Playing games during an attempted assassination

“Where were you when Trump almost got assassinated?” is likely a question that will be asked for the rest of my life. And my answer will always be: at the Twenty Sided Store’s launch party for Elliot Davis’ Rom Com Drama Bomb. In twenty years, I’ll probably be recounting this story over drinks in an underground queer social club, so I might as well get it down while it’s still fresh in my mind.

Lately, I’ve been trying to find any reason to celebrate. In the face of our current climate, both political and ecological, there’s a heavy weight dragging down every facet of daily life. So, when I was invited to the launch party for RCDB, it was an obvious yes. Tabletop games are a largely isolated industry, with most major occurrences siloed into their various online channels. Rarely do games published by independent creators get any sort of fanfare outside of a few retweets on Twitter, and a congratulatory post if their crowdfunding campaign hits its goal. The Twenty Sided Store in Brooklyn is one of few places where small game designers are actively celebrated and supported. When I walked through the doors on Saturday, July 13, I entered a queer tabletop gamer’s haven. 

Unlike other game stores I’ve been to—where tabletop RPGs are limited to the big names and the store floor filled with cafe-style tables or stacks of family-friendly board games—every corner of the Twenty Sided Store was packed with titles of all sizes, including releases by local designers like Davis. The atmosphere was more inviting than any other LFGS I’ve ever been to, with a more diverse crowd in age, gender, and race than the one in my hometown on Long Island. A group in the back played a guided tutorial of the new Star Wars Unlimited trading card game as I walked past them into the basement of the store, an intimate second room where Davis and a few familiar Brooklyn tabletop faces chatted around demo copies of RCDB, playbook printouts, and the pinkest cupcakes I’ve ever seen.

My boyfriend Max, who’s made a recurring series of appearances in my Lay It On The Table installments, joined me for this launch. Groups organically formed as people trickled in and began to play abridged sessions of the 90-minute, three-player game. Max and I sat across from game designer Viditya Voleti (who’s game Bloodbeam Badlands has also made previous LIOTT appearances—the Brooklyn TTRPG community is small). Voleti played the villain in this three-player game, appropriately landing me and Max in the role of the two Romantic Leads. While I’m usually a bit reticent to explore romance in tabletop games, getting to fall in love with my partner’s character at the table is an experience I will always cherish.