Over the last month we have enjoyed another great Con in the Castle, and traveled to Indianapolis for our annual pilgrimage to GenCon. Our 2016 convention season may be winding down, but that just means it’s time to turn our attention to planning next year’s conventions!

First up of course is our charity convention, Hoop & Stick, now entering its fifth year! As we start the planning process, I’d like to take a second to look back and reflect on our prior conventions. When we started thinking about a charity convention way back in 2012, I never would have expected that in four short years we would have raised over $27,000! To say that we are blown away by your continued support of our fundraising for Children’s Hospitals would be an understatement.

We’re doing our best to repay that support in the only way we know how – by planning an even bigger and better convention for our fifth anniversary!

Hoop & Stick Con 2017 will be held Thursday February 23^rd through Sunday February 26^th. I say this every year, but four days of gaming goodness, in a castle, for charity – it really doesn’t get any better than this!

We are thrilled to announce that we will be joined by Colby Dauch and Isaac Vega from Plaid Hat Games as our Guests of Honor. They have been with us all four years so far, and not even the trek from far away Texas can keep them from our fifth anniversary! They will be leaving the scorching Texas sun to enjoy more of our special snowy brand of Ohio wintery hospitality!

As always Plaid Hat will be demoing their many hits as well as sharing a few of the many ideas they are currently working on with us. They’ll also be joining us for some role playing, some general board gaming goodness, and the inevitable crazy late night Fiasco games!

This year’s schedule will include even more role playing game sessions than before, including Pathfinder, Dungeons & Dragons and Star Wars Edge of the Empire (and other flavors). Head Game Master of the Malted Meeple and former Ravenwood Castle Innkeeper Karington Hess will be on site running D&D and Star Wars, and may bring a new system or two as well. Perennial favorites Mike and crew from the Ohio Pathfinder Society will be with us running numerous Pathfinder sessions, and they’ve hinted that they have something special planned for our fifth anniversary.

Last year’s convention raised over $8,000 for Extra Life and Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. We’re setting our sights extremely high this year and are hoping to finally exceed the $10,000 mark! To hit that lofty goal, we are going to need your help. If you or someone you know would like to sponsor our efforts, feel free to point them to our sponsorship page or have them contact me directly at hoopandstick@ravenwoodcastle.com.

A final logistics note. We expected this year’s anniversary convention to book up quickly. To be fair to our long attending alumni, we offered a limited advance booking window. The reception was… staggering. The end result is that as it stands at the moment, Hoop & Stick 2017 is actually sold out! Please don’t be discouraged, and don’t let that dissuade you. We have two new cabins which should be opening in time for the convention, and we are investigating options for a limited number of off site tickets. So if you would like to join us for this historic fifth anniversary edition of a great charity convention, give us a call and put your name on the wait list!

Thank you again for your continued support, and we look forward to seeing you at the Fifth Annual Hoop & Stick!

Jim Reed

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 spends his days ensuring his guests have as much fun as he does.