What is the Spindle Project?
Our goal is to bring our love of fantasy and story telling to life by building our community and eventually, creating a living, working space where travelers can congregate to celebrate the hobby we all love. We are a collective of storytellers, role players, writers and hobbyists who are coming together to bring you a boutique fantasy role playing game inspired experience! The ultimate goal is to get enough community support and funding to buy land, and build a space unlike any other where the lines between imagination and reality blur together. Hike through the gorgeous woods of Maine, living out a real life adventure! Congregate with your friends at the tavern and share your tales! Meet strange and mysterious NPCs who will guide you through your experience! And if that is not for you, you’ve simply been dragged along by a friend or partner, you can still eat, drink and explore the offerings of some of Maine’s most lovely destinations.
About
Somewhere around late 2018 and early 2019, founder Lenora Elisabeth Hnatko decided she was very tired of wanting to get back into playing tabletop RPGs, so she decided to make it happen. Starting with a very haphazard, chaotic group of loose acquaintances, she cobbled together a fairly steady group of dedicated players and launched a campaign which would change her idea of community and friendship. Shouting “Roll initiative!” from one end of a very long table in a crowded local bar in Portland, eventually morphed into a home game, and then, an online community during the COVID-19 crisis of 2020.
This transition allowed more and more members to join the gaming group, and suddenly, there were more games and people in her life than she knew what to do with! Good people, kind people, ones that through a shared hobby became true friends, like family. It is because of this, she began work on the Spindle Project in 2022, along with founding member Kat Sowers. Their goal is to turn their love of tabletop gaming, story telling, and Maine, into a mecca for others to join in the fun and live out real life adventures.
Founding Members
Lenora E. Hnatko
Born in New York state, Lenora’s love of all things medieval fantasy inspired can be traced back to her days being babysat by her older brother. Some of her earliest joyful memories stem from nights reading Tolkein and watching him play video games. In middle school, a small cadre of fellow nerds invited her to play Dungeons & Dragons at a library in their small upstate town, and from there, she couldn’t get enough. Years later, she is now an experienced game master, role player, and earns money bartending professionally. She hopes to open up her own themed tavern and curate a list of fantasy inspired cocktails to serve while her patrons enjoy their games and the ambiance. She is also an avid writer, and is working on- you guessed it- a medieval fantasy novel.
Kat A. Sowers
Born in Rhode Island Kat got their love of all things medieval and fantasy from a young age. Their parents were avid Pathfinder players for almost all of Kats young childhood and into their teenage years as well. Kat had tried to play with their parents when they were a young teen, it didn’t quite click for them then, but they still enjoyed everything fantasy, from Lord of the Rings movies (extended edition only) to all things dragons and mythology. Once moving to a new town new friends invited them to join an on going game and it sealed the deal on D&D for them. Now Kat is an avid player, role player and experienced Game Master. They love designing dungeons and drawing art for their characters. Their hope is to create a safe and welcoming place for new and old players, as well as those just into medieval fantasy.
Dungeon Masters
Tyler J. Lautenchuetz
Born in the mountains of upstate New York, Tyler just recently moved to the New England area in the summer of 2021. His love of fantasy has been being cultivated since about 2004 when he discovered Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle Earth; that amazing RTS game that nobody remembers. Fantasy and generally nerdy shenanigans served as an excellent form of escapism from small town life which eventually blossomed into a love for all things D&D. Starting on Pathfinder/3.5 Edition, Tyler eventually started playing/running 5th Edition games with his friends and has been doing so for the last 10 years. Ever since he began his time as a Marine Corps Reservist, D&D has also been one of the most effective methods for Tyler to maintain friendships that range all over the world. For that reason and many others, this silly little fantasy game holds a very special place in Tyler's heart.
