TSUNAMICON 2022 | We’re Back!
It has been nearly three years since we’ve gathered en masse to celebrate our unique and amazing hobby. We’ve weathered numerous cancellations, venues shutting down, a massive shift entirely into cyberspace (with all the hiccups that naturally extend from that grand endeavor), and a fine-tuned existential dread that some things will never be what they once were… And yet, we still gather around tables in our homes and local hobby shops to adventure, rabble-rouse, skirmish, and trade wood for sheep with reckless abandon.
So it’s official: TsunamiCon is back again for another round of gaming goodness this October 21st, 22nd and 23rd. This year we are descending on the historic Drury Plaza Hotel Broadview in downtown Wichita, just across from Century II. We’ll be filling their grandiose 9,000-square-foot ballroom to the brim with gaming tables and special events, and using the adjacent Riverview Room – with it’s picturesque view of the east bank – as our Marketplace and Guild Hall. We have also secured a special hospitality room for our VIGs, and will be working with the hotel restaurant and caterers to provide excellent food and snack options throughout the con.
Early VIG badges are now available, and tickets will go on sale soon enough. We’ll be making announcements in the weeks ahead regarding featured events and special guests. As always, if there is a special game, panel, or event you would like to bring to the con, reach out to us at events@tsunamicon.org to discuss the particulars. If we can fit it in and it feels like it belongs at our event, we will. We will also open game registration soon, allowing GMs to list games and events for attendees to join. It’s never a bad idea to plan your convention experience in advance to get the most out of the experience.
Stay tuned, friends. And be sure to spread the good news! TsunamiCon is back for 2022!
Announcing TsunamiCon 2021 Virtual Con
Are you ready for the main event? Join the crew of TsunamiCon, Wichita’s premiere tabletop gaming convention, for our fall convention. In the wake of the continuing public health crisis, TsunamiCon 2021 will once again be entirely virtual.
TsunamiCon attendees can enjoy a number of fun and exciting events throughout the weekend – brought right to your computer and/or mobile device! Including a variety of tabletop games and RPGs, Featured Events, Demos, Special Guests, Organized Play, Live Entertainment, Panels, Contests and Giveaways, and more…!
TsunamiCon 2021 Virtual Con is scheduled for the weekend of October 22nd thru 24th, and registration and event submission is now open! Keep an eye on our website (www.TsuanmiCon.org) and our social media feeds for updates and information.
Announcing our Spring 2021 Virtual Con!
Join the crew of TsunamiCon, Wichita’s premiere tabletop gaming convention, for our newest gaming adventure. In the wake of the continuing public health crisis, our 2021 events will be entirely virtual – starting with our very first springtime convention!
Tsunami GameFaire attendees can enjoy a number of fun and exciting events throughout the weekend – brought right to your computer and/or mobile device! Including a variety of tabletop games and RPGs, Featured Events, Demos, Special Guests, Organized Play, Live Entertainment, Panels, Contests and Giveaways, and more…!
Our inaugural Tsunami GameFaire event is scheduled for the weekend of April 30th thru May 2md, and registration and event submission is now open! Keep an eye on our website (www.TsuanmiCon.org) and our social media feeds for updates and information.
Got Merch?
Every year at TsunamiCon we have offered official merchandise to help celebrate and commemorate your hometown game con, and we feel that 2020 should be no exception! As such, we are producing a limited number of TsunamiCon T-shirts and dice to enhance your convention experience this year, despite moving to an entirely virtual format. Shirts and dice are currently available for purchase, but we’ll be printing to order so buy now! Our current plan is to take orders through the 20th of September.
This year’s T-shirt will be available in a wide assortment of sizes in maroon or midnight blue, and will feature our TsunamiCon 2020 Virtual Logo with Homeslice looking on from above. You won’t want to miss out! Get your merch today!
Incidentally, we are offering premium badges for a limited time that also include this merchandise.
Note that shipping is included in the price.
Badges and Game Submissions
Ladies and gentlemen… start your engines! Or at least start paddling toward shore!
TSUNAMICON 2020 Virtual Con is just over two months away, and the crew is working tirelessly behind the scenes to bring you a fantastic program with featured guests, fantastic swag, cool events, and plenty of great gaming opportunities. Now we’ve started gathering down on the beach and taking a long, hard look at our virtual playground – and you are welcome to join us!
