Not your usual boardgame cafe, this TTDI space specialises in tabletop RPGs like D&D

Chances are, you’ve played board games before, be it Monopoly or good old Snakes and Ladders. 

The world of tabletop roleplay games (TTRPGs), though, is perhaps more rich and diverse than you might think. 

Here Be Dragons, a self-described one-stop-game-shop for all things tabletop in TTDI, sheds light on that. 

Behind the business is founder Sharifah Hanna, who finished her Media Production studies in New York.  

Growing up, she had heard of Dungeons and Dragons (D&D), a popular TTRPG, but it wasn’t until she studied overseas that she learnt more about it. 

Ironically, though, it was when she got back to Malaysia during the peak of the COVID pandemic era that she was able to play it herself. 

During this time, Sharifah was unemployed, and she thought to herself, “There’s no way some nerds didn’t figure out how to play this online while social distancing.”

She was right, and quickly found a Discord server that held games online. “I fell head first into it, and I realised how much I wish I’d discovered it as a child, especially as a neurodivergent child with ADHD and autism that wouldn’t be diagnosed until much later in my life.”

Here be a start 

But after getting a new job, Sharifah stepped away from playing D&D online for many months. When a coworker had caught the virus, though, they took on a work-from-home model, giving Sharifah the time to jump into a game again. 

“The welcome I got from people who didn’t even know my real name, who just welcomed me because they enjoyed playing this collaborative game of storytelling with me, made me realise how much the sense of community these hobbies could build meant to me,” she expressed. 

Sharifah began thinking how wonderful it would be if a place like Here Be Dragons existed. But at that time, she didn’t think of it as a business she could start—just one that would be cool if someone else did. 

But then, she started to think, “Maybe if my career didn’t work out in a year… I’d consider it as a real option.”

Two weeks later, she quit her job and began figuring out where to start on the endeavour that is Here Be Dragons. 

Here be the land of TTRPGs 

For the uninitiated, TTRPGs stands for tabletop role playing games. They’re essentially collaborative, improvised storytelling games, where players sit around a table, each playing a role. 

These games involve a set of rules and usually dice rolls to determine the outcome of actions. 

There’s usually someone known as the Game Master who runs the game and acts as the overall background storyteller. The players are the main characters in the story.

The Game Master will introduce a basic starting point in the story, and the players will describe their reactions, and it’s a back-and-forth experience. 

There’s no winning or losing in the traditional sense, since it’s more about telling a story and seeing how things end.

“It can get absolutely hilarious, with people laughing over ridiculous decisions and scenarios, or it can break your heart when something terrible happens to the characters,” Sharifah said about the campaigns. 

In other words, TTRPGs are a form of storytelling, allowing players to explore nuances of real-life concepts and express themselves in a safe space. This is what Here Be Dragons seeks to offer. 

Here Be Dragons offers both pre-written and pre-scheduled sessions with experienced professional Game Masters. The majority of their sessions are beginner-friendly, coming with resources such as pre-made character sheets and dice. 

The team is also always more than willing to give a crash course of any rules to the games they run. 

Giving people the opportunity to try new things, they also do their best to provide a variety of TTRPGs, not just popular ones such as Dungeons and Dragons. 

The space serves light snacks and drinks, but otherwise has a limited F&B menu as it wasn’t something they prioritised, choosing to focus on designing products and services. 

Prices for Here Be Dragons’ session range around RM25 per session. Bookings must be made in advance for specific campaigns on their website. Meanwhile, the private rooms cost RM140 for the first two hours which houses a maximum of eight people.

Here be a growing community

Here Be Dragons is only two years old now, but it has already seen the TTRPG scene grow. This is in part due to their presence, as well as other industry stalwarts such as Nightshade Tavern, KakiTabletop, Fame & Fate, and MYLARP. 

More than helping people discover hobbies, the team prides itself on seeing people discover community. 

“While I know it’s so easy to use words like community, safe spaces, and finding your people as buzzwords in branding nowadays, I don’t think it diminishes the importance of any of those things,” Sharifah said. 

The founder believes that the more genuine community you have, the harder it is to feel isolated and become a target of exploitation. When you belong in communities, you see a world bigger than yourself, recognising other people who have lives aside from yours.

“Hobbies like this may start out as escapism, but I’ve also seen how they lead to real life changes through genuine human connection, because these are hobbies that generally require human interaction in a very specific way,” she added. 

Here be profits? 

Here Be Dragons offers multiple table rental packages, charging for time in their space, where you get access to the library of 150+ games, along with recommendations and game instructions from the staff. 

Many customers also use the space to bring their own games, run TTRPGs, or even just get some work done. “As long as you’re respecting our customer code of conduct and paying the rental fees, we’re pretty flexible with how you use the space.”

They also have a private room with access to resources such as minis, terrain pieces, and a bluetooth speaker. For an additional fee, there’s also a screen built into the table itself that customers can use to display maps or atmospheric images. 

Then there’s the dedicated craft workshop space, where Here Be Dragons hosts local artists leading workshops on everything from miniature painting to terrain building. 

From here onwards

Two years in, Sharifah shared that the business isn’t as badly in the red as they were last year. 

One big challenge they face is visibility. As Sharifah said, it doesn’t matter how good a service is if people didn’t know it exists. 

“Of course, the added factor of being built on such a niche interest didn’t help,” the founder said. “But in a way, that’s also what makes it so precious to people.”

As they’re still getting their footing right now, Sharifah aims to steadily keep building up their space before working on grander plans such as…. Malaysia’s first official renaissance faire?

“I think the start of the business was itself enough of a huge jump into the dark (which so far, admittedly, had paid off),” Sharifah commented. 

“But I don’t feel the need to bite off more than we can chew now that we exist and are on track to keep going. One step at a time, but we’re excited for the future.”

Featured Image Credit: Here Be Dragons