We’re moving to our own space near Lavonne in Indiranagar where we’ll host our board game nights, TRPGs events (like D&D), and several other similar communities and events. We open mid-February! (
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@mithunbalraj and I started ReRoll back in 2016 with a bit of a whimsical goal of getting a few more people to enjoy this tabletop games hobby we loved - it was an excuse to indulge ourselves and make a little brand, setup a Facebook page, and fulfil some creative and self-expression desire. I would’ve never imagined we’d be here 8 years later - with some 300 events, meeting thousands of new people, and in the process making life-long friends.
There is this running joke about how I actually have been playing fewer and fewer board games over the years, and I just let people assume I’m really into the hobby - all of which is true, but it’s because what’s actually fulfilling and rewarding for me about this whole project is that it’s been a place to find some sense of belonging and community for myself (and hopefully other people too). The fact that it’s through board games is only incidental to me.
I’m so glad that we’ve been able to remain consistent though, and work through all the ups and downs. There have been many celebrations, many disagreements - but it’s remarkable that all the @admins have stuck together over so many years and kept doing it every month.
It would be disingenuous for me to sit here and tell you that we did a bunch of things right and that’s the only reason why we are still around. I think @mithunbalraj and I kind of lucked out. We had jobs that gave us some flexibility, we didn’t need to think of this as a big source of income, we found people we clicked with who wanted to join us in this project, and had a great venue partner in Games Khopcha when we were just 10-15 people coming to our meetups since they were also a small board gaming cafe.
There are a lot of organizers and small communities who aren’t able to make it work in a way that’s sustainable for them simply because the support system isn’t there. It’s hard work, and often very lonely.
So that brings us to this community space. Not only will this give ReRoll a permanent home that feels ours and lets us do a lot more things a lot more regularly, but it’s also a way for us to pay it forward to other small communities by hosting other groups and hopefully helping them start and grow.
This is a project that’s larger than just ReRoll, and @inputj and I have got a lot to figure out still, but we’re excited! We’ll have new games, events on weekends, and all the stuff we didn’t get a chance to do - like tournaments and themed game nights!
If you’ve read this far, there is actually something we need to crowdsource some help for, and is probably the best way you can help us bootstrap this whole project.
If you work for a company that might be interested in a group activity around board games, please put in a good word or start a conversation with your team/manager? With our own space and games, we can do something for up to 50 people and during working hours/weekdays too.
This is where we probably need the most help right now as doing a few of these private events a month will help us meet our expenses.
You can reach out to @karthikb351 or @inputj or email at [email protected]
There is a lot to do and say on this still, but I’ll try and keep these updates shorter and more frequent. See you all very soon!
We’ve also setup a placeholder Instagram account, if you’d like to follow us there -
@underline.center| Instagram
I’ve personally written a bit more about our motivation behind this project here: We're starting a community space | Karthik Balakrishnan
