with Ethan Parker of KantCon (and Gamer’s Haven)
By Cape Rust
Ethan, is a guy who gets things done and does it with style. Ethan is the man behind KantCon, yea you might have heard a little bit about it in the past few weeks. Below is some background info and my interview that Ethan was kind enough to participate in.
EP: I was born at a young age… oh, wait, too far back… I’m a 25-year resident of Kansas, raised, but not born. I am originally from Nebraska and moved down to Lawrence, KS in 1986. It was shortly thereafter that I got into role-playing at the age of ten. Unlike many others, I did not begin gaming with Dungeons & Dragons, but with the Marvel Superheroes Basic and Advanced Set. Where all the other gamers were running around with their red boxes, mine were a glorious yellow and blue. None of my friends were interested in running games, so it fell upon me to be the GM. So before I even knew how to play, I was GMing games for my small cadre of friends. That, of course, bloomed into what I am today, jumping from system to system and not really getting into things like D&D until third edition came out.
RPC: Please tell us about Gamers Haven.
EP: Gamer’s Haven started as a podcast with two close friends of mine – Jeremy Putnam and Nathan Tolbert. I got the bug to start a podcast after listening to shows like “All Games Considered” and “The Dragon’s Landing,” and I thought, “Hey, I can do this podcast thing!” In 2006, we recorded our first show, and have been going on and on ever since. We have expanded our normal shows, which deal out advice and stories from around the gaming table, to include probably one of the largest repositories of Actual Play content on the internet. We have listeners worldwide, and have more than 1,000 hours of recorded content available on the website.
Gamer’s Haven evolved in 2010, when KantCon became a public event. I made it into a non-profit company to help facilitate booking a venue, and we have since expanded Gamer’s Haven into a publishing arm, and a game library for hire.
RPC: What can you tell us about your first trip to Gen Con?
EP: My first exposure to a gaming convention was a small convention in Kansas called KulCon 2. It was held in the Holiday Inn in Lawrence, KS, and was a small convention, just in its infancy. I got to play some cool games, meet some cool people, and bought a lot of Magic cards (before I broke that addiction through a series of high-profile antics in various rehab facilities). The next year, the convention moved to Topeka, KS, and the year after that it moved all the way to Wichita, KS. I was left convention-less until a friend, Aaron Rosenberg, started his own game company and my brother and I went along with him to Gen Con. My brother, Erik, incidentally the guy who got me into gaming, had been to Gen Con before. I went with him on his second or third time out to Milwaukee, before the con moved to Indianapolis.
Gen Con became my vacation – it was what I looked forward to every year. There were some years where I went to Gen Con, and probably shouldn’t have – using credit cards and cash advances to fund the trip. I didn’t care, however, because when I was at Gen Con, the rest of the world melted away and I was relaxed and having fun.
The first year I went to Gen Con was 1996. It was still in Milwaukee then, and still at the old convention hall. I remember the Gen Con auction being in another building, and very dingy. The whole atmosphere was very strange, and I also remember religious protestors outside the convention center. The halls were small, and there was certainly some awful gamer funk, but I played games – lots of games. I got the chance to try Blue Planet, actually PLAY Feng Shui, and spent way too much money on tons of stuff that I went on to either love, or get rid of because I hadn’t read it in 12 years.
Our group, Clockworks Games, stayed at this hotel called “The Ambassador,” which, in retrospect, was something right out of a Call of Cthulhu game. The place was probably built in the 20’s, and hadn’t had any work done on it since. I remember they put us in someone else’s room when we got there, and then made us move to a different room – then tried to throw us out on Sunday when they thought we were the people who’s room we were in to start things off! I also remember our friend, Jim, swinging a broadsword around and breaking a light fixture. Good times.
RPC: Do you remember exactly how you felt when you first figured out that you wouldn’t be able to attend Gen Con?
EP: When I figured it out, I was in denial for quite some time. I arranged KantCon for a bunch of friends to get together on that weekend and play some games. That Thursday when Gen Con started, however, I was stuck on Facebook and Twitter following the news coming in, seeing the pictures, and was downright depressed for the whole day because I wasn’t there – I wasn’t at my happy place where the weight of the world meant nothing. I was bummed.
RPC: Not being able to attend Gen Con was your motivator for starting KantCon. What were the first steps you took to start KantCon?
EP: I told my friends, right before we recorded an episode of the Gamer’s Haven Podcast, that I wanted to have my own convention (with Blackjack … and hookers! You know what, forget the Blackjack!) the weekend of Gen Con to distract me from not being there. They all said that sounded fun, and Jeremy volunteered his house. Things kind of spiraled from there.
RPC: Could you talk about the evolution of KantCon?
EP: After the initial idea sprang to mind, and I started talking to my friends about it, I decided that I wanted it to be as much of a convention atmosphere as possible. I decided there would be badges, swag bags, scheduled events, and event tickets – all for my personal gratification and so I could feel like I was at a real convention.
