Long Island Tabletop Gaming Expo draws thousands with workshops, panels, shared community

Forty-or-so cloaks, hundreds of tiny paint bottles and an inestimable number of writing implements occupied dozens of boxes in Courtney Tricarichi-Funk’s car on the eve of the Long Island Tabletop Gaming Expo.

As the coordinator of the weekend-long event, which started Saturday morning, Tricarichi-Funk spent Friday night bringing boxes into the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Uniondale.

"Everyone needs a cloak, for certain events," said Tricarici-Funk, of Centerport. "A cloak makes you feel strong, and it makes you feel brave, and it makes you feel like an adventurer."

The annual expo, born in 2018 as a component of the Retro Gaming Expo and now a standalone attraction, draws thousands of attendees who spend two days playing games of various genres, attending panels, participating in workshops and competing in tournaments. This year, Tricarichi-Funk has added a "Dungeons and Drag Queens" event, during which spectators will watch drag queens play D&D.

Midmorning Saturday, the first floor of the museum was overtaken by vendors selling bath bombs that dissolve to release sets of dice, potion bottle-shaped Linzer cookies made with 3D printed cutters, resin dice that sparkled like geodes. Game tables sat amid model planes hanging from the ceiling, as attendees purchased new card packs in the shadow of a Boeing 707.

"I'm just a big board game geek, and I love all of the booths, the vendors are also so cool," said Freya Siddiqua, 26, of Wading River. "I love the tournaments, as well as just the overall community."

His red light saber aglow, Lucas Marchese, 20, of Holbrook, traversed the expo as a representative of the Deer Park-based Saber Guild, a nonprofit that raises money for Cohen Children's Hospital.

"We basically play dress up and beat each other with these sticks," said Marchese, dressed as a Sith.

Expo gameplay spans the spectrum of time commitment. Some, like Dungeons and Dragons, last four hours; others require just 30 minutes, Tricarichi-Funk said.

"We try to take away that anxiety or barrier to entry, so anybody can come and just have a good time," said operations coordinator Joel Albino.

The show includes miniature games, board games, card games and role playing games. There are workshops for painting miniatures, mapmaking and terrain building. A "live experience" area offers three escape rooms and a seven-room "live dungeon."

"It’s like a cross between an escape room and a dungeon crawl, where they’re doing physical challenges and mental games with a group of adventurers and they’re trying to progress from room to room," Tricarichi-Funk said.

Run by 150 volunteers, Tricharichi-Funk said, the expo makes the gaming space accessible. From a gaming family, who she involves in the show, Tricarichi-Funk has been part of this community for two decades.

"We understand the difficulty that some people face when they try to navigate outside of their comfort zone into an area that is sometimes stigmatized," she said.

The expo is a space created by people who love the gaming community, Tricarichi-Funk said.

"We want everyone to have a good time, we want everyone to feel included," she said.

For Albino, the through line amid the games is the community aspect.

"There’s really something different and something special with sitting next to somebody and sharing and enjoying an experience together," Albino said.