Hi everyone! We would like to invite you to this year’s SDHistCon Summit 2026 in San Diego, CA. We’re meeting on November 6-9 in Point Loma at the SES Portuguese Hall. Space is limited and this convention has sold out extremely quickly in the past, so if you’re interested in attending, plan to get your ticket as soon as possible after they go on sale Saturday, Aug. 8 at noon Pacific Daylight Time. The link to buy tickets will be posted at Conflicts of Interest Online at that time, as well as on our social media channels (Bluesky, X, Instagram, Facebook).
This year’s Summit convention schedule is set up for Friday-to-Monday gaming. That’s four full days of gaming fun! We’re also planning on a brewery meetup similar to what we’ve done in previous years for locals or early-arriving traveling attendees, likely in the evening on Thursday, November 5.
Like the past four years, the convention will be held just two blocks from the San Diego Harbor and a few miles from the San Diego International Airport, not to mention surrounded by delicious restaurants and affordable hotels.
Those who register in advance will gain access to our Discord server. You’ll be able to chat with the SDHist crew to express your opinions and brainstorm ideas, as well as prearrange games with other attendees. Help us shape the future of the convention!
Our goal is to host an excellent gathering of friends from the historical gaming community, including players, designers, publishers, content creators, and more.
This year’s convention will continue our tradition of hosting a compelling mix of prototypes and published games. You will have the opportunity to see, play, and discuss games at all stages of development, from prototypes to finished products. Designers will show off their newest ideas while publishers demo their new and forthcoming historical games.
Previous attendees include…
| Kevin Bertram
Gene Billingsley Tory Brown Harold Buchanan Dan Bullock Steve Carey Matthias Cramer Liz Davidson Justin Fassino Ruel Gaviola Ananda Gupta |
Candice Harris
Mark Herman Kai Jensen Mark Johnson Nick Karp Alex Knight Meeple Lady Grant Linneberg Jason Matthews Roger Miller Jason Perez |
The Players’ Aid
Joe Schmidt Taylor Shuss Zilla Blitz Maurice Suckling David Thompson Dan Thurot Jason Walonoski Cole and Drew Wehrle Natalia Wojtowicz |
You will have front row seats to our SDHistCon Summit 2026 Night Market and SDHistCon Summit 2026 Skunkworks. The Night Market, on the Saturday night of the convention, will see a variety of designers bringing small print runs of their exciting independently-produced games for purchase by attendees. The Skunkworks event, on the Friday night of the convention, will offer up-and-coming designers a chance to provide quick (three-to-five minute) pitches of their games to interested publishers, reviewers or other content creators, fellow designers, and other attendees. Holding this on the Friday night will allow participants to schedule follow-up meetings or playtests later in the convention with those particularly interested in their games. More details on the Night Market and Skunkworks events can be found here.
You might also be interested in the SDHist Summit Award (for games that broaden the historical gaming hobby) and the Bobby Nunes Memorial Award (for outstanding historical gaming content). Our inaugural Summit Award was granted to Red Flag Over Paris by Fred Serval, published by GMT Games, while the 2023 award went to Votes for Women by Tory Brown, published by Fort Circle Games. The 2024 award went to Land and Freedom: The Spanish Revolution and Civil War by Alex Knight, published by Blue Panther. The 2025 Summit Award went to War Story: Occupied France by David Thompson and Dave Neale, published by Osprey Games.
This year’s award will be for titles and content published in 2025, and we’re narrowing down the selections as we speak. More information, and the form to submit nominees, is available here. The winners will be announced at the convention Saturday night!
As always, you can also participate in panels and lectures covering a variety of topics, from history and publishing to media and community development. And let us know if you would like to host a discussion of your own! We’re always on the lookout for new panelists and speakers. We pride ourselves on being a participatory convention, so everyone is also free to join our Sunday morning board discussion on the state of the SDHist organization. Lend us your thoughts on how to further the hobby and build a diverse and thriving community!
Of course, there will also be game giveaways, silent auctions, and our world-famous honor code snack table! This is all in service of our core mission to create a diverse and supportive gaming community dedicated to playing, discussing, designing, and promoting historical tabletop games. Through this commitment, SDHist seeks to serve and grow the existing historical games community through thought leadership and the rallying of thought leaders in the historical gaming hobby.
If you’re curious about what else is planned for the Summit convention, SDHist founder Harold Buchanan and board member Andrew Bucholtz will discuss it live on The Chit Show Wednesday night at 8 p.m. EDT/5 p.m. PDT with Gary “Ardwulf” Mengle and Dan Pancaldi. That conversation will be viewable on the Ardwulf’s Lair YouTube channel.
If you have any questions about the convention, please let us know. You can reach out on any of our social media channels, or email board member/Conflicts of Interest Online editor Andrew Bucholtz at andrew@andrewbucholtz.com. We hope to see you in November!