In a year when boardgaming conventions have – by necessity – had to cancel all events, many organizers are seeking to rebuild their convention communities by taking them online. The popular San Diego Historical Games Convention (SDHistCon) wants to do just that and keep its wargaming community alive and thriving.

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SDHistCon: Rebooted

“When it’s a choice between solitude and community, I choose community. Always.”  Harold Buchanan lets some open thoughts fly during a recent SDHistCon staff meeting on the ubiquitous Zoom platform. Despite the oft-mentioned impersonal nature of digital-only meetings, the statement resonates with everyone present.

It’s hardly unusual to say aloud that 2020 has been a year of enforced solitude. No matter how self-sufficient we think we are, the loss of community has had an extraordinary social impact. For obvious reasons, boardgamers have been hit hard as our hobby depends greatly upon the kindness of not only strangers, but close friends as well… and the separation from them is telling. Around the world, so many boardgaming conventions – beloved by fans – are being cancelled due to social distancing and the ongoing world health crisis. Yet some organizers, such as those from the annual San Diego Historical Games Convention(SDHistCon) are endeavoring to step beyond the standard, physical face-to-face options into the digital domain. And like many others, they are hoping to use available technologies to bridge the gap between boardgamers now based-at-home and the traditionally tactile world they are so accustomed to playing in. The staff at SDHistCon is calling this year’s convention ‘The Great Experiment’, and for good reason: they want historical boardgaming to not only survive, but even thrive and grow in what many are calling a “new reality”.

The San Diego Historical Games Convention which was founded by designer Harold Buchanan has, for the past six years, become an annual nexus for all styles of historical boardgamers. Based in San Diego, California and catering directly to conflict simulation fans, SDHistCon has gathered together not only locals, but like-minded players from all over the country. It’s not unusual to see every epoch of GMT’s CoIN games being played there alongside more traditional hex-and-counter, IGO-UGO, double-mappers. To add to its draw every year in the fall, SDHistCon has featured a plethora of designers and developers, allowing attendees to play face-to-face with some of their favorite war- and boardgame icons. If you really want to learn about Mark Herman’s Empire of the Sun, what better way than to sit down with, well, Mark Herman? How to re-create that environment virtually has been the task to which Harold Buchanan and team have dedicated themselves for the past few months.

The 2020 Wargaming Conundrum

When COVID-19 hit, I had to acclimate. So I started solo-ing more. I’d never minded solo-ing wargames but, eventually, the solitude got to me. Despite some of my Luddite tendencies, I finally installed Vassal and, wow! I was alive again.

Patrick Wells, SDHistCon Team

Patrick isn’t alone. Due to COVID-19 and its associated social distancing, there’s been an uptick in users of the Vassal Gaming Engine, the long-running choice of wargamers for playing online adaptations of their favorite historical sims. A newer kid on the block, Tabletop Simulator, is making some bold incursions into a domain long ruled by Vassal; touting itself as a tabletop “physics simulator”, it offers what many feel is a closer approximation to playing a boardgame due to its three-dimensional look and feel.

What SDHistCon aims to do is leverage these popular technologies and consolidate their use during a wide variety of convention events. With a minimum of effort, game masters and designers can bring players to the digital table and run their games. Some rudimentary “chatting” features are built into both Vassal and Tabletop Simulator, but where they really begin to shine is when the platforms are merged with actual player-delivered audio and video. The ability to speak directly to another player or attendee during a game event makes the digital wargaming experience all the more personal and — when coupled with an (optional) video layer – it’s as close as a player is going to get to actual physical play of their games.

“The only missing link to all this was to create a digital ‘gathering place’ of sorts, and that’s where Discord comes in,” explains Edgar Milik, SDHistCon’s technical guru and one of the lead members of the team. “Discord”, he explains, “is a super-popular platform for organizing communities of gamers. It sort of combines instant messaging and real-time sharing of audio/video content. It’s truly awesome.” Members of a Discord community (or, more accurately, server) can gather together in a single place dedicated to their specific interest.