Badges are now available! A weekend pass for TsunamiCon 2020 is only $5. That’s an insane value! You get THREE DAYS of scheduled gaming, access to our special features and events, plenty of opportunities to socialize with your fellow gamers, and a chance to win some cool prizes! Be sure to check out our expanded badge options, as well – our higher tiers include actual physical merchandise shipped right to your door! And if you just want your $5 badge and a T-shirt, that’s also an option!
GAME MASTERS! It’s also time to start submitting your games for TsunamiCon weekend.
The tide is rolling in, and we have to be ready for some serious fun once the wave finally gets here! So grab your virtual gear and get ready for TsunamiCon 2020! Huzzah!!
TsunamiCon 2020 Update
I have been getting this question a lot lately, and rightly so. TsunamiCon 2020. What’s the plan?
I apologize for the radio silence to date. In the current socioeconomic climate, the uncertainty regarding a fall event has been weighing heavily on us all. During a brief managers’ meeting this past week, we reached the difficult decision not to pursue a fall 2020 schedule for our annual game convention in Wichita. The current crisis has left us uncertain of the viability of an October event and unable to reliably pursue fundraising efforts this summer. TsunamiCon has always been a grass roots con that requires annual fundraising efforts to be sustainable, and time is working against us at this point.
We are shifting our focus instead to an online event for October 16th thru 18th. TsunamiCon(line) 2020 will include a schedule of online games meeting our typical standards of variety and excellence, using the tools and platforms available to us in a virtual setting. We will also focus on innovative ways to create expansive gaming experiences, and we will try to build a program that includes celebrity guests, panels, and social gatherings.
There will be a small registration fee, with premium tickets available that include digital swag and limited merch, and I will take pre-orders for official TsunamiCon 2020 merchandise. We will have more information on this event in the weeks ahead.
The gaming community that has grown around our little convention has become very special to us, and we will sorely miss hanging out with our friends and supporters at this year’s event. I hope that you are weathering the current crisis in good health, and that you are continuing to find ways to incorporate gaming opportunities into your life. We look forward to seeing everyone in person again next year.
Yours in Gaming,
Erik Carl, Director
TsunamiCon LLC
With TsunamiCon 2019 happening a little more than a week from now, I feel like it’s a good time to highlight some of the… er… highlights… of this year’s event.
To start with, we have a nice selection of Dungeons & Dragons games on the schedule. Our current list of Adventurers League games are full – though it never hurts to get on the waiting list – but if D&D is your poison, there’s plenty to go around. I’m also pleased to see about a dozen Savage Worlds games on the schedule, and they fill up fast. But there are definitely some other unique RPG experiences to which I’d like to draw your attention.
First, we’ve brought in veteran game designer Sean Patrick Fannon to show off his newest creation Prowlers & Paragons. He’s running a series of missions during the con to showcase the rules, and this is an amazing opportunity to check out a game run by the designer. They’re in series, but you can definitely jump in to any game you like to check it out. And I’m particularly excited about the Saturday night EPIC. I’ve watched Sean handle a group event like this with multiple tables, and it is an experience NOT to be missed!
Secondly, Danny Oliver is back with more Shadowrun Missions, this time bringing us a taste of the newest edition of the game! Just as exciting, in its own way, is Danny’s Saturday night Red Dragon Inn ALL OUT BRAWL! There will be prizes. Oh yes… there WILL be prizes.
I also want to draw some attention to my very own Zero Signal: Supply Run Tournament on Friday afternoon. I published this game this year, and I’m very proud of it. It’s quick, easy to learn, and a good one to share with the kids. For the tournament, I’ve put together a very special deluxe Tournament Kit – which we’ll be giving away to the winner – and I’m looking forward to showcasing the expanded rules for tournament play. I’d love to see some folks come by, learn to play, and get in on the action. (It’s that easy!)
