The Ravenwood Castle and Malted Meeple team spent a large part of last week in the Columbus Convention Center, enjoying the 2016 Origins Game Fair. Thanks to all of you who stopped in to the booth to see us, we enjoyed chatting with you and catching up. We also had a great time meeting new friends and guests!

We didn’t just spend the convention talking about Ravenwood and the Meeple. We also discovered some great new games, made some great connections, lined up some new activities for the Meeple, and started the wheels on some great new events for Ravenwood!

On the gaming front, there were a lot of great new games to see. Based on discussions overheard in the halls, the runaway hit of the show seems to have been Dead Last by Smirk & Dagger Games. I can’t say we were surprised by that, considering as it is our June Game of the Month. Can we pick them or what? Another great game to come out of the show was Catacombs & Castles by Elzra Games. We secured a copy of the previously published base set Catacombs for the Meeple game library, and will be obtaining one for Ravenwood as well. The expansion, Catacombs & Castles, is available on Kickstarter now, we definitely recommend checking it out.

We tried something new this year, and dedicated a significant portion of our booth to our new Professor Meeple’s Game Lab program. We brought several of the independent game designers who have participated in the program with us, and gave them the opportunity to demo their games at the show. To say it was a hit would be a bit of an understatement. The games all got some great feedback, several of the designers made some amazing connections, and the convention guests loved it. We also signed up a large number of independent designers for future slots in the Game Lab!

For those of you who weren’t able to make the convention, be sure to ask Savannah, Preston, Karington or myself about it on your next visit to Ravenwood or the Malted Meeple, we’ll be glad to share our experiences.

In the meantime, you can get a little taste of the convention with this on site filming of Meet You At The Meeple, featuring two of our Game Lab entrants, Kung Fu Zoo by Charlie Price and Star Traders by Trader’s Luck Games.

Enjoy!

Jim Reed is a lifelong gamer who started with the original red box Dungeons & Dragons. After spending 20 years in the corporate world, he decided it was high time that work be fun and struck out on his own. Jim now owns and operates Ravenwood Castle and The Malted Meeple, and spends his days ensuring his guests have as much fun as he does.