The inaugural Level Up tabletop gaming convention was a rousing success, according to organizer Janice Lamb, and the team is already looking into the future for next year’s event.
Around 30 students showed up for the day filled with role-playing games, card games, and even a virtual reality rig. The Dungeons & Dragons tables were among the most popular, as well as the Magic the Gathering tournaments and the facilitated board games stations.
Lamb said the convention was pretty much at capacity in terms of what the facilitators could handle, and she was glad to see some students from five high schools attend — although, for next year, she hopes to expand their reach and really get the other high schools in Moose Jaw involved.
Also on the table is discussion of broadening the event; Lamb says there is talk about adding a video game component to next year’s convention, possibly with the help of the Moose Jaw Gamer’s Association.
“We're maybe looking into including some video games, expanding into there, and we've got the Moose Jaw Gamer's Association who has really been helpful with that, with helping us out,” said Lamb. “So I know that through them, we'll be able to get some more support to make that happen.”
Although no plans to lengthen the event into a whole weekend are in the future, there is interest in planning a second convention next year, this time for a younger age bracket.
“The one day [format] I think worked really well. What we'd like to do in the future is we'd like to make another separate day and have like the middle school age,” said Lamb. “[We would] bring the enrollment [age] down to like the middle school and include them, but just on a separate day because the high school students like to have their own days.”
She also mentioned plans for more smaller events throughout the year, for playing tabletop games on a more casual basis, and to keep checking the website for updates.
The success of this year’s Level Up has bolstered Lamb’s excitement to keep engaging the tabletop community.
“We had lots of really great enthusiasm, everyone who was there had a fantastic time, including the volunteers,” said Lamb. “I had a great day and we're looking forward to doing it again and just making it bigger and better.”
