RavenCon - March 1st & 2nd, 2013 – Now with 100% More Hoop & Stick!

Nearly five months ago, I posted a crazy idea here on GWJ. I was going to buy a castle, and in that castle I would hold a Child’s Play Fundraiser such as had never been seen before! *maniacal laugh*

Ahem. Sorry about that.

As I was saying, it’s been nearly half a year since I conceived of Hoop & Stick. Today, I am thrilled to announce that with MonoCheli’s help, that concept has become a reality.

On March 1st and 2nd, Ravenwood Castle will be holding the first annual RavenCon. This weekend long convention will include board games, role playing games, medieval dinners, and a general overall good time. RavenCon will also feature game demonstrations by Colby Dauch of Plaid Hat Games, publisher of Summoner Wars, Dungeon Run and Mice & Mystics, and a recent guest on GWJ’s own Conference Call.

But at the center of RavenCon, cleverly hidden amongst the fun and frivolity, lies Hoop & Stick – a devious fundraising beast waiting to snatch the hard earned dollars from your pocket, and send them to sick kids. In hospitals. Who need toys.

Here’s how it works:

  • You rent a room at Ravenwood Castle at regular prices for the nights of March 1st and 2nd.
  • You buy a ticket for RavenCon, which costs $75 and gets you:
    • Saturday Night’s Medieval Style Dinner
    • Access to all gaming sessions
    • A commemorative Ravenwood Castle dice set
  • You enter raffles, silent auctions and tournaments to your heart’s content.
  • You have a blast!

While you’re busy doing all that, we will be:

  • Donating 50% of all room rentals for the weekend to Child’s Play.
  • Donating $50 of each ticket to Child’s Play (the rest covers your giant turkey leg).
  • Donating 100% of any raffle, silent auction and tournament proceeds to Child’s Play.

What’s that? You can’t make it to RavenCon, but you really want to help the sick kids? Well aren’t you sweet! Don’t worry, we’ve got a solution worked out just for you! For the entire month leading up to RavenCon, we will be running an online donation drive on the Ravenwood Castle website and Facebook page. The donation drive will use Child Play’s own ChipIn! link, so you can be sure your donation will go directly to Child’s Play, and won’t ‘accidentally’ wind up in MonoCheli’s board game account…

Your donation will also be tracked as part of the Hoop & Stick fundraiser, so it will count towards our goal. What goal? Why, our $5,000 goal! That’s right, we’re aiming to raise at least $5,000 for Child’s Play. That may be a lofty goal for our first time out of the gate, but with your help, we can do it! (Honestly, I think we can make $10,000.)

I’ve been sitting on this announcement for a while now.

In part, I didn’t want to step on PenCon’s toes by announcing a second major convention at the same location. We should be safely past that now, as PenCon registration seems to be fairly solidified.

In part, I didn’t want to announce too early. I think we’re past that too, both because MonoCheli already has a bunch of guests that are aware this is coming, and because we’re officially announcing at Con on the Cob anyway, and that’s only a week away!

Even so, I might have been able to hold out a bit longer, but then the charity conversation started up. Combine that with the fact that we’ve just gotten our printed materials in for use at Con on the Cob next week… and well, I just couldn’t wait any longer!

Also, Mrs. Teneman didn’t think it was fair to announce at Con on the Cob without giving GWJ a sneak peek, since you guys are such an important part of the Ravenwood family. And yes, I’ll hang my rationalization hat on my wife’s logic any day of the week!

So while it hasn’t been officially launched to the public yet, we wanted to let you guys know. We'll be announcing publicly next week. In the meantime, feel free to head over to www.ravenwoodcastle.com/ravencon.html and take a look around. Let me know what you think, constructive suggestions are always welcome.

Tagged for potential future visitage

Limitations/requirements for occupancy per room? If I reserve a two person room am I automatically on the hook for two tickets to the Con?

Can it be a truly medieval-feeling con? Can I call dibs on dying of dysentery in the middle of a game of Seven Wonders? Always wanted to go that way.

carrotpanic wrote:

Limitations/requirements for occupancy per room? If I reserve a two person room am I automatically on the hook for two tickets to the Con?

For our normal LFG events (like the Zenke one February 1st) we're allowing people to bring non-playing guests, and those folks don't need to buy full price tickets (just the meal portion). Since RavenCon is all about raising the money for Child's Play though, we're going to require a full ticket for everyone in the room. You don't have to put two (or more) people in the room, but if you do, they each need a ticket.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

Can it be a truly medieval-feeling con? Can I call dibs on dying of dysentery in the middle of a game of Seven Wonders? Always wanted to go that way.

Ooooh, sorry man, someone already reserved the dysentery. How about the bubonic plague? I mean sure, it's no dysentery, but it's no slouch either!

I will volunteer to walk around with a cart loudly exclaiming for people to bring out their dead if there are enough signed up for the bubonic plague package.

probably will be too poor to make it out there but hopefully will donate when the time comes.

This sounds great, I will keep an eye on my calendar.

I may have to be there. It sounds like a good time. I like games.

I am not committing to it yet but I am thinking I may be putting together a game for the auction...

I'll give it a shot, maybe.

RavenCon and Hoop & Stick are now live on our website.

The pages may not be great, (hey, I'm not a web designer!) but they're live. As always, feedback and constructive criticism is welcome!

We just signed Days of Wonder as a sponsor for RavenCon 2013!

Quick update on RavenCon 2013.

We've added both Wizards of the Coast and Days of Wonder to our list of supporters for the event, along with several other companies and artists who are donating items for the silent auction.

And we're down to only four available rooms! So if you want to come to RavenCon and stay onsite, and why wouldn't you?, you'd better hurry and make your reservations soon!

I am definitely attending. I do have one question, though. I have a 6 year old son who is interested in gaming, as well. Are you organizing the first Ravencon to cater mostly to adults or would there be something for the younger set?

Thanks!

The Con will absolutely be kid friendly. Mine will be 8 and 11 at the time of the con, and they'll both be there. I know of at least one other attendee who is bringing children of similar age, and I just answered this same question via email for another gentleman who is planning on bringing an 8 and 10 year old.

The games and events are primarily going to be aimed at adults, but there will be plenty for the younger ones to do as well. We'll have Catan Jr., Ticket to Ride, Castle Panic and Forbidden Island just to name a few, as well as the Pathfinder and D&D 4ed sessions. I'm looking forward to getting my girls into several of the role-playing sessions myself. If we have enough kids interested, we may even set up a separate session or two just for them.

If you have any other questions, you can PM me here, or email [email protected] and I'd be glad to help you out.

One note, I've got three people who've told me in the last few hours that they're interested in booking rooms. If all of the rooms are booked up before you make your reservation, don't worry. We're setting up an overflow property right now, so you'll still be able to get in to the Con itself.

Cross posted here from it's dedicated thread.

The Child's Play online donation drive portion of RavenCon is now live. Click the ChipIn! widget on the RavenCon page to donate directly to Child's Play. The online drive will be live from now until RavenCon itself, the weekend of March 1st.

As a side note, we've completely sold out Ravenwood Castle for RavenCon, and have begun booking people into an overflow property. Given the rooms and tickets we've sold so far, we're up to a minimum contribution of $3,500 to Child's Play. And that's before the silent auction and online drive!