Go Play NW is a small TTRPG and board game convention based in Seattle, Washington focused on creating a welcoming atmosphere for playing fun games and making new friends in the Pacific Northwest. This year, Go Play NW was held at the Centilia Cultural Center from July 18-20. 

Go Play NW events feature a mix of scheduled and ad-hoc gaming all run by attendees and volunteers. Go Play NW has a vibrant playtest community that relishes in the weird and the wonderful. And this year, there was a new feature added for attendees – The RPG Zine Zone!

The Zine Zone is the brainchild of Brendan Albano and Kate Barbaria of Pony Press! www.pony-press.com. From Brendan on the inception of the event:

“I was sitting at a big table in the hotel at Big Bad Con 2024 with a bunch of people, including Kate, Kona and Finn. Someone I’d just met was cutting out a beautiful risograph print with tiny, dull travel scissors that they’d borrowed from someone else because they’d forgotten theirs, and it was really rough going. Kate, Kona, Finn and I were all talking later about how it’d be really cool to have a bunch of zine and craft supplies in a room at the con for just such a situation! This conversation evolved into an idea of a “Zine Zone” with everything you need to make a zine. When Big Bad Con 2025 was cancelled, we got excited about bringing the Zine Zone to Go Play NW instead.”

The “Zine Zone” at Go Play NW was situated directly to the right of the entrance and registration table, fully loaded with paper of varying sizes and shapes, scissors, pens, pencils, a printer and a rack of Zines for perusing and trades. While Brendan and Kate facilitated the existence of the zone, other attendees and Go Play staff helped make it a successful element of the entire weekend experience. Finn, a game designer (www.finn.fun) helped with zine supplies, zone support and was part of the initial zine zone inspiration, and Kona acted as a staff liaison between zine zone folks and GPNW organizers to make the zone happen.

Aside from offering a space for attendees and volunteers to create, read, take-a-break from game play when needed, Brendan and Kate also offered a three-hour workshop “Make an RPG Zine Right Now”. The workshop welcomed seasoned game designers, curious attendees and newbies such as myself to sit down, grab some paper, and create on-the-spot RPG’s.

Loosely following the guidance of Nathan d. Paoletta of NDP Design (www.ndpdesign.com) from their published two-part zines on game designs, “RPG Design Zine” and “RPG Design Zine Two”, Brendan and Kate encouraged workshop attendees to not let the perfect be the enemy of the good and just get creating!

From Brendan on creating the workshop:

“Making games, especially in the context of themed game jams, time constraints, or other forms of rules-for-making, is play. And it is a type of play I really enjoy! The “Make an RPG Zine Right Now” workshop was a way for me to engage in and share that form of play myself and to share it with others. Our goal was to make it feel accessible and fun to do a project from start to finish, especially for people who might otherwise be daunted by the idea of making and finishing an RPG. We had a wide range of participants, from experienced zinesters enjoying the comfort of making, to folks who were full of ideas but had never finished a game project before (and both groups made rad zines!).”

Games created during “Make an RPG Zine Right Now!” offered a wide range of play options: solo, 2-player, 4+player games loosely based on the Powered by the Apocalypse system by Meguey and Vincent Baker, games based on existing artistic endeavors, and others were cozy and contemplative. 

Orion Canning, game designer and Go Play NW enthusiast, participated in the Make an RPG Zine Right Now! workshop on a whim. Although sitting down at the Zine Zone was a spontaneous decision, Orion shared that it was “the funnest” and “most unexpected” part of the weekend. Orion created a colorful tiny RPG zine, “The Official Grandma’s Pleasure RPG” based on his other creative endeavor – co-writing, acting and producing a 90’s themed sitcom with his friends in Olympia, WA called “Grandma’s Pleasure”. 

The DIY spirit of the workshop appealed to part of Orion’s personal game design philosophy – make a game,   kill your darlings, play a game, tell a story. The act of creating games and telling stories is a very human tradition that can be stifled under the anxiety of meeting mass-produced expectations of what a game should be rather than what is imperfectly present. Even if the game is “unfinished”.

