Come to PeopleCon on Saturday
People’s Book in Takoma Park, MD (Washington, D.C. area) is hosting a free indie tabletop game market on Saturday, October 17, 2026 at 12 noon.
It’s called PeopleCon 3 and will include local game designers and an outdoor market. At 2:30 PM there will be a panel discussion with designer Talia Rosen and former federal prosecutor Brendan Ballou about how games and books depict the United States Supreme Court.
I’ll be there at the Exeunt Press table! To get ready for it, I talked to organizer and designer Gene Koo and put together a list of some of the vendors.
Meet Gene Koo
Gene Koo is the creator of The Bonsai Diary, a quiet, reflective game about growing a bonsai from a tiny seedling into a magnificent tree. The game won an ENNIE for Best Solo Game and was a finalist for the 2026 Origins Award.
I first met Gene at the Save Against Fear convention quite a few years ago.1 Since then, I’ve come to know his enthusiasm not just for tabletop games but also for building a vibrant and diverse community around them. It was his encouragement that got me to attend Unpub and playtest Ratsail there earlier this year.2
Gene is also the volunteer organizer of PeopleCon, a one-day indie game event hosted by People’s Book in Takoma Park, Maryland. I’ve had an Exeunt Press table at the event for the past two years, and I’ll be back again this year on October 17.
It seemed like the perfect opportunity to ask Gene about game design and building communities, and to give you a preview of who else will be part of this year’s indie game market!
Here are my questions and Gene’s responses:
Q1. This is PeopleCon’s third year of bringing together zines, journaling games, and board games. What inspired you to create this event, and how has your vision for it evolved?
I didn’t set out to start an event at all — all I wanted to do was to get some local designers’ games into the zine section of our local bookstore. That bookstore happens to host events regularly in their parking lot, and next thing you know they’d convinced me that we should do one focused on tabletop games. One thing led to another, and thanks to the star power of local designers like Elizabeth Hargrave (Wingspan, et al.) and this almost-local guy, John Mulligan, we’d attracted over 200 people on a gorgeous fall day to come explore their home-grown indie game scene.3
The event was and remains quintessentially local: it feels like a roll of the dice if the weather is good (it’s mostly outdoors) and whether people will come. But what has grown is our collective vision. From that initial event, we came together as a community to work together on projects such as a catalog of locally-designed games that we send to our local retailers, play and playtesting events, and even representing each other at game and game-adjacent fairs.
We became an artist collective.
Q2. You and I have both designed games that use drawing as a core mechanism — something not central to most traditional roleplaying games. How does drawing change the experience and what does it bring to the game that is special?
For me, one of the cool things about drawing is it takes me out of my linear, verbal brain and puts me in a more creative and fluid zone.
My hope with The Bonsai Diary had been that doing something creative, maybe even peaceful, would put players in a contemplative mood to take on the journaling part of the game. The game has no hard mechanics in terms of dice or even oracle cards: the premise is that your own drawing would set the mood for your journaling.
I put a lot of trust in players to see that connection for themselves.
Q3. PeopleCon is one of my favorite events of the year, partly because the vibes are just perfect. How would you explain the event and its mix of local community and independent creators to someone who has never been there before?
We’re a lot of fun, but we are also earnest in a geeky kind of way.
Yes, we’re all there selling our games, but no one is quitting their day job.4 So the event has that energy you feel when you’re with your people, where you let your guard down and gush about stuff only other tabletop sickos get. In other words, it’s a lot like most regional conventions!
Our special sauce comes from being just over the border from Washington, D.C.: Takoma Park is known as a net exporter of political activism (it’s not PeopleCon for nothing!). Few if any of the games we’ll have at PeopleCon are explicitly political, but many have a generous public spirit.
Who’s at this year’s indie market?
Thank you to Gene for the interview!
Here are some of the game designers, vendors, and interesting people who will be at the PeopleCon indie market tables this year:
🎪 StickerDoodle Games (Gene Koo)
I make games that spark imagination and empathy. I also organize PeopleCon.
Why you should stop by: You love games that spark authentic creativity.
Games to check out: The Bonsai Diary, Color Jam
Website: stickydoodler.itch.io
🎪 Binary Star Games (Binary Star)
I design and sell TTRPGs.
Why you should stop by: Stop by if you want tactical, dark, and/or weird games! I have long games, short games, campaign games, one-shot games, group and solo, more traditional and more out-there.
Games to check out: Apocalypse Frame, NULL_SPACE, Trespasser
Website: binarystar.games
🎪 Cloven Pine Games (Alexi)
I design and sell TTRPGs.
Why you should stop by: I make low-prep/no-prep games that are easy to pick up and play, like The Great Soul Train Robbery (a Weird Western about Desperados robbing the train to Hell) and Back Again from the Broken Land (a Tolkien-esque game about small adventurers making the long walk home). Plus, there will be a prize wheel at my table!
