The past year saw many physical boardgaming events cancelled out of necessity (including GMT’s Weekends at the Warehouse). Ever-resilient, the boardgaming community poured its energy into online/virtual events. The popular San Diego Historical Games Convention (SDHistCon) is doing exactly that and GMT Games will support it in a big way.
The Road to SDHistCon 2021 (May 21-23, 2021)
“Things aren’t looking good out there and people are hurting. We should do something.” Gene Billingsley, president of GMT Games, opined during a weekly call with CFO/LLC Manager Tony Curtis in June of last year. Tony agreed immediately, which quickly led GMT to publicly offer free boardgames to many who had lost their jobs due to the Covid-19 pandemic, an offering it had similarly made years before during the 2008 financial meltdown. “I knew it wasn’t much in the greater scheme of things,” Gene says, “but we wanted people to know that we were thinking of them, and helping them decompress from the pressures of the world by playing games became all the more important to us.”
GMT wasn’t alone. Out of the enforced solitude, many individuals and organizations in the boardgaming community began a drive to help counter the loneliness and anxiety resulting from a global pandemic. One of these individuals is Harold Buchanan, game designer and the convention organizer for the San Diego Historical Games Convention (SDHistCon). Like GMT Games, Harold wanted to do something — to help the historical boardgaming community survive and even thrive and grow during a lockdown – and so he immediately transitioned SDHistCon from a physical convention to an online one.
Beginning over six years ago, SDHistCon quickly became an annual pilgrimage for many wargamers and historical boardgamers. Based in San Diego, California, and catering directly to conflict simulation fans, SDHistCon’s mission is to gather together like-minded gamers from all over the United States and unite them at a designer-heavy convention experience. “It was an early dream of mine. I wanted SDHistCon attendees to be able to interact directly with the very people who design and develop their favorite games,” says Buchanan. “And this dream was made all the easier with the help of publishers like GMT Games in Hanford, California.”
GMT Games and the Convention Experience
Yes, GMT started as a family-run business. And we’ve expanded our definition of “family” to include the terrific friends we work with at GMT. But we also consider our family to be the community of fans and boardgamers we listen to and continue to make games for. We wish we could meet every member of our extended family, and what better way to do so than at a boardgaming convention?
Rachel Billingsley, Marketing Director, GMT Games
While you might not have seen a GMT Games “booth” at boardgaming conventions recently (unless you attend WBC or Prezcon), this has never been much of a problem due to its incredible fleet of ‘ambassadors’: that is, all the designers and developers who willingly devote their time and energy to helping people learn about and play their games. It’s a rare occurrence that there’s a consim-oriented convention without a GMT designer in attendance, generally introducing her design to the community at large.
Last year’s SDHistCon (November, 2020) featured over 15 GMT designers, highlighting games ranging from classics (e.g., Empire of the Sun) to one of many upcoming releases (e.g., Hubris: Twilight of the Hellenistic World). Names like Mark Herman, Volko Ruhnke, Morgane Gouyon-Rety and Ananda Gupta have become synonymous with attendance at SDHistCon, both in its physical and online formats. The convention’s organizers have always felt that the best way to learn and understand so many of the interesting, nuanced games in the historical gaming hobby is to interact directly with their respective designers. Many wonderful convention memories — familiar to anyone who has ever attended one – often arise from conversations and gameplay with the very people who genuinely want to help you share in their design vision.
Even beyond the game, the opportunity to casually chat with a like-minded designer remains a priceless boon. And according to post-Con comments by every one of GMT’s ‘designer-ambassadors’, they thoroughly enjoy these precise moments, often spurring many of them on to further designs. “I met SO many interesting fans and players at the Con. I had a great time!” says designer Volko Ruhnke who attended last year’s highly successful SDHistCon (online).
GMT Night! – With Gene Billingsley, CEO
If you’ve ever attended one of GMT’s “Weekend(s) at the Warehouse”, you’ll note that a staple feature of each semi-annual event is Gene Billingsley’s presentation regarding the company, the state of the hobby and industry, as well as sneak-peeks of products in GMT’s pipeline. “Listening to Gene speak during these weekends has become almost a rite of passage for Warehouse newcomers,” recalls Pratik Multani, one of SDHistCon’s many organizers. “For the first time, they get a birds-eye view of all that goes on at a first-class game company.”
This year’s SDHistCon (May 21-23, 2021) will bring a strong GMT Games presence along with it. Foremost among all the events GMT is sponsoring will be GMT Night!, to be held on Saturday, May 22nd at 6pm PST. GMT Night! will be hosted by Gene Billingsley himself who – accompanied by several designer guests – will reprise his semi-annual “state of the State” address as well as discuss the future of the historical gaming hobby. There will be a few surprises in store for attendees as well; GMT Night! will see the company announcing development on landmark games in the GMT pipeline.
But that’s not all. As with the previous year at SDHistCon 2020, GMT will be sponsoring dozens of events featuring many designers and their games. Here are just a few of the wargaming luminaries who will be hosting events at SDHistCon 2021:
- VPJ “Vez” Arponen
- Ed Beach
- Trevor Bender
- Mike Bertucelli
- Craig Besinque
- Harold Buchanan
- Dan Bullock
- John Butterfield
- Jason Carr
- Morgane Gouyon-Rety
- Ananda Gupta
- Mark Herman
- Bruce Mansfield
- Jason Matthews
- Carl Paradis
- Ted Raicer
- Volko Ruhnke
- Frédéric Serval
- Brian Train
- Jeremy White
- Gina Willis
If attendees are looking for an introduction to a title, or want to learn how to play a certain GMT game, they will have ample opportunity to interact with its respective designer. In an effort to provide attendees with as much choice as possible, GMT has sponsored events representing the widest variety of in-print or upcoming titles.
Join GMT at SDHistCon 2021!
GMT Games hopes to see you at SDHistCon this year. The staff at SDHistCon endeavor to make registration for the online convention as simple as possible. And if you plan on playing some of your favorite GMT games, they recommend the following steps:
- Register for an SDHistCon 2021 badge. To avoid the inevitable cap on registrants, you should do this as soon as possible.
- Event “tickets” will be available to all convention badge holders. These tickets will be used to guarantee your entry to a particular game or event. The tickets are free, of course, and are only used to make certain no specific game session/demo is overbooked. If you want to make sure you are allowed entry to a popular event, do login and get your tickets early! It’s first-come, first-served.
- Install Discord. This is the single, essential piece of software you must install to attend the convention. Don’t worry, it’s easy. The SDHistcon staff recommends you simply use the web-based version of Discord as it requires NO installation and will simply run in your browser of choice. If you want to kickstart your installation, the SDHistCon staff has a Discord Quick-Start Guide providing some useful info on how to do so.
More signature gaming events are being added every day. Be sure and browse SDHistCon’s most current schedule of events as it continues to evolve over the days leading up to the convention on May 21st – May 23rd, 2021.
More than ever, GMT Games hopes to see you there!
Author: Bobby Nunes
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