With the first two weeks of our Kickstarter campaign down, we’re currently sitting at 74% of our basic funding goal, which is excellent. Anyone who has ever run a Kickstarter will bemoan the quiet period in the midst of the run when pledges just trickle in, and we’ve been weathering it fairly well. That being said, we do have some ground to cover… and some important stretch goals waiting just the other side.

So let’s talk about some of that.

When I launched our first Kickstarter campaign back in 2014, I was building on the support of a community which was largely comprised of the Metagamers Anonymous listener fanbase. One of the cooler things I’d had the opportunity to do as a podcast producer was schedule interviews with industry folk who enjoyed talking about their persons and products. One of the more entertaining conversationalists on the show – in fact, we were lucky if we ever even got around to talking about his products – was Jim Pinto of Post World Games. It seemed only natural that Jim would be the first guest I tried to enlist as a stretch goal for TsunamiCon.

Four years later, I’m still trying to make it happen.

I’m going to shower Jim with a little praise now, which I’m sure will annoy him to no end. Jim has been a guest on the show three times, as much or more than any of the other excellent game designers I know. He’s an accomplished writer and designer who has contributed to every part of the hobby in some way and his name graces some truly memorable products. I have backed seven of his Kickstarters over the past few years and been very pleased with the products I purchased, and he has been a great sounding board for my own ideas and promotional efforts. He even designed the current logos for Prismatic Tsunami, Metagamers Anonymous, and all the logos for TsunamiCon, some of it on his own time and without asking for a thing in return. (For some of it, I paid him anyway.)

Our basic funding goal is only $3500 this year, which makes it more than likely that we’ll hammer right through our first couple stretch goals and be on the fast track to flying Jim down from Seattle. At TsunamiCon, he’ll not only spend some time visiting with folks and join us for the live podcast, but he has some very cool RPGs of his own that he’d love to show off to the Wichita crowd. I truly want to show Jim how much we’ve appreciated his patronage of our community and his contributions to our hobby with some Midwestern gamer hospitality at TsunamiCon 2017.

So let’s make it happen.

Happy Monday, friends!

Join us for yet another full day of tabletop gaming on International TableTop Day – Saturday, April 29th – at The Burrow! As always, 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
• Sanctioned venue for the Unrivaled Boardgame Tournament

You can register now to run a game or 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.

Today is the day.  All the plotting, scheming, budgeting, marketing, and general malfeasance comes to a screeching halt this morning as the wave crashes down upon us and the Tsunami arrives with terrible fury.  Of course, in our case, terrible fury arrives in the form of a sprawling manse fitting at every end with gaming tables, eager gamers, and more fun than you can shake a broken oar at.

TsunamiCon has arrived.

We open the doors at noon today, and our scheduled games kick off at 1 pm.  We will have plenty of room for more gaming, so if you want to bring something of your own or sample one of the many offerings from our Game Library, you’ll have no problem finding a table.  If you haven’t purchased a ticket, they’re available at the gate.  It’s going to be a cool day, and the venue has a concession stand with hot food, snacks and soda, and there will be beer for sale this evening.  Opening Ceremonies are at 5:30 pm, so if you’re stuck at work today you still have time to get here, and Mikey Mason will be performing live at 6 pm.  Altogether, I expect you to show up, be on your second-best behavior, and help us celebrate our love of tabletop gaming for the next THREE DAYS STRAIGHT.

I don’t think that’s too much to ask.

#tsunamicon2016

With less than four weeks to go, the convention planning is simultaneously heating up to a fever pitch as the weekend schedule takes shape, and cooling into a deceptive lull as the production phase – ordering swag, print materials, finalizing the programs, and so forth – winds to a close.  We’ve grown our Game Library, worked with the community to build a game schedule, and worked on features, In the coming weeks we’ll be turning a lot of our attention to boring, operational details… everything from sound equipment to schedules for streaming content to table stands and placards.  It’s not sexy, but the details are what really create a quality event and make the experience memorable.

Why is that?  Well, I’m glad you asked.

From the very first Tsunami GameDay event in Wichita nearly four years ago, I’ve always planned big.  Even then, I treated a small free event like a big deal, with online game registration, live podcasting, in-store savings and prizes.  We printed flyers and advertised on social media, via our podcasting network, and on industry forums. It was profoundly satisfying to soak up the excitement, and I’ve striven to keep every GameDay since on a similar level.  We even limit them to strictly seasonal events to help retain a sense of anticipation and focus on devoting more resources to each outing.

TsunamiCon is, of course, on a whole new level.  From our very beginnings, we’ve always planned the con as a three-day event at a major venue.  We partner with local hotels and catering companies, we organize live entertainment and featured events both on-site and extracurricular, and we produce a selection of commemorative swag for attendees to take home, if they so desire.  The costs are frankly staggering, and we’ve yet to make a single penny (last year, in fact, we ended a little in the red), but it’s been worth it.

So that being said…. boring operational details, here I come.

Be sure to spread the word, let your friends and family know about the con, and plan for an amazing weekend.  We have lots of games on the schedule, a ton of giveaways, some very cool vendors, and some really fun events planned for this year’s convention. And as always, if you have a question that you can’t find an answer to on the website, you can check our FAQ or drop me a line at info@tsunamicon.org.

As we head into Labor Day weekend, the celebration begins in earnest.  This is the wave we have been waiting for… we’ve gnashed our teeth and held our breath and offered sacrifices to the many gods of gaming, and at long last TsunamiCon has breached the horizon.  Many of us will revel in games and fellowship this weekend!  Plans will be made!

The past week has seen a sizable shift in focus on our social media outlets as we highlight the upcoming events on the TsunamiCon schedule and urge attendees to start signing up for games.  And the scheduling is far from over!  If you have a game to list on our conplanner page, delay no longer!  And while your thinking about TsunamiCon weekend, allow me to direct your attention to a couple of other items:

Firstly, our Game Library has been growing by leaps and bounds.  The list presented on the website is by no means comprehensive, but we’ve steadily been taking inventory and adding games to the list so you can get an idea what will be available at this year’s event.  If there’s something you’d like to try that you don’t see on the list, let us know!  We may be able to procure a copy!

Secondly, we’ve added a Play-To-Win section to the website where we’ll be showcasing a few of the games that will be available as Play-To-Win prizes at the con.  These are games provided as prizes by TsunamiCon sponsors and publishers who want to share their wares.  Some of them will be available to check out at scheduled demos, and all of them will be available in the TsunamiCon Game Library to play at any time.  Try out one of these games and sign up for a chance to win a copy!

T-shirts and dice have come in, and we’ll be picking up the pint glasses tomorrow.  After a little bit of calculaion, we think we can squeeze out a couple more VIG tickets, too, so pick them up now if you want the good stuff!  Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter for updates, and be watching for some audio and video casts next week as we highlight some of the big events.

As always, if you have a question that you can’t find an answer to on the website, you can check our FAQ or drop me a line at info@tsunamicon.org.