Category Archives: Conventions

Gen Con announces its 2023 Charity Partners

Gen Con 2023 charity partners

Gen Con has announced its 2023 charity partners, Indy Reads and Game Pathways! Both organizations will receive proceeds from the convention’s 2023 fundraising efforts, including longstanding charity events such as the popular “Cardhalla.” In addition, both groups will also receive promotional marketing and table space at the convention to connect with attendees and promote their wonderful organizations.

Indy Reads builds literacy, English language, and job readiness skills to empower adults and families to reach their full potential. For nearly 40 years, we’ve worked toward a vision of 100% literacy for all. Current statistics show that 1 in 6 adults in Indiana read at or below a fifth-grade level. Through its in-person and virtual Community Classrooms and workforce certification programs, Indy Reads helps adult learners increase their literacy and English language proficiency, prepare for their High School Equivalency (HSE) diploma, and build the workforce skills to improve their employability and advancement potential. Indy Reads proudly serves adults of all literacy skill levels, including the most beginning-level.

Game Pathways seeks to improve representation and diversity in the tabletop gaming industry by increasing student awareness of career paths, introducing students to industry professionals, and working with game companies to engage under-represented groups. It is a nonprofit organization founded by industry professionals who care about inclusivity, creativity, and celebrating new voices!

Awesome Con teams with Labyrinth Games & Puzzles for its tabletop gaming!

Awesome Con

Taking place June 16-18, Awesome Con has teamed up with Labyrinth Games & Puzzles for its tabletop gaming area. Labyrinth Games & Puzzles is a popular game shop located in the Capitol Hill neighborhood and Washington, DC.

The shop has stated they’re bringing a game library and the area will feature demos, tournaments, game designers and more! The shop will also be a pick-up location for Awesome Con badges.

A full schedule of gaming events is still coming and the gaming hours at the convention are:

Friday, June 16 – 1:00 PM – 10:00 PM
Saturday, June 17 – 10:00 AM – 10:00 PM
Sunday, June 18 – 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM

You can get your Awesome Con badges now.

Scrum Con’s registration opens today!

Scrum Con 2023

Registration has opened, this Saturday, February 25, for Scrum Con 2023! The convention has around 40 games over the course of the day, as well as the return of the popular “bring-and-buy” flea market. They also have a variety of t-shirts folks can order for pick-up at the convention. 

Badges and Tickets

Scrum Con 2019 and 2020 sold out about a week before the day of the convention, so they highly encourage attendees to peruse the games schedule (they’re called “Events” in Tabletop Events parlance) soon after buying your badge. In the past, some of the most popular games have had all tickets claimed within the first day or two after registration was opened.

Go to our Tabletop Events Scrum Con 2023 page to buy your badge and pick your games!

Scrum Con Needs Your Help!
This convention succeeds by word of mouth, so anything you can do to make people aware of Scrum Con literally helps make future Scrum Cons possible. Facility rental costs have increased now that the pandemic has subsided and every organization is scrambling to book space, but they’ve kept badge costs the same as they were in 2020. Sharing the convention with friends, and posting about Scrum Con on your social media accounts, Subreddits, and other places kindred gaming spirits gather is the only hope they have of surviving and hopefully one day leveling up!

NOVA Open announces a new badge type and hotel information

NOVA Open

With badges for NOVA Open 2023 going on sale soon, the convention has released some details regarding the new hotel and has revealed a new badge type!

NOVA Open takes place from August 30 through September 3rd.


This year the convention has changed locations and is at the spacious, historic Washington Hilton hotel in Adam’s Morgan, DC. The Washington Hilton regularly hosts U.S. Presidential events and is the only hotel to have an official U.S. Presidential seal built into the structure. The hotel features over 100,000 square feet of convention space to take advantage of.

Hotel Block Opens Wed March 1st 8:30pm
On the Hotels page of the NOVA Open website.

Convention room block information: There are over 700 rooms available all for the convention rate of $144 plus tax. For those driving, they have also negotiated a major parking discount to only $15/day (same as 2022 rate!).


This year NOVA Open is premiering a new badge type! To create as streamlined a checkout experience as possible they are piloting two new badges which are called “One-click bundles”. There will be 100 each for 40k GT and Age of Sigmar GT.

