Chaosium Con 2023

We have returned from our first trip to Chaosium Con in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA, the new convention focusing on all Chaosium games, past and present, and drawing in much of their staff and fanbase. Their first con was only last year, so this still felt like a very new thing, but most people said it had grown and settled down nicely. Chaosium President Rick Meints said attendance was around 300 last year, and around 400 this time.

We set up a shared booth in the Great Market, sharing space with other Chaosium licensees: Hypergraphia, Sentinel Hill Press, Sons of the Singularity, Squamous Studios, Stygian Fox, and Wizards of the Coast! (Well, we had one used copy of the Call of Cthulhu d20 book they published in 2002. Also, we need to change our name to something starting with an S.) Some of the Stygian Fox crew helped us out with running the booth again.

Some of the other vendors included Chaosium of course, sharing with the HP Lovecraft Historical Society, and New Comet Games, Petersen Games, Pacesetter Games (who had brought copies of Gaxx Work’s scenario The Dread from Geneva Lake), and someone selling an estate collection of assorted Cthulhu gaming.

Thanks to everyone who came by, it was great to see so many fans and hopefully make some new ones. Friday was the busiest day, as presumably everyone was arriving at the con and had time to browse before going to their chosen panels and games. Saturday was also busy, but down to mainly the timeslot in between events, and Sunday was quite slow, as many people prepared to head back home.

A few other vendors and artists were set up in the area outside our room, including a table with print versions of several Miskatonic Repository releases, but most of the Call of Cthulhu ones sold out before we even saw them.

The Great Hall closed at 4 Friday and Sunday, giving time to do other things like eat or attend a panel or run or play a game. We got into two Call of Cthulhu scenarios that had someone drop out at the last minute, but it seemed other seats opened up late as well, so even with the nearly fully booked events it was still worth looking to see what was available. There was also assorted board/card/roleplaying games happening throughout the conference center and attached hotel lobby/restaurant.

The Hall closed a bit early on Saturday to allow vendors to rush over to the big auditorium for the second year of the annual Chaosium auction, where a select set of items were released from the vaults and warehouses of Chaosium. A catalog had been posted online for the hardcore bidders to peruse before the auction started, but even with that, the sheer amount of items and reminiscing by Chaosium auctioneers Rick Meints and Mike Mason meant it ran for 3 hours instead of 2, but all items sold, some for very good deals, and others for impressively large sums, including a first printing Chaosium edition of the Arkham Horror boardgame, and some early editions of Call of Cthulhu. A few big fish collectors seemed to get a lot of bids in, but many people were lined up afterwards to pay for the favorite things they won.

The hotel had food in their lounge at certain hours, and the con set up food in a side room. The strip mall across the street from the convention had a great selection, with great Vietnamese and Iranian restaurants, good pizza, and even a diner under the confusingly dubbed “Coney” category for Michigan diners inspired by the Greek diners of NYC’s Coney Island.

Most games took place on the upper floor of the convention center, with an appropriately non-Euclidean labeling system for the rooms.

Overall, the show felt like a really good size, big enough to have lots of events, but intimate enough to easily run into people again and have time to chat with each other. Thanks to all the people who helped put the show on, and thanks for everyone who came by our booth!

We’ll leave you with a selection of quotes from the weekend:

“Any other bodies? Any other screaming businessmen? Any other vampire monks?”

“I’m not really into Call of Cthulhu. I was in Vietnam, that was horror enough.”

“What time is it? Is it too early to start killing characters?”

“Someone got dehydrated.”
“In real life, or in game, or…?”

“Rabbit nibbles the hedges into the shape of the Yellow Sign.”

“What are you going to do to push your roll? Are you going to use some of your TNT?”