What started as an idea for a small group of students interested in tabletop games turned into a rapidly rising community on campus.
The idea is now known as the tabletop gaming club at Mississippi State University, and it is rolling the dice this semester.
The tabletop gaming club at MSU was formed to provide students with a welcoming community to play any card, board or roleplaying game they desire. The club gives access to any game that can be played on a table except chess; it has a club on its own.
JoJo Kaler, a junior computer science major, is the president and co-founder of the club. He is an avid tabletop gamer and is well-known for it. He said he wanted to spread his special interest to his fellow students.
“I’d always have people telling me that they were interested in playing board games,” Kaler said. “But I can only have so many people at my board game night, so I was like ‘I should start a club for this.’”
Kaler said a function of the club is to give people an opportunity to join the roleplaying game scene alongside the other forms of tabletop games. Tabletop roleplaying games involve a group of people coming together to act and play out their stories, such as the popular Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), one of the tabletop club’s main focuses.
Dungeons & Dragons is a long-standing roleplaying game that brings fantasy to tabletop. The game was published in 1974 but rose in popularity in recent years. The tabletop club hosts events on campus to expand D&D to MSU students.
The tabletop club hosted a D&D seminar Sunday in Griffis Hall. The seminar featured a dungeon master class among other activities. The seminar taught aspiring D&D players how to run their own games and how to participate in others.
Zoe Maddox, a senior international business major and treasurer of the tabletop club, said the club plans to reach out to the community aside from student participation. She said the club will do more with Down to Game, a local business that focuses on everything tabletop.
“We’ve talked about reaching out to the community and if there’s enough response in the Down to Game community and enough people are interested, we would replicate (our events) to the entire community,” Maddox said.
Daniel Todd, the Down to Game co-owner since February 2020, said he hopes to work more with the club soon.
“I’m boosting (the tabletop club) to the best of my ability,” Todd said. “That is about it so far.”
Todd said Down-to-Game made its presence known within the tabletop club through announcements and help with events. He said he hopes to bring the event ideas of the tabletop club to Down-to-Game to expand the club’s services to the greater Starkville community.
The tabletop game scene at Mississippi State expands farther beyond the club as students become social with their own board, card and D&D games.
“I skipped the tabletop club interest meeting to play D&D,” said Macy Bolton, a sophomore animal and dairy sciences major.
Co-founder Kaler said the tabletop club has many events planned throughout the semester, including some Dungeons & Dragons related functions. He also said the club is looking to hold an election for a secretary position this semester.
Treasurer Maddox expressed her excitement about the rising popularity of the club and its special interests.
“I think it’s really cool that more and more, like, that it is starting to become a more popular thing, and it’s less of, like, a niche nerd thing because it’s just so accessible,” Maddox said. “There’s more people to play with. It’s awesome!”