Recapping SDHistCon Summit 2023: designers, creators, mega games, Summit Award games, and much more

Posted onAuthorAndrew Bucholtz1 Comment

SDHistCon Summit 2023

S.E.S. Portuguese Hall of San Diego

November 3-5

This convention recap is from Conflicts of Interest Online editor Andrew Bucholtz. You can contact him on Twitter here. The featured photo above is from Meeple Lady; you can read her convention recap here.

This year’s SDHistCon Summit convention saw 130-plus attendees come to San Diego for three days of gaming, seminars, visits with prominent designers and well-known content creators, and more. Here’s a look at some of the many highlights that took place over the course of the con.

Thursday, Nov. 2, pre-con meetup at Eppig Brewing:

Around 50 con attendees came out for an evening meet and greet at Eppig Brewing’s beautiful waterfront patio. SDHist provided pizza, salad, and snacks. Here are some photos from the event:

Day 1: Friday, Nov. 3

The convention doors opened at 8 a.m. to the general public, with con staff finishing some last-minute preparations first:

The hall entrance ahead of Day 1.

The hall entrance ahead of Day 1. (Meeple Lady photo, boardgamemeeplelady.com)

Soon after, there were a ton of games going on:

Some games from the first day included Matthias Cramer showing off his upcoming The Promised Land, David Thompson and Liz Davidson demonstrating their upcoming Night Witches, Cole Wehrle walking people through his upcoming Arcs, Maurice Suckling demoing his upcoming Peace 1905, Dan Bullock illustrating his upcoming Blood and Treasure, Sam London showing off his upcoming Firefight Tactical, Steve Kling teaching people Road To Independence, Kevin Bertram demoing the upcoming The Halls of Montezuma, and myself running four simultaneous teach-and-plays of The Shores of Tripoli:

Two of four simultaneous Shores of Tripoli games at SDHistCon Summit 2023.

Two of four simultaneous Shores of Tripoli games at SDHistCon Summit 2023. (Andrew Bucholtz photo.)

Day One seminars included From Prototypes to Production: How GMT Games Get Made from GMT’s Kai Jensen (Production Coordinator) and Jason Carr (Director of Development), Jason Carr’s Solitaire System Design: Trends in Technology and HID, myself moderating a panel of Dan Thurot, Candice Harris, and Alexander Klein and Grant Kleinheinz from The Player’s Aid on Creating Written Content on Historical Board Games, and Matthias Cramer discussing the evolution of his Weimar: The Fight For Democracy. Here are a few photos from the written content panel:

A SDHistCon Summit 2023 panel on creating written content on historical games, moderated by Andrew Bucholtz (L) and featuring (from left) Dan Thurot of Space-Biff!, Candice Harris of BoardGameGeek, and Alexander Klein and Grant Kleinheinz from The Player's Aid.

A SDHistCon Summit 2023 panel on creating written content on historical games, moderated by Andrew Bucholtz (L) and featuring (from left) Dan Thurot of Space-Biff!, Candice Harris of BoardGameGeek, and Alexander Klein and Grant Kleinheinz from The Player’s Aid. (Meeple Lady photo, BoardGameMeepleLady.com.)

 

Here are some other highlights and summaries from Day One:

Day Two: Saturday, Nov. 4

On the second day, here’s what the venue looked like early in the morning:

The hall entrance ahead of Day 2 of SDHistCon Summit 2023.

The hall entrance ahead of Day 2 of SDHistCon Summit 2023.

The hall on Day 2 of SDHistCon Summit 2023.

The hall on Day 2 of SDHistCon Summit 2023. (Andrew Bucholtz photo.)

A few second-day highlights included Cole and Drew Wehrle running two simultaneous tables of Molly House (recently funded on Backerkit), Alex Knight demoing Land and Freedom, Matthias Cramer demoing his Stalin’s Death prototype, Cole Wehrle showing off new Ahoy factions, Jason Walonoski showing off his upcoming Epipolae, Michael Maners walking people through his upcoming Richthofen, Jason Matthews discussing his upcoming Twilight Struggle: South Asia Monsoon, plays of Summit Award finalists Fire and Stone: Siege of Vienna, John Company: Second Edition, Stonewall Uprising, and Votes For Women, lifetime achievement awards for Matthias Cramer and Jason Matthews, an early Marine Corps birthday ceremony with cake, and a giant celebrity Liberty or Death game:

Fire and Stone: Siege of Vienna 1683 at SDHistCon 2023.

Fire and Stone: Siege of Vienna 1683 at SDHistCon 2023. (Meeple Lady photo, boardgamemeeplelady.com.)

Harold Buchanan cuts a Marine Corps birthday celebration cake as ceremony leader Steve Pap looks on.

Harold Buchanan cuts a Marine Corps birthday celebration cake as ceremony leader Steve Pap looks on. (Andrew Bucholtz photo.)

Second-day seminars included Gaming Ancients with Liz Davidson, Jason Walonoski, and Monte Johnson, Gene Billingsley leading a GMT Games: Making History One Game At A Time discussion, Terry Leeds talking about creating art for historical games, and Tory Brown discussing the history of her Votes for Women design. Here are a few photos from a couple of those:

Monte Johnson, Jason Walonoski,, and Liz Davidson on a "Gaming Ancients" panel.

Monte Johnson, Jason Walonoski,, and Liz Davidson on a “Gaming Ancients” panel at SDHistCon Summit 2023. (Jeff Dreher photo.)

Here are some other highlights from Day Two:

Monte Johnson playing Pericles.

Monte Johnson playing Pericles at SDHistCon Summit 2023. (Jeff Dreher photo.)

(From left) Alex Knight, Cole Wehrle, Liz Davidson, Meeple Lady, Dan Bullock, Taylor Shuss, Dan Thurot and Drew Wehrle get dinner at Meet Dumpling.

(From left) Alex Knight, Cole Wehrle, Liz Davidson, Meeple Lady, Dan Bullock, Taylor Shuss, Dan Thurot and Drew Wehrle get dinner at Meet Dumpling. (Meeple Lady photo, BoardGameMeepleLady.com.)

Day 3: Sunday, Nov. 5

The third day saw many more games before people had to leave, including Alex Knight demoing John Brown, Steve Carey showing off Shiloh: Crisis in the West, Sam London demoing Microverse, Dan Bullock walking players through In The Shadows, and more:

And there were many other cool games played:

Sunday also saw an open-to-the-public SDHist board meeting, with many of the advisory board members and members of the public also present:

SDHistCon board and advisory board members after an open-to-the-public board meeting Sunday at SDHistCon 2023.

SDHistCon board and advisory board members after an open-to-the-public board meeting Sunday at SDHistCon 2023.

The weekend was a memorable time for many who attended. For more on it, check out written writeups from Meeple Lady, The Players‘ Aid, and Pushing Cardboard, as well as podcasts from Candice Harris of BoardGameGeek and Grant of Pushing Cardboard. And here are some further social media and video posts on overall weekend highlights:

Thanks so much to everyone who came out for SDHistCon Summit 2023. We hope to see you all soon, whether at our planned online convention in early 2024, in Newport in August 2024, or in San Diego next fall! Until then, you can keep up with us on Twitter, Bluesky, and Instagram, and follow our written content at Conflicts of Interest Online. (RSS feed available here.)

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