Every year at this time, I flee Chicago in February for the sun and safety of the Bay Area, which responds by dumping nine inches of rain on me all weekend. Fortunately, I spend much of that weekend indoors at DunDraCon, one of the oldest continuing roleplaying game conventions in existence. And it is continuing; attendance was right at 1400, a little bit down from last year, unsurprising given the current economic degringolade.

And it is a roleplaying game convention; at DunDraCon, the RPG is king and all others must follow in its train. (That said, boardgaming boomed this weekend as it seems to be doing all over.) Anchored by the booth of Oakland’s amazing Endgame store (part-owners of IPR and thus proud sponsors of this very column), the dealer’s room still draws a few manufacturers: local boy Chaosium, former local Hero Games, plus Goodman Games, Troll Lord, and Flying Buffalo. Robin Laws’ Mutant City Blues RPG (short form: CSI: Gotham City) debuted here and sold out immediately, as it well deserved to (and since it is published by Pelgrane Press, likewise an IPR-owning company, that is all you will hear of it in these pixels despite its wonderful premise, deft rules, and gorgeous layout); the other standout debut at the show was probably Urban Fantasy Hero by the redoubtable Steve “Writes” Long.

The truly great thing about DunDraCon, even more than the intermittent sunlight and the commendable RPG focus, is its dedicated seminar track. The con reliably packs a room for discussions of such things as alignment, real-life weapon wound trauma, and city design, all for the purposes of bettering your RPG experience — it’s far more like an SF convention than a game con in that respect. Those conventions, and DDC, prove that a market for such discussions can be built; the reason that a game convention might want to turn its attendees into interested, intelligent consumers of their hobby can be left as an exercise for the reader. Or perhaps as the topic for a seminar somewhere.