In the same decades when so many forms of entertainment went electric or digital, games played on tabletops, on boards, grew, nationally, into a fifteen-billion-dollar industry by 2023. Ryan Praditkamollert, 34, of East Providence, began playing board and card games with friends regularly over ten years ago. They started with the contemporary “basics,” like Dungeons & Dragons, Risk, and Magic the Gathering, but it was not until the pandemic when he walked by a window selling Warhammer gaming sets that he dove into miniature gaming, board games and strategy card games and turned his new tabletop gaming passion into a business venture.
Sales of tabletop game-related books, cards, and miniature figurine making sets have all increased enormously. Gaming content has appeared in popular movies, TV shows, and podcasts like Paramount Pictures’ Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves or Amazon Prime’s The Legend of Vox Machina (an animated series based on a popular Dungeons and Dragons podcast).
In some games like Dungeons & Dragons, players roleplay fantasy characters like elves, warlocks, or orcs, often with the use of homemade table set designs and hand painted figurines. Games typically follow an adventure storyline created by the players as they jump from quest to quest, similar to the popular “choose your own adventure” books that first appeared in the 1970s. More creative and open-ended games like these can sometimes take months or even years to conclude, with players often meeting weekly to play fantastical campaigns full of magic and wonder.
Other tabletop games like Risk or Settlers of Catan follow a more traditional board game structure with cards and strict rules that players must follow, with games usually only lasting for a few hours. Strategic elements are usually present.
Customers can buy games, rent them for the day from a gaming library to play in The Crypt, or use the store’s large custom-made tables for miniature and figurine games like Warhammer and Dungeons & Dragons. For those new to board games or tabletop gaming, Praditkamollert will teach players a game of their choosing for a small fee. Gaming tables can be reserved in advance for a price via Instagram (@TheCryptPVD) or a soon to be launched website.
Praditkamollert also hopes to have space for customers to create their own tabletop gaming terrain with tools like laser cutters and hot wire cutters. He envisions a painting station where customers will be able to create their own figurines for their fantasy games.
Praditkamollert’s business, The Crypt, at 161 Chestnut Street next to Alchemy in the Jewelry District, is more than a store selling the latest strategic board and tabletop games. The real game is community and inclusion.
Growing up Asian-American in New England, he was often in spaces lacking the diversity he needed to feel he belonged. He thought he could challenge stereotypes and stigmas found in gaming spaces. “Not everyone that plays a board game is a white guy. Not everyone lives in their mom’s basement,” Praditkamollert said.
He hopes to make The Crypt welcoming and inclusive by collaborating with other community partners in spaces that include the LGBT, BIPOC, differently abled and other underrepresented groups in Providence. “There’s a group of Queer board gamers close by that meets regularly but just don’t have a home yet,” he said. “I want to reach out to minority gamers.”
In line with this mission of inclusion, Praditkamollert purposefully stocks games from companies that he believes represent the values of diversity. For those who don’t game but want to support their friends and family who do play, he has a “waiting area,” with couches and chairs, as well as snacks and sodas for sale. He hopes eventually to provide room for non-gaming events in the store, like community fundraising nights or public talks from professors at Brown or RISD.
Providence has recently seen other spaces with similar inclusive appeal. For example, Small Format, a cafe in Fox Point, labels itself as a third space for the LGBT+ community, and Wildflour Bakery on East Avenue in Pawtucket has become a community staple for local vegans. Other community-oriented businesses like Askew, a popular spot for local music, open-mic comedy and storytelling in the Jewelry District are thriving, and Praditkamollert hopes his spot will join them as a new and welcome “third space” in the city.
“Third spaces” can be understood as places of community gathering between home (“first place”) and work (“second place”), such as places of worship, ethnic heritage social clubs, cafes, libraries or bars. In recent years, especially post-COVID, health officials and sociologists have lamented the decline of such spaces, contributing to what has been dubbed the “loneliness epidemic,” where social connections have dwindled, and rates of loneliness have increased. In 2023, the US Surgeon General gave a national advisory warning about this growing isolation epidemic.
Before he began his yearlong venture in forming a business plan, traveling to other game stores in New England to meet owners, looking for a leased space, and being selected as a Horizons Fellow with the Game Manufacturers Association, he spent most of his career in the service industry as a cook, including Flatbread Company where he was part of the opening team for the Providence location in 2013.
“I thought the restaurant industry was all I could ever do,” Praditkamollert said.
His parents immigrated to the United States from Thailand in the 1980s when they opened a Thai restaurant in New Hampshire. Although grateful for the values of hard work and entrepreneurship his parents instilled in him, he saw how draining running a restaurant can be. He wanted his business to be something other than another eating establishment.
He and his partner Adriane Thompson currently run the store, assisting customers and at times learning how to play games, too. “Ryan’s teaching me Magic the Gathering now,” she noted. The two say they bonded as a couple over the absurd and “being weird.”
The Crypt hopes to cater to those working non-traditional hours. Store hours are Thursday to Saturday from 9 AM to 10 or 11 PM, and Sunday to Wednesday from 9 AM to 9 PM, closed on Tuesdays.
Daniel Morris rents in Mt. Hope, Providence. He is an active member of the Providence Streets Coalition and Providence Urbanist Network. His interests are safe street designs, affordable housing advocacy, and live jazz in the city. He is originally from the South Shore of Massachusetts.