Each One-click Bundle gets you:

  • Your Convention Access Pass
  • Entry into the Grand Tournament (40k or AoS)
  • Convention t-shirt
  • Guaranteed ability to reserve a Deluxe 1 King Bed hotel room through a special booking portal.

With a One-click Bundle, your registration is a breeze! With one single item you know your convention experience is locked-in. After launch, purchasers will get access to the reserved room booking portal. These badges will sell for $215 until March 31st.

Any unsold GT spots at the end of the month will be rolled into the general GT ticket pool.

NOVA Open’s badge sale begins March 1st

NOVA Open

Save the date! Tickets for the 2023 NOVA Open will go live through Tabletop.events on March 1st, 2023 at 8pm Eastern. The convention advises creating an account PRIOR to the live date. They’ve been working with TTE to scale up for the launch volume and minimize issues so many conventions have during their badge and event launches. This year they’re also trying something new. In order to reduce congestion at launch we are going to have two waves of sales on the 1st:

  • 8pm EST – Badge Sales Open
  • 8:30pm EST – Ticket Sales Open

The convention hopes that by staggering things they can avoid anyone missing out on event tickets in the rush. More info will be released next week with more info about the launch, the revised COVID policy, website updates, and more.

Finally, SuperNovas from the last three years should have gotten an email with instructions on how to get a shot at the 50 badge SuperNOVA pre-sale. If you didn’t, contact the convention! Everyone else, mark your calendars for March 1st at 8pm EST for your chance!

NOVA Open 2023 takes place August 31st to September 3rd at the Washington Hilton in Washington, DC.

The Resin Beast Miniature Painting Competition Returns for 2023

Resin Beast

The biggest miniature painting competition is coming to Adepticon! Creature Caster and Para Bellum Games announce the return of the Resin Beast Painting Competition for 2023! By partnering, this will be the largest Resin Beast ever, and one of the biggest miniature painting competitions that the world has ever seen! Resin Beast features a massive prize pool of approximately US$14,000 over many different categories of prizes. For 2023, we are partnering with Play on Tabletop to bring a behind the scenes look at the Resin Beast. In this two-episode series that will come out after Adepticon, fans will see how the judges make their decisions and understand the painters’ perspectives about their craft. The “Community Choice” awards will be highlighted throughout, and viewers will be welcome to vote for their favorite miniatures, regardless of the official judging.

Para-Bellum Games and Creature Caster encourage Painters and Hobbyists of all skill levels to participate. There will be adventures for everyone! We look forward to entries from those that believe they are the best of the best, and from those that have just started their journey into this incredible hobby. This will be the most engaging and innovative miniature painting competition the world has ever seen. To achieve these lofty goals, the incredible team at Creature Caster is joining forces with the maker of Conquest, Para Bellum Games, to host this event. This partnership will truly take the Resin Beast to a whole new level.

The Resin Beast competition will be themed around a dungeon crawl where all participants will join as adventurers to struggle together against the Resin Beast itself. It is a competition, with impressive prizes available. We also want to make sure that all skill levels can participate and have lighthearted fun. There will be many levels of categories in which painters of all levels can place and win. This competition is open to all painters of Conquest or Creature Caster models.

Gen Con 2023 badges go on sale January 29

Gen Con 2023

Gen Con has announced that badges for Gen Con Indy 2023 will go on sale Sunday, January 29 at noon Eastern on gencon.com. Gen Con Indy 2023 takes place August 3-6 in the Indiana Convention Center and Lucas Oil Stadium, celebrating 20 years of events in Indianapolis since the convention moved to the city in 2003.

The convention will continue to operate in a hybrid format, featuring virtual Gen Con Online event programming and livestreaming.

BADGE REGISTRATION

Gen Con Indy 2023 4-Day and single-day badges will be available for purchase beginning at noon Eastern on January 29. Registration for a free Gen Con Online-only badge will begin on May 7.

Badge TypePrice
4-Day$135
Thursday$70
Friday$70
Saturday$85
Sunday$17
Trade Day$235
Gen Con Online-Only$0 (Available May 7)

Housing registration will begin at noon Eastern on February 12, and event registration for ticketed events will open at noon Eastern on May 21.

April 2023 features the 250th Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series Event!

