I’d like to take just a few minutes to discuss the variety of gaming events we expect to see at TsunamiCon.
Roleplaying Games (RPGs): Tabletop RPGs are a particular passion of mine and my senior staff, and we want to see the practice strongly represented at our con. First, if you are a Game Master and want to pre-register your games (which provides the added benefit of a price break on your ticket), you can bill your games ahead of time and link potential players to the page where they can sign up. We encourage you to link directly to the game description you add to the conplanner page from your social media accounts and such to help raise interest and fill the seats. If you’re a player, check out the preregistered games and sign up for something. Of course, there are always likely to be potential GMs hanging around The Dungeon ready to field a group on the fly, and GMs shouldn’t be shy about trolling the con for potential players. Even if the tables are filling up, our staff will certainly be on hand to help you find a place to sit down and play.
One of my favorite things about game cons is the sheer variety of RPGs that inevitably spring from the woodwork. Sure, if you want to play D&D or Pathfinder, someone will be running it. We even have a full schedule of D&D Adventure League games registered on the conplanner site if you want to try out 5E for the first time. But we also have GMs who like to run GURPS, Call of Cthulu, Fate, Savage Worlds, Paranoia, HERO System, World of Darkness, and numerous other niche offerings, which makes a game con the best place to try something new or get a chance to play something that may not be available to you on a weekly basis.
Board Games: We have a lot of serious board game enthusiasts involved with the con, and we will have an extensive library of games available to check out and knowledgeable staff who can help you get started. Bring your friends to try something new, or make some new friends sitting around the table. You can even bring your favorite games with you and show ’em off; a game con is a great place to find players! We’ll also have board game tourneys like our Ticket To Ride event that are free to get into and a whole lot of fun. Just for showing up, you’ll get a free token for our convention-wide Zombie Dice tournament, which you can sit down and play for a few minutes at any time and start racking up the wins toward the convention championship. We’ll also have a number of game designers, peddlers, and enthusiasts running demos throughout the con.
For an added bit of fun, we’re planning some party game special events in The Commons on Friday and Saturday evening. More to come on that later.
Card Games: Sure. We’ll have card games. In addition to group-oriented games like Munchkin and Fluxx, which can be found in the Game Library, we’re paying special attention to the LCG and CCG crowd. We have Magic tournaments scheduled for Friday and Saturday night in the War Room, and you can expect to see some really cool LCG demos on the schedule, as well.
Miniatures Games: Here at TsunamiCon, we have a healthy respect for the miniature wargames that spawned the RPG hobby to begin with back in the days of yore, and an even healthier respect for those who dare to pitch painted pewter and plastic forces against each other in combat mortal. The War Room will be home to just skirmishes. You can bring your armies with you and challenge your friends or random passersby or participate in one of our miniature gaming tournament events. We have some fun events in the works, including a Star Wars W-Wing Miniatures tournament, some cool demos, and some of that pesky Warhammer stuff. Keep an eye on the tournament page for schedule updates.
LARPs: Live Action Roleplaying may seem like the antithesis of tabletop gaming, but we know believe that imaginative gaming is a universal language. And frankly, I’m a fan of immersive play, and you can’t get much more immersive than a LARP. We have some cool stuff planned. You can be a survivor in the zombie apocalypse, an assassin skulking about the con, or sign up for a dose of honor and intrigue in our yet-to-be-scheduled Legend of the Five Rings LARP.
Whatever your taste in social gaming, it has a home at TsunamiCon. Have an idea you want to try, a game you want to bring out and play, something new you want to dive into, or even just browse through the options and soak up the atmosphere… we want to see at the con this year. With bells on.
Or maybe not the bells. I think you know what I mean.
Next time, we’ll talk about some of the fun featured non-gaming events we have planned for our game con.