Ronin Round Table: Chris Pramas on Convention Season

It’s summertime once again (even in Seattle, where the sun has finally come out) and that means that convention season is upon us. I love this time of year because after many months of toiling away under rain clouds, I get to go out, meet people, and enjoy the energy of many great conventions. This year our schedule is packed.

I’m starting out with a personal trip to Historicon in Fredericksburg, VA. As many of you know, I’m a huge miniatures fan and Historicon is the granddaddy of American historical minis shows. Despite that, I’ve never been able to attend, as its timing and location are usually not good for me. This year Historicon happens to coincide with a trip I’m taking to the East Coast so Hal Mangold and I are heading down for a few days. This is just for fun. I won’t be doing any business, just playing games, looking at the eye candy, and hopefully not spending too much in the dealers room.

The next con for Green Ronin proper is GenCon (August 16–19 in Indianapolis, IN), which is always our best show of the year. I’ve attended every GenCon since 1989 and it would take some dramatic events to make me stop. This is an all-hands-on-deck show for GR, so the whole staff will be there. Our booth location is way better than it was last year, so we should be easy to find. We should be debuting A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying Campaign Guide: A Game of Thrones Edition there and maybe one more book if we can squeak it in.

Then just two weeks later (August 31–September 2) is PAX Prime right here in Seattle. I’ve been going to the Penny Arcade Expo for many years to do seminars and panels, but this year we’ve gotten a booth on Level 6 of the convention center (right by Games Workshop). Nicole Lindroos, Will Hindmarch, and I will be there, and maybe some of the other Seattle area Ronins as well. August 30, the night before PAX starts, we’re sponsoring an event in the Georgetown neighborhood called the Geek Speakeasy. I’ll be posting more info about this as things firm up, but it should feature gaming, beer, geek trivia, and burlesque. If you are coming into town for PAX, consider joining us at the Speakeasy.

Two weeks after that I fly across the country again for the Escapist Expo in Durham, NC (September 14–16). This is a new convention and we are giving it a shot because The Escapist is a cool website with a great staff and we want to support them. Hal and I will be manning the booth there are we may be doing some seminars as well. The last time I was at a convention in Durham I had a seminar with only one attendee and he picked lint out of his bellybutton while I was answering his questions. Let’s hope this one goes better!

Lastly, and this is still tentative, Nicole and I will probably be heading out to my beloved New York City for New York Comic Con (October 11–14). It’s easy to tempt me to NYC, where I lived for 9 years before moving to Seattle. The show also seems like a great venue to show off games like DC Adventures and A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying. We’ll post more when this becomes definite.

So that’s our con season for 2012. After that we’ll settle in for another rainy winter. This is the circle of game publishing life.