After 12 years, it is tempting to assume that everyone knows what to expect from your hometown gaming convention. But what if you’ve never been? Are you con-curious? Let’s look at the basic convention experience that comes with your standard day or weekend pass.

Our philosophy has always been “one fee” at the door. That is, once you’re in the gate, indulging in the features and events at the con incurs no additional costs – with a very few noted exceptions. For gamers, this means you get access to our online schedule and can sign up for any games you like, you can sit and play at any table with available seats for participants, you can borrow games from our game library and check out something new or share an old favorite with your friends, or you can add games to our schedule or bring something to play. We have open tables for pick-up games, and some folks will put up signage indicating that they looking for players.

With your TsunamiCon badge, you are eligible for our Play-To-Win program. You can sample our selection of Play-To-Win games and enter to win a copy during closing ceremonies.

Explore some of our favorite features at the con! Join the Dungeon o’ Doooooooom and pitch sword-first into the jaws of a deadly 3D dungeon delve, fighting your way toward the evil at the heart of the dungeon and likely dying numerous times along the way! Check out the Paint and Take, where our expert painters can help you select and paint a miniature to take home. And of course, we have vendors! With all manner of gaming products and related geekery.

And this is just the beginning. Our team is working hard behind the scenes to add more value to your convention experience, including panels, tournaments, and live entertainment! And if you have ideas you’d like to share, let us know! TsunamiCon is nothing without our excellent and devoted gaming community, and we work every year to build this thing together!

Right now we’re raising funds to cover our venue costs, and you can help by pledging to purchase your ticket via our Kickstarter campaign. Not only does this get you signed up in advance and helps you stay in the loop, but the deals for badges and merch on the Kickstarter page are the best prices available!

I’ll see you at the con!

~ E. “Captain” Carl

I run into this question a lot. The confusion is understandable. We’ve been doing this event for years… shouldn’t we be past the crowdfunding phase by now? Can’t we just invest in our product and plan ahead like a normal business? Do we even know how to run a business?

I’ve been advised on more than one occasion that business collaborators may have less confidence in an event that can’t even rely on its own budget. As one friend phrased it recently… for people on the outside, the “less they see of the back end, the better.” I understand this sentiment, and how it may look questionable from the outside. And I don’t dismiss it out of hand; whenever this question arises, I look at it from every angle. I take it seriously, and I consider the variables that make up TsunamiCon.

Without throwing actual numbers out there (which can be downright frightening, if you’ve never run a business), I’ve focused a lot on transparency over the years. I feel that this important for several reasons:

TsunamiCon is a community-driven event. And to be clear, that means that we rely 1000% on the community to get involved, or we don’t really have much of an event. As a game con director, I am a facilitator. I funnel a whole lot of money into securing a venue, managing logistics, promoting the event, and creating value added where I can. My entire staff of about a half dozen unpaid managers and often a dozen or so volunteers isn’t really enough to even manage that much without bending the laws of time and space, but we do our best. Without Game Masters to run games and events, exhibitors interested in purchasing space in the Marketplace, and gamers excited to spend the weekend engaged in their favorite hobby, the business collapses under its own weight. And most small convention owners will tell you that it only takes one “off year” to kill the convention entirely.

Which leads me to the next thought: Wichita is a tough market. It isn’t uncommon for us to have no idea whether the convention has paid for itself in any given year until the last day of the con. You might think I’m just poor with managing finances or don’t know what I’m doing, but let me lay that idea to rest: I’ve been managing this event in this market for 12 years. Before TsunamiCon, I spent 15 years managing and organizing all kinds of events – from home & leisure shows to rock concerts. I have an MBA, and I’m working on a Masters in Accounting, and my board are all business professionals. I have worked in management roles for media organizations, retailers, and financial institutions. I’m not actually much of a salesman, as it turns out, but I know a lot about administration, promotion, and logistics.

I remind myself of these things on the regular, but TsunamiCon is not a fluid business entity. We launched our very first Kickstarter in 2014 to fund our first event, because we started with no capital investment and wanted to see if it was possible. And it worked. Predictably, it soaked up every penny (and then some), but my team took the lessons provided by the first and did it again. And again. There were a couple years in there where we tried it without a Kickstarter campaign, hoping that with the momentum we had earned early ticket sales and sponsorships would give us the cash flow we needed… and that didn’t work so well.

According to our current projections, this year’s convention is going to cost us all told around $16K, more than half of which the venue needs up front. With more than 60% of ticket sales happening on site most years, that doesn’t work. And some of those are variable costs, of course, like merchandise and food for the lounge. This year I was approached by a volunteer who is actively selling to the local market – and if you talk to James G., be sure to let him know how much you appreciate it! – giving us a shot at picking up new sponsors (or old returning sponsors), and I’m excited at the potential. And while enough sponsorships could help mitigate those upfront costs, it’s all these variables working together that make a con.

So back to the initial question: Why KICKstarter?