250th Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series

Konami has announced the 250th Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series (YCS) events will be taking place in April 2023 in three different locations. The YCS events will feature the best Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game (TCG) players from across the globe, Dueling for a chance to be named a champion at these historic events. 

Three YCS events will be taking place simultaneously on the same weekend of April 1-2, 2023. Konami will host the North America YCS in Los Angeles, California at the Los Angeles Convention Center and the Latin America YCS in Bogotá, Colombia at the Agora Bogotá Convention Center. Konami Digital Entertainment B.V. will be hosting a YCS in Europe in London, UK at ExCeL London.  

All registered Duelists in the main events will take home a participation Game Mat and Field Center Card. The three winners of these prestigious events will be taking home a unique Ultra Rare Anotherverse Dragon card commemorating the event and a very special YCS Champion trophy.  

Outside of the main tournament, there’ll be plenty of things for attendees to enjoy over the course of the weekend, including popular public events, such as Win-A-Mat tournaments and ATTACK OF THE GIANT CARD!!, as well as newer events including Rivalry of Warlords and digital game tournaments for Yu-Gi-Oh! MASTER DUEL. For special events only available at the 250th YCS, Duelists will be able to compete in Time Wizard events using formats from previous milestone YCS events. 

Registration for these events will open in early 2023.

Gen Con Draws Over 50,000 Attendees in a Return to Pre-Pandemic Scale

Gen Con

Gen Con returned to Indianapolis this August 4-7, attracting a unique attendance of over 50,000 gaming fans to the Indiana Convention Center (ICC) and Lucas Oil Stadium for four days of playing games, shopping in the exhibit hall, cosplaying, enjoying local food and beverages, and connecting with fans from Indianapolis and around the world.

Gen Con Indy 2022, which marked the 55th running of the convention since its founding in 1968, generated an estimated $57.4 million in economic activity for restaurants, hotels, and other local businesses in Indianapolis.

The convention’s exhibit hall featured more than 530 game publishers and vendors. Publishers released more than 500 new game titles during the convention. More than 15,000 ticketed events were held over the four days, ranging from board games, card games, roleplaying games, comedy, music, seminars, the Costume Contest, Film Festival, and more.

All participants were required to show proof of vaccination to attend and to wear masks while inside Gen Con-controlled spaces.

Concurrently with the in-person convention, an additional 900 virtual games and events were held through the convention’s Gen Con Online program, and over 50 hours of live video was streamed on the convention’s Twitch channels.

Gen Con Indy 2022’s official charity partner was the Patachou Foundation, a nonprofit which serves meals and learning experiences for children to increase their awareness of and excitement about food and fight the root causes of hunger in the community. Nearly $40,000 was raised over the weekend for the Patachou Foundation through multiple charity events.

Gen Con will return to Indianapolis August 3-6, 2023.

Gen Con 2022: Steamforged shows off Dark Souls, new Rivet Wars, and Adventures & Academia: First Class miniatures

Steamforged Games has announced some exclusive exhibits for their appearance at the immensely popular tabletop convention, Gen Con, taking place 4-7 August in Indianapolis. Attendees can visit their booth #2221 to enjoy, amongst other things, world premieres of a host of never-before-seen miniatures and material.

First to be displayed are miniatures from the new Dark Souls: The Board Game release, Tomb of the Giants, due to be released later this year. These stunning models include skeleton soldiers, necromancers, an imposing skeletal beast and a huge new boss, the iconic Gravelord Nito.

This is the first Dark Souls: The Board Game content released since 2017, and is the first of a series of new core sets, which include a new campaign system and an updated rulebook, designed to be backward compatible and with community involvement.

Attendees will also get an exclusive look at the new faction for the recently acquired Rivet Wars franchise. More information about the exciting future of the game, including new ways to play, will be revealed in due course.

Finally, Steamforged are excited to give an exclusive world-first preview of the upcoming miniatures for Adventures & Academia: First Class. After securing the support of 7,611 backers on Kickstarter, this hotly-anticipated range of miniatures is currently in production. This exhibit is a chance for backers to whet their appetite for roleplaying fun in advance of the campaign’s delivery, slated for early 2023.

As well as displaying minis, they’re running demos of various games every day at Gen Con, giving visitors a chance to get hands on with Steamforged’s awesome tabletop experiences.

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