Overall summary – what TTRPGkids did at Gary Con Ethereal

At Gary Con Ethereal, TTRPGkids organized several panels and sponsored a kid-friendly discord channel for playing all-ages focused games! I also had the opportunity to join in on a game of The Fae Team, run by Dan from Almost Bedtime Theater (I played a fox named Sparky), be part of the accessibility resource kits organized by Howie from TI’TAINS, and got to be part of the Tattered Bear pre-launch (image below)!

It was a bit of challenge to pull everything together, but also totally worth it – I got to work with some amazing people, meet some new faces, and share about what’s so awesome about playing TTRPGs with kids. It was also a lot of fun, and I definitely want to go again next year.

Breakdown of the events and resources!

In case you wanted to go back and nab some resources and details about the events run, check out below! You can also find the original Gary Con Ethereal 2023 TTRPGkids post here!

Accessibility resource kits

Howie from TI’TAINS organized accessibility resource kits to hand out during Gary Con in-person, and I hosted a digital version on the TTRPGkids site! The physical kits went out to Gary Con guests so they could find resources to help with making their games more accessible for both themselves and for others. We also teamed up with Knights of the Braille for a game piece accessibility guide for players with visual impairment and low vision.

Friday, March 24 – workshop and panel

Friday kicked off the TTRPGkids events at Gary Con Ethereal with a workshop on making TTRPGs for kids and a panel on self publishing! Despite some technical difficulties with getting set up, both went well with the audience writing in questions and presenters having some great discussions and sharing their awesome XP.

Additional resources/links:

• Making a Tabletop RPG for YOUR Particular Kid DL
• Dice Up Games website and TTRPGkids interview, game review, and book review
• Fable Doom website
• Violet Daisy Games website
• Sticker Doodle Town twitter

Saturday, March 25 – TTRPGkids channel and panel

On Saturday, the morning started out with games on the TTRPGkids channel! Both Wyrmlings and The Fae Team ran, and I even got to jump in on The Fae Team (so much fun!). After that, I caught Ampersand RPG to talk about their kickstarter full of awesome TTRPGs for kids and moderated our panel on Playing D&D With Kids. That was my first time moderating, and I actually really enjoyed it, especially since we had a really engaged audience and an awesome line up of panelists who brought some excellent insights to the virtual table.

Additional resources/links:

• The Fae Team game and TTRPGkids review
• Wyrmlings kickstarter
• Ampersand RPG kickstarter and TTRPGkids review and feature
• World of Corde blog and TTRPGkids interview
• Young Dragon Slayers site and TTRPGkids feature
• Almost Bedtime Theater and TTRPGkids interview

Sunday, March 26 – Tattered Bear unveil and panel

Sunday was also a lot of fun – we got to pre-unveil Tattered Bear! It was GREAT to finally get to announce what we were doing and start engaging with creators about how to help with getting their projects out there. In the afternoon, we then had an awesome talk about Teaching With TTRPGs and had another really active audience and a great set of panelists to support the discussion!

Additional resources/links:

• Tattered Bear website and TTRPGkids featured project
• World of Corde blog and TTRPGkids interview
• Two25Games site and TTRPGkids interview
• Sticker Doodle Town twitter

Thank you!

Thank you Gary Con

Thank you Gary Con for the opportunity to help showcase TTRPGs for kids, and I hope that it helped to show how the legacy of Gary Gygax has continued, grown, and lives on as tabletop RPGs are being shared and used for everything from teaching and bridging between generations to just having fun! I had a great time at the convention and look forward to participating again next year!

Thank you sponsors!

To support the cost to sponsor the kid-friendly discord channel, I have been crowdfunding on ko-fi and want to say thank you to my ko-fi sponsors for helping to make this all happen! Check out the TTRPGkids sponsors page here to see the cool work they’re doing, and click below to help support TTRPGkids for future events too!

And thank YOU!

Thank you for playing tabletop RPGs with your kids and helping to bring this fun hobby to the next generation! Keep up to date on new reviews, games, and articles with the TTRPGkids monthly newsletter, and please also let me know in the comments if you have feedback on the site or if this has helped you in some way!