A Moment in TTRPG History

An interview with Tom Gibes on the Tabletop Bookshelf brick-and-mortar opening

Apr 22, 2026

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By Elliot Davis, My First Dungeon

In March 2026, Tom Gibes officially opened a brick-and-mortar version of his wildly popular online shop, Tabletop Bookshelf. And while he certainly intends to make it Milwaukee’s greatest friendly local gaming shop, with a wide range of board games, community events, and more, what makes this endeavor unique is the fact that Tabletop Bookshelf has always been best known as a champion of indie RPGs.

Here, Elliot sits down to chat with Tom about what it was like to go from digital to physical and how he plans to keep the IRL store true to those indie origins.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Elliot: Tom, you are one of my favorite retail partners ever since your online store opened. Like anybody that I talk to, game designers that you work with, I feel like they always say, Tom moves books like no one else, moves games like no one else. So it’s just been really incredible to see how quickly this shop grew from an online-only store and now into the physical store. So I just want to first say congratulations on all of that.

Tom: Well, thank you. I mean, the way I think about the growth is, you know, I had a certain skill set that allowed it to happen. But again, nothing even happens without all the creative work. Right? So really what I see my role as is just facilitating the potential that’s already there and just making sure that I give it the best path forward.

Elliot: I think you’ve been doing it! I really want to dig in on how you just opened this physical retail space in Milwaukee—Tabletop Bookshelf. And I want to just hear about the opening, partially because I have FOMO for missing out on it. What was opening day like? What did you hear from customers who came in on day one?

Tom: Opening day was overwhelming in a good way. You know, we had over a hundred people lined up out front when the doors opened. And over the weekend, we had a couple hundred people walk through and visit the space and look at it. I mean, it was really wonderful to have a lot of designers come from out of town. We had Ken Lowry and so was Pandion Games and Spencer Campbell and Bright Bard Games. A lot of people were there to mingle and show up and honestly that was great because that’s a lot of what I hope the space can be, is a meeting place for people to share ideas. So that was great.

But, you know, outside of the people involved and the, you know, the size of it, I think the other thing that was that I’d had the idea mostly living in my head for many months now, like what the space could be and what it would look like. So seeing people come in and respond in a positive way to it, understand the intention behind the choices I made—just the compliments and the positive words are really reassuring, that I’m doing things in the right way and setting a good foundation, I guess, for everything that’s going to come in the next few months. Because when you set up a shop, the grand opening is a great event, but really it’s setting up for years of operations afterwards too. So it’s really exciting in that moment, but it’s also exciting to think about what that means for the future of the shop.

Elliot: Was there anything on day one that surprised you?

Tom: Yeah, I would say like the thing that was surprising for me or that was the way that people responded to the variety of things that are in the shop because, you know, we expanded beyond our solo game and tabletop role playing game collection to include more board games and card games. And there’s plushies there and that stuff is doing really well. And that shows that like a physical space is very different than an online space.

You have to curate it differently. Thinking about online, you’re mostly just thinking about one sense: sight. But when you’re in a physical store, you’re also thinking about texture; if you bring in candles or something, you’re brining about smell, too. You’re thinking about the sounds of the store. So you’re thinking about a more multi-sensory like experience.

But people were responding to it in the right way! I did some analytics since the grand opening and one of our top revenue generating things is actually postcards. Which is wild, but that postcard just goes to show that those little things that you wouldn’t expect, that would never do online, those are a really important part to the physical space. And they do augment each other, right? Like the artistry in the postcards is similar to the artistry in the books, and they feed into each other and kind of create that vibe, if you want to use that word or, you know, feeling.

Elliot: I want to rewind a bit, back to when you made the decision that a physical storefront was the next evolution of tabletop bookshelf. How long as this been in the making and how did you kind of come to the conclusion that you were ready for a physical space?

Tom: It had always been in the long-term plan to build a physical space. And then there were kind of a few things that catalyzed that changed faster than I probably would have planned. The first thing is I was running out of my basement and there were some very serious floods. I live across the street from a river. And if you followed the news, the Milwaukee flooding last year in last August was like a 500-year flood. We were very lucky our house didn’t experience it, but like just down the road some houses they got like totally wiped out so you know I obviously I want to take that anxiety off my plate—of the business being wiped out from a natural disaster—so that was a big motivating factor.

And the other thing is the space I found. There was a part of me that considered going out to the suburbs to find a cheap location or warehouse and do the business that way. But the storefront, it’s near downtown Milwaukee, and it was just such a unique space. It’s in an old tannery building that’s over 100 years old. It’s got these wonderful windows and a skylight in the roof, which very few buildings have. And my vision for wht the space could be, I thought I could really make things work. You know, I could make everything I wanted out of the space.

I was able to work with the landlord to help during the renovation. I don’t have outside funding coming in to help with all this, it’s really built on what I have access to. So it’s been important being able to tap into those resources including having a landlord that’s invested in the success of the business. You know, they look at the books and they say, okay we can do that for you. That really helped put all the pieces together.

