to keep in touch with them all after I move, and hope I am able to locate another group of players that I can fit into as nicely as these guys.