Geeks A Gogo attended Gamehole Con 2017 this past weekend in Madison, Wisconsin. Gamehole Con is a 4-day tabletop gaming convention held around November of every year, featuring tabletop role-playing, board, and card games. This is a sizable convention with a lot of gaming events throughout the long weekend. The convention is located in central Wisconsin, not far from the ancestral homeland of tabletop role-playing: Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, the home of gaming legend, Gary Gygax and TSR. This helps the convention draw in some of the biggest names in gaming from the golden days of gaming when TSR reigned supreme, such as superstar fantasy artists Jeff Easley, Larry Elmore. It's amazing to meet the people behind the work that gave you so much enjoyment as a child--and Gamehole Con is an opportunity to do so.
In addition, Gamehole Con is a great place to do some good old-fashioned gaming. There are many, many events throughout the day with an incredible amount of table space for gaming. An entire hall of the convention center is sectioned off into individual gaming areas with at least half a dozen tables each, not to mention the top floor, with its many conference rooms and open gaming spaces Here, volunteer game masters are running all sorts of tabletop games, and you may even be lucky enough to jump in on a playtest for an up and coming game run by the person who created it.
As well, Gamehole Con has a sizable vendor floor, that includes the typical dice, books, and board games that you would expect--and even a few surprises, like Cthulhu door knockers and vendors selling local Wisconsin premium ice cream, and even food trucks out front selling tacos and rice bowls. The food was actually pretty great for a gaming convention. Though, not to digress, this convention is a great place to pick up classic RPG books and board games, a wide array of miniatures, and gaming accessories. As well, you can meet some of the folks behind your favorite games. We stopped by to see the folks from Dungeon Crawl Classics, Kobold Press, Total Party Kill Games, and Frog God Games. All were eager to talk about their latest products, share previews of their upcoming projects, and some even had giveaways, or low-priced starter guides to help you get started.
Don't just take our word for it, though. Take a look at our pics from the event, and we hope to see you there next year.
