Changes to Winter Fantasy 2013 - Pathfinder, Board Games, And Magic: The Gathering

Morrus · Oct 11, 2012

Baldman Games has announced several new additions to their lineup for Winter Fantasy (formerly The D&D eXPerience or DDXP) for their 2013 convention. While this show has focused exclusively on Dungeons & Dragons for the last few years, they have changed their focus (presumably because WotC moved its focus - and DDXP - back to GenCon) and now the show is reverting back to it’s classic Winter Fantasy roots. As a part of this change, Baldman Games is expanding their show offerings to include the following:

Pathfinder Society - featuring special events written for the show by Paizo Publishing.
Magic: the Gathering - This year we are introducing Magic: The Gathering Tournaments, a chance to test your mettle against players from across the region.
Board Games - We are proud to announce that we are partnering with GC Games Library to bring the same collection of over 800 board games to Winter Fantasy that was seen at this year’s GenCon Indy.
Special Guests - A lineup of designers from Paizo and Wizards of the Coast. A chance to meet and ask questions of the people who makes the games you love.

In addition to these new lineups, Baldman Games is also working to provide brand new Dungeons & Dragons content for attendees, including the popular Living Forgotten Realms Battle Interactive, new adventures for Ashes of Athas and Living Divine, as well as new opportunities to playtest D&D Next.

TerraDave · Oct 11, 2012

"reverting" is the key word here. I think it was "Winter Fantasy" for many years. Decades?

Any word on location?

JohnduBois · Oct 11, 2012

TerraDave said:
"reverting" is the key word here. I think it was "Winter Fantasy" for many years. Decades?

Any word on location?

Location will be the convention center in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where DDXP has been for the last couple years.

TerraDave · Oct 11, 2012

This lovely add is from a 1984 Dragon mag for the 7th Winter Fantasy.

From here:

Tabletop On the Desktop: Every gamer's dream

WolfStar76 · Oct 11, 2012

TerraDave said:
This lovely add is from a 1984 Dragon mag for the 7th Winter Fantasy.

From here:

Tabletop On the Desktop: Every gamer's dream

This is SO getting put on our social media pages (and likely on our Website - I'll pass it up the chain).

Alphastream · Oct 12, 2012

I'm a member of the Ashes of Athas campaign. The campaign will conclude at this upcoming Winter Fantasy convention and what we have planned is really exciting.

The conclusion will be a lot of fun for players who have followed the campaign from the beginning but will also be accessible to those simply looking for great story-rich gaming with edge of your seat high-stakes battles.

The conclusion is heavily shaped by the events that took place at Gen Con. Players made some really interesting choices!

keterys · Oct 15, 2012

[MENTION=11365]Alphastream[/MENTION]: That choice at Gen Con was awesome.
[MENTION=59244]WolfStar76[/MENTION]: Can you clarify the time and slots for Winter Fantasy? I've just failed my google fu on it, and there's some confusion in my group as to when the first slot starts - especially after the experiments last year.

Warunsun · Oct 16, 2012

The real Winter Fantasy conventions were RPGA-based with all sorts of Dungeons and Dragons and always Call of Cthullu and Shadowrun and sometimes many other systems. There was always several competitive events for ranked members and club decathlon events as well as Living events once they become popular.

While this Winter Fantasy will likely be entertaining and fun it isn't really Winter Fantasy. A new name would have been better! Dredging out the old name makes me a little sad to miss the RPGA and days gone by.

Alphastream · Oct 16, 2012

I mean this in a nice way: "real" is arbitrary. There was no one "real Winter Fantasy". The RPGA changed the format constantly. From the original tournament games or one-shot delves of the early RPGA, to classics (an early staple and now again part of the format), to living campaign 4-hour adventures (from such diverse campaigns as Living City, Living Greyhawk, Living Death, Green Regent, two Eberron campaigns, Living Jungle, LFR, AOA, LDivine, etc.) to non-D&D games (Living Spycraft, Living Force, Living Arcanis, Chronicles of Darkness, Living Seattle) to battle interactives and specials... there have been many different formats over the years.

The organizer behind this convention is the same person (Dave Christ) involved with it for many of the past years, including when it was last called Winter Fantasy. Dave was also involved long before that, and has a feel for what worked in those days and why.

There is a lot of great history behind Winter Fantasy, but it is impossible to exactly recreate any one point in time because the games and gamers themselves change. For example, it is fitting to have Mona and SRM come back to WF, but it won't be like it was when they were last involved: now they would do so as Pathfinder guys. Pathfinder has never been part of WF before, but other RPG companies have. It wouldn't shock me to see Crafty Games come back with some organized play for FantasyCraft or Spycraft, but there is no way it would be just like the years when they were present.

Winter Fantasy is a great name and I think it fits very well. I'm glad to see the name stay alive. There is no way to keep things from changing, but having that name remain allows us to better think on the history and evolution of the game. Plus, the way it snows at this con, I can't think of a better name!

(Aside to HandofMystra: as you can see from your own comment, editing takes work...

But, seriously, the editing of any for-sale adventure should be far higher than free volunteer-created adventures. LG and LFR (and AoA) are edited by volunteers, and despite a lot of hard work, errors creep in. The talent of both Paizo and WotC editors (who are friends and game together) is really superior to volunteer efforts. I think most gamers understand that. As someone that stays up into the wee hours editing AoA, I bow to their talent! No grounds for edition warring should be found here. Come to Winter Fantasy and play all the games!)

Warunsun · Oct 17, 2012

Alphastream said:
There is a lot of great history behind Winter Fantasy, but it is impossible to exactly recreate any one point in time because the games and gamers themselves change.

Well, the thing is that the RPGA is gone. It no longer exists. Last time it was called Winter Fantasy it was still around at-least in name. Wizards has killed off the RPGA entirely. I just don't think that you should call a convention after the special RPGA convention when the RPGA was forced to die.

Dave and all the rest of the volunteers are good people. And I am sure they will provide a quality entertaining experience. It just isn't Winter Fantasy without the RPGA and that don't exist anymore.