PORTLAND, Ore. (PORTLAND TRIBUNE) — Passion for board games and tabletop games surged during the pandemic, as many new people experimented with being shut-ins. One sector that was already on a roll, however, is the fantasy game Dungeons & Dragons. There are basic versions, played with a book, pen and paper, and more elaborate versions with plastic dragons and castles. Somewhere in between are the people who draw out maps for every scenario, which can be time consuming at the start of a four-hour game session.
One Portland company has been trying to solve that problem. 1985 Games, which has its office at 1319 S.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in Portland’s inner east side, publishes ready-made maps and terrains which can be placed and replaced as the game rolls on. They also sell Dungeon Notes journals for recording character and story notes, the Deck of Stories adventure system and Counterspell Miniatures.
Hobby game sales surpassed $2.69 billion in 2021 and tabletop role playing games (TTRPG) are a large part of that. Dungeons and Dragons (a TTRPG) got a shove towards the mainstream by appearing in sympathetic shows such as “Stranger Things” and “The Big Bang Theory,” and with players now in middle age, it has been swept into the lucrative nostalgia industry.
Lenny Gotter (CEO) and Jeremiah Crofton (Creative Director) are well aware of this. They cofounded 1985 Games in 2019. They see their niche as supplying tools to make playing the game easier, rather than selling storylines or collectibles and accessories.
“Jeremiah can actually draw fairly well. I however, cannot,” Gotter told Pamplin Media in their offices recently. “Instead of drawing trees, you can use our trees. You could just set down a forest right there. Not only does it save a lot of time, because you don’t have to draw everything, it also adds a lot more to the realism.”
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