How Different Games Bring Social, Emotional, and Mental Health Benefits to the Community

Tabletop gaming isn't just a pastime — in Cornwall, it's becoming one of the most accessible, judgement-free ways to build social skills, regulate emotions, and protect mental wellbeing for all ages.

When people walk through our door at 8 Coinagehall Street in Helston, they often expect a shop. What they find is something a bit different: a room full of people rolling dice, painting miniatures, laughing over a board game, or quietly learning to manage their feelings through a carefully guided roleplay session. We HAVE a shop — but we ARE NOT a shop. We're a community hub where games do quiet, powerful work.

Therapeutic tabletop gaming is at the heart of what we do, but the beauty of it is that different games support different needs. There's no single "right" game — there's the right game for the person in front of you. Here's how the games on our shelves each carry their own brand of wellbeing.

Warhammer 40,000 — Patience, Identity, and Belonging

Warhammer is the game that started Roll The Dice. Matt and Dave bonded over it, and it's still where many of our young people find their feet. Building and painting an army teaches patience, fine motor skills, and delayed gratification — you don't finish a Space Marine chapter in an afternoon. For a child who struggles to sit still or see a project through, that slow, visible progress is hugely validating.

But the bigger gift is belonging. When a young person fields "their" army on the table, they have an identity in the room. They're not the kid who finds school hard — they're the Orks player. That shift in self-image is everything.

Magic: The Gathering & Pokémon TCG — Thinking, Trading, and Social Confidence

Trading card games are brilliant for executive functioning: planning, sequencing, reading probability, adapting when a plan falls apart. A Pokémon TCG match is a live lesson in graceful losing and trying again. Magic: The Gathering adds deeper strategic thinking and deck-building — creativity wrapped in rules.

Crucially, TCGs are also social. Trading cards, chatting about pulls, helping someone tweak a deck — these are low-pressure conversations with a built-in topic. For neurodivergent young people and adults who find unstructured socialising exhausting, that shared focus is a lifeline.

Disney Lorcana — Low-Barrier, High-Engagement

Lorcana has quickly become one of our most welcoming entry points. The Disney theme is familiar and joyful, which lowers the emotional barrier to trying something new. It's ideal for players — especially younger ones or anxious newcomers — who want the strategy of a TCG without the intensity of a long-established competitive scene.

Dungeons & Dragons and Critical Core — Emotional Regulation in Disguise

D&D gets the headlines, but the therapeutic version — Critical Core, developed by the Game to Grow charity — is where the real SEMH work happens. It looks like a normal roleplaying game: you roll a character, go on a quest, face challenges. But every encounter is designed by trained facilitators to practise a specific skill — emotional regulation, communication, teamwork, empathy, resilience.

Players learn to negotiate with a fictional goblin chief and then carry that confidence into the school playground. We track progress over time. It complements, but never replaces, clinical support — and for many of the 45 children we support weekly across our clubs, it's the first time they've felt genuinely good at something social.

Board Games — Connection Without Pressure

Sometimes you don't need a campaign or a codex. You just need 45 minutes and a box. Games like Dixit encourage emotional literacy and interpretation. Codenames builds teamwork and vocabulary. Ticket to Ride teaches planning and gentle competition. Short, self-contained, and social — board games are perfect for our Ladies+ Night, adult sessions, and family afternoons where the aim is simply to be together.

Why This Matters in Cornwall

Cornwall has pockets of real isolation — rural communities, long travel times, stretched services. We work with 19 schools across the county, some over an hour and a half away, because the need is there and the alternatives are thin. Our free weekly children's club, our school programmes, and our volunteer-run sessions exist to plug that gap.

Every one of those sessions is funded by the shop. When you buy a booster pack, a starter set, or a board game from us — priced below RRP to keep things accessible — you're not just getting a game. You're helping a child in Helston learn to lose gracefully. You're funding a safe space for a teenager who finds the playground overwhelming. You're putting a trained practitioner in front of six kids who need them.

That's what we mean by community benefit. Not a slogan — a weekly, measurable, lived reality for hundreds of people.

Come and See for Yourself

You don't need to know the rules. You don't need a painted army or a tuned deck. You just need to turn up.

• 🎲 Visit the HQ: 8 Coinagehall Street, Helston, TR13 8EB — open Monday to Saturday, 10am–10pm, and Sunday 10am–4pm.

• ♟️ Join a session: Ask about our free children's club, Ladies+ Night, adult gaming evenings, and school programmes.

• 🌐 Explore online:  rollthedicecornwall.com  — browse the range, learn about our work, and see how every purchase gives back.

Roll the dice. You never know where it might land — but around here, it usually lands somewhere good.

Roll The Dice Cornwall C.I.C. is a non-profit Community Interest Company. Every penny of profit is reinvested into free community programmes, children's clubs, and therapeutic gaming initiatives across Cornwall.