2024 Convention Plans

After the year’s convention season wraps up, I like to start planning for ]next year’s events. These get slotted into DEFINITE and MAYBE bins, with the understanding that the MAYBE events may end up boing day-trips rather than full convention experiences. So here’s what my 2024 Convention Calendar looks like. And you may find some of this surprising.

DEFINITE Events

Winterfest
Held Feb 16-25 in Sandusky, Ohio
Really a club event rather than a full-service convention, Winterfest is my hands-down favorite, top-priority wargaming event of the year. The specific games that will be played tend not to get even discussed until around thanksgiving. In 2024, it’s looking like there will be one large OCS game (a playtest of The Forgotten Battles, which is expected to be the next OCS title up for preorder), a very large OCS game (Antony’s Birkett’s Ostfront multi-game effort, accommodating 10-12 players), GTS (which may be The Greatest Day: Utah Beach if it’s released on time, a playtest game of the in-development Symphony of Destruction (Army Group North at 10km per hex) from 10K Games, and a game of World in Flames (which is what I‘ll be playing). In addition there will be side games, but the focus of the event is very much on monsters to mega-monsters.

Buckeye Game Fest
Held April 29-May 5 in Columbus, Ohio
Buckeye Game Fest’s War Room, which starts on Monday rather than the Thursday of the regular board game convention (May 2-5), really struggled to draw people in the wake of the Covid pandemic. The 2023 Fest came roaring back, with a booming La Bataille scene, large COIN events (run by those guys at the Players’ Aid), designer events, plus a great deal of smaller stuff. For the 2024 show, the initial talk is revolving around the Great Battles of the American Civil War series, with Stones River (Dead of Winter) being the current battle under discussion. But this might also grow to become a multi-game affair, just like LaBat did in 2023.

Origins Game Fair
Held Jun 19-23 in Columbus, Ohio
One of gaming’s marquee events in North America, Origins was hit hard by both the pandemic and the comical mismanagement of its organizers, GAMA. It’s been slower to recover than BGF, but it has a lot more ground to make up. This year, with the 80th anniversary of the Normandy invasion around the corner, that’s going to be a primary theme in both the wargaming area and the War College. An unofficial, informal working group has formed to try to enhance the wargaming experience at Origins, including the reclamation of a dedicated wargaming room in addition to the wargaming area on the main convention floor. This is all still in flux, but it’s safe to predict that there will be plenty of wargaming events, including at least one big game and strong designer presence. Which will still be kind of easy to miss in such a huge, packed space. I’ll have more on this at it gets closer.

MAYBE Events (In Order of Lowest to Highest Priority)

ArdyCon
Dates TBD, held in Northeast Ohio
This will be the Ardwulf’s Lair convention. Hopefully the first of several, but I’m not committing to that at this time, and all is contingent on my being able to a) arrange it, and b) make it work financially. Attendance is probably going to sound low, with a target of 20-30 people, but don’t let that fool you; a wargaming-only event that size has the potential to be extremely successful for both the organizers and attendees. I expect to center the event around 2-4 large games, and the notional time frame is September or October of 2024.

ChaosiumCon
Held Apr 18-21 in Ann Arbor, Michigan
For the last several years, I’ve wanted to do roleplaying stuff at a convention. The initial thought was that this would be Origins, with me bowing out of focusing on wargaming for a year or two. Unfortunately, I keep committing to do9ng wargaming stuff, and that ends up being very successful… so I appear to be stuck with it. As you’ll know, my first RPG love is Traveller, but TravellerCon’s location in Lancaster, PA limits its practicality; it’s 5+ hours away and for no reason I have been able to discern the hotel costs in Lancaster are astronomical. Thus, ChaosiumCon is the better option, at less than 2.5 hours away. And recall that three Chaosium RPGs (RuneQuest, Call of Cthulhu and Pendragon) are on the very short list of (five total) RPGs I’m keeping up with and have intentions to play or run.

World Boardgaming Championships
Held Jul 20-28 in Seven Springs, Pennsylvania
WBC is a weird event in a lot of ways. Primarily a venue for tournaments and held at a labyrinthine off-season ski resort, open gaming is where the more interesting but less intense action seems to happen. This is the only other “big” con I may do in 2024… but it’s just as likely to be a day trip, as it was in 2023. As a full-week experience you can get a lot of game(s) in, but even with a room split or some other lodging arrangement, it’s pretty expensive, especially the overpriced and pedestrian-at-best food. The site is out in the middle of literally nowhere, so offsite dining options are very limited without a substantial drive.

San Diego Historical Games Convention
Dates TBD, held in San Diego, California
SDHist has been on my wishlist for years, but the expense of the trip has so far prohibited attendance. I have hopes to go in 2024 — and it looks like a very strong event, with massive designer presence and a great event loadout that makes it a great place to try out exciting games that are either new or in development.

Other events that I are considering less seriously include MMP’s Winter Offensive in January as well as TravellerCon in October. Given that Winter Offensive is only two months away, it seems unlikely that I’ll be able to squeeze this one out of the budget. TravellerCon is a little more likely, but it too would require that the money works out.

So you’ll notice something not on this list, and that’s Compass Expo. It’s a very good event, and John and Bill are good hosts, and I’ll miss some of the folks I usually meet there. But the last two times I’ve come home from it with Covid. And I’m just not gonna do that again. Also not on the list, but less surprising, is the ConsimWorld Expo in Tempe, which is a bucket list event for me, but the monstrous expense of it, combined with other events to which I am definitely committed, will again preclude my attendance in 2024.

What conventions (whether they’re on my list or not) are you planning to attend in 2024, and what will you plan to do there?