Winter Fantasy Redux

Not Origins, not Dragon Con, and definitely not Gen Con (hell, not even Gen Con Indy), Winter Fantasy has always kind of been the red-headed stepchild of gaming conventions. The yearly gig of the RPGA (Roleplaying Game Association), not much seems to go on at the convention besides a bunch of D&D games and D&D Minis tournaments and a few announcements about upcoming Wizards of the Coast products. Coming and going year after year with little fanfare, Winter Fantasy is probably one of the least publicized and understood events in gaming. (It turns out I actually lived an hour’s drive from the con for a goodly number of years and never even knew it existed.)

Well, this year WotC and the RPGA are hoping to change some of that. This February, Winter Fantasy gets an overhaul, becoming D&D Experience. (Not “The D&D Experience,” just, “D&D Experience.”) By in large, there don’t seem to be many changes beside the new name. It’s still an RPGA event, but being the only real convention WotC hosts they seem to be planning to make a lot of their big announcements (cough, fourth edition, cough) and future product previews there rather then at Gen Con (along with the rest of the rabble).

To me, this seems like it would be really exciting… if cameras and the internet didn’t exist. One guy with a digital camera and a laptop and it seems like the whole reason for going—getting new news—is undermineded. But, hey, I’ve never been. Maybe the booze is really great.

For folks big into the RPGA, this sounds like the show to be at, with all the promo-snagging, cert-trading, high D&D goobery one would expect from a party for career D&D players. D&D Experience or simply “XP” (okay, Ill give them that, the abbreviation is pretty hot) takes place February 15th to the 18th in Arlington, VA. You can check out the convention’s main page and more about what’s going on right here.