All Year I Dream About Gaming Conventions

Ahead of the upcoming wish list processing day, your hosts Quarex and Ben go through the highlights from the event catalog depending on your flavor of Gen Con.Session Zero offerings for all five days! Gen Con Opening CeremoniesThe Stink that can Drink!DiscWorld Adventures with ModiphiusTORG Eternity sessionsPlaytest For the Good of the Hive!One hour means twelve 5 Minute Dungeons!Sessions of Treat, Please!Get accused of Berrymandering!Roll a pack of Dragon Dice!Cast your Spellfire! Heighten the stakes with the Doomtown card game!Don't you dare give up the ship in Don't Give Up the Ship!Channel your orkish Ricky Bobby in Formula Waaaagh!What Makes a Color, anyways? They made True Dungeon affordable again! (Or least more affordable.)Play in room 1 or room 2 of Roll for Escape!Get your old-fashioned LARP on in Fallen London: Palimpsest!Your actual human children can craft all weekend with Motley Kids!Your actual human children can also enter the Costume Contest!Make some stuffies to take home from Gen Con!Watch a live play of Fiasco with the comedians from Gumption Improv!Roll a con save! (Convention not included.) Yes and this GM improv seminar onto your wish list!Close out Gen Con with a cozy puzzling event!AEG has a Big Game Night that is such value!Get your tickets for the Games Library at Lucas Oil!Play MetroRunner with the game designer!Play Coloroo with the designer, and ask your burning questions about the eBay game!Play DungeoNomics with the designer!Spend a thousand dollars to play D&D at St. Elmo's... again!Play D&D with GooeyCube's chief goomaster, Alphinius Goo!Run an hour gauntlet with the team at the Glass Cannon Network!And if you're looking to attend or play events that your hosts are involved with, you can check out the following events!Our Thursday seminar with the everything of the pod Matt Shoemaker that asks "What Will Conventions Look Like in 5 Year?"Our third annual Saturday night live recording, this time at the Regular Marriott. Ben's GM group has 8 interactive adventures for Shadowdark, Call of Cthulhu, and Root the RPG!

Over the weekend, Gen Con published its biggest ever day 1 event catalog — over 23,000 events! While our next episode is our summary of the events you want to check out, we wanted to release this episode on how to use your wish list ahead of Wish List Processing Day on Sunday, May 17!Search the official Gen Con event list!Use our favorite unofficial search tool, the Gen Con Event DB!What's you have put on your wish list already?

On this episode, Quarex and Ben interview Yoshi, the director of gaming of one of the oldest sci-fi conventions in the US... Balticon, the 60th anniversary that was held from May 22-25, 2026!Balticon website2026 Guests of Honor, including Jim Butcher and Andy Weir Gaming Track for BalticonConcert and Filk for BalticonBaltimore Science Fiction Society website, including the Balticon historyAnd check out Yoshi's Fabula Ultima livestream on Twitch!

On this episode, we are talking about a number of conventions in 2026 you can attend from May Day to Labor Day!May ConventionsEcclesiconBeefy Wizard ConRichmond OpenWagonconFurry Weekend AtlantaGeekway to the PainbowLexiconWest Wars ConventionGameface ConFargo CoreConBalticonKublaCon1d4conThy Geekdom ConConcoctionChupacabraCon Gaming ConventionBGG.SpringMayday!Protospiel OnlineSan Marino Game ConventionJugarxJugarOctogonesChaosium Con UKUK Games ExpoJune ConventionsDieCon North Texas RPG Con Quest Con Magstock Adventure Con CNY RPG Con Origins Game Fair MAGE Con Too Many Games MisCon Between Two Cons Göttingen Game Designer Convention Manchester Board Game Festival Game Con Canada TTOX Yeti Con Paris est ludique July ConventionsCONvergence Dice Tower East Roswell Galacticon CharCon Game Convention InConJunctionDream Con KantCon EGG Con Matt Con Historicon Gen Con Indy Otakon Southern-Fried Gaming Expo World Boardgaming Championships Berlin Con Animaritime KingCon! Tabletasticon  Conference of Wargamers Spielfest Vienna Diversão Offline August ConventionsPhoenix Con Flamecon Nashcon Epic Nerd Camp Hijinx Con Great Escape on the Lake Bit Gen Gamer Fest Farm to Tabletop Play Retreat Draconicon Brussels Games Festival Labor DayPAX West DragonCon Matsuricon SaltCON End of Summer Nova Open Council Con Splotter Con TCEP (Tad & Craig's Excellent Party), Alliance Open House Who's Yer Con Reaper Con Pacificon Game Expo GrandCon MAGE (Minneapolis Anime & Gaming Event) Tabletop Scotland

