Ttrpg in the night-time econonmy
where can a group get a table in public at night
2025-05-22
I hooked up with a new group of players trying to start a new game. There was an initial struggle to figure out where to play. I would normally offer to host but we just downsized and moved into a small apartment and got rid of our big table. The DM was in a similar situation: in a small space with no table. So the question was posed: what is a public space where can we play on a Sunday evening?
I subsequently spent tens of minutes researching where one might be able to rent a table.
Methodology:
Search meetup.com and yelp.com for Dungeons & Dragons.
Search for “24 hours” and “nightlife” with <city name>. Ignore all the Dennys and Waffle House results. (Mistake?)
Try to organically and spontaneously think of other places I remember maybe having a back room or table.
Results:
Public Library. There’s a local branch that actually offers after-hours room reservations until as late as 10:00. I was surprised by this free, truly awesome service. Libraries are fucking awesome.
Friendly Local Game Shop. There are three shops nearby that might host us. They each have different models: some are free, some are not. All were already booked for the time we wanted.
Local church. There is a local D&D group on meetup.com that meet in a community room at the local LDS church. This is very funny.
Brewery or taphouse with a room or table. I can think of one pub nearby that has a semi-private back room that is used for events sometimes. And I’ve been to plenty a taproom that offers up their tables for groups and meetups, often on a first-come-first-served basis. Maybe we could use something like that. Potentially free, but not very private: higher chance of somebody drunkenly interrupting the game.
Local Community College. There’s a small campus nearby that has study rooms and community rooms. It is expensive to rent the community rooms though.
Rec Center Community Room. Also expensive.
Coworking spaces. I didn’t seriously consider this option because membership would be expensive. But the benefit is that you typically have 24/7 access to the space.
A hotel or apartment building. Tricky. They probably have a meeting room, but I bet you have to be a guest or resident to use it. Probably offers late access though.
The hookah bar. Open from 5pm to 12am. One reviewer says that they organize their DND game there.
Bowling alley? The one near me is open till 1AM. Can you reserve a room for cheap without reserving a lane?
Some open air space like a public park? There are some spaces I can think of that have picnic areas that have tables that could seat 4 comfortably, maybe 6 if you squeeze. But also they’re that metal mesh material that would be hard to write or roll dice on. I guess you could get by with dice trays and a hardback notebook, etc. But then there is also the matter of lighting, and exposure to the wind and the elements. Could be really fun! But also challenging.
The most complicating requirement for us was that we wanted to play Sunday evenings. That ruled out most places on account of being closed weekends, and especially weekend evenings.
Ever since posing the question I have been looking at my neighborhood with new eyes, with a new perspective. Ttrpg is typically by necessity a night-time activity because of daytime obligations—jobs, family, children, etc. So where do players go when they want to meet up and play in public late at night? Would this coffee shop stay open late for us? Would a yoga studio even have a table? What about this community theater?
Nightlife and night-time economy is a topic that is getting more attention and more discussion. (At least, I have noticed it being discussed more. But that might be some kind of frequency bias of mine.) Service workers, and night shift workers, and club-goers, and teenagers (and other people) whose internal bioglogical clocks naturally skew them toward later hours, and people who need to rent a room in the evening for ~4 hours to play D&D all need amenities and support and service. Several larger cities have appointed a Night Mayor to oversee the night-time economy for this exact reason.
This experience was an occasion for me to reflect on what a private, secret activity ttrpg usually is. There are certainly meetups that use space at bars. But I have never played anywhere but around a large table at somebody’s house. Which to be honest is a lot of privilege that plenty of folks don’t have either due to economic disadvantage, or because of choosing to live in a smaller space without a big game table.
In the end, we were able to avoid having to answer the question. Our DM found an adequate secondhand table and we were able to play at their place. If that hadn’t happened the solution would probably the Night Library, which I am still impressed is even an option. But the problem still remains: where does public, night-time D&D happen? And also can we make it more of a thing? Because honestly it sounds awesome. I would love to see people playing in the back of a bar, or in a public park in the open air, or in a late night coffee shop or hookah bar.