GameHole Con 2026 - What to expect?

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Haven't been to a con since GaryCon in 2019, and didn't have the opportunity to hit GC this year and was too late for NTRPG con badges, so I am going to Gamehole Con this year. What to expect? Its all in a huge convention auditorium I take it? Good dealer hall? Food and drink, hopefully a chance for a beer, on site? Do they use Tabletop Events for events?

Hoping to get some DCC/MCC/OSR/and old D&D games in along with maybe some miniatures stuff. Never been to Madison either, but I'm staying a couple minutes from the Con location so I doubt I'll be seeing much of the town.

 

[payn]

Heya!

I'll be going for the first time myself, but have good friends who have been going for years. GHC uses its own site so no table top events. I hear the dealers hall is fantastic. Yes, they will have concessions along with food trucks. You can drink alcoholic beverages there on site.

Madison is a great town.

I plan to play in some Traveller games, but i'll also be running some games too. I am working on a battletech mock up using YZE and stress.

I know this is about GHC but you should put Gary Con on your radar if you like OSR. Garycon is happening right now for 2026.

 

[billd91]

There will be beer on site as well as several food trucks outside and some regular convention-center concessions around inside the venue.
And there's always lots of good stuff in the dealer hall.
Parking has been free - that's something the organizers have really managed to hold the line on so far and I hope it continues.

The website they have for the event has usually been very good. You can put yourself on the wish list for the games you want to play in, prioritize their processing order, and then when the event sales start, you hit the button and they're processed by a queue. I've had excellent luck with it over the years in getting the events I want.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Heya!

I'll be going for the first time myself, but have good friends who have been going for years. GHC uses its own site so no table top events. I hear the dealers hall is fantastic. Yes, they will have concessions along with food trucks. You can drink alcoholic beverages there on site.

Madison is a great town.

I plan to play in some Traveller games, but i'll also be running some games too. I am working on a battletech mock up using YZE and stress.

I know this is about GHC but you should put Gary Con on your radar if you like OSR. Garycon is happening right now for 2026.

Thanks for the info! I'll be flying solo for this. I mostly dropped out of my long term gaming group of friends when I moved a couple years ago and haven't really been doing any RPG, just miniature wargaming. But the itch to do some RPG gaming is growing.

I would have liked to have gone to GaryCon, but I have some work related stuff that made it impossible this year. I may go next year assuming I can get a room at the Grand Geneva and a badge. I had a great time in 2019.

There will be beer on site as well as several food trucks outside and some regular convention-center concessions around inside the venue.
And there's always lots of good stuff in the dealer hall.
Parking has been free - that's something the organizers have really managed to hold the line on so far and I hope it continues.

The website they have for the event has usually been very good. You can put yourself on the wish list for the games you want to play in, prioritize their processing order, and then when the event sales start, you hit the button and they're processed by a queue. I've had excellent luck with it over the years in getting the events I want.

Sounds cool. Parking sounds great. I'm within walking distance but its a 20+ minute walk so I'll just drive over. Thanks for the info on this, I have registered but badges aren't on sale yet, going to get a VIP badge if I can. One thing I should have done when I went to GaryCon was get a gold badge as I missed a couple classic games I wanted to play in.

 

[bsss]

Haven't been to a con since GaryCon in 2019, and didn't have the opportunity to hit GC this year and was too late for NTRPG con badges, so I am going to Gamehole Con this year. What to expect? Its all in a huge convention auditorium I take it? Good dealer hall? Food and drink, hopefully a chance for a beer, on site? Do they use Tabletop Events for events?

Awesome! I have gone for a couple years now, and it's been great every year. And as a resident in the area, I may be biased, but Madison is indeed a great city.

The site is broken up over two buildings, one has the check-in table, the dealer areas, some seminar space, and a bunch of rooms and tables for games, and the second building has more games. It's very convenient to move around, and you'll find a lot of food options. I think it was 15 or so food trucks past year, some open late, and Ian's Pizza in the main venue.

Good spread of games. I'm planning on running some 13th Age, and of note, Monte Cook Games has a whole area dedicated to them to play games and lounge. I also played some Glorantha and some demo games last year.

Good luck getting a VIP badge, I've never been able to get in!

 

[billd91]

Yeah, current VIP holders get first crack at renewing their VIP status. And they hold them pretty tight.
One nice thing is that they don't allow VIP holders to monopolize games. They may get to register for events first, but some tickets for each event are held back for us other badge holders.

 

[MGibster]

Haven't been to a con since GaryCon in 2019, and didn't have the opportunity to hit GC this year and was too late for NTRPG con badges, so I am going to Gamehole Con this year. What to expect? Its all in a huge convention auditorium I take it? Good dealer hall? Food and drink, hopefully a chance for a beer, on site? Do they use Tabletop Events for events?

I just went in 2025 and I had a good time. It was the first con I had attended in twenty years, so I don't have much to judge it against by comparison. What to expect?

Noise in the gaming areas. We're packed so closely together that it's often difficult to hear the other players at your table. This was more an issue in the rooms with low ceilings rather than huge auditoriums where noise has a greater distance to travel before bouncing off the walls and ceiling. I skipped my last game on Saturday because the cacophany was getting a little overwhelming.

Gaming was an overwhelmingly positive experience. The worst game I played wasn't even that bad, but we clearly had a lack of direction and we spent a lot of time not knowing what to do. I played Vaesen, Call of Cthulhu, Pirate Borg, Deadlands, and Arkham Horror for a total of 8 games during the con.

Food is about what you should expect at these venues. Overpriced. If you're into health food, there was a place selling bags of mini-donuts that were pretty good. I had some spring rolls from an Asian place I really liked. Except there were only three of them, each the size of my pinky and they charged an exhorbinant amount. The convention center has their own concession stand, there was a place to buy ice cream, and of course there were food trucks galore. If possible, I'd go off campus to eat, but if you're booking solid days of gaming it's difficult to do that. You can purchase alcohol from one of the convention's vendors. Beer and wine I think, no liquor.

I don't know what Table Top Events is, but I had to register and pay extra for each game I participated in. Some of the games I paid up to $18 for which I thought was a bit pricy. My biggest expense was the hotel, so I guess the $18 wasn't a big deal, it just rankled a bit.

The dealer's hall was fine. I ended up buying Vaesen and some Punk Rock game that runs off the Mork Borg rules. I also bought a bunch of miniatures from various vendors, some of which I've actually painted.