Later in the weekend, during and event called “The Donut” (an opportunity to pitch, run and join unscheduled gaming events), Orion pitched playtesting several of the zine games created in the workshop, including his own. The group managed to play three games and utilized elements of others for game play:  “The Official Grandma’s Pleasure RPG” by Orion Canning, “Trenches” by Soren Ludwig utilizing a map from “Welcome to the Sunset Home for Girls” by Kate Barbaria and “Ghost/Detective” by Finn.

When asked for final thoughts about the entire process, Orion offered, “The Zine Zone is a really cool thing. Making games was cool, but it was even cooler to play the games that were made.  More broadly, writing a game and playing it right afterwards – It should be done!”

Zines created

A probably incomplete list of zines created at the zine zone. A few of them have been scanned and uploaded to the Finn’s collection of Zine Zone zines on itch: https://itch.io/c/6072669/gpnw-zine-zone

• “Trenches” by Soren Ludwig: Players are a squad of soldiers delivering a package through a maze of dangerous trenches in WWI France. Includes a fantastically lethal twist on the typical PbtA 2d6 results table.
• “This is the second page” by multiple authors, unfinished: this zine-as-game emerged organically at the table, with each page being written by a different author, exquisite corpse style. It made it to page 5 (out of 8). We’ll have to wait until Go Play 2026 to see how it ends!
• “Welcome to the Sunset School for Girls” by Kate Barbaria: a tri-fold pamphlet introducing the grounds of the Sunset School for Girls, a fantastical boarding school setting.
• “Ducti: Selected Medieval Alphabets”: exactly what it says on the tin. Beautiful lettering!
• “Garden Coffee Lady” by Mads: A TTRPG where you cultivate a relationship and a garden to enjoy together.
• “The Official Grandma’s Pleasure RPG” by Orion Canning: This catch-phrase-based scene-framing game about sitcoms from the 90s is based on Orion’s film of the same name. When you’re not in a scene, you play the sitcom audience!
• “A Very Tiny Setting – The Picnic Blanket” by Kate Barbaria and Brendan Albano: answers the question “What is this, a dungeon for ants!?” with a resounding “Yes!”
• “Starfire” by Erik Owompyeia: A galactic-scale sci-fi setting detailing the Rakarran Empire, the Kingdom of Arkon, the Altiran Concord, and the Tersonan Union.
• “Ghost/Detective” by Finn: An asymmetric two-player RPG where a ghost must use spooky phenomena (wailing, flickering lights, sighing, creaking, rattling doors, weeping) to help a detective solve their murder.
• “Your Own Private Island” by Finn: An island-generating procedure for game prep or just for the fun of making island maps!
• “Legends in the Stars” by Finn: a storytelling and constellation drawing game for 2+.
• “An NPC For When Your Scene Needs a Soundtrack” by Kate Barbaria: what it says on the tin! With a delightful illustration.
• “What Kind of Wallpaper Does the Dungeon Room Have?” by Tony Dowler: A series of tables to generate a dungeon room’s wallpaper and to generate features of the room based on the wallpaper.
• “Dystropia” by Joseph Benkual: play an awakened artificial intelligence trying to escape their tropes in a dystopian digital world.
• “Fortune Teller” by Bee Ho: A fortune teller (or cootie catcher) featuring juicy questions to ask a character (or yourself!?).
• “Hot Magic and the Smell of Metal in the Mask” by Brendan Adkins: a question answering game played by filling in a grid of questions. 
• “Everything You Are Must be Found (Oops All Moves Edition)” by Brendan Albano: an experiment in making a game that makes a game. Start with a blank piece of paper, end up with not just a set of characters, but an entire PbtA game! Theoretically!

GenCon 2025 is HERE!

