Craig Campbell of Nerdburgers Games, the Nerd Burger Show podcast, and Secretary of the Indie Game Developer Network (IGDN) invited me to attend Conapalooza 2019 and Multiverse Con 2019 with him. For two back-to-back weekends in October, I sat at Craig’s table, talked gaming, RPG crowdfunding, podcasting, pop culture, Bob Cave’s Drugs, Chemicals, and Siding, ran some RPGs, and observed convention RPGing. Craig was a gracious host willing to share his love of RPGs, the industry as a whole, horror movies, and Wisconsin radio ads. I had a fantastic set of weekends and witnessed a useful snapshot of being an independent publisher in the wild. In this article, I’m looking at Conapalooza. Next week, I’ll tackle Multiverse Con.
CONAPALOOZA
The first show was Conapalooza held October 11 to 13, 2019 in Kingsport, Tennessee at the MeadowView Conference Resort & Convention Center. Kingsport is deep in Appalachia and part of the Tri-Cities along the border with Virginia. Despite the name, the closest city of size is Knoxville (Tennessee’s third largest metropolitan area) an hour and a half away. Kingsport exists in gorgeous mountain country, and the resort is an upscale hotel/golf course/convention center. It’s sizable, tranquil, and has some lovely views of the countryside. The natural beauty of the location gave an excellent contrast to conventions situated in the downtowns of major cities. Unlike those conventions which are located miles away from a park, MeadowView inspired me to carve out time to take a walk. Inside, the resort was outstanding with beautiful décor, good meeting halls large enough for gaming and panels, and the hotel rooms were excellent quality.
Conapalooza has been around for a few years as a multidiscipline convention anchored by celebrity appearances while it dabbles in every type of geek culture along with a decent gaming presence. Craig’s table was in the dealer’s hall which was six or more rows of vendors (toys, art, comics, Pops, books, jewelry, games, and more) and celebrities (Marina Sirtis, Michael Biehn, Power Rangers, and more). Outside of the dealer’s hall were a few more vendors and a separate wing of the hotel for the panels, tabletop gaming room, video gaming room, silent auction rooms, and dance hall. The convention managed to offer something for everyone.
On the floor, there were several dealers offering games and gaming accessories. Ornamental dice sculptures to RPGs (mostly D&D and Pathfinder), dice towers, dice, and miniatures. Nerdburger Games was the only independent game publisher at the show. That coincidence drove all RPG fans to his table where Craig has a comfortable style of pitching his products (not aggressive, but not disinterested). His pitches are tight and easy to share with me.
Dialing in on the tabletop RPGing itself at the con, the reception varied. By any measure of marketing, D&D, Pathfinder, Call of Cthulhu, and a handful of other games dominate RPG and the wider societal awareness of RPGs. For a one-person publishing house like Nerdburger Games, going to a convention is as much about getting games into the hands of players as it is about letting potential fans know that your work is available. Craig’s company offers products beyond fantasy or weird horror with systems tailored to the world.
Craig signed up to run two sessions of his 2018 BAMFsie Award winning RPG, CAPERS, in which you play as superpowered gangsters (or the law) during 1920s Prohibition. I ran two sessions of Craig’s Die Laughing, a horror-comedy movie where your character sheet is an autopsy report and you play horror movie archetypes that will die, so you better make it funny. What’s your punishment for dying? You come back as a producer on the horror-comedy movie and mess with the remaining “actors.” I planned to run a session of my own game, but forgot the bulk of it at home so I opted for Dungeon World, a game that is effectively Powered by the Apocalypse D&D. Of the five games we were setup for, only the Die Laughing sessions got participants. Three players in the first one (including one convention volunteer that had to leave part way through but returned after his event was canceled) and two players (including a returnee from the prior session) for the next game. Craig’s CAPERS sessions were no shows. However, don’t take that as a pronouncement about the popularity of Die Laughing over CAPERS as both sold over the two weekends. Add to that, lots of folks wanted to play when they were at the booth but the timing didn’t work out (they were committed to panels already or asked after the demo was completed). Plus, my session of DW was a no show.
Beyond our games, there were a number of pre-planned and spontaneous games. While I was in the gaming room, I saw multiple sessions of D&D (including a custom version for kids in which they played dragons) and a session of Vampire: The Masquerade with ten-ish players that I arrived way too late to be number eleven at. I saw established games receiving interest by players that greatly enjoyed the sessions.
SELLING AT THE GAMING TABLE
In general, that’s an area that might benefit from some reinvention at conventions: Combining gaming tables and dealer’s tables. At present, most conventions keep those separate (normally in different areas of the con). In some cases, these likely have to be separated for legal reasons, but for others they’re just separated because. That physical separation hurts the sales of specific RPGs and the growth of all RPGs. In the past, I attended one convention where the dealer could sell their game at the gaming table. That option led to each session receiving strong sales to the players. Obviously, if the session was good then you’re primed to buy. The cons, of course, are you’re not in the dealer’s hall so you’re missing the wider foot traffic, and you’d have to have at least two people at the booth (one to run the game, one to sale to walk ups).
WHAT DID CRAIG THINK OF CONAPALOOZA?
Craig Campbell of Nerdburgers Games, the Nerd Burger Show podcast, and Secretary of the Indie Game Developer Network (IGDN)
“Conapalooza featured a decent-sized dealer hall with a good diversity of products and a surprisingly robust guest/autograph area for a con of its size. It’s lacking a bit in tabletop, but that’s something a bit of growth and dedicated marketing could fix. The venue was excellent, and the staff was top notch.”
Next week I’ll look at Multiverse Con in Atlanta.
Interested in more RPG convention coverage? Check out the scenes at:
- AetherCon (the online gaming convention) 2017 as well as my AetherCon 2019 Q&As in their magazine. Official site here
- AndoCon 2018 (and a Q&A with Ando here)
- Atlanta Sci-Fi and Fantasy Expo 2017. Official site here
- Dragon Con 2019. Official site here
- Gen Con 2019 (part 1 and part 2). Official site here
- ENnie Awards Dream Dates for Gen Con 2017, 2018, and 2019
- I’m including my friend John McGuire’s coverage of our trips to Gen Con 2017 (part 1, part 2, and Tales from the Loop), 2018 (part 1 and part 2) and 2019 (part 1 and part 2)
- JordanCon 2019. Official site here
- MomoCon 2018. Official site here
- Origins Game Fair 2018 and 2019. Official site here
NOTE: This article includes affiliate links to DriveThruRPG. As a DriveThruRPG Affiliate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Latest posts by Egg Embry (see all)
- New Gamemaster Month 2023 - January 20, 2023