Finally, I’d like to draw your attention to some unique RPG opportunities. On Friday night, Matt Harrop is running a game of Dread, the unusually tense horror system that uses a Jenga tower for challenge resolution. On Saturday afternoon, Rolando Gomez still has a few seats left for his Star Trek Adventures game, and you should consider joining Tadd for his PRAXIS: King of Storms scenario or Ben Burns for Zeta Complex: Man’s Last Hope. And I can certainly recommend signing up for Kevin Pennington’s Shadow of the Demon Lord offering on Sunday morning.
We have a lot to forward to, and plenty of seats left at the table. So sign up now! And we’ll see you at the con!
ANNOUNCING TSUNAMICON 2019!
By now many of you are wondering what to expect from TsunamiCon this year, and why the long silence. With the deepest apologies for our lack of communication, I will now be addressing that question as completely as possible.
For the past three years, our convention has called the Wichita Scottish Rite in downtown Wichita our home. The Scottish Rite is a beautiful venue with a great deal of available space, and we had long hoped to continue growing into the nooks and crannies of the building as the convention grew from year to year. Alas, this was not to be. As you may or may not have heard, the building changed hands this year, and it is this event that lies at the heart of our delay in announcing this year’s convention.
A change of ownership of such a massive and expensive piece of property inevitably required some patience on our part as we attempted to negotiate a contract for 2019. I have every confidence that the new owners will find great success in the utilization of their event space in the years ahead, but after a few months of semi-regular discourse on the matter we were simply unable to negotiate an agreement that would serve their needs in the use of their property and the needs of the convention and our attendees. Ultimately, remaining at the property would have increased our costs considerably, and we had no guarantee that we could meet their requirements in the time frame available. With a heavy heart, I resigned myself to the idea that we would need to shop the convention around to other venues once again.
In the five years since our first convention, of course, the landscape for local events has flourished and shifted. Inevitably, this created new challenges in attempting to book an alternative venue at such a late date. I proceeded with two basic priorities: that I could retain the services of a sufficient venue in early to mid-October, and that I could negotiate a fee structure that would allow us to best serve our community and still throw one hell of an event at the 11th hour. Local bookings on our priority weekends were understandably scarce, and costs varied wildly from venue to venue.
I am pleased to announce that a community very close to our recent efforts has kindly opened its doors and offered a solution that meets both needs. With the quirky sense of irony that often seems to follow us around, we will be moving this year’s event across the street to the Midian Shrine Center and scheduling the event for October 18th thru 20th. Much like when we moved to the Scottish Rite, the layout of their venue provides some different challenges and new opportunities, and I am excited to see how it comes together and grateful for their enthusiastic hospitality.
Again, I apologize for the long delay. The wait is over, and it’s time to plan our event in earnest. Now we need to make up for lost time. I do intend to run a short Kickstarter campaign, as I’ve received numerous questions about it and it’s always proven to be a good venue for spreading the word about our con, so keep your eye out for that announcement and please help spread the word. Also, as I need capital to help build materials for upcoming events and begin the process of updating our signage and promotional tools, I will offer a limited discount price on early VIGs if you’d like to pick them up now.
For everyone who has continued to echo their support for the con and kept reaching out to me for updates, I can’t thank you enough for helping keep TsunamiCon alive in our hearts. Sometimes these kinds of challenges can seem a little overwhelming, and I always seemed to find a kind word or anxious query at exactly the moment I needed it to keep focused on the event. I appreciate your faith, and I hope you’ll help me make this year’s event as fun and fulfilling as possible.
Sincerely and with the utmost humility,
Tsunami GameDay Summer 2018
Join us for yet another full day of tabletop gaming on Saturday, August 4th at The Burrow! Admission is FREE, and there will be open gaming for RPGs and board games, with room for anyone to sit down and play some games. Features of Tsunami GameDay include:
- Advance registration for scheduled games
- Drawings for prizes and giveaways
- Amazing sales on all gaming products
- Purchase tickets for TsunamiCon 2018!
You can register now to run a game or register (it’s free!) and get a seat at someone else’s table. Though you can schedule an event at any hour of the day, we recommend long-form games such as RPGs be scheduled from 1pm to 5pm OR 6pm to 10pm to maximize flexibility for players who want to play more than one game and have time to grab dinner in between.
Remember, TABLES ARE LIMITED! We can handle four organized games at a time. Please register your games AND advertise them on our Facebook event page. If you have any questions, contact us directly or post them to Facebook.