Get out those board games
It was an exciting time for the Guelph gaming community this weekend. Taking over the basement, first, third and fourth floors of the University Center (UC) was the annual Gryphcon. Gryphcon is a gaming convention hosted by the University of Guelph Games Club, which started in 1988. It was originally organized by eight men—Chris Noonan, Ken Stairs, Jim Stevenson, Dennis Summerton, Wendel Hawley, Ken Morrison, Dean Fyfe and Harold Scheiper— of whom are past University of Guelph students and Games Club alumni. The idea was first conceived in the Boo Sports Bar, an establishment that used to be on the third floor of the UC. It started with the idea of bringing together like-minded individuals who wanted to play various card games such as bridge, as well as board games. From there, the idea snowballed and now includes collectable card games such as Magic The Gathering, video games, tabletop Role Playing Games (RPGs) and Live Action Role-Play (LARP) games. Since then, Guelph has hosted Gryphcon for 28 years.
[pullquote align=”left” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]…enjoy the friendliness and openness of games and great company.[/pullquote]
The event has changed hands since its creation; this year it was run by Dean and Crystal Timmings, who have organized the con for five years in a row with the help of their awesome volunteers alongside current and past Guelph Games Club members. Additionally, the Timmings had the help of local gaming establishments found in Guelph.
Gryphcon welcomes gamers young and old into their fold, along with the local gaming and art vendors to sell their wares. For example, The Dragon, one of Gryphcon’s sponsors, is a local comic bookstore in Guelph that sells a large variety of comics, manga, board games, card games and collectable cards. Also attending and selling his art was self-taught artist Robert Allen, who sold Marvel-themed posters, buttons and spray paint paintings.
Even better, Gryphcon goes through the whole day and night. Players can register for different time slots that go from 9 a.m. to 1 a.m. in the morning, 2 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the afternoon, and even 12 a.m. to 4 a.m. in the morning.
However, Gryphcon is not just for playing established games such as Settlers of Catan, Zombicide-Black Plaque or even Pathfinder, but allows new gaming companies or even individuals to bring their own “home-brew” games or demo games. This allows them to network and advertise new and old local game businesses such as the Boardroom Café, a new gaming café created by four Guelph alumni, Kevin Bowman, David Gundrum, Jonathan Feddema and Rodrigo Goller. This café is aiming to be opened in April and will be located right next to The Works in downtown Guelph. Also in attendance was another game company named Lynnvander Studios, a local Guelph game design studio that was demoing three of their games, one that is already in production called Albion’s Legacy.
Also attending were local Guelph game businesses taking part and even hosting some of the games. The owner of The Round Table, Thomas Gofton took part both participating in Gryphcon games and assisting by holding a Magic The Gathering tournament for fans on the third floor, with a bunch of game-based goodies for prizes. FantEscapes, an escape room facility, was held on the fourth floor of the UC. As the name implies, participants work together to solve logic puzzles to try and escape a room. In this case, during Gryphcon the participants had only 30 minutes to complete the puzzles and escape!
People both young and old enjoyed a classic geek culture weekend at Gryphcon, by playing games with old and new friends. There was a great feeling of camaraderie as participants worked together to win games, and that’s what coordinator Crystal Timmings says Gryphcon is all about—a place where families and friends can enjoy the friendliness of games and great company.