“Making friends and uniting communities one library event at a time.”

Good day gamers,

Wow! Simply Wow! We had a great OctaCon as our first major event coming out of the pandemic.

Here’s a bunch of stuff in no particular order:

• Everyone that visited seemed to have a blast! I appreciate all the kind words about the event, and towards me, and all the conversations and memories of the past.
• We had about 100 unique people visit and almost 100 games were played! (Obviously a lot of people played more than one game!)
• Crokinole accounted for at least 35 of those game and potentially there were 20 or more Crokinole games that I missed out on counting.
• There were probably about 20 games played upstairs with Ginger that also weren’t counted.
• I taught a nine year old fella about Catan. This was soooooo awesome!
• The Brooklyn Crokinole Club really was an amazing addition. Thanks to Marc and David and other members that came down. Here is a link to their Facebook Page, HERE.
• A BIG Thank You to my Game Masters for running games! Jason, Josie, Chris, Chuck, Chris, Patrick, Darren, Garrett, Charles, and Matt. I couldn’t have done it without you.
• Nice to see a good turn out from the LIBO group. There Facebook link is HERE.
• Great to see people I haven’t seen in more than two years!
• Two of our attendees had six year old daughters that attended the craft event in the other room that wasn’t even associated with OctaCon. They had so much fun! Too funny!
• Great to see Mr. PoppinTwist. Thanks for stopping by! His Facebook is HERE.
• Chuck from Cosmic Comics and Games stopped by to run D&D! Thanks Chuck! His Facebook is HERE.
• Thanks a million to my wife Ginger that held down the welcome table in the upstairs lobby. She taught games to at least 30 adults and 20 kids! Her website is HERE.
• A family of four had never played any of these games. Ginger taught them Quoridor. Since they were Bethpage residents, they took the game out five minutes later to bring home to play with their family. Good feels!
• I got a chance to meet Adam, a wargaming diorama artist. He also wants to learn some WWII games. We are going to have some fun! Good to meet you Adam and thanks Courtney.
• Ginger learned at least five new kids games and played some with several guest’s kids.
• The Cornhole upstairs was a hit! Did you get a chance to toss a bean bag? Did you play the Giant Jenga? When have you ever been able to play Cornhole in a library!!! Just awesome!
• And talking about Giant…did you see the Giant LOTS game downstairs by the elevator? That was such a hit for the kids. Thank you so much Zach! He is a local Long Island game designer. Check out LOTS on BGG HERE. If you haven’t played LOTS yet, we were in on the Kickstarter and have a copy. Come talk to us at the next event! We will teach you!
• Thank you Matt for letting us borrow your smaller kids games on Sunday. They were a huge hit!
• Chris from Chip Theory Games had players for every game he ran!
• I got to teach at least fifteen games over the weekend. That is my passion! I loved it!
• I got to meet Chris running Hero Kids. I will be booking him again!
• Thank you Kris for teaching a bunch of kids games.
• Open gaming was a huge success too!
• We met a charity group that uses games for foster kids to help them learn something new and different, play with their friends and new families, and also used as a counseling too. This is great! I wish them all of the success and Ginger and I hope we can work with them in the future.
• We met two students from Farmingdale State College writing some papers about gaming. They asked for surveys… here they are…please help them out, if you want. HERE and HERE
• Josie demoed his Warstriders game again and thank you to those that gave him feedback! Website HERE
• If I missed thanking you, it’s only because I’m exhausted, not because you aren’t appreciated!
• Such fun.
• Such friendship.
• Such love.
• You are all AWESOME!
• Including the Bethpage Library! Thank you to their staff, planning, and space!
• And thank you to all for making great memories this weekend for me, Ginger, and everyone!

See you soon!

• Game Master Dave