Photos by Aisling Bludworth.

The sounds of mirth filled the air at the Brookings Elks Lodge 1934 last weekend, as over 538 people dove headfirst into the world of tabletop gaming. Attendance has been steadily growing since its origin in 2023 at the Chetco Grange. At the Grange Hall people were packed wall to wall for a one-day event they weren’t sure would ever come around again. The event was a way to meet like-minded people, which is sorely needed in an area as isolated as we are. 

Harbor Game Convention devised by Ian Crockett was originally focused on three core areas of tabletop gaming: board games, tabletop roleplaying games, and trading card games. The first year there were so many cosplayers, people who create costumes of fictional characters, at the event that the next year there was a cosplay contest. In this way, the history of the event mirrors the history of tabletop gaming as the convention has greatly expanded its scope in the few years it has been running. Outside vendors have started sponsoring events. The Kobold’s Lair, which I work for, is a local gaming shop that ran two Magic the Gathering events each day of Harbor Game Con that sold out each day. This convention is filling a need in our community, and giving our youth something positive to do.