In the first part of this three-part series, I looked at the pandemic induced rescheduling of a number of tabletop RPG conventions from their traditional dates to a tight timeline in late 2021.
UK Games Expo in Birmingham, United Kingdom – July 30th to August 1st- Dragon Con in Atlanta, Georgia – September 2nd through September 6th
- Gen Con in Indianapolis, Indiana – September 16th through the 19th
- Origins Game Fair in Columbus, Ohio – September 30th through October 3rd
- Internationale Spieltage SPIEL ‘21 in Essen, Germany – October 14th to the 17th
- Con on the Cob in Richfield, Ohio – October 14th to the 17th
- Gamehole Con in Madison, Wisconsin – October 21st through 24th
- MACE 2021 in Charlotte, North Carolina – November 12th through the 14th
- PAX Unplugged in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – December 10th to the 12th
- MomoCon (Winterfest by MomoCon) in Atlanta, Georgia – December 18th and 19th
YOUR CON, YOUR CHOICE
The pandemic resulted in horrid loss of life, and we all regret that so many folks had their time cut short. In the first part of this series, I stated that your decision to attend a convention or not attend a convention is your choice. These articles are not meant to encourage or dissuade you, they’re meant to inform. As such, whatever decision you make, it is your decision and, on my end, I wish you a safe and happy time at home or in travel.
30 DAYS
At present, 3 of the 4 largest tabletop gaming conventions happen within 30 days of each other. Gen Con starts on September 16th followed by Origins Game Fair two weeks later and Internationale Spieltage two weeks after that. For a 30-day period, that’s a lot of distance to travel, product to transport, time to take off from your day job, and planning to conduct to ensure all of the elements come together without a hitch in such a short span of weeks.
Pushing these conventions together, reducing them from a spread of June through October to a range of 30 days have an impact on a company’s production schedule and shipping. Companies like to debut products at shows, but with two weeks between the bigger ones, it’s hard to have major releases hitting back-to-back-to-back.
IMPACTS – FANS
The biggest impact for fans that want to attend may be this: Many conventions are planning to reduce capacity to allow for social distancing, which means you can expect stiff competition for tickets. There’s also the concern that these large gatherings will end up being superspreader events. We will not know the likelihood until these conventions start happening, but with so many at once, it’s unlikely we’ll know in time to course correct and cancel later events (if that proves vital for public safety).
For North American fans, this puts pressure on budgets as Indianapolis (Gen Con) and Columbus (Origins) are less than 3 hours apart by car. I’m sure you can imagine that there’s crossover between their fanbases. For many this year, the conventions fall on the same pay check, which is a real consideration when planning a convention trip. To be level, based on my finances, I’m assuming that North American fans rarely attended Gen Con, Origins, and Internationale Spieltage in the same year when they’re in June, August, and October. Now that they’re in mid-September through October, that’s asking a lot between international travel plus the large amount of time off from work. As such, fans that might attend two or three of those shows are more likely to opt for just one, if any, in 2021.
IMPACTS – PUBLISHERS
For publishers, the math is different, but not easier. First, consider their yearly view. Many publishers have not attended a convention since 2019. For a number, by the time UK Games Expo, Dragon Con, or Gen Con rolls around, they’ll have gone nearly two years since selling at a convention. That has to have had an impact on their balance sheets. For some, they’ll be eager to return and reopen that revenue stream. For others, the drought has left them resource poor and they may struggle with covering the upfront costs to reserve a booth, lodging, travel, food, and shipping their materials to the con.
Probably the number one question on every publisher’s mind is: How many fans will be there?
Then, there’s the glut of conventions happening one after the other every two weeks. While many can expect to shift products at the conventions that they attend, they have to ship the products they plan to offer to each location. Hauling a booth’s worth of material from Indiana to Ohio in two weeks on a budget will be difficult. From Ohio to Germany in two weeks? That’ll cost a premium and is likely to impact a publisher’s decision to attend as much as any health risk.
For publishers, there’s one other consideration. Conventions are considering reducing their capacity. In an ideal world, publishers want to sell out of their products at the show. But if the crowds are reduced, should publishers bring fewer products? If they guess right, they make money but don’t have to ship everything back to the warehouse. If they guess wrong, they leave money on the table.
IMPACTS – OTHER CONVENTIONS
I believe it’s safe to say that Gen Con and SPIEL will still be the biggest draws for publishers and gamers in the US and Europe. But, by putting Dragon Con, Gen Con, Origins Game Fair, Internationale Spieltage SPIEL ‘21, and Gamehole Con across 50ish days on the calendar, they’re likely to reduce attendance overlap and, possibly, hurt fan attendance at Dragon Con, Origins, and Gamehole. But the bigger impact to these shows is likely to be publisher attendance, or lack thereof. The tight grouping of these shows means publishers will bear heavy upfront costs for booths, shipping, and time away from production, while potentially seeing reduced audiences due to limiting badge sales. It’s a gamble that may drive publishers to focus on the biggest draws in the hopes of maximizing their returns. In turn, this will reduce what the conventions reap from the experience. All of that is to say, while the conventions are likely to be fun in 2021, they’re not as likely to be profitable for everyone involved.
IMPACTS – RPG CROWDFUNDING
One of the impacts that has yet to be widely discussed is the impact these moves will have on RPG crowdfunding campaigns such as those through Kickstarter, IndieGoGo, and GameOnTabletop. Traditionally, tabletop RPG crowdfunding campaigns decrease in number around Gen Con. The common wisdom is there’s only so many geek dollars to go around and running your campaign while paychecks are spent in Indianapolis is not a recipe for success. To that end, many campaigns build their crowdfunding timeline around Gen Con, either ending before the convention starts or using the convention to promote their campaign. In 2021, I’m extremely curious how many creators are looking at the block from Dragon Con (starting September 2nd) through Gamehole Con (ending October 24th) as a two month stretch where some portion of your fanbase’s gaming money is not available for crowdfunding campaigns. Add to that the holidays starting with Thanksgiving in the US and running through early January and it’ll be interesting to see if publishers try to wrap their campaigns by early September, make a heavy go from late October through mid-November, leaving 3ish months worth of thinner offerings. Or, will they ignore the conventions and continue on business as usual? It’ll be an interesting to see if publishers make exceptions or push ahead with new campaigns.
HOW DOES THIS IMPACT THE CONS NOT ON THIS LIST?
In the final part of this series, I’ll look at some of the other gaming related conventions not discussed already and see how they’ve been impacted so far.
You can read part one here and part three here.
Disclosure: While I pay for my travel, hotel, and food, certain conventions discussed in this article provide complimentary entry to their cons because I register as a member of the press/media.
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