1. Confidence in our Budget. I know what kind of money we need in hand to proceed, and I know what benchmarks I need to reach by certain dates. If I know I can cover the cost of the venue before the 90-day mark, for example, I can spend more money on marketing, promotional materials, and features – all of which require planning. Otherwise, I have to keep the investments to a minimum to ensure we make what we need in time for the event.
2. Building our Community. Kickstarter isn’t just a fundraising site, it’s a social network. We show systemic annual growth in our base built off of those who find us on the platform. I hear from new people every year. Our core community is aggressive with engagement, liking and sharing everything on the regular, but we’ve largely saturated that bubble and rely on bringing new eyes to the event as costs continue to climb every year. Additionally, it isn’t uncommon for us to find silent donors and community supporters who just want events like ours to succeed.
3. Tangible Investment. The high visibility of a crowdfunding campaign provides our community with confidence that the event is, in fact, happening. Admittedly, numerous patrons are uninterested in using tools like Kickstarter, but we always have traditional sales via our own website available after the campaign. Attendees who see us running the campaign know that the event is actually happening. Note: This did bite us in the rear in 2016, when our Kickstarter failed, and that too was a learning experience that led to new innovations at the time.

TsunamiCon has never been a profitable business. Admittedly, if we could invest a great deal more capital in the event – funding more features and exploring bigger advertising efforts – I would expect to see some limited growth. But we also have to be realistic. I’ve learned a lot from my friends who run similar events in other markets, as well as friends who run larger events in Wichita, and the limitations of the local demographic are real. Market research and demographic studies in Wichita show us that our reach nearly exceeds our grasp; it’s a niche event in a limited market with lower overall spending potential. Which makes my mission clear…..

Making every event feel as epic and enjoyable as possible for my fellow gamers!

Yeah, I know how to run a business. And I want to see my business succeed. And I’m excited about the future! But fortunately, we’re not in it to make money. TsunamiCon is a labor of love, dedicated to the friends and fans of the hobby who become so impassioned about it every year. I have other obligations, a family to support, debt up to my eyeballs, and bills to pay… but I’ve made the conscious choice to make TsunamiCon a priority in my life to provide something real and joyful for our community. It isn’t perfect, and it has a lot of room for improvement. But as long as the community will support it – and I know you will, because our Kickstarter always hits that funding goal (nowadays) – I’ll keep working it. And I am always willing to listen to people in our community who have questions, comments, and advice.

I have some other thoughts, but this post is already 1000 words longer than anyone cares to read.

Oh. And let’s not forget… the gaming industry has a proud tradition of established businesses using Kickstarter to test the waters of many of their products. I’ve always found that inspiring, even if it means I can never buy all the games I want in a given year.

Yours in Gaming,

~ E. “Captain” Carl

In 2016, we were shopping around for a venue when an unusual idea fell in our lap. It was our third outing with TsunamiCon, following on two years of promising turnout. It was clear from the jump that our first year venue would be too small moving forward, and while we landed a lovely space for our sophomore presentation, the price tag was untenable at the time.

When I fielded an offer from the Wichita Scottish Rite, I didn’t know what to expect. It wasn’t a hotel, which came with more than a few shifts in our thinking, but they wanted to reshape their image with the local community. The grandeur of the venue leant itself well to weddings and quinceañeras, film festivals in the auditorium, and the occasional photo shoot, but they felt that they had more to offer the community. A game con was just the ticket to showcase a more accessible side to the historic building and get lots of fresh faces in to see it.

Then, tragedy struck. We are a grass-roots convention, and we rely on fundraising to pay our bills. Simply put, if we are unable to raise sufficient money in advance, the event doesn’t happen. Thus our reliance on Kickstarter, a platform designed with an all-or-nothing goal implementation that would ensure we covered our costs and simultaneously protect us from ourselves. After all, if we fell short and dove in regardless, the company would have gone belly up and the owners would be looking at a pile of unresolved debt – all while the event itself might crater before we even reached the October dates. And in 2016, during our third such Kickstarter campaign, we didn’t reach our goal.

For about 10 days, we pondered our options and wondered if that was it. The community took note, and word started to spread that TsunamiCon was yet another Wichita game con with a 2-year lifespan after all.

I then received a call from the venue, asking for a meeting. The rep had been following the campaign and, upon realizing that the failure would likely mean cancellation, wanted to offer us a better deal. We came up with a manageable arrangement, added the Scottish Rite as an official sponsor of the event, and proceeded to host it there for the next three years.

If you know, you know.

Our last visit to the Scottish Rite was in 2018, and we’ve had some lovely events in the years since. The building was purchased by new owners early the following year, and we were compelled to seek new accommodations. In the years since, I’ve periodically checked in to see if they might once again be interested in an event like ours… and that perseverance finally paid off. We negotiated with Temple Live, the current owners, to get us on the schedule this fall, and we’re locked in!

The immersive atmosphere and genteel beauty of the venue is a heartening accompaniment for a an event built around community and escapism. As before, we’ll be using various rooms throughout the building to host games and featured events, allowing us to bring more value to the experience for everyone involved. We’re already brainstorming and weighing options, and I’m excited to dive right in!

Feel free to reach out if you have questions or ideas you’d like to share. Together, we can make this a con worth celebrating. Let’s build us a convention!

