When Annelise Tarnowski and Tony Tandeski met a few years ago volunteering for Drake University’s alumni board, they bonded over how hard it can be to meet people outside of everyday activities like work. They also discovered a shared love of games like Dungeons and Dragons.
Soon after that they thought of starting a dedicated board game bar in Des Moines. The only problem: they didn’t know how to start said bar. What they did know how to do, however, was host events. And that’s how The Rook Room, a board game pop-up, got started in early 2020.
With a focus on in-person events, the pandemic brought disruptions early on. But once it was safe to gather again, Tarnowski and Tandeski went right back to hosting their events, including Puzzlepalooza.
ANNELISE TARNOWSKI“We’ve heard from people who have gotten to be closer to their co-workers because they come as a co-worker team. We’ve heard of people who have gotten closer as a family because cousins get together during the holidays.”
The idea for the light-hearted competitions came from an early event attendee and their love of doing jigsaw puzzles in a room full of people. After brainstorming what such an event could look like, they came up with Puzzlepalooza, which revolves around racing to complete jigsaw puzzles.
Knowing that there are already jigsaw puzzle competitions out there, it became about figuring out how to make Puzzlepalooza different. Classic competitions feature teams of four racing to complete puzzles despite “sabotages”—cards that teams can draw and dish out to other teams that might, for example, require a competing team member to wear mittens for 15 minutes. “It makes the competition a little bit more intense, but still fun,” Tarnowski says.
Puzzlepaloozas also include elite competition events where teams work on puzzles with more pieces and additional sabotage cards. There are also duel competitions that are head-to-head, bracket-style events.
What The Rook Room creates, however, is more than just opportunities to compete in game play. “What we’re really creating is a community,” says Tandeski.
“We’ve heard from people who have gotten to be closer to their co-workers because they come as a co-worker team. We’ve heard of people who have gotten closer as a family because cousins get together during the holidays,” Tarnowski adds. “For a year now we’ve had a team that’s been coming as a part of their mourning process. One of the people on the team lost their son very young and unexpectedly. [It’s been] a way to still get out of the house and do something that doesn’t require a lot of you.”
The Rook Room still trades in pop-up events, but they’re actively looking for a permanent home. They’re also in the final stages of completing a licensing agreement, so Puzzlepalooza may soon be coming to a city near you.