All Year I Dream About Gaming Conventions

It's smack dab at the beginning of the holiday season in December, and only one convention is bold enough to hold itself out for attendance: PAX Unplugged 2024 (link) from December 6-8 in famously sunny Philadelphia, PA. On this episode, your hosts Quarex and Ben discuss:What press badges meanThe Venn diagram between line cons and gaming conventionsBadges and hotelsParking through SpotHero (link), which is not an affiliate linkPlaces to eatUsing the PAX Nav app (link to Google Play and the App Store)Signing up for events, especially with groups like Indie Games on Demand (link) and Lurking Fear (link)Exhibitors to check outGames to demoThe 3 Ps: Paint & Take, the Puzzle Room, and PAX UprisingThe concert that everyone's excited aboutAnd the 4th P: Pinny Arcade! (link)And as promised, here's the link to the Sprites and Dice Guide to PAX Unplugged 2024 (link) and the very late breaking PAX Unplugged Quickstart Guide (link).If you're even thinking about attending PAX Unplugged this year, you won't want to miss this.

On this episode, Ben and Quarex talk about the conventions they attended this fall that don't rhyme with Namevole John. This includes: Vintage Computer Festival Midwest in Schaumburg, WI (link) Flat Con in Bloomington-Normal, IL (link)Save Against Fear (link), organized by the Bodhana Group (link)Let us know on social media what convention you've attended since Gamehole Con!

On this episode, we are elated to talk with Mike Boozer about the Gen Con VIG Program. The Gen Con Very Important Gamer Program (link) is a way to supercharge your Gen Con experience. While the badge is pricey, we talk with Mike about all the ways that the VIG Badge and VIG Companion badges provide bang for your buck. Tickets are limited each year, and you'll want to email VIG@gencon.com between November 15 and December 15 to throw your name in the ring.

While at Gamehole Con 2024, our Alternate Social Media Aimee recorded about 10 interviews. These five recordings are curated from the following exhibitors: Michelle from Crafted, a girl-powered, coffee-fueled decor designer…with a laser and questionable power tools (link)Susan from Delvingwood, who durable, affordable, gaming gear for roleplayers, wargamers, and board gamers (link)Jason from Drink the Paint, a creative dynamo with a dark sense of humor (link) Jim from Dyna Maps, who merges old-school style and simplicity with modern materials and design to create a Dynamic Mapping System (link) Joshua from Lone Colossus Games, a a tabletop games company focused on creating TTRPG supplements and systems (link) Check them out, even away from the convention!

With the help of alternate social media intern, Aimee, your hosts recap their experience at Gamehole Con 2024 in autumnal Madison, WI. This episode is jammed pack with commentary about the games, the vendors, and you guessed it — the dreamers that made Gamehole such a blast to attend. Unless you were stuck in Maryland, and also have to fill out the episode summary. And you're not known to be exceedingly bitter about missing things like this.

On Saturday, August 3, Ben and Quarex recorded a live episode from Meeting Room 12 of Lucas Oil Stadium, where we were joined by many dreamers who bought tickets (or handed us generics). This is the first half of that episode, where we discuss Gen Con 2024 in the moment — the second half of the episode lives exclusively in the hearts and minds of those in attendance. Enjoy this episode while Quarex and our growing team of social media interns recover from Gamehole Con.

Did you know that All Year I Dream About Gaming Conventions has a Discord? Join up here to meet your heroes while you still can: https://discord.gg/q6hkw5YSCbIn our precapisode of the very imminent Gamehole Con, your hosts Ben and Quarex get you ready for the next four days of gaming in Madison, WI. In a brisk 15 minutes, we're talking:ParkingBusesThe weather insideThe weather outsideFood of the submarinal varietyFood of the pizzanal varietyFood that's the very bratbest and bratwurstNepalese foodIndian foodMexican foodThe beer that we've eatenThe auctionThe games Quarex is playingThe games Ben wishes he wasThere's also a counter for the number of times we mention Alternate Social Media Intern, Aimee!Best of all, you can meet Quarex (maybe) if you're both at Isthmus-hole Con?Much like the convention, you won't want to miss this episode.

When he wasn't donating blood or running far too many games, your other host Ben interviewed a number of vendors on the exhibit hall floor. Given the long form nature of some of these chats, we picked three interviews for this episode:WizKids (link)Deck of Player Safety (link)Plus One Exp (link)/ RPG Zine Club (link)