Thursday, May 22, 2025
The Cradle of Aviation, in Uniondale, hosted thousands of gaming enthusiasts from across Long Island at the 2025 LI Tabletop Gaming Expo April 5 and 6.
Board Game Coordinator David VanderWerf wore many hats, directing staff, planning events and teaching attendees the games. “Anybody can come here and learn a game,” he said. “We’ve got a record number of role-playing games on the schedule, we have great miniatures events, and we’ve got a trading card game section, which is fantastic.”
The expo had attractions of all genres for gamers of all ages, from escape rooms to board game tournaments to live panels and open game tables. For those interested in the classics, Uno, Battleship and Settlers of Catan were popular choices. Collectible card games Magic: The Gathering, Pokémon and Lorcana attracted crowds for educational workshops and competitive play. Meanwhile, fantasy fans delighted in sessions of Dungeons and Dragons and similar role-playing games.
“This is a fantastic event not only for us that are running it and for the guests that attend, but it’s also great for the community,” VanderWerf said.
Reece Pena and James Velazquez, friends from Suffolk County, came to the Cradle of Aviation after seeing advertisements for the expo online.
“Me and Reese, we play a lot of TTRPGs: Call of Cthulhu, and Fifth Edition D&D and Mothership,” Velazquez said, using the shorthand for tabletop role-playing games. “Reese told me about this expo and everything. I had never really been to one. So I decided to go, and we’re going to do some panels — a bunch of stuff that we were looking forward to.”
The pair played a two-hour game of The Elder Scrolls: Betrayal of the Second Era, a complex resource-management game that filled a five-foot-wide table, with one of the event’s professional game instructors.
“I’m really interested in all types of board games and role-playing games,” Pena said. “This board game really caught my eye because I saw some good reviews of it online, so I decided to participate, and I definitely don’t regret it — definitely a really good time, and it was a very effective way of learning and playing.”
Christopher Ganshaw is an ambassador for Chip Theory Games, a board game publisher in Minnesota. He walked Pena and Velazquez through each step of The Elder Scrolls, explaining how to handle tokens, strategize, and understand the map of the game’s fantasy world.
“I’ve been coming to one Island tabletop for multiple years now, and I just do promotional work for Chip Theory, showing their games, teaching people how to play, giving them an understanding of the game plan,” Ganshaw said. “I’ve been doing this kind of promotional work for companies for 10 years or so.
“All the years that I’ve been coming here, I’ve had nothing but a good time,” he added. “My main thing is this: Did you have a good time? Did you enjoy yourself?”
One of the retailers at the event was Walter Julius, owner of The Midnight Tavern, a Selden-based game company.
“I’m lucky enough to partner up with the Brothers Grimm, which is like the biggest gaming store on Long Island,” Julius said. “I have a growing selection of tabletop role-playing games, board games and card games. It’s a bit of a burden, because I have so many titles and I don’t have enough time to try and play all of them!”
To learn more about future events, visit LITableTop.com.