Can you believe it's already been 200 episodes? We can't, but we also recognize that a big occasion deserves a big celebration. Neither Quarex nor Ben could think of any guests more exciting to bring on for this occasion than Richard Denning and Tony Hyams, the organizers of the largest hobby games convention in England: UK Games Expo. We were blessed to have them join us to talk about the early days of the Expo, as well as having a chance to discuss the incredible growth they've experienced over the last 20 years. They also talk about why the 20th anniversary of their convention is not only just special but an expansion of what they've built over the last two decades. Check out the UKGE website! (link)Get your ticket for the best 72 hours in gaming! (link)Check out the events for the 20th anniversary convention! (link)Win Tony's Thousand Pound Giveaway! (link)Check out this year's merch for UKGE! (link)And if you can't make it this year, why don't you start planning to attend next year?!?

On this episode, we bring you interviews from our convention travels over the first four months of 2026, including: Tiger Wizard of Exalted Funeral (link) at a birthday party at Gary Con. Check out the Tavers: The Meow Wolf RPG ... the exquisite corpse that just funded through Kickstarter!The team from Stillfleet Studio (link) on the exhibit hall floor at PAGE! We are very excited to hear that Stillfleet, Blister Critters, and Danse Macabre should all be back in print soon!Luke at Limithron, the congenial geniuses behind one of the top three Borgs... Pirate Borg! You really need to check out the core rules, the dynamite starter set, or the first campaign expansion Down Among the Dead. Jefferson from One Page Rules, who was at Adepticon showing off their first physical release for Grimdark Future: the Broken Truth Box!Seth from Archon Studios, who released what was probably the hit of Adepticon: the Starcraft Tabletop Miniatures Game!And last, but certainly not least: Sarah Joshua, who designed the cozy bewitching B&B game that is Enchanted Ivy -- which happens to be this publisher's first solo game! In this long interview, Sarah and Ben get somewhat inside baseball on game design and manufacturing, which is something our dreamers who are aspiring game designers would benefit from listening to!

The event submission process has opened up for Gamehole Con 2026. To help our dreamers get their submissions in before space fills up, we're talking with Gamehole Con's Director of Gaming and Facility, Josh Hoyt! Gamehole Con Website (link)GM Policies (link)Submit an Event! (link)Bulk submissions, you coward! (link)Some of Josh's adventure module for Gamehole Publishing! (link)Campfire Tales, the newest release from Chaosium with Josh's name on the cover! (link)And don't forget — it's not too late if you didn't book your hotel already, as the Gamehole team is always working to get new housing added to the block!

On this episode, your hosts review their time at some of the best conventions of the year — each inconveniently held in the month of March! Listen in to hear about:Gary Con (link)Awesome Con (link) Adepticon (link), along with challenger to the Undisputed Midwestern Inter-convention-ental belt... Ben T. Barackus! And even though we have an exhibit hall interviewisode coming up later this month, Quarex manages to squeeze in some discussion about his favorite kind of pod... the BattleTech Cockpit Simulator Pod!

On this episode, we talk with Wes from DM Tales about the charity convention he hosts in Palmyra, NJ: Ecclesicon!Ecclesicon is held May 1-2, 2026 — check out the games at Tabletop.Events!Book Smiles—the charity partner for Ecclesicon!Check out the DM Tales YouTube channel!And support Wes's Ko-Fi page that will get you access to the TTRPG Book Club!You won't want to miss it!