A Central Whidbey resident is rolling the dice on a new holiday-themed venture.

Nathan D. Paoletta is a designer and publisher of tabletop games who also happens to have a love for professional wrestling. In 2014, he blended these two seemingly idiosyncratic interests, creating a unique role-playing game called “World Wide Wrestling” where players have the opportunity to leverage the dramatic storylines that are a staple in professional wrestling culture.

“Wrestling is really just telling dramatic stories,” Paoletta said. “Role-playing is telling dramatic stories.”

Eight years later, he’s created a spin-off project titled “New Years Fray.” Described as “a tabletop role-playing game of festive fisticuffs,” players can choose one of six holiday-themed wrestling champions, referred to as “Champions of Cheer,” to portray in their quest to win the tournament. Champions are split between “sociable” and “selfish,” with familiar characters such as Old Saint Nick, the Nutcracker and Jack Frost. Each one has different abilities.

Paoletta initiated a Kickstarter campaign for the new game, which as of press time has 123 backers who have pledged a total of $2,040. Although the campaign ends this weekend, Paoletta plans to sell “New Years Fray” on his website, ndpdesign.com, starting sometime in January. Digital and print formats of the rule book will be available.

Paoletta has been watching professional wrestling since the early 2000s, but it wasn’t until about 10 years ago that the wrestlers and their stories really started capturing his interest.

“It’s a unique art form because its storyline is achieved through physicality,” he said.

Around the same time, a movement of independently published role-playing games was beginning.

Paoletta has been designing tabletop games almost as long as he’s been watching wrestling. As a kid, he discovered a Dungeons & Dragons set on the shelf of Toys R Us, and the rest is history.

“Unlike a board game where you could be playing an abstract entity or a faction, you’re playing an individual character,” he said of role-playing games, which have experienced a surge in cultural awareness during the COVID-19 pandemic as more and more people discovered the fun of playing them.

“I think a lot of people who play start coming up with ideas for their game, their own setting, their own mechanics, inspired by what they’re playing at their table,” he added. “I, too, did that.”

In “New Years Fray,” players roll the dice to guide the result of their character. While there are prompts to follow, like most role-playing games, there is an element of improvisation as the player is free to come up with their own scenarios.

And with the addition of other players, a host of unexpected outcomes is bound to happen.

“The creativity that you build on with each other gets you places other than just reading the book and imagining what the game will be like,” Paoletta said.

Photo provided Nathan D. Paoletta