Games to check out: Back Again from the Broken Land, The Great Soul Train Robbery, Secret Science Sewer Siblings
Website: cloven-pine-games.itch.io
🎪 Green Intern Games (Geoff)
I design and sell small RPGs great for a couple hours of hanging out.
Why you should stop by: I love to talk to folks, and if you stop by my table you can draw a tiny wizard to take home or put on the Big Board.
Games to check out: Tiny Mall Wizards, Hostile Architecture
Website: greenintern.itch.io
🎪 Graftbound Press (Emily Entner)
I make tabletop role-playing games and stationery.
Why you should stop by: I’m bringing new stationery and book-themed art alongside the solo and duet games, things we only have available in person not on our online store currently.
Games to check out: Glatisant, Precious Things, and some tiny dragon enamel pins
Website: Graftbound.com
🎪 Lawless Games (Kyle Pham)
I design and sell social deduction games and murder mysteries!
Why you should stop by: My games are uniquely designed to spark unforgettable nights for large groups. Your friends will be screaming at each other in the best way possible! Deal or Death is a negotiation-focused social deduction game that breaks all of the right conventions, while Fungible Homicide combines thoughtful mechanics with a one-of-a-kind story. Both involve zany roles and chaotic fun. While hundreds of copies of Deal or Death have been sold, this will be the first time that Fungible Homicide will be sold in a physical format! Exclusive stickers will also be available.
Games to check out: Deal or Death, Fungible Homicide: Murder Mystery of Multitudes
Website: www.dealordeath.com
🎪 High Level Games (Josh Heath)
I design and sell TTRPGs.
Why you should stop by: I’ve been a writer, podcaster, and industry professional for over a decade and I know all kinds of fun gossip. I also make some awesome games about identity due to my work designing games for intercultural dialogue!
Games to check out: May I Enter: A Vampire Game, Calling Cards, Army Men: A Tactical TTRPG
Website: www.highlevelgames.ca
🎪 Big Puffin Games (Deb Fuller)
I design and sell quirky, fun TTRPGs for all ages.
Why you should stop by: Wanting to dip your toe into journaling games? Or just finished Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and want to continue the adventure? Look for the big puffin on the table and stop on by!
Games to check out: The Dead Market, The Away Team, Goodnight Oppy
Website: stori-lundi.itch.io
🎪 DieselShot (Lee)
I write & sell TTRPGs.
Why you should stop by: To find a new way to play adventures beyond the stars!
Games to check out: ChangedStars
Website: dieselshot.bsky.social
🎪 Sly Robot Games (C.J. Linton)
Sly Robot Games sells narrative-forward TTRPGs and other craft art items including dice bags, notebooks, and zines.
Why you should stop by: We love to chat games and you can go fishing (for crochet octopuses).
Games to check out: Tomorrow on Revelation III, Plant Girl Game
Website: www.slyrobotgames.com
🎪 Level Zero Gaming (Brandon Brown)
Games that aim to capture distinct essences.
Why you should stop by: Check out Arcana: The Pursuit of Mastery, a spellcraft simulator designed to put you in the mindset of a scholar of the arcane arts. Study and experiment with a world steeped in power, and change it forever with the spells you craft.
Games to check out: Arcana: The Pursuit of Mastery, Solitaire Scribe, Legends of the Dark World
Website: level-zero-gaming.itch.io
🎪 Junk Food Games (Chris)
I design and sell TTRPGs.
Why you should stop by: We make small, interesting games that are great for solo or GM-less play and short sessions!
Games to check out: Necromancer Heretic, Moon Rings, Death Cap Sauté
Website: junkfoodgames.itch.io
🎪 Exeunt Press (John)
Exeunt Press makes weird and wonderful games.
Why you should stop by: I’ll have two new games for sale! We Are Mushrooms and The Walden Paradox in print, plus the classics like Exclusion Zone Botanist. Every purchase at the event will get a special something extra.5 Also, I love chatting with people who read Skeleton Code Machine! Tell me about an article you enjoyed or something you found inspiring.
Games to check out: Caveat Emptor, Exclusion Zone Botanist, Eleventh Beast
Website: shop.exeunt.press
As a side note, both Chris and Binary Star have been contributors to Tumulus. Bring your copy for them to sign! :)
- E.P. 💀
P.S. If you love tabletop games, you should check out Tumulus. It’s a print-only, quarterly zine packed with Skeleton Code Machine game design content.
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
Sadly, the annual Save Against Fear convention has been discontinued but you can still read my lessons learned from the event. It was my first in-person vendor table experience! I really miss that tiny convention and the massive heart that it had.
You can read my notes leading up to the first public playtest of Ratsail as well as the post-event report. Spoiler: It went shockingly well!
I appreciate this call-out by Gene and that he considers me an honorary DMV designer even though strict geographic boundaries might indicate otherwise. No mere map can contain Gene’s love for games. ;)
There may be some notable exceptions to this.
Technically I need to say “while supplies last” but I’m sure I’ll have enough with me.
First of all, great article and I love how you boosted all of the game designers. When I have more time I’m going to check out every website and Itch. I wish I could go!!!