A reinvented news experience. By McClatchy
When Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs was growing up, he got hooked on what would become a lifelong hobby: Dungeons & Dragons. As a person of color and nerd who’d been picked on as a kid, he said the fantasy role-playing game was a chance for escape — and he created a world in which he could defend the underdog and smite evil.
Hobbs said he rediscovered D&D more than a decade ago when he was serving as a state senator. He’s been all in ever since.
His current role as secretary of state oversees elections, but his office also operates the Washington State Library.
Last year Hobbs’ office started working alongside the Renton-based gaming company Wizards of the Coast to donate D&D kits to libraries statewide.
“I remember growing up in small-town Lake Stevens, where the library was kind of the only place to hang out at the time,” Hobbs said. “So, why don’t I create safe places for kids to go to now by drawing them into libraries?”
The way Hobbs sees it, D&D can help build up bipartisanship and break down barriers between those with opposing views. It’s partly why Hobbs’ office has gone all in on gaming.
Another factor: Gaming is big business in Washington.
Hobbs, a Democrat, recalled playing D&D with state Sen. Curtis King, a Yakima Republican, at a library in March 2024. He said with a laugh that King had asked, “Is that the devil game?” — echoing a label once applied to D&D during the so-called Satanic Panic of the late 1980s.
In the view of Jefferson Dunlap, graphic prepress manager at Wizards of the Coast, D&D promotes communication and cooperation. For a D&D party to succeed, Dunlap said, the players need to learn how to solve problems together.
Dunlap described Washington as fertile ground for the gaming industry. Aside from Wizards of the Coast, it’s home to gaming giants like Microsoft and Pokemon’s U.S. headquarters, as well as smaller independent outfits.
“It is kind of like, strangely, a gaming Mecca,” Dunlap said.
The Washington State Library (WSL) also has branches within state prisons, where Dungeons & Dragons was once banned for purportedly promoting the concepts of power and control. Hobbs said he worked with then-Department of Corrections Secretary Cheryl Strange to lift the longtime prohibition.
Russell Roe, manager of the Washington State Library’s Branch Library Services program, said D&D can hold therapeutic benefits for the state’s incarcerated populations.
D&D programs now appear in libraries across the state. Case in point: The Upper Skagit Library in the town of Concrete recently highlighted ongoing D&D nights as the cornerstone of its teen programming, as reported by GoSkagit.com.
Sara White, youth services consultant with WSL, said that the state has helped public libraries receive grants to support tabletop role-playing games. The Puyallup library, for instance, used grant funds to “get a whole set-up” for resin dice-making. She added that the small library in Cathlamet, the only such facility in Wahkiakum County, saw community elders create dice trays for local kids.
“Everyone in the community was coming together around this,” White said. “It’s a great source of connection.”
Hobbs also aims to use his position to help platform local Washington gaming companies. He said he wants to help the gaming industry, similar to what the state has done for its agriculture and aerospace fields via trade missions.
To that end, Hobbs recently attended SPIEL Essen, the world’s largest board game fair, in Germany. He touted the late-October trip as key to promoting the state’s gaming sector on the international stage.
Lethal Shadows, a Bothell-based miniatures and accessories business for tabletop games, joined Hobbs on the excursion. Founder Patrick Rami said it’s a daunting, not to mention costly, task for a small business to enter the international market, citing factors like tariffs and fees.
Rami said he’s heard from businesses in different countries and states that wished they had similar support from their governments. He said he urged others to contact their respective officials, “and let this be an example for them to collaborate with the secretary of state’s office from Washington.”
“I think having a tabletop trade mission coalition that crosses state lines, so that we can have a big presence, is huge,” Rami said.
Hobbs’ Germany trip wasn’t without criticism.
Its optics and timing during Washington’s 2025 election season, while voters were still mailing in ballots, was called into question by some on social media and critiqued in an article published on Seattle Red. Columnist Jason Rantz reported that the trip cost some $80,000 in taxpayer funds amid the busiest time of year for the secretary of state.
Hobbs defended the trip in a phone interview, arguing that its cost was ultimately a worthy investment in helping the state’s gaming industry. As for the timing?
“Well, I don’t know what they wanted, because ... I was there on Election Day. I was there before Election Day; I was there after Election Day,” Hobbs said, adding that he doesn’t personally count the votes and is always a phone call or email away.
Trade missions help to ensure the state maintains supremacy in its leading industries, he said.
Hobbs said that the multi-billion-dollar tabletop gaming sector in Washington also hires creative professionals, such as writers and artists.
“I mean, not many industries do that, but this one does,” he said. “I think we’ve got to foster that. We’ve got to maintain our edge here in Washington state.”