How Felicia Day and Wil Wheaton used an Internet board game show for charity

Nothing says party like playing board games on a Saturday night, right?

Well, that’s what nerd mainstays Felicia Day (The Guild, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and Wil Wheaton (Star Trek: The Next Generation) want to turn the classic American activity into, and they’re doing it through the Internet. Yes, they appreciate the irony.

Day’s YouTube channel,

, started as a vehicle for nerdy Web series like The Guild and quirky viral videos, but has rapidly evolved into a community where fellow nerds host talk shows on video games, LARPing or tabletop games.

Their most recent venture into this interactive entertainment is International TableTop Day, a worldwide day of people just playing board games together. It sounds nerdy, but that’s what Day and Wheaton are about.


“I think it's a great time period to be alive and not necessarily be an outsider,” Day says. “You can accept yourself and follow your passions more freely.”
On TableTop Day this year, which takes place all day Saturday, Day and Wheaton are sharing their passions with kids in need. In partnership with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater LA , the group is donating a board game to the Big Brothers Big Sisters organization and its national associates for every registered event on tabletopday.com.

And they’ve officially registered events in every continent, including Antarctica, Wheaton says.
“We wanted to work with an organization that would bring people joy in a time when they couldn't find it on their own,” Wheaton says. “(We want) to celebrate gaming and spread joy offline that we that we were already enjoying online.”
Wheaton, who has been playing tabletop games since he was in high school and credits it with some of his longest-lasting friendships, is the most enthusiastic supporter of tabletop games, introducing his friend Day to it, and eventually bringing it to her channel Geek and Sundry as a web show, TableTop. And unlike a lot of other traditional nerd hobbies, he wants everyone to be playing them.
“It’s not a community full of gatekeepers,” Wheaton says.