The server can be further subdivided into “rooms” or “channels” where more specific topics can be discussed, or individual games can be quickly organized and played. These subdivisions help avoid the pitfall of having a single, general channel degenerate into a stream of unrelated content.  For instance, if a wargamer has come to SDHistCon to play GMT’s Next War: Poland, she can quite easily be guided to the appropriate channel and immediately engage with her specific gaming counterparts. Moreover, from within that channel, the players can then simultaneously launch that game (using Vassal or Tabletop Simulator) and begin playing. Discord is free to use without restriction, is available on a variety of platforms (MSWindows, Mac, Android, iOs, etc.) and features a seamless interface that will be instantly recognizable to anyone familiar with group-chatting software. Most importantly, it can be moderated by SDHistCon staff and their helpers, ensuring a safe and sane space for all attendees.

The Online SDHistCon Experience

Combining various technologies to build a convention space wasn’t the only thing needed for SDHistCon’s transition to the digital domain. The SDHistCon team rapidly reached out to many designers and leaders in the wargaming industry in order to populate the con with premier events. Very quickly, ‘celebrity’ names such as Mark Herman, Volko Ruhnke, Morgane Gouyon-Rety, Mike Bertucelli, Trevor Bender, Uwe Eickert, Cole Wehrle and a host of others began populating SDHistCon’s roster of gaming events.

Although the con is a few weeks away, there are dozens of events already scheduled. Here’s a sample:

• Mark Herman teaching Empire of the Sun, Versailles 1919, and C3i Magazine’sWaterloo Campaign 1815
• Morgane Gouyon-Rety demo-ing her upcoming Hubris: Twilight of the Hellenistic World
• Fred Serval, a new designer, demo-ing his very much anticipated Red Flag Over Paris
• Cole Wehrle offering playtest sessions of the soon-to-be on Kickstarter, John Company (2^nd edition)
• Volko Ruhnke’s incredible Vassal Clinics featuring hands-on teaching of several games including Nevsky, Hunt for Blackbeard, Great War Commander, Liberty or Death and more.
• Mike Bertucelli running sessions of his popular tactical game of WWII armored warfare, Tank Duel
• VPJ “Vez” Arponen teaching his unique 3-player CoIN series game, All Bridges Burning
• The Wargame Bootcamp featuring Karl Kreder and Tim Porter, two excellent instructors on-hand to teach newcomers everything they need to play wargames using a combination of Discord, Vassal and Tabletop Simulator
• Frank Esparrago demo-ing his upcoming conference-based political game, Congress of Vienna
• ‘Epic’ sessions of Commands & Colors: Napoleonics
• Casual, nightly gathering sessions with Maurice Fitzgerald (of Moe’s Games) and Harold Buchanan where attendees can unwind and enjoy some after-hours wargaming banter

…And more are being added every day. SDHistCon’s schedule of events continues to evolve and is expecting a surge in GM-run (i.e., game sessions run by individual Game Masters) events in the coming days. Naturally, there will be an eventual cap to the number of events being run at the online convention as well as a coinciding cap to available badges. This is necessary since the SDHistCon staff will be limited by its available personnel to assist and monitor convention channels, and help with attendees’ technical difficulties, should the need arise. As such, they have begun urging potential attendees to register as early as possible in order to avoid the inevitable.

How to attend SDHistCon 2020

The SDHistCon staff have tried their best to make registration for the online convention as simple as possible. And if you plan on playing some favorite games, they are recommending the following steps:

1. Register for an SDHistCon 2020 badge. To avoid the inevitable cap on registrants, you should do this as soon as possible.
2. Starting on November 1^st, 2020, “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.
3. 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.
4. (optional) To play Vassal-based games at SDHistcon 2020, you will have to install the Vassal Game Engine. Vassal is free, open-source software, created by volunteers. The installation is straightforward enough, but you will need to at least be familiar with your own operating system. You can find detailed installation/usage instructions here; if you are a visual learner, Gary Mengle’s (a.k.a., “Ardwulf”) excellent How To Play Wargames on Vassal video on YouTube is highly recommended. Incidentally, Vassal is a Java-based app and will also require the Java Runtime Engine (JRE) to be installed. Depending on the age of your operating system, it is very possible you already have the JRE already installed, but if not, this can be easily accomplished. After installing Vassal, all you will have to do is download the Vassal module for the game you will be playing. If you want some hints on the process just mentioned, feel free to download the SDHistCon staff’s Vassal Quick-Start Guide to get you started.
5. (optional) To play games at SDHistCon using Tabletop Simulator, you will need to purchase and install Tabletop Simulator(requires a free Steam account). The Steam service will create a simple and seamless installation for you and there are literally thousands of game modules available for it at the TTS Steam Workshop. Just search for the game you wish to play on TTS and you are ready to play! If you want some simple tips on how to get started with TTS, please download the SDHistCon Tabletop Simulator Quick-Start Guide.

