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Council of Five Nations Adventure Gaming Convention - General Information Overview

Council of Five Nations XXXII

October 9-11, 2009

General Information Overview


Last Update: Wednesday, October 7th, 2009


Council of Five Nations is our annual gaming convention, held every year on Columbus Day Weekend in October. It is one of the longest-running adventure gaming conventions in the world. We'll be sponsoring our 32nd Council on October 9-11, 2009.

Please use the links below to get the most up-to-date info on the status of the convention. If you have specific questions or requests, please email us at council_/at/_swa-gaming.org (please replace the "_/at/_" with the standard "@").

What's the latest news?

Council is this coming weekend!

The Council elves have been busy at work preparing for this weekend's festivities. One of their many accomplishments so far is tallying all the pre-registrations.  We have some great news to share; it looks like it's going to be an excellent weekend!

Our pre-registation number are very strong; we're up a good bit over last year.  Sixteen games are already sold out:

A-Board-4 * Shogun (2006) * Nick Klercker
B-Board-2 * Successors: The Battles For Alexander's Empire • Successors * Eric Alexopoulos
C-Board-11 * Small World * Rodney Sheldon of Carnage Gaming
C-Board-3 * Puerto Rico * Jessica Bedell
C-Minis-3 * Search and Destroy in Iraq • Ambush Alley * Michael Tracey
D-Board-2 * Agricola * Carey Bostwick
D-Board-4 * Stone Age * Michael Mullaney
D-RPG-6 * D&D Demo • Dungeons & Dragons 4e * M Alexander Jurkat
E-RPG-3 * A Day In the Swamp, A Night At the Opera • Call of Cthulhu, 6th Ed. /Delta Green * John Whitehead
E-RPG-4 * A funny thing happened on the way to the Slave Market • Conan RPG (2nd Ed) * Ben Ossenfort
F-Board-5 * Power Grid * Martin Szinger
F-Board-7 * Kingsburg * Mike Haggett
F-RPG-1 * Tide of Morning • Pathfinder Society * The Gathering
G-Board-1 * Dominion * John Fitzpatrick
G-Minis-1 * Fighting Chinese Pirates with the U.S. MARINES • Home Crafted * Mike Paine
G-RPG-2 * Who's Guarding Gotham? (A beginner’s beginning game) • DC Heroes * Karen Seiz

If you didn't pre-register, and were really hoping to get into one of these games, all hope is not lost.  There are always people who... change their mind and trade tickets for something else, or don't show, or decide to sleep in, or whatever.  Check in at the Registration Desk during the weekend to see if any tickets have come back.  As a last resort, you can show up right before the game and see if there's a no-show.  If someone is more than 10 minutes or so late, the GMs have instructions to let in wait-list players.

Also, some of these games are being run multiple times (Small World, Dominion, Power Grid, Kingsburg, Pathfinder Society RPG) so you've got other chances to play.

Three games are unfortunately canceled:
B-Minis-5 * Battle in the North Atlantic • War at Sea
D-Board-6 * Carcassonne
G-Board-5 * Tide of Iron

Many games are close to full - too many to list.  A quick skim shows that twenty-six have only one or two seats open at this point.  So a suggestion to you folks who have not yet registered: arrive early and get those event tickets!

Don't forget that we are offering about 15% more events than last year, so there is still lots of gaming goodness to make everyone happy.

We're printing extra registration packets in anticipation of a great weekend. 
We hope you to see many of you there.


The Council of Five Nations Philosophy

Council strives toward the goal of "quality over quantity". We're a relatively small con, but we try to have top-notch events. We predict an attendance of about 250 this year. As with all the Councils over the years, our goal is a nice balance between role-play games, miniatures, board games and other stuff.

The facility: Proctor's Theatre & Conference Center

Council will once again be held at at the brand new Proctor's Theatre and Conference Center, in the heart of downtown Schenectady, New York. You can learn more about Proctor's, a classic Vaudeville theatre, at their web site (please click here).

Schenectady, New York is:
  • About 3 hours north of New York City
  • About 4 hours south of Montreal, Quebec
  • About 4 hours east of Buffalo, New York
  • About 3 hours west of Boston, Massachusetts.
We had a very good experience at Proctor's for two years now.  So much so that we've made a commitment to stay there through 2010.  We also learned a lot in our first year there, so if you joined us in 2007, please expect things to be even better.  The Registration Area will be on the main floor, much easier to find.  We will have fewer games down in the basement, so noise and crowding will be less of an issue.

Group and Student Discounts

As we all know, things are a little tight with the economy these days.  We're doing a few things to help make it easier for you to attend a Council of Five Nations weekend getaway:
  1. We are keeping registration costs flat with last year, even though our rent on the facility went up (by 10%) and postage went up (always one of our biggest expenses) this year.  A whole weekend pre-registration is still $27, plus event tickets (most are $2 each).
  2. We are keeping our policy of a $5 discount to everyone who pre-registers in a group of three or more.  Details will be in the pre-registration packet.  So start talking to your friends now!  Carpool to save on gas, and pre-register together to save even more.
  3. We are keeping our discounted entry fee for full-time students.  Kids age 9 or younger still get in free.  All other full-time students get in roughly half-price; a whole-weekend registration is $14.  All students still pay for individual event tickets (most are only $2 each).
  4. We are keeping our very generous GM policy - run an event and get your whole weekend registration fee waived.  GMs only pay for individual event tickets.  And... submit your event(s) by July 26th and get a free Council T-Shirt.  More on this a couple of sections down...

