Conventions?

[Scribble]

Are conventions (outside of Gencon, Origins and the D&D gamedays) still a "big" part of the hobby?

I haven't been to one in a long time, personally.

How do people hear about them these days? I remember Dragon used to have a convention schedule thing back in the day, but really I found out about them mostly at my local game store...

 

[Mistwell]

I still like them.

There are many websites that list conventions coming up. For example, Wikipedia has a list of web sites for conventions based on each state (though it is not great):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaming_convention

 

[Varianor Abroad]

How do people hear about them these days? I remember Dragon used to have a convention schedule thing back in the day, but really I found out about them mostly at my local game store...

Word of mouth. Posts here at ENWorld. Speaking of which, the ENWorld GameDays are a fine form of mini-convention.

(I myself am searching for a new convention to go to in March/April due to an unfortunate experience with one.)

 

[Qualidar]

(I myself am searching for a new convention to go to in March/April due to an unfortunate experience with one.)

Oh, you're surely not going to leave it at that, are you?

 

[MonkeyDragon]

I know there ARE some gaming cons around me, but I don't know anything about what they're like or where they are. All I know about is my local comic con, which happens in May. I used to go as an attendee, and for the past four years, I've had a table to sell my artwork and gaming randomness.

There used to be some gaming at the convention years ago, but apparently they had some headaches with the people conducting the gaming and that put a stop to it. Nowadays the con is on the decline, having been reduced to the staple vendors, a lot of anime, and a rather anemic artists' alley.

I'm actually in the midst of formulating my suggestions to the fine folks that run my con on how the awesome could be upped, and a major point of it is to bring back the gaming to bring in a wider group of attendees. Here's hoping they agree.

 

[Spinachcat]

California has 8 gaming conventions each year - in the North, we have DundraCon, KublaCon, ConQuest Santa Clara, ConQuest Sacramento; in the Central state we have PolyCon and in the South we have Gateway, OrcCon and Gateway. Attendance ranges from 300 to 3000.

Meetup.com is a great tool to find D&D groups and many of them are hooked up with conventions. The easiest way to find a convention is probably Google. Search for your state plus gaming convention and wander through some pages.

I am a huge fan of cons. I just got back from Gateway where I ran 7 events including the 40 player D&D 4e Tournament of Heroes with a great team of fellow DMs.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

Oh, you're surely not going to leave it at that, are you?

In public, yes, sorry to disappoint. I'm just not that angry anymore nor do I think there's much class in dissing a convention that will probably have new management next year anyway.

 

[Stalker0]

Just came back from Dragon Con and there was a good dnd scene there. It was about a 80/20 mix of 3.5 and 4e, most of the 4e were teaching games introducing people to the system.

And there were several other systems too, including vampire larps, gurps, a little exalted, etc.