The convention has 30 registered vendors so far this year. Last year, AcadeCon drew 518 unique visitors to the convention, a number organizers hope to bring up to about 600 this year. AcadeCon is in its 12th year this November.
“If you already love gaming, there’s lots of things for you to do,” said event organizer Michael Ross. “But if you’re also kind of new, I think we are the right size for someone who’s not a hardcore gamer, but is interested. It’s not overwhelming, it’s not too big, but we do have a variety of events, different RPGs, Pathfinder, D&D, but we have all these others that are less well-known.”
Other events include a Marvel Crisis Protocol tournament, new this year. Additionally, the convention will be raising money for Sanctuary at Homestead, a Cincinnati-based charity that provides holiday meals for those in need and tabletop gaming events for the community. Sanctuary at Homestead will be hosting a “paint and take” miniatures event and a charity raffle.
Being a relatively small role-player game (RPG) convention, the support of the Dayton gaming community has become the reason AcadeCon is in its 12th year, Ross said.
“There have absolutely been years where I thought we were done,” Ross said. “Like I would show up to the event going, ‘This is it. This is too much work ... and then, invariably, somebody would come up and be like, ‘Hey, thank you so much. This is my favorite event,’ or ‘This is the only one I get to go to,’ because (they’re) getting older, don’t have the money to travel, whatever the case may be. So many people would come up and say, ‘Thank you for putting this on here, because it means a lot.’”
Badges are $50 for a full weekend, but single-day badges range from $15 to $25, and badges are $5 after 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Children under 13 get in free.
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