In an effort to beat the dog days of August, a crowd of intrepid gamers attending the first (and hopefully not last) Rio Grande Boardgame Tournament at ConMan in Merrimack, New Hampshire on August 18th.

Rapt tournament players wrapped up in a match of Torres.

Over the last few years, I have complained about the lack of activity in the boardgame area at ConMan, especially with respect to German games to the directors of the Con told me to come up with an idea to improve the situation so with that, the idea of a general boardgame tournament was the result.

The basic idea was to have two qualifying rounds during the day and have the high scorers advance to an evening session. The goal for the day was to play and promote Rio Grande games and have a lot of fun. Great idea in theory, but in practice, no one wanted to get up early enough to play board-ames so we scrapped the morning session and restructured the format somewhat for the afternoon and evening. Participants could choose for any of the boardgames in the Rio Grande line. The idea was to play as many of the games as possible with different people and score points based upon your finish in the various games.

At the end of the evening round, the top two scores would claim the victors crowns and spoils which were a copy of Aladdin's Dragons and The Reef, generously donated by Mr. Rio Grande Games himself, Jay Tummelson - thanks again Jay!

So how did it work. Well, we had thirteen gamers play throughout the day and score points. All told, twelve different Rio Grande boardgames were played with a few played more than once. The afternoon started off with two tables and nine gamers. Table one featured an intense game of Torres while table two had players go at it in Big City.

As the day moved on, the tournament started to draw the interest of some other convention attendees. With a little arm-twisting, we got several spectators to join us and learn some new games and meet some new people. At 10 p.m., we tallied up the scores and the victors were announced. Again, points were awarded on a player's finish position. These points also varied based upon the number of players in a game so first place in a five player game was worth more than First place in a three player game.

In the end, Alison Hansel took first place with 60 points and Jenn Maini took second with 51 points. The goal of the day was accomplished. A slow buzz developed throughout the day around the game tables and with the participants having a great time playing, new players joined in on the fun to learn new games, make some new friends and have a great time. Despite the cancellation of the morning session, the event was a huge success.

A second Rio Grande Games tournament is already in the works for the other local New England con, Total Confusion, in February 2001.

Craig Massely is the Chair of the SGS Boardgames Committee. So there.