Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs presents at SPIEL Essen 2025 in Germany, the world's largest tabletop gaming convention. Hobbs led a trade mission to the convention, taking a collection of Washington-based game creators, publishers, and other related tabletop businesses.
Courtesy of Washington Secretary of State / KUOW
Washington state is widely known for industries like tech, agriculture, and aerospace. But Secretary of State Steve Hobbs has a goal to make Washington just as well known for its tabletop game scene, especially on the international stage. As he puts it, everyone should know that Washington is the “tabletop game capitol of the world.”
“This is the tabletop game capitol of the world,” Hobbs said while at an annual tabletop convention, Orca Con, that he cofounded. “I don’t think a lot of people realize that.”
Tabletop games are exactly what they sound like: games played on a tabletop, which can include board games, roleplaying games, and more. Monopoly, Dungeons & Dragons, and Catan are all tabletop games.
Hobbs is engaged in Washington’s thriving tabletop community spanning publishers, indie game creators, playtesters, artists, and pubs, plus small businesses like Lethal Shadows, which started up in 2019 in Bothell. It produces high-quality game pieces.
“The secretary of state is a nerd, as a lot of people know,” said Patrick Rami with Lethal Shadows. “He does a lot of tabletop gaming himself. He paints miniatures. Like, the guy is awesome.”
Under Hobbs, tabletop gaming has been incorporated into the Office of the Secretary of State. He has placed copies of “Dungeons & Dragons” in Washington libraries, and started a prison program using “Dungeons & Dragons” as a form of therapy. And through trade missions to Game Market in Tokyo and SPIEL Essen in Germany, he aims to establish tabletop trade routes from Washington state to Asia and Europe.
“The Secretary of State’s Office has always been an active player in international commerce and international relations,” Hobbs said. “Not just me, but you can go several secretaries back, to Sam Reed, even further back than that. And I feel it is my responsibility as secretary of state to ensure that we support these industries here.”
Indeed, Reed led trade missions throughout Asia and hosted 120 delegations from 45 countries. Former Secretary of State Ralph Munro was perhaps the most prolific as a trade ambassador during his time in office. The government of Japan even posthumously honored Munro for this work with the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon.
“I’ve gone on trade missions for aerospace, a little bit for ag[riculture],” Hobbs said. “But as a fellow nerd, as someone who knows the industry, because I have friends who play these games and design these games, I feel like we need to do something for them. We need to have the same government support to maintain our advantage overseas.”
Outside of his work as Washington secretary of state, Steve Hobbs cofounded the tabletop gaming convention Orca Con with his friend Donna Prior.
Dyer Oxley / KUOW
Washington purchased considerable booth space at Game Market in Tokyo in 2024 and at SPIEL Essen in Germany in 2025. The Secretary of State’s Office returned to Tokyo in May 2026. There are plans to return to Germany, and potentially Japan, in 2027. Each time, a collection of Washington game creators and related businesses come along.
The effort hasn’t come without criticism. The overseas conventions can fall near the same time as November elections, a busy time for the Secretary of State’s Office. And the cost to attend these events can run tens of thousands of dollars.
Funding for these trade missions comes from a variety of sources, including money the state Legislature has budgeted, sponsorships from private companies and the Department of Commerce, corporate filing fees, and economic development groups.
“We will pay for the booth,” Hobbs said. “[Businesses and creators] still have to have skin in the game, pay for their airfare and all that stuff, and they do get grants through the federal government. And I provide them a means to access the market in these places.”
“An indie game developer does not have the resources to go to Japan, to Tokyo Game Market, because it’s just too costly. A booth over there is like $20,000. If you went to Essen, it would be about $50,000,” he added. “So, we provide space for these indie game developers to be able to sell their wares. And now we’ve gone beyond indie game developers and we’re including those who do accessories, who make figures and dice boxes.”
Tabletop trade missions
In 2025, Rami with Lethal Shadows decided to roll the dice and take a turn at Washington’s booth at SPIEL Essen in Germany. He was among a collection of Washington tabletop representatives on the trip, including Occam’s Razor, Black Diamond Creators, Flatout Games, Misfits, World of Kylia, Cherry Picked Games, InDiPro Games . The Secretary of State’s Office planned a 10-day trip (around the four-day convention), allowing time for networking and meetings with government officials (Germany is a major tabletop market).
For Lethal Shadows, it was a critical hit.
“We made some huge, huge inroads,” Rami said. “We’ve already closed some deals that we started there. There’s some deals that are still ongoing.”
Lethal Shadows connected with a European game company. They now produce their models in Bothell, so they don’t have to import them. They also became their exclusive U.S. distributor. In turn, Lethal Shadows is gaining business connections throughout Europe.
“It’s been absolutely amazing,” Rami said. “We’re looking at onshoring other productions as well that we’re doing overseas currently. We’re looking at onshoring our resin production. We’re looking at onshoring some of our dice production. But we need space for that, right? We need more people. So, this is all forced growth in correlation with our trip to Germany. … It’s kind of like a root system — it’s sprouting in different directions.”
Lethal Shadows is currently expanding into a warehouse and hiring additional employees. It has begun its own line of paints for figurines. And as Rami explains it, the trip to Essen wasn’t just a boost for his business.
“It left a positive impression of the U.S. as a whole,” Rami said.
“You know, right now it can be tough times on the world stage for the U.S.,” he added. “So, that had a very positive reaction, people seeing… ‘Oh, there’s stability here. Oh, there’s still growth in business. People are still business-minded, and the U.S. can still be accessible to business. … The U.S. doesn’t hate the world.’ We’re still open for business. And it went a long way.”
Hobbs pointed to Lethal Shadows as a success story.
Dyer Oxley is a reporter with KUOW. This story comes to you from the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.
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