All the pieces kind of fell into place the right way, and so I figured why not now, let’s just do it. And it’s definitely been the right move, for sure.

Elliot: There are also all the things you’re now able to do that you weren’t with an online store. One of them being selling other kinds of merchandise, but also you’re running events and cultivating that “local game store” vibe. Can you talk about what other plans you have for events and things you hope to do with the space?

Tom: Yeah, so really excited! You know, we have a pretty big space and we were able to bring in some really nice gaming tables and we’re starting to unlock that space a little bit. We started running community games every Friday. We did a survey and the number one thing that people want are “learn to plays” and demos. Like they love these games, but people need more time playing them or they want someone to actually guide them through it before they take the leap. So we started doing that every Friday. This month is PirateBorg. Next month it’s going to be something different. And if people get really into Pirate Borg they can continue that game in the space, and that’d be great. I’d love to have more energy in the space.

The second thing we’re doing is game designer meetups. Like I said, with the grand opening I always hoped that it would be a place for designers to come and get the creative juices flowing and make connections We’re having our first one tonight, actually! And I think we have like six to eight people already signed up online, I know a few other people that are coming in so, you know, that’s another way in which the space will be activated

The final piece, I guess piggybacking on that, is bringing in authors in more of a traditional bookstore experience. We’re going to have authors coming in—actually for Indie Bookstore Day, we just confirmed we have James D’Amato coming in to do book signing. So it’s super exciting, right? Like a great fit. So that’s what we can do in the space. And yeah, very excited to unlock that more as the year goes on.

Elliot: That’s awesome! I will say, when I was watching the opening from afar, on BlueSky and Instagram and stuff, it felt like I was witnessing a historical moment for indie RPGs. And as you’ve said, you’ve added lots of other products to the store, it’s not just indie RPGs there, but that’s still your bread and butter, which is amazing to see. I’m curious if you have any feelings, like what do you think this opening means for the indie RPG industry at large?

Tom: Well, first of all, I think it’s reflective of a certain level of maturity within the indie RPG scene. You know, I think there has to be a certain capacity for people to find these games and get interested in them. And I think there’s enough people now talking about them at a certain level that allows me to put these forward and say, you know, there are the other things in the shop, but this is really what the shop is about.

And when you walk in the shop and you look on the left in our new arrivals, trending titles, aisles, I mean, the first thing you see are indie RPGs. I think you’d also be surprises at how often people from different walks of life come in. Traditionally RPGs have their stereotypes of the people who are involved with them. But I think what this experience has revealed is that there is a much broader audience for RPGs. And it’s really just about speaking to that audience in the right way, especially on the solo games front. Like, you don’t have to have played any sort of RPG of be involved in any sort of RPG group to pick up a solo game.

And I think what it means for the future—look, like D&D is still the big guy. They still dominate the industry. But they’re so big that shaving off those slivers from that big beast is very powerful for us who are playing in a smaller sea. There’s lots of potential there. I have people come in all the time who are saying, man, I’ve been playing D&D forever, but I just played my first Blades in the Dark, I had so much fun! And that is still, I would say, the majority of people who play RPGs, right? Like they still haven’t gone off and tried anything else. So I would say, there’s definitely blue waters, you just gotta know where to search. Go and explore, because the opportunity is there.

Elliot: Going off of that, opportunity, we’re less than one month out since you opened. How are you feeling and what are your hopes for this first year and beyond?

Tom: This first part is really about stabilizing, getting an understanding of the rhythm of the business and understanding how much I can unlock from the space. What can I do within this space? How can I maximize or optimize the use of that space? Also, my basement really limited how much inventory I could house at one time, so now I can bring in so much more. I’m just really excited about this year. You’re going to see a big increase in the number of different titles. We’re at about 200 SKUs right now, but it’ll be closer to 400 by the end of the year.

It also means that when that holiday season rolls around, we’re gonna be able to really ramp up and meet the demand. And that’s something that we had troubles with last holiday season—we were struggling to keep up. I think, you know, for this year, that’s the big thing is just growth in selection while maintaining our focus on curation and customer service, keeping that up at a really high level, which we always try to execute on.

And then beyond that, there are lots of plans! I can’t quite talk about them all, but I will say that, I’m very interested in making more games after publishing my first game last year (One Way Out). I have some things rolling around in my head that hopefully, when I have the time to put them down on paper, we can do in the second half of the year. There’s gonna be a lot more coming, but I’ll keep quiet on the rest of the stuff for now.

Elliot: Well, Tom, on behalf of myself and all indie designers, thank you for being such a champion of our work. It’s really just amazing to see it all come together.

Tom: I mean, it’s been really exciting to see all the people I’ve been working with grow together. Like Elliot, watching your development and your growth has been awesome too. Like I’m so grateful that you reached out when you did and were, you know, one of the first people who really got into the shop. And yeah, so forever grateful for that too.

Learn more about the Tabletop Bookshelf store here!