Competitions, careers and creativity inspire an abundance of student clubs and organizations at the College of William and Mary, with each one offering community to groups of people with shared interests. In the case of Tabletop Games Club, members share a love of storytelling, creativity and strategic thinking. The club meets Monday evenings at 7 p.m. in Tucker 111 and offers its members an imaginative outlet and passionate community.
The College’s Tabletop Games Club plays all kinds of role-playing games, the most well-known of which may be Dungeons and Dragons. Such games provide rule books and a fictional setting, while allowing players to create their own characters and dictate the ultimate outcome of each adventure as a group.
Club President Riley Companion ’25 has enjoyed these games since first creating a role-playing character with his father in middle school, and he was excited about the prospect of getting involved in the College’s tabletop games community when he joined the club as a freshman.
“I knew William and Mary had a Tabletop Games Club, and I wanted to have a space where I didn’t have to plan a bunch of things to play the game,” Companion said. “And then of course that gradually kind of evolved.”
In his role as president, Companion hopes to foster a diverse, welcoming environment for players of all skill levels. The club invites anyone to join and ensures that each player is taught the essentials in order to participate and enjoy meetings. As such, Companion noted that the club aims to be as low-stakes and inviting as possible.
“Tabletop games are very much a collaborative storytelling experience,” Companion said.
As a newer member, Communications Chair Elijah Gilliam ’27 has quickly become a prominent member of the club. After beginning to play with the club his freshman year, Gilliam noticed the club’s structure allows for differentiated levels of play while maintaining a tight-knit community.
“Even if you don’t really know what you’re doing a lot of the time, there will be people to help you out,” Gilliam said.
The first Tabletop Games Club meeting of the year always walks members through character creation: a detailed process that sets each player up with a history, a background and important numerical statistics. Throughout the year, the club operates on an alternating schedule. Every other week, the club plays Dungeons and Dragons, while alternate weeks consist of what the club dubs “one-shots.”
The “one-shots” are one-time games crafted by club members and vetted by the executive board before making their way to the club meeting room. They consist of a simplified set of rules and quick gameplay, a combination which allows new and experienced members to learn and play a game together to completion. For instance, Companion described a game he created that has become a favorite amongst club members.
“Some of them are a bit more serious, but there’s also a lot of ones that are just very low stakes and goofy,” Companion said. “I’ve accidentally produced a very infamous one-shot that involves the Dungeons and Dragons characters going to New York City to order a pizza.”
New member Cal Rider ’28 praised the unique structure of club meetings.
“From the first meeting, it seemed like a good group of people, and I liked the concept of the way they were running the games,” Rider said.
In addition to the multitude of games at each meeting, Tabletop Games Club provides even more opportunities for its members through its Discord server, which allows students to organize themselves into even larger, longer-lasting and more complex game campaigns. Rider has quickly made use of this aspect of the club since joining this fall, taking part in a long-term campaign that meets at the same time and place as the general club meetings.
Beyond working to organize diverse and extensive offerings at weekly club meetings, the executive board of Tabletop Games Club is excited to work on expanding outreach initiatives within the College. Establishing relationships with similar clubs and planning exciting events for the greater college community have been at the forefront of these conversations. Companion described the significance of the “mixers” Tabletop Games Club started hosting with other organizations last year, which consist of meeting up and playing games together.
“That was still a pretty big development for us, because prior to that we were just doing things during club hours,” Companion said.
Gilliam expressed that he wants to continue to share this game-playing community with the greater Williamsburg area. He described how Tabletop Games Club attended and hosted a panel at BurgQuest, a Williamsburg tabletop and board game convention, this past September.
As Gilliam and the rest of Tabletop Games Club’s executive board work to plan events, he appreciates how the board is constantly finding new ways to engage members, such as an upcoming escape room with role-playing aspects for members.
“It’s a creative project that we want to bring to life and share with people in the club or beyond,” Gilliam said.
Companion believes that the Tabletop Games Club community is special in the way that it brings together those who spend their school hours thinking critically in order to let loose, create and share adventures, while always being ready to welcome new people.
“I feel like a lot of the people in that club are very kind,” Companion said. “They’re very open to newer players and are just generally the nerdier kind of people that I enjoy being around.”
Those looking to get involved in Tabletop Games Club can reach out through TribeLink or join the Discord server.
