RPGs, board, card, and LARP games attract hundreds to PCH for weekend convention
The University of Guelph Games Club hosted the 26th annual Gryphcon gaming convention from Feb. 28 to March 2. The convention drew in a crowd of over 220 enthusiasts and vendors dedicated to board games, tabletop role-playing games (RPGs), collectible card games, and Live Action Role Playing (LARP) adventures.
Spread across four floors of the University Centre (UC), Gryphcon’s main hub was Peter Clark Hall, where attendees were able to purchase products sold by vendors while joining live gaming sessions, demos, and tutorials. Smaller games and underground tournaments were held across the third and fourth floors of the UC, and more tabletop games were coordinated by the Ontario Pathfinder Society in the Alumni Hall.
“Gryphcon is an annual tabletop gaming convention run by a combination of the University of Guelph’s Games Club’s elected executive and club-appointed coordinators,” explained Daniel Pawliw, one of Gryphcon’s coordinators. “You’ll find the club’s game library and a different gaming vendor each year with their own game library, wares, and staff available to help teach game rules and provide advice.”
Convention-goers were encouraged to travel the UC, dropping in on games and joining groups that they would otherwise not have a chance of experiencing.
“Anyone can drop in and play,” explained Matt Courtney, a volunteer games coordinator affiliated with the Games Club. “We’re here all day.”
Attendees also gathered in the UC courtyard to take part in a large-scale LARP adventure, dressing up as personally created characters and acting out fictitious battles.
Gryphcon was first hosted on Apr. 1, 1988 in Creelman Hall as a collaboration between the now-defunct Guelph Adult Gaming Association (GAGA) and the still-running Games Club. The event was lauded as a chance for students to get together to play popular board games and tabletop RPGs. Since then, Gryphcon has moved from Creelman Hall to the UC and has grown to include a wide array of games from all mediums.
“Gryphcon has expanded from Creelman Hall to the University Centre [to include] card games, RPGs, LARPs, electronic games, movie showings, vendors, artists, [and] miniature games,” explained Gryphcon’s website. “To this day, Gryphcon continues this tradition of a larger sense of the gaming community – the new and the experienced, the young and younger.”
The University of Guelph Games Club, alongside the FLASH club and the Electronic Gaming Organization (EGO), is part of three on campus student organizations dedicated to the popularizing fandom. Despite the three organizations sharing a similar member base, EGO and FLASH are affiliated in a minimal way.
“FLASH is not associated with Gryphcon in any official, direct capacity,” explained FLASH club president Kevin Neil. “FLASH provides support to [Gryphcon] by offering things like storage space, advertisement, and similar things.”
EGO is the university’s central student organization dedicated to electronic games and has little to do with the largely physical gaming that takes place at Gryphcon.
“EGO is the central student club in all matters of video gaming,” explained EGO President Vee Pike. “This is but a small fraction of gaming, and one that isn’t heavily focused on at Gryphcon. Though we did run the video game room in the past, we no longer have any involvement.”
Key sponsors outside of the university community include the Ontario Pathfinder Society (PFS) and The Dragon comic book shop. The PFS is an online collaborative tool that helps RPG gamers find people to play with and places to gather. Both The Dragon and The PFS provided funding and support to Gryphcon.
For students interested in learning more about tabletop RPGs, or those looking for people to play with, the Games Club encourages students to come to their clubroom, meetings, and other events.