The very first year we opened the doors at TsunamiCon, we were startled to realize that the event we envisioned wasn’t quite what we saw developing around us. My friends and I were roleplayers; I’ve been a hard-core D&D nerd since the early ’80s, and naturally I attracted a group of similarly-minded gamers who got together every week for an ongoing adventure or two. We had been branching out at our FLGS and connected with other roleplayers, and TsunamiCon was soon to follow. What we didn’t realize at the time was just how the local tabletop gaming demographic – and by extension, the global demographic – had developed in recent years. We were virtually awash in board gamers.

Now, it would be inaccurate to say that we didn’t play board games. In fact, several of my friends have extensive board game collections, and they were common fare for nights when our regular gaming plans fell through. And honestly, that has been a pattern since I was very young. “Oh, Rick can’t make it for D&D… let’s play Axis and Allies.” Years later, it was Betrayal at House of the Hill. Then Lords of Waterdeep. And to be fair, I had never shied away from organizing board game nights for family or friends. But RPGs consumed a more than casual amount of my time and energy – a common trait amongst lifelong roleplayers.

So we expecting that most of our event would be in kind. RPGs with a bit of board gaming going on around it. I had an inkling it might be more; one of our local community friends offered to bring out a small library of games to share, and I even contacted some publishers and set up tournaments for Ticket to Ride and Zombie Dice. But we also set up a Star Wars Miniatures tourney, and Magic: The Gathering events. I figured it’s a gaming con… we should embrace all of it.

Still… I was not prepared for the reality that fully HALF of our gaming tables were board gamers.

Breakin’ out Dead of Winter from the TsunamiCon Game Library!

Was I disappointed? Hells to the NO. It was so exciting to realize that there was this growing community of tabletop gamers who had a completely different hobby than I did. That they were every bit as dedicated, as excited to try something new, and loved to share their passion with fellow gamers! Since that time, TsunamiCon has always had about as many tables devoted to board games and card games as to RPGs. Without the board game community showing up, in fact, our convention would have long since diminished.

Recently a friend of ours who is a local leader in the board game community opined on social media that TsunamiCon is “very good for RPG and so so for Board Games.” (He went on to say that it’s a great time.) Despite the prevalence of board games at our event – the company now maintains a growing library of games that we bring to the con for attendees to freely enjoy – I discovered that I couldn’t disagree. I think I know why… I think I’ve always known why; it’s just a little hard to articulate to anyone who isn’t primarily a roleplayer, and a bitter pill to swallow at some level because we really do try to celebrate it all.

RPGs aren’t typically casual games. That isn’t to say that there aren’t exceptions to the rule, nor is it a suggestion that board games can’t be very serious endeavors. But what is true is that most successful RPG experiences require planning, preparation, organization, and engagement by all parties. It’s far easier to take out a board game on a moment’s notice and dive in than it usually is for roleplaying games. Even if you are dealing with published adventure content and pre-made characters, your game master typically has to spend hours familiarizing him/herself with the material and determining how to approach it. It’s a style of gaming that requires a great deal of mental focus, mastery of game system and material, and improvisation.

So naturally, any event that provides roleplayers a chance to list gaming scenarios (that they then spend hours preparing for the event) and sign up for games (that they can then bone up on in their spare time, perhaps write up characters, etc.) is a huge draw for the community. It’s harder to find a good opportunity to throw down on some RPG action. Consequentially, one of the highlights of an organized tabletop gaming event that supports RPGs is the online schedule. It quickly becomes a central component of the entire con, which definitely focuses the attention on the games that show up on the schedule.

And this has been the case since Day One.

The TsunamiCon Game Library circa 2017

I earmark a substantial segment of our resources to board games every year. We don’t hold “play to win” events for RPGs. I don’t have a library of RPG books available. Roleplayers are on top of that for their own tables. Just as board gamers can bring games out to share and/or demo, and – to the point of my post, if I have one – also schedule them in advance. A handful of people do, and I’m excited to see it. But while we currently have maybe eight or ten board games on the schedule for the whole weekend, we have dozens of RPGs.

I want to show the board gaming community the love it deserves. We have 35 Play-To-Win games on the shelf this year, and we have a staff of knowledgeable volunteers managing our library. We’ll have some demos listed for Play-To-Win titles in the next few days. We have tables available for scheduled games and for open gaming. What we’d love to see is more board games and cards games on the schedule.

If you want to bring out a game and share it with your fellow attendees, feel free to list it in advance! Maybe you have a closet full of games and there’s some you never get to play; the convention is a fantastic place to do it. And letting your fellow gamers know about it ahead of time helps you find people who are excited to check it out. Maybe it’s a favorite of theirs, too! Maybe you picked up something new and want to play it more. Maybe you just don’t have the time in life to play your games, but you still have something to share. Bring it to the con!

I know that we’ll see plenty of cardboard hit the table. Being “very good for RPG and so so for Board Games” is all about context. When people check out the con in the weeks leading up to the event, the RPG crowd just takes up a lot of the space… Letting attendees know that board gamers are ready to rock and roll is a perfect step toward a level of equity.

Submit your games today!

~ E. “Captain” Carl