“For over 55 years Gen Con has been the largest and longest-running gaming convention in North America. Founded in 1967 by Dungeons and Dragons co-creator Gary Gygax, Gen Con now attracts tens of thousands of attendees from around the world to Indianapolis for The Best Four Days in Gaming™.”

If you are travelling to GenCon this week, make sure to check out all 23 Washington game industry vendors at the show! If you are not able to attend GenCon 2025, please see the list of exhibitors below and visit them virtually or IRL.

• Paizo
• Crystal Lab Games
• Echo Chernik
• Flying Frog Productions
• Green Ronin Publishing • Dedicated to the art of great games
• Wattsalpoag Games
• Home Page – Zombie Orpheus Entertainment
• Columbia Games: Home of Block Wargaming and the HârnWorld / HârnMaster RPG – Columbia Games
• Board & Dice
• AAW Games | DnD & Pathfinder Adventures & Minis
• Ravensburger Games
• Catan Studio | We develop and publish Catan® games
• Kobold Press: for 5th Edition D&D Players and GMs/DMs
• R. Talsorian Games – We create worlds you can only imagine.
• FLATOUT GAMES
• AEGIS Combining Robots
• Dice Throne: A fast & addictive tabletop game
• Penny Arcade
• Grandpa Beck’s Games
• Premium Tabletop Gaming | Lethal Shadows
• Portfolio of Alayna Danner
• Blue Heron
• Start Here! Beach House RPGs

And of course, we’d be remiss not to shout out the TGA’s own David Hoppe – President of GenCon itself. Thank you for all that you do to help make GenCon a reality.

In April 2024, six Washington State board game and TTRPG companies along with the Office of the Secretary of Washington State (OSOS) teamed up for a week-long trade mission to Tokyo that culminated at the Tokyo Game Market. I joined as a representative of the Tabletop Game Alliance (TGA), bringing my experience as a community facilitator to establish new friendships and connections while also experiencing the cultural highlights of Tokyo.

The trade mission consisted of 20 people representing tabletop businesses the TGA trade organization or came from the OSOS. Mission members from the OSOS utilized their expertise in previous trade missions and international business to arrange meetings, offer translation, and assist with navigating this large group around the city. Arranging the trade mission trip required the combined efforts of all members and months of planning. Rulebooks and sell sheets were translated in advance and meeting upon meeting every week ensured that once we arrived in Tokyo, it would be smooth sailing.

The trade mission itself had clear goals for the group: focus on establishing trade for these Washington companies through researching the local market, and reconnecting or establishing business partners and selling their product at the Tokyo Game Market trade show.

Day one started with a breakfast briefing and review of the day’s schedule. Each day had a packed itinerary with time in the evening for personal exploration. The trade mission began with our best business clothes (not your typical Washington business casual mind you) for a trip to the US Embassy in Ginza. A panel of ambassadors presented Japanese consumer behavior and current economic impacts to the region while we shared our experience navigating the rules and regulations to sell games in Japan.

The next stops of the day were more formal business meetings between JETRO, a Japanese government organization who helps companies export their games from Japan, and a business luncheon filled with introductions and conversation between Japanese business owners and some of the ambassadors we met earlier.

 

On the eve of the convention, we toured and played games at the Arclight offices. We were able to meet Patrick from the international board game team and  others in the office responsible for the many titles Arclight publishes or distributes. Patrick and his team were the hard workers behind the Tokyo Games Market convention, a show that boasts 30,000 attendees over two days and a 2-inch-thick guide that lists all the games and events available during the event.

Outside of formal meetings, we split into groups to visit Akihabara and Shibuya, wards in Tokyo known for their concentration of pop culture and home to many game stores and game cafes unique to Japan. These visits thankfully did not require a suit, and we felt at home browsing stocked game shelves and play spaces in Yellow Submarine, Jelly Jelly Cafe, and DyCE Board Game Cafe, the latter which has a monthly international game night that welcomes Japanese and foreigners to connect over a game.