Logistics

If you want to get a jump-start on your planning, or if you just want to look around...

You can click here to get directions to Proctors, including MapQuest maps.
You can click here to view and download maps and directions for your most convenient parking options.
You can click here to see our suggested hotel options if you need over night accommodations.

Historical Miniatures

Once again, Two Tin Soldiers is helping us sponsor a full slate of Historical Miniatures events at Council.  You can check out our special Historical Miniatures page here:


New For 2009 - Saratoga Battlefield Tour

The Battle of Saratoga (1777) is often cited as the turning point of the American War of Independence (summaries here and here).

Of special interest to our Historical enthusiasts, we have arranged for a private group tour of the Saratoga battlefield (click here for web site).

This will happen during the daytime on Friday, October 9th, the first day of the convention.  We'll get you back in time for the 7pm events.

The cost is $10 per person.  We are not doing this to make money; we just want to provide this unique opportunity to interested Council attendees. 

Please click here for the web page we've set up for the Council of Five Nations outing to the Saratoga Battlefield.


Star Fleet Battles

Council of Five Nations is the home of the largest SFB tournament in the country. Some of the best players in the world will be there this year. We're also always willing to teach the game to new people. There will be a coupon in your registration packet good for a free game of Star Fleet Battles. Guaranteed to be redeemable any time before 1:00pm on Saturday, and we can probably find someone to train you later in the weekend too.

We have set up a special web site dedicated to the Star Fleet Battles tournament at Council.  Please click here to go there now.


Hotels

We have two hotels we are recommending for your out-of-town Council stay.  Please check out the page we have dedicated to Council Hotels:

Council of Five Nations Hotels


The Council Discount Auction

The Discount Game Auction is one of our most popular events, and a long-time Council tradition.  It will be happening again this year during the long lunch break on Council Sunday (October 11th), from 2:00-3:00 PM.

We'll have over a hundred games and other gaming-related merchandise available.  This is an open, competitive bidding auction.

If you've got some games you'd like to sell, this is your chance to do so.  If you've got a few bucks left in your pocket at the end of Council weekend, this is also an opportunity for you to pick up some bargains.

If you'd like to sell merchandise at our auction (any Council attendee is welcome to do so), please click here to download the Council Auction Seller's materials in PDF format  (140 Kb).


Why do you call it Council of Five Nations?

Council of Five Nations Iroquois Warrior Logo
The Native American Iroquois tribes called the Upstate New York area their home. Each autumn, there would be a great gathering of the five tribes, or nations.  You can click here for the Wikipedia page that gives a lot more information, and related links.  You can also click here for a different perspective.

We call our annual convention The Council of Five Nations in homage to the Iroquois autumn gatherings from long before most of us had ancestors here. This is also the source of the official Council logo, the Iroquois warrior.

Planning way ahead

If you'd like to mark your calendar now, here are the dates for Councils beyond 2009:
  • October 8-10, 2010
  • October 7-9, 2011
  • October 5-7, 2012
  • October 11-13, 2013
  • October 10-12, 2014
  • October 9-11, 2015
Here's an easy way to remember: Council of Five Nations is always Columbus Day weekend.  When you see that national holiday on your calendar, block it off and make sure you're here with us, sharing in our gaming goodness.


Questions or Comments?

You can contact us directly at council_/at/_swa-gaming.org (please replace the "_/at/_" with the standard "@").
You can also call Dave at (518) 464-1977, any day until about 11pm Eastern time.



Please click here to go to the main Council general info page.

Please click here to download the Council Pre-Registration packet in PDF format.

Please click here to Pre-Register via the online form (with immediate PayPal or Credit Card payment)

Please click here to read the pre-registration booklet informational text (the stuff besides the event listings... see below)

Please click here for Directions to Council of Five Nations.

Please click here to go to the Council Hotel page.

Please click here to go to the Council Parking page.


Pages highlighting our Game Events

Please click here to go to the Chronological listing of all events.

Please click here to see the list of Kid Friendly events.

Please click here to see the listing of all the RPGA D&D games.

Please click here to see the listing of all the Historical Miniatures events.

Please click here for the Star Fleet Battles tournament page.

Please click here to see the list of TC Realms D&D events.

Please click here to see the series of offerings from The Gathering
(Fellowship of the White Star, Witch Hunter: Dark Providence & The Pathfinder Society)



If you have any questions, please email us at Council@swa-gaming.org



Council of Five Nations Iroquois Warrior Logo



Curious about the kind of events we've had in the past?

You can click on these links to see the full event listings for the past six years of Council of Five Nations.

When you're browsing, it might help to know the following... 

Councils 20-28 were all held at the Studio of Bridge and Games / Price Chopper Community Room.  Space there was limited, we had fewer time slots, and we averaged around 100 attendees over those years.  In 2006 (Council 29), we made the jump to a hotel.  We doubled the number of events offered.  It was a great success, and our attendance jumped to over 200.  Councils 30 in 2007 and 31 in 2008 were at our current location, the Proctors Conference Center.  We again had over 100 events and over 200 attendees.

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