Running your own Game Sessions/Events

If you are even slightly comfortable using Discord and already have familiarity with Vassal or TTS and want to run your OWN game session for attendees to play in, SDHistCon would very much welcome it. All that’s required on your part is some experience with and knowledge of the games and associated rules you wish to create an event for; you will also need to be familiar with whatever software (Vassal or Tabletop Simulator) you will be using to host that game.

For instance, if you would like to create a game event for you and others to play GMT’s Holland ’44, it’s easy to do so. You simply need to have purchased a convention badge and then create and fill out a Submit Game Event form which will prompt you for all the information you need to host that event (including date, time, how much player experience you require, how much you’re willing to teach, etc).

Once you have created an event, the SDHistcon staff will do all the rest, creating a Discord room/channel just for you as well as an accompanying audio/video channel if you wish to use it.

Like any convention, setting up a table with a game of YOUR choosing is an excellent way to get that favorite game played. Again, if you have any interest in doing so, the SDHistCon staff welcomes the opportunity to help you get started with your own table and Discord room.

A fully featured Convention atmosphere

Like most gaming conventions, SDHistCon 2020 will feature more than just rooms full of boards, chits and (virtual) chairs. The staff at SDHistCon is endeavoring to approximate the same atmosphere that convention go-ers know well. In addition to a myriad of game sessions and demos, teach-ins, seminars and guest speakers, attendees can also expect:

• Sponsors: SDHistCon is proud to be supported by GMTGames, RBM Studio, Academy Games, Blue Panther Games, Off The Shelf Games and Lock ‘n Load Publishing, who all share the convention’s dedication to growing a vibrant, historical gaming community.
• Livestreams: there will be hosted livestreams featuring online personalities such as Maurice Fitzgerald (from Mo’s Games) and Dan Pancaldi (from No Enemies Here). Other livestreams will feature designers fielding questions about their games and the state of the industry.
• After Hours: various Discord spaces and rooms dedicated to letting attendees/gamers simply “hang out” and chit-chat about their experiences. Some of these will include appearances by game designers and wargame industry professionals.
• Support Staff: like any convention, you will be able to interact with SDHistCon staff with your questions (technical or otherwise). The SDHistCon staff is dedicated to helping you have the most fun you can at this online convention, so seek them out in the various channels (look for the word ‘SUPPORT’ in the channel list) on Discord.
• “Coffee with Harold”: a San Diego Historical Games Convention tradition. While he can’t buy you a latté this time around, Harold and many friends will be there to chat, have fun, and help get your day started at the Con.
• Official SDHistcon Merchandise: it just wouldn’t be a wargaming convention without a t-shirt! The most gracious guy in wargaming, Rodger B. MacGowan, has created the official merchandise for SDHistCon 2020. There are T-shirts, coffee mugs, face masks as well as tote bags, all sporting the official SDHistCon logo as well as some outstanding RBMStudio classic wargaming art. Sport your official swag at the Con this year (especially if you’re using video!).

See you at SDHistCon 2020…

No convention is successful simply by virtue of its organizers and staff. The ultimate path to any gaming convention’s success relies mainly on its attendees and their willingness to play games, relax, have fun and make new friends. This year’s SDHistCon has a new virtual venue and it embarks towards this venue with the sole desire of fostering community. As one staff member put it, “It’s our raison d’etre.”  SDHistCon’s organizers are hoping that the wargaming community makes their visit to the Con a meaningful one and that this ‘Great Experiment’ yields fruit in the shape of more players in the hobby and even more drive to get many of our amazing historical boardgames played. Every historical gamer realizes that these gems can’t sit on the shelves forever and, more often than not, it takes but a small effort to do so. Perhaps this year’s small effort on your part might be to attend an online convention such as SDHistcon.

Quite often, we hear of wargamers who choose to miss out on conventions because they only have time for a “turn or two”. Yet that reasoning might merit a reminder of SDHistCon’s unspoken motto:

“Just play a turn or two. It’s the spark that ignites.”

See you at the Con.

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