Welcome to our little tabletop roleplaying podcast website! We’re thrilled that you’re here!

You’re probably wondering who we are! Well, The Table Tops is a comedic table top roleplaying game podcast, focusing on creating a comedic and queer-centric gaming experience! Each week, we are bring together some of our favorite friends, comedians, and TTRPG players to our lovely Chicago apartment to record some hilarious content!

The Table Tops is presented by me, Jake Rhodes (@regrettablyjake), and Rob Sonnenfelt (@radio_owls), who are two creators based out of Chicago. Jake is an actor and improv comedian, and Rob is a long-time GM and musician. STRONG We’re also madly in love with each other, in a very very gay way. Combined, we have decades of experience with tabletop roleplaying, and are thrilled to be bringing you into our games!

How it all started!

The Table Tops started as a little joke when Rob and I started dating. About 6 months into our relationship, they started selling websites under the “.gay” domain. I immediately bought tabletops.gay as a joke gift, with the plan that if we stayed together, we would use it to start our very own Critical Role competitor, but this time “🌈FOR LGBTQ+ PEOPLE!🌈”

I explained the joke – Table Tops. Like people who like topping. Sexually. But also Table Tops like the games! Get it?

Needless to say, he let me know this wasn’t actually very funny at all, but his barriers broke down over the years of my constant badgering about it. We decided it was FINALLY TIME to bring our dream to the world.

What’s coming up for us!

Our first season is going to consist of 8 one-shots of a variety of indie TTRPGs. We’re calling this The Summer of One Shots!

We were inspired to start out this way was our EVER-GROWING collection of unread RPG books. We’ve both got libraries of indie games that we bought because we loved the vibes or the mechanics or some other aspect of the game. Unfortunately, like all tabletop roleplaying enthusiasts, we ran into the same issue you probably do – scheduling folks to play a new campaign of a game they’ve never heard of.

We were able to entice our friends with the promise of drinks, pizza, and the opportunity to be on TV (or on the internet. in this podcast) if they helped us put these games together!!

So – over the next few months, we’re going to be putting out 8 one-shots (over the course of 16 episodes) for some of the games we’ve MOST wanted to play, but haven’t. Here’s what we’re playing:

• Heart: The City Beneath from Rowan, Rook and Decard
• Star Wars RPG from Fantasy Flight
• Power Rangers RPG from Renegade
• The One Ring from Free League
• Monster of the Week from Evil Hat
• Pathfinder 2E from Paizo
• Avatar the Last Airbender from Magpie
• Dungeon World from Sage Kobold

We’re really excited to share what we have with you! It’s been a ton of fun to play these, and we’re hoping you enjoy them!

Keep in touch!

Go ahead and subscribe to our blog here, and follow us on Instagram at @tabletops.gay, Threads at @tabletops.gay, and Tiktok at @tabletops.gay!

With VERY MUCH love,

Jake