Hundreds expected at ‘top tier’ board game convention this weekend in Johnson County

Some golf, others paint, but Nick Seal of Lawrence found his passion elsewhere. An avid gamer, he has amassed 1,593 tabletop games.

Board games. Card games. Dice games. Role-playing games. Games inspired by comic books. Games featuring wizards. Games featuring knights

“It’s not about the collecting for me, it’s more that I found the hobby to be very intriguing,“ Seal said. “I can connect with people on a different level.”

Seal purchased most of his games from online and local retailers and Kickstarter campaigns, and plays one at least once a week. But gaming conventions are where he can demo the newest games from publishers and play with new people. This weekend he will attend KantCon, a three-day tabletop gaming convention in Overland Park alongside hundreds of other attendees from across the Midwest.

KantCon started in 2009 as a local alternative to Gen Con, the largest tabletop game convention in North America. It was named KantCon for those who “can’t” attend Gen Con. Seal currently serves as its director of games.

“It’s a tabletop convention so it’s mostly stuff you’d play sitting around a table. Role-playing games, Pathfinders, Dungeons & Dragons, a lot of board games,” said Angela Robertson, director of communications for KantCon. “People who bring their games host (them) and teach people how to play.”

Tim Neppel of Olathe has attended since 2014 and cosplays as Tim the Enchanter, a character in “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” wearing a robe and ram’s horn hat and carrying a rod.

“It is definitely top tier,” he said. “It is my favorite local convention.”

Defying stereotypes

When Jeremy Hawkins of Kansas City started playing board games in the 1980s, the “Satanic panic” gave rise to misconceptions about who was playing. Some suspected that the popular fantasy game Dungeons & Dragons — D&D to its fans — recruited players into Satanic cults.

“Everyone thought D&D was some sort of evil thing,” Hawkins said. “It’s not anything like that.”

Nowadays, that misconception isn’t such a problem. In fact, players describe tabletop gaming as educational, mentally stimulating and a great way to meet people. But stereotypes still persist — namely that players are all weird, nerdy and male.

Hawkins and his friend, Jonathan Romp of Excelsior Springs, like to poke fun at these tropes in their comic book, Geeks & Goblins, which they will sell at this year’s KantCon. Characters include Anna, the only female player; Frank, the unwelcome creep; and Jim, the game master who railroads the game’s story.

“The days of a stereotypical white male nerd being the only kind of gamer are definitely behind us,” Robertson said. “Not only are females more vocal about their participation, but there is enough market for games to actually be developed that target women.”

Madison Crabtree, an illustrator and designer in Gladstone, agrees.

“Tabletop gaming has had such a renaissance within the last two decades and it’s become such an inclusive space that only continues to become more diverse and welcoming as time goes on,” she said.

Troy Newhoff of Gladstone has attended several KantCon conventions. He plays games at least twice a month and has a room in his house to hold his 175 games. He enjoys teaching people how to play them and answering their questions as they play.

“Everybody’s got something weird,” he said. “We like to play board games and role play.”

Designing a game

When most people think of board games, they think of, say, Monopoly, Clue or Risk. But many contemporary tabletop games surpass the classics in complexity and design.

“Board gaming has been getting more popular with the advent of crowdfunding, Kickstarter. A lot of smaller publishers or even larger publishers have been able to produce a lot of games,” said Newhoff.

Troy Pichelman is a tabletop game designer in Lee’s Summit who has created games like Pluto Attacks!, Goblin Stole My Chicken and Conquest of the Stars. He first designs the games on his computer, then uses the company The Game Crafter to generate prototypes.

Pichelman and other designers rely on conventions like KantCon to promote their games. This weekend Pichelman will host a booth at KantCon, where he’ll pitch his game to potential customers and allow them to demo it.

Small designers like Pichelman struggle to compete with publishing companies and more prolific designers to sell their games in a saturated market. A few lucky designers may be able to sell their game to a publisher, but companies only look for specific types.

“In this day and age, because the market has an unbelievable amount of stuff, if you sell 100 games you did good,” Pichelman said. “If you sell 1,000 you are totally successful.”

Pichelman usually starts by ordering 20 copies of his games to sell. His most popular one, Pluto Attacks!, sold almost 100 copies. Participants role play as high school students attempting to save a small Kansas town from alien invaders.

Success means more than just designing a great game, he said. It requires timing, luck and having the right audience at the right moment.

“If you go into it because you want to make money, that’s going to be a real big disappointment,” Pichelman said, adding, “98% of the people I know as designers have real jobs.”

Crabtree spent five years illustrating the game That’s A Wrap! with game designer Adam Sadiq. In the game, participants role play as movie directors who try to make the most profitable and award-winning film.

The creators launched a Kickstarter campaign four years after starting, but it did not reach its fundraising goal.

This isn’t uncommon — approximately two out of three Kickstarter campaigns for board games don’t meet their goal, Pichelman said.

For their second campaign for That’s A Wrap!, Sadiq traveled to conventions to promote it and hired a marketing director. The campaign succeeded; the game has now received $12,176 from 290 backers — mostly from the United States, but also from New Zealand, Belgium, Denmark and others — and is now on the market. It can be purchased at boardgamegeek.com.

“My favorite part was at the very end of everything,” Crabtree said. “The Kickstarter had been funded, just getting that box getting delivered to me in the mail, getting all the tangible results in hand. It turned out amazing.”

Finding community

Last year, the pandemic prevented hobbyists from meeting regularly and caused conventions like KantCon to get canceled. Some resorted to playing on sites like Roll20 and Discord.

“It hit hard,” said Romp. “Everybody became isolated. Me and my friends, we’d normally get together on a weekly basis. Now we can’t risk getting together so we had to develop new ways to play.”

Robertson and the other organizers anticipated that fewer people would attend this year’s convention because of the pandemic, but pre-registration numbers suggest they’ll have more attendees than in 2019. Newhoff said the events he’s running are almost fully booked.

For the rest of the year, the gamers find other ways to play. In 2019, Steve Burrows moved to Lee’s Summit and converted his unfinished basement into a gaming area, where he and his wife now host game days with friends and acquaintances every Saturday from noon to 1 a.m. People can show up and leave whenever, but most, he said, stay the entire time.

“Some of these people I met for the first time hosting game days,” Burrows said. “All my events are no charge, just bring something to share.”

At KantCon, Seal looks forward to trying new games, entering raffles to win games donated by publishers and connecting with other players. Perhaps this weekend he will bring his total game collection up to 1,600.

“I couldn’t care less if I win or lose most of the time,” he said. “I enjoy connecting with people and the challenge the game itself presents.”

Interested in KantCon?

KantCon is set for 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. July 16-17 and 9 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. July 18 at the Overland Park Convention Center, 6100 College Blvd. Doors open at 8 a.m.

Tickets cost $45 for all three days: $18 for Friday or Sunday and $23 for Saturday. Tickets are half price for children ages 8-15 and free for ages 7 and under. They can be purchased at the door. More information is available at kantcon.com.

This story was originally published July 16, 2021 at 5:00 AM.