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So a little while ago I found out about Origins Game Fair, and it's within driving distance (2.5 hours, but still) and I was wondering if any of you have ever been to it. Was it fun? Was there anything Warhammer 40k/AoS related? What do you do there? What's it like?

Do you like board games and RPGs? Then it's a lot of fun.

If you just want to play 40k? Probably not.

You can attend seminars about how to make your own board game. You can play test new and exciting games you might not have ever heard of. You can meet your favorite fantasy and SciFi author(s) (sometimes, maybe.) and/or other minor celebrity. You can sign up for events like Pathfinder Society games. You can play in tournaments. Just go to their website and look at the events list.

The dealer's room sells a bunch of gak. If it's anything like GenCon, there will be areas to demo the games they are selling.

I have never been, but I've heard it described as a smaller GenCon.

Well... me and my club 40kOrigins, runs a LOT of the 40k at Origins.. (lol).. we have events daily and 3 major tournaments on Thurs, Fri and Saturday.

We also run Dropzone Commander, Blackwater Gulch, and do demos and learn to play events for several other systems.

Plus terrain making workshops and painting demos.

So.. biased Yes?

-Porkuslime

I used to work a couple of gaming conventions, of which Origins was one. Its the one Ive gone back to for fun now that I dont work them anymore.

I went last year and spent most of my time playing demo games.

Make sure to eat at Barley's across from the convention center of you go!

 MrVulcanator wrote:
So a little while ago I found out about Origins Game Fair, and it's within driving distance (2.5 hours, but still) and I was wondering if any of you have ever been to it. Was it fun? Was there anything Warhammer 40k/AoS related? What do you do there? What's it like?

I used to attend Origins annually until I moved east, and I always had a blast. As kronk said, it's very much a smaller, more chill version of Gen Con. The focus is more on board games and RPGs, but you can find plenty of miniatures gaming. I've played at the 40k at Origins events, and they're a very good time.

The best hotels are already booked for this year (or I'd be going), but if you can go without too much hassle, it's worth attending. It's in downtown Columbus, which is a pretty cool town, with some great restaurants in walking distance. The dealer hall has a great mix of vendors, ranging from tiny companies and shops to some of the bigger names in board games. Admittedly, none of the big minis companies really make origins a priority anymore.

I used to love going because it was a weekend of laid back gaming, good food, and a chance to demo all kinds of great new games.

I had a good time last I went. Of course, that’s pusing 20 years ago now, so things may have changed a bit.

Smaller then GenCon, and more focused on war/boardgames. Still worth attending.

It's been almost 10 years since I went to Origins so things may have changed significantly but previously it was very focused on RPGs and Boardgames. Tabletop miniatures and card games were present but a bit lacking. They had a few small events for those but nothing like what's offered at Gen Con. For miniature gaming you should check out Adepticon as it's entirely devoted to minis, it has a huge amount of events and it'd be significantly cheaper to attend than Gen Con.