Goshen Game Day 2013

I am proud to be coordinating and facilitating the first Goshen Game Day on January 26th, 2013 at the Ballroom in downtown Goshen, Indiana from 9:30 AM to 11 PM.

Join area table top gamers for a day of board games, card games, and role-playing games.

I have posted a Facebook event to keep track of who’s going. But don’t worry, if you aren’t  on Facebook, or don’t want to announce your intentions to anyone else, please let me know if you are planning to attend.

There is a $5 cover for each person.

Table of Contents

• Schedule Overview and Format
• What to Bring
• Game Library
• RPG Schedule
• Rules of Game Day
• Sponsors from Near
• Sponsors from Far
• Giving Back to the Community
• Unfortunate Details

Schedule and Format

Open Gaming begins at 9:30am and runs until around 11pm. Some board games and card games will be provided from my personal collection, but I’m hoping others will bring theirs as well. For Open Gaming, you don’t need to RSVP, but a rough head count would be helpful.

Running concurrently with the Open Gaming will be Scheduled Events run by volunteers. The scheduled games presently include Dungeon World, Marvel Heroic Role Playing Game, Dresden Files RPG, with other games being added.

I am looking for Game Masters to run one or two 4 hour RPG sessions. I have a few who have agreed to run, and a list of people to contact. But if you are interested in running a game or two, please let me know. Warning: You should be passionate and excited to run the game.

And if you do run an RPG, you’ll get an RPG book, graciously provided by Goshen Game Day’s sponsors, as a thank you.

What To Bring

This is an all day event, but you are free to duck in and out as needs be. Aside from $5 for the entry fee and an eagerness to play games, consider bringing the following:

• $6 to purchase re-rolls for the day
• Some polyhedral dice for your role-playing games
• A boardgame or two that you would like to play
• A deck or two of Magic the Gathering
• Games that you might wish to sell or trade

Game Library

I’m hoping that there will be lots of people at the game day. And lots of games! But with lots of people comes a responsibility for managing the physical game copies. We will be providing a checkout service for games.

You can checkout a game from the Game Library by handing over your Driver’s License to the game librarian (i.e. my trusted and lovely partner). This ensures that you have an incentive to return the game, which means game owners should feel more comfortable bringing their games to share.

RPG and Game Schedule

Aside from the Open Gaming, I’m coordinating GMs and scheduled RPG sessions. Here is the very tentative schedule. Presently, I’ve made guesses about the number of players. If we don’t get enough interested in a scheduled slot, there will need to be some shuffling. I’ll coordinate this with GMs going forward.

In most cases, you won’t need to have a character, nor know how to play. Just bring your game face.

Current reservations for the scheduled RPGs.

9:30 AM Slot

Open Gaming. If people are interested, we may be able to setup slots for gaming.

12:15 PM Slot

Break for Lunch

1:30 PM Slot

* – This will be a Pathfinder Society game. If you are a PFS member, bring your character sheet. If not, no worries, Sean will provide pre-made characters.

** – This would be a tournament. We are trying to get a limited edition figurine for the tournament winner, but no promises.

5:30 PM Slot

Break for Supper

7:00 PM Slot

Rules of the Game Day

Children under 13 must be accompanied by an adult at all times. And Wheaton’s Law is in effect, though I’m looking to Nerd NYC and John Stavropoulous for additional guidance.

Sponsors from Near

These sponsors have graciously offered to contribute to support the first Goshen Game Day:

• Better World Books Goshen – a locally owned used bookstore with global mandate.
• A Constant Spring – a locally owned bar with some of the best food in Goshen.
• The Electric Brew – Goshen’s downtown coffee shop and informal gathering place.
• Prospero’s Pen – a local game design company “that happily believes games can make lives better”

Link to Goshen Game Day map.

Interested in being a sponsor? Feel free to contact me.

Sponsors from Far

These sponsors have kindly contributed published material to support the first Goshen Game Day, some physical books and some PDF vouchers:

VSCA – creators of:

• Diaspora – winner of the 2010 Ennie Award for Best Rules
• Hollowpoint – the 2012 Ennie Award nominee for best rules, best game, and product of the year.

Magpie Games – creators of:

• Our Last Best Hope – saving humanity from a cataclysmic crisis
• The Plays the Thing – a troupe of actors, reworking the great bard’s seminole works

Bully Pulpit Games – creators of:

• Fiasco – winner of the 2011 Diana Jones Award for Excellence in Gaming; 2009 Indie RPG Awards for Best Support; 2009 ENnie Award for Judge’s Spotlight Award; Featured on Geek Sundry’s Tabletop.
• Grey Ranks – winner of the 2008 Diana Jones Award for Excellence in Gaming, 2007 Indie RPG Awards for Independent Game of the Year and 2007 Indie RPG Awards for Innovation in a Roleplaying Game, and plenty of other games.

Evil Hat Productions – creators of:

• Dresden Files – Winner of the 2011 Gold ENnie Awards for Best Writing, Best Rules, Best New Game and Best Game; Winner of the 2011 Silver ENnie Awards for Best Production Values and Product of the Year, and other awards.
• Spirit of the Century – winner of the 2006 Indie RPG Award for Independent Game of the Year and 2007 2007 Silver ENnie Award for Best Rules.
• And several other games

Margaret Weis Productions – creators of:

• Marvel Heroic RPG – Winner of the 2012 Ennie Gold Award for Best Rules, Silver Award for Product of the Year and Best Game
• Smallville RPG – Every hero has a beginning…
• Leverage RPG – The rich and powerful, they take what they want. You steal it back.

Paizo Publishing – creators of the Pathfinder Role-Playing System, a stalwart of the Fantasy RPG community.

Sage Kobold Productions – creator of the fantastic Dungeon World system.

Interested in contributing published material? Feel free to contact me.

Giving Back to the Community

As part of the Goshen Game Day, you will also be able to purchase re-roll tokens for $1 a piece. Throughout the day, you may cash in a token to re-roll one of your dice rolls; Limit 2 tokens spent per player per game session.

All of the money collected for the re-roll tokens will be donated to The Window, Inc “a non-profit organization, provides services to meet essential needs of anyone with limited income. These services are available to people without regard to race, color, creed, sex, age, religion.”

Note: In case of sanctioned events, this will likely not be applicable.

An Unfortunate Detail

The facility is on the 3rd floor with no elevator access, so those with limited mobility will unfortunately be excluded. If you were hoping to come and this prevents you from coming, please let me know.