Inaugural City of Firsts Game Fest draws crowd

Jan. 22—An elf sent a barbarian, monk, beast master and wizard to take care of her wolf problem Saturday.

With a table full of players rolling dice and checking their character sheets, Mitchell Johnson tried not to kill off the characters in the game of Dungeons & Dragons he was leading. He said it was more fun to let the players go in whichever direction they wanted.

His table was one of many that was filled with games at the Saints Joan of Arc and Patrick School over the weekend, where visitors were able to play tabletop games for 12 hours straight during the City of Firsts Game Fest.

Proceeds from the event went to St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry, the Kokomo school and its sister schools in Haiti.

The event was formed as a collaboration between the Kokomo school, Comics Cubed, Kingdom Cards & Games and Lending Library Logistics, which provides a library of board games to gaming conventions like Gen Con.

Large windows peered out toward blankets of snow while the Game Fest's visitors played. Some played popular games, like Mahjong, Settlers of Catan or Dungeons & Dragons. But with a trailer worth of games, the visitors were able to take their pick from more obscure games as well.

Jeremy Burke, owner of the game library, said there are more than 3,000 games in his collection. When the library shows up at Gen Con, it takes up roughly a third of Lucas Oil Stadium.

He explained it was Gen Con that got him into collecting games. He first attended the gaming convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1997 and thought it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

But after moving to Kokomo, he opened a copy of the Tribune and saw it would be held in Indianapolis in 2009. He decided to volunteer at the convention, when the convention had about four racks of games to choose from, and decided to start collecting his own game library.

His collection has grown quite a bit over the years. Burke started his collection with games like Catan and old Milton Bradley games. His collection now fills two trailers — the largest trailer holds 16 racks of games — and brings the library to eight conventions every year.

Saturday marked the inaugural City of Firsts Game Fest, though.

A total of 72 people attended the event. Burke said he would like to see somewhere around 110-125 people playing games next year.

"We love doing charity conventions and just getting the games played," Burke said. "Bringing families together and just doing stuff like this."

Although he isn't a native, Burke has lived in Kokomo for 20 years. By now, he's fairly used to hearing people say there isn't anything to do in Kokomo.

"There's a lot to do here, but it's always neat to have an event like this," Burke said. He added it was especially nice to have an unplugged event that promoted Geek Street shops on a snowy day.

Burke also enjoys the way game events are able to make friends out of strangers.

Jason Van Haecke, owner of Kingdom Cards & Games, agreed.

"For me, it's about getting people around a table, enjoying each other's company," Van Haecke said between rounds of Mahjong. Placing a few tiles down, he added, "it doesn't matter how much you make, where you're from, what color your skin is, how old you are — none of that matters. That's what really draws me into gaming, is the inclusivity of it all. Everyone's welcome all the time."

Groups of eighth graders worked at the event, as well, selling refreshments to raise money for an upcoming field trip to Chicago.

They served breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks at the event. Rebecca Willis, a middle school social studies teacher, was helping them prepare bags of cookies to sell shortly after lunchtime.

"They're learning a lot. Whether they realize it or not, they learned a lot today," Willis said. "But then they're also teaching each other, so you can see different leadership skills developing."

James Bennett III can be reached at 765-454-8580 or james.bennett@kokomotribune.com.