Tabletop Games in the DMV: Sep-Oct

Play with local designers!

Author

Gene Koo
August 27, 2025

Every month Designed in the DMV highlights events featuring tabletop game designers based in the DC - Maryland - Virginia region. We’re an artist collective helping game designers improve our craft and connect with our audience.

ICYMI: Impact of tariffs on tabletop games

Fred Hicks, Ben Hammer, and Lyme discuss how fluctuating import taxes affected their own games and speculate on how they will reshape the tabletop industry over the next few years. Hosted by Fantom Comics in Dupont Circle, DC, which — YES — does offer games!

Upcoming events

One of two big fall events we’re organizing!

Sep 6 (Sat)

One Small Step, a LARP about why we don’t go to the moon anymore
Takoma, DC: Rhizome
1-2.30pm

Board Game Social: play TACTA with the designer
Glen Burnie, MD: Games & Stuff

Break My Game: playtest tomorrow’s games, today
Richmond, VA: One-Eyed Jacques
12pm

Sep 7 (Sun)

Break My Game
Manassas, VA: Crossroads Tabletop Tavern
3-6pm

Sep 13 (Sat)

Break My Game
Frederick, MD: C. Burr Artz Public Library
12-3pm

Sep 21 (Sun)

Break My Game
College Park, MD: Game Kastle
3-7pm

Sep 28 (Sun)

Indie Tabletop Day
Silver Spring, MD: Pure Panic
10am-8pm
Try out games by local designers in this all-day festival! Find your next passion at our vending tables, and listen in on panel discussions about games and creativity.

Oct 4-5 (Sat-Sun)

District Hunt: a socially-themed treasure hunt
Dupont Circle, DC: Kickoff at Keegan Theater
Every 25 years, eight symbolic objects are chosen to define the culture of Washington, DC. Reports about this ritual also suspect a connected treasure, which has been quietly protected for centuries by a trusted network of individuals. But in 2025, something’s changed. With misinformation on the rise, the protectors are wary of whom to trust and have called for help. Teams are invited to demonstrate whether they are worthy of preserving history.

Oct 11 (Sat)

Break My Game
Frederick, MD: C. Burr Artz Public Library
12-3pm

Oct 12 (Sun)

Break My Game
Richmond, VA: One-Eyed Jacques
12pm

Oct 18 (Sat)

Local Indie Tabletop Games Fair
Takoma Park, MD: People’s Book
12-5pm
The second annual event celebrating games designed here in the DMV. Find something cool at vender tables from 12-4, then sit in on a panel with confirmed guests:

Break My Game
Capitol Hill, DC: Labyrinth Puzzles & Games
11am-5pm

Crowdfunds from Local Designers

Moonshine by Ben Goldman: Step into the Roaring Twenties with Moonshine, a thrilling TTRPG that combines the glamour of the 20s with a touch of the supernatural.

Gorgon’s Garden by Mothspire: A cooperative social deception game. Help mortals defy their fates and escape the attentions of Zeus and Hera.

Glatisant by Graftbound Press: A duet game of purpose, pursuit, and guidance.