2016 International TableTop Day

Angie Fiedler Sutton article

Note: this article was also published on SciFi4Me.com.

Fans of board games, rejoice! It’s about time for this year’s International Tabletop Day. As I wrote in last year’s article (warning: the intro is filled with gaming puns!), the day was created by Wil Wheaton and the folks behind his TableTop web series hosted by Geek & Sundry. But I think The Doubleclicks do a much better job of explaining the day in the song below.

https://youtu.be/eAw9K5JR7ig

Scheduled for April 30, the day is geared toward celebrating tabletop gaming. Changes for this year include Geek & Sundry streaming live from Twitch the entire 24 hours, as well as partnering with KaBOOM!, a nonprofit dedicated to bringing balanced and active play to kids, especially to those in lower income brackets. There also doesn’t seem to be a sale for tickets to the LA event this year, but it may still be in the planning stages.

To find out which events are near you, visit TableTopDay.com, input your location into their search tool, and you get a list of stores near you. If you’re a retail store wanting to put on an event, you can register to get discounts on items for giveaways, including a Limited Edition TableTop Day box.

Geek & Sundry’s hashtag for the event is #tabletopday.

From the 2014 event. Photo by Angie Fiedler Sutton.

And speaking of Wheaton’s TableTop series, as he announced on his blog on December 31, 2015, there’s been a delay in shooting season 4. “We’ve taken a longer than usual hiatus because I was burned out, frustrated and unhappy after a really terrible experience with a (formerly) trusted friend last season, and wondering if I even wanted to do another season of the show,” Wheaton wrote.

He’s narrowed down the 450 plus submissions to 85 that he and his crew are play testing, which will then be narrowed down to 18 or 20 that they’ll use for season 4. The series also are working with the game publishers to consult on rules and gameplay so as to ease the load. He also wants to focus specifically on games that are ‘family friendly’: “This doesn’t mean that I’m going to choose “kiddie” games,” Wheaton clarifies in his blog post, “but that I’m looking at games that are fun for parents and kids to play together. You can read his full announcement, which has some other changes, on his blog.