We gathered lots of photos and retail input by browsing and comparing what familiar games were on these shelves and seeing which Japanese games we had not seen in our Washington game stores. We took note of popular themes (cats, food, and cute critters top the list) packaging size and design, and of course brought some games home to add to the library for additional research. A surprise stop in Shibuya connected us with a coworking building, 404Shibuya, that houses video game companies and digital artists. We also toured the fourth floor that was under development to be an event space complete with a stage, panel rooms, 3 kitchen and dining areas, and even an indoor beer garden for about 2000 people.

The finale of the trade mission brought us to the Tokyo Game Market where the game companies ran demos for attendees with the help of translators who were prepped on the games ahead of the convention.

While a convention is familiar territory, it was quickly apparent the ways in which we should adjust future demos, sales, and displays for the Japanese audience and the customs of a new trade show.

Overall, the trade mission in 2024 was a success and the trip was the first of many to Japan for myself as I wanted to continue building up these relationships we made overseas. I attended Tokyo Game Market again this year in 2025 at a much larger venue in the Makuhari Messe Convention Center. I was able to reconnect with Patrick at Arclight and his team and visit some of my favorite Tokyo Game Market booths (and some new ones) to buy their latest titles. My hope in the future is for another trade mission to Tokyo that will build upon what we learned to have even more success for the Washington State tabletop business and creators looking to bring their work into Japan.

(I didn’t even get to the part about the cultural highlights and all the amazing food we had! That unfortunately will have to be in a future article…)

In 2021, my company, TinkerHouse, Inc., encountered what felt like a perfect storm of economic disruptions, all triggered by harmful government policies that disproportionately impacted small businesses—especially those of us within the tabletop gaming community. The trade war instigated during Donald Trump’s first administration didn’t just complicate international commerce; it unleashed a cascading series of crises that tested our resilience in ways we never imagined.

Picture this: The Ever Given blocking the Suez Canal, grinding global shipping routes to a halt; strikes paralyzing operations at the Port of Los Angeles; and an unprecedented shortage of shipping containers in China. Ocean freight costs skyrocketed overnight, soaring from approximately $2,559 per 40-foot container from China to the U.S. East Coast in early 2020, to an eye-watering $12,000 by year’s end—a nearly fivefold increase. For a small business like ours, those numbers didn’t represent inconvenience; they spelled disaster.

Forced into substantial debt just to meet obligations to our Kickstarter backers, TinkerHouse spent the next four years navigating rough financial waters. It wasn’t until January 2025 that we finally glimpsed the horizon again, clawing our way back to financial stability.

Under the Biden administration, we cautiously explored domestic manufacturing alternatives, hoping to avoid further international turbulence. But our optimism was short-lived. Unrealistic minimum orders and sky-high costs from U.S. manufacturers meant bringing production home was simply not viable. Reluctantly, we returned to international production.

Then, with Trump’s return to office, aggressive trade policies reemerged with devastating force. Tariffs surged as high as 145%, hitting us precisely when our financial commitments were already locked in. With nowhere to turn, we had no choice but to continue forward, despite costs that felt impossible to bear.

In the face of these hardships, we found strength through solidarity. Joining forces with fellow publishers—including Jamie Stegmaier from Stonemaier Games—and backed by the Pacific Legal Foundation, we challenged the legality and fairness of these crushing tariffs. Initially, I worried about backlash and repercussions; instead, we discovered a powerful network of support and collective action.

Our journey underscored just how vital organizations like the Tabletop Game Alliance of Washington truly are. Community-driven groups provide crucial advocacy and resources, enabling small businesses like ours to withstand policy shocks and economic upheavals. Alone, we’re vulnerable; together, we’re formidable.

As we approach the completion of our latest production run, the future remains uncertain. Yet our resolve is stronger than ever, bolstered by our community’s unwavering support. Will our efforts bring about the necessary change? Only time will tell. Until then, our commitment to our customers, our industry, and fellow tabletop creators remains steadfast and unshakable.