Bodhana Tabletop Trick & Treat
I was happy to have a table at The Bodhana Group’s recent Halloween Tabletop Trick & Treat event. It was a one-day fundraising event for their organization to support tabletop gaming therapy.1
As I do after (almost) every in-person event, here are my thoughts and lessons learned!
Lessons learned (and applied)
Based on previous events, I simplified the table setup:
I used two vertical banners to form the backdrop, featuring top-selling games: Exclusion Zone Botanist and Eleventh Beast. This made it easy to set up and take down solo compared to the large tension fabric display.
I used just a single zine stand instead of two and brought just the key titles I thought might sell well. The rack was just solo games, so it was easy both to pitch and for people to understand what they were looking at.
The other games were on individual book stands. We Are Mushrooms was featured front and center. ADVENTURE! and Make Your Own One-Page RPG were together and off to the side.
I put a single price list in a stand. With fewer titles, I could make the font larger and add a little more spacing to improve readability.
There was room for a We Are Mushrooms price sign and a Human Made sign.
Part of the reason it was easier to set up and had a cleaner appearance was that this was an 8-foot table instead of a 6-foot table. I sometimes forget how much difference that extra 2 feet makes!
Overall, I was very happy with this table setup. It was easy to talk to visitors and they seemed to have no problem knowing what they were looking at.
Highlighting We Are Mushrooms
As I did at PeopleCon, I used a little piece of green grassy material and some leaves to highlight We Are Mushrooms. I thought it looked really cute!
It definitely caught the attention of people walking by, and they wanted to know more about the game. Both the title and the art on the cover were big enough that people could easily get a sense that it might be a cozy game (which it is). The price sign to the side allowed them to know how much it was without having to ask. And there was a photo of the mushroom you can make with the included crochet pattern.
This worked so well that I will probably always have a “featured game” centered on the table with a special display.
Free wizard dueling game
I had copies of Wizard Fuel Duel printed on nice laminated paper that customers received free with any purchase.
While people did appreciate it, I’m not sure it directly drove many sales. I think more often, people found another game they liked and were happy to get a free game with it. Did it influence purchases? Perhaps. Hard to say.
Make weird games!
The call to MAKE WEIRD GAMES really seems to resonate with people.
At this event, I put ADVENTURE! Make Your Own TTRPG Adventure and Make Your Own One-Page RPG on their own stands off to the side. Combined with the Make Weird Games sign, it worked well. People understood that there were different types of titles versus the solo games on the other side of the table.
Usually, Make Your Own One-Page RPG is the best seller of the two, but this time ADVENTURE! sold more copies. This makes sense as the crowd skewed toward traditional TTRPG players.2
This was another success and something I plan to do again in the future.
A spooky good time
I have a special place in my heart for The Bodhana Group and their events. Their Save Against Fear convention was the first place I ever had a vendor table as Exeunt Press. That event taught me so much and gave me the confidence to continue doing more events.
Thank you to Jack as well as all the event organizers and volunteers!
- E.P. 💀
P.S. Give the gift of Tumulus. A year of quarterly zines for people who love tabletop game design. No auto-renewals! 🎁
Play some weird and wonderful games at shop.exeunt.press.
Written, augmented, purged, and published by Exeunt Press. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without permission. Exeunt Omnes is Copyright 2026 Exeunt Press. For comments, questions, reports from the EZ, or pro tips: games@exeunt.press
The Bodhana Group is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that “advocates the use of tabletop gaming as a directed therapeutic and clinical practice that can benefit personal growth as well as enhance social and educational services to individuals and families.”
Almost everyone I talked to was familiar with TTRPGs and played Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, or some other popular game. Not as many were familiar with solo TTRPGs or journaling games.