Post-Con Thoughts

As I've said innumerable times on this blog over the years, I am not a regular attendee of gaming conventions and yet, over the last couple of weeks, I've attended not one but two of them, specifically Gamehole Con in Madison, Wisconsin and CleriCon in Glen Williams, Ontario. 

I've attended both before and greatly enjoyed them, hence my return this year. Even so, my attendance, even after all these years, is somewhat contrary to my shy and introverted nature. I've never been all that comfortable in large gatherings full of strangers and that hasn't really changed since I have gotten older. What has changed is that I more fully recognize the need to leave my comfort zone and be social with people I previously didn't know. 

That's, frankly, one of the joys of conventions. After all, everyone attending the con is there because they share one thing in common: a love of roleplaying games. As such, you're probably more than halfway toward moving beyond any social awkwardness you might otherwise have with strangers. At least. that's what I have found and it was no less true this year, when I met lots of delightful fellow gamers at both conventions, to say nothing of the many others I already met and looked forward to seeing again.

Of the two, Gamehole Con is the larger, with an attendance of more than 6000 people. That's still much smaller than bigger, more well-known cons, like GenCon or Origins. 6000 attendees is, in my opinion, much more "human sized." I never felt lost or overwhelmed by the numbers of people present, but there were enough of them that there was a good variety of options when it came to events or just discussions in the convention center. 

Among the many people whom I met or spent time with were:

• Michael Curtis: Old school blogger and director of product development for DCC RPG.
• Joseph Goodman, head of Goodman Games and all-around great guy.
• Matt Hildebrand: Goodman Games' art director and a frequent collaborator of mine.
• Kenneth Hite: Renaissance man and master raconteur.
• Jason Hobbs: Host of the Hobbs & Friends and Random Screed podcasts.
• Brendan La Salle, writer for Goodman Games.
• Sean Kelley: Podcaster and fun guy.
• Jim Kitchen: RPG enthusiast and auctioneer.
• Doug Kovacs, Artist extraordinaire.
• Bill Meinhard: One of the most significant collectors of old school RPG materials in the world.
• Jon Peterson: Author of Playing at the World and probably the premier historian of hobby.
• Victor Raymond: An old and dear friend of mine, as well as my co-host on the defunct Halls of Blue Illumination podcast.
• Harley Stroh: One of the best writers in Goodman Games' impressive stable of writers.
• Ronin Wong: Actor and fellow lover of Holmes Basic. 

You might have noticed a lot of people associated with Goodman Games in my list. That's because this year marked the 25th anniversary of the company, which, therefore, had a sizable presence at Gamehole Con this year. I've long been an admirer of both Goodman Games and the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG, so it was great having the chance to spend so much time with its staff and freelancers. I also was fortunate enough to play in a DCC RPG adventure refereed by Harley Stroh and Doug Kovacs. I had a blast playing a time-lost Buck Rogers-like space hero who'd been summoned by a wizard to act as her bodyguard. Later, I played in another DCC adventure inspired by the video game Deep Rock Galactic.

CleriCon, by contrast, was a much more modest affair. There were only 10 tables, spread across two buildings, with each table having 6-8 players and a referee. In many ways, it reminded me of the "games days" that the public libraries used to put on during my youth, which are among my fondest memories of those days. The con began with a shared dinner on Friday night, followed by a single session of play. On Saturday, there were three sessions and one more on Sunday. I refereed a couple of sessions, both using Old School Essentials. One was a rework of The Cursed Chateau and the other was a dungeon crawl on the first level of Dwimmermount. Both sessions went well and everyone involved had a fun time. 

One of the best parts about CleriCon was how local it was. Though there were a few attendees who came from far away – one traveled all the way from Alaska! – most of us were from southern Ontario and the Greater Toronto Area. One I met for the first time during a layover in Detroit on my way to Gamehole Con and we reconnected at CleriCon. Toronto is a big and often alienating city, so it's great to meet up with gamers from the area and be reminded that there are a lot more of us than it might appear. It's my understanding that the success of CleriCon has inspired at least one person to try something similar in another southern Ontario city next month. I think that's great and hope that it might encourage others to do the same.

At both conventions, I was told more than once that I ought to consider attending other conventions. Though I'm uncommitted on this question, I am thinking about it. The difficulty is timing and, honestly, the cost of it. Air travel is getting increasingly expensive, never mind the additional costs of lodging, food, etc. One of the benefits of smaller, more local cons, like CleriCon, is that I don't need to think about such things. On the other hand, there's a unique joy to traveling to another place and meeting up with people from all across the continent. I have so many online friends whom I've never met in person. It'd be wonderful to have the chance to do so at a common location, which is why I continue to ponder this matter.

If anyone has any thoughts of their own regarding conventions worth visiting, I'd love to hear your perspective. I had so much fun at Gamehole Con and CleriCon that part of me wishes I had some more RPG gatherings to look forward to in the next few months.