Dozens of board game enthusiasts came ready for some friendly competition for the 37th annual PolyCon gaming convention at Cal Poly.
The three-day tournament is known as the premiere gaming convention on the Central Coast. This year’s event theme was Western as attendees participated in several tabletop games as well as role-playing competitions.
The Cal Poly club has been on campus for 37 years, originally starting up to get the word out about board games when they weren’t that popular. Now, alumni of the group come back to participate in the yearly tradition and catch up with their former classmates.
“A lot of people come here to be social because a lot of this crowd is alumni, so we have some people that have been here for 20 years. So, they see the people they knew 20 years ago, and this is kind of like the main thing that they do here. They come back, and they say hi to the old friends, so there’s also a big social aspect, which this is a very introvert-dominated niche I will say. It’s really great to see them come out and actually be social and get that good interaction,” said Brian Kroger, student member of PolyCon.
Game creators Tom Jolly and Chris Rutkowsky attended to talk with fans about some of their most beloved games.
Barbecue meals were given out to guests and local vendors opened up their tables to talk to enthusiasts about their favorite party games.
The PolyCon group hosts a few other mini-Con events throughout the year, including fall and winter conventions.