Things exploded from that point on.
I decided I wanted to call it KantCon because it was a con for, “Those of us who can’t con.” I then changed the first “C” to a “K” because we were in Kansas City, and then I thought I was the cleverest person ever (but now I get people who ask if the convention is honoring Emmanuel Kant, which was funny the first time I heard it … not so much the next fifty times).
Through the podcast, I contacted various companies and asked them for prizes to give to friends … and was surprised when they actually sent us over $1,500 worth of stuff!
I worked diligently, and probably obsessively to keep myself from thinking about Gen Con, on using printed iron-on-transfers to make shirts and bags for the “attendees” as I started calling everyone. I got all my friends on board and I decided the first day would start in the evening, would be board and card games only, followed by RPG events all day on Saturday (three slots, just like it is now), and miniatures events on Sunday. We only had three tables to work with, and one of them was in the scary, mostly concrete and dirt basement, one was the dining room table, and the other was a fold-out table set up in Jeremy and Robin’s living room.
Oh, and we only had one bathroom, and the porch light didn’t work.
When it was all said and done, everyone told me they had a great time, and couldn’t wait until I did it next year.
RPC: How many attendees did you have this year and how many more is that compared to last year?
EP: This year we had 297 attendees, up from 200 attendees in 2011. In 2010, we had 110 attendees, and the first year was a diverse 25 people.
RPC: Could you give our readers an idea about just how much it costs to put on a convention like KantCon?
EP: The venue is the most dominant cost, and there are a lot of other costs hidden in running an event like this. There’s the insurance for the event, safety supplies like first aid kits, office supplies like paper, pens, signage, and all that. The cost goes up each year as we get more ambitious and expand more, but this year the cost of holding the convention totaled out at about $8,500.
RPC: You had a charity auction this year. Would you please explain who it benefited and how much money you raised?
EP: We like to think of our vendors as family. After all, when KantCon became a public event, I didn’t think ANY vendors would be interested in attending, and we ended up with three to my surprise. Each year, we have added at least one more vendor, and each year the old vendors return. One vendor who began to come to KantCon last year was Silver Gryphon Games. Kevin Rohan is a part of Silver Gryphon Games, and I was notified through a mutual friend, and other vendor at KantCon, Wes Herbst at Secret Skeleton Games, that Kevin’s son, Michael, had tragically passed away about three weeks prior to KantCon. Michael had drowned during a family trip to a water park. I immediately talked to Kevin and let him know that if he needed to cancel his trip down for KantCon, I would completely understand, but that being said, I still wanted him to come. I also offered to comp passes to his entire family if they wanted to come along, too.
Kevin let me know he was still coming down, but his family was spending time elsewhere. I then discovered that there was a Michael Rohan Memorial Fund that had been set up and a bundle product benefiting the fund was up on RPGNow and DriveThruRPG. After placing all the Gamer’s Haven PDF products in the bundle, I decided we would try to have a Silent Charity Auction to benefit the fund, and I, much like the first KantCon, reached out to companies I know to see if I could get anything for it… and the response was wonderful. Attending vendors donated items, and gaming companies from across the country sent stuff in for support. Through the Silent Charity Auction, we were able to raise $602 for the fund.
RPC: Who was your guest of honor this year and what did it take to get him to KantCon?
EP: Shane Hensley was the Guest of Honor at KantCon this year, our first Guest of Honor ever. When the Kickstarter went so well, and we hit our goal so quickly, I decided to reach out to Shane and ask him if he would nicely whore himself out for KantCon’s purposes, and offer to come to KantCon as a Guest of Honor if we hit $4,000 on our fundraising. In exchange, KantCon would foot the bill for his travels, and he would only be required to actually play in a game, and that’s it. We hit our goal, and Shane came to KantCon 2012! He told me he had a great, laid back time, and I hope that we can get another Guest of Honor to come out next year!
RPC: There was a celebrity game. Could you describe what kind of game it was and what exactly happened?
EP: Part of getting Shane to KantCon was making him roll dice and play in our “Celebrity Game.” The Celebrity Game was an idea that was already implemented prior to Shane being brought on board, with the “Celebrities” being myself, Jeremy, Nathan, and my brother Erik. I know, not much of a “celebrity” crowd. The guys at Secret Skeleton Miniatures put together a full 3D dungeon for the Tomb of Horrors, and our friend and Event Coordinator (and first KantCon Road Warrior), Tracy, ran the game using OSRIC. We each had two characters and we had eight hours to make it through the dungeon. We ultimately ran out of time, but managed to defeat the lich and decided that we’d call that a victory. Everyone survived, though some with their second characters, and we had a good time. We each signed a Crown Royal dice bag for each other as a memento, and signed the base of the dungeon where our characters died.
RPC: You had amazing swag bags and prize support. How did you pull that off?
EP: We manage that through a combination of diligence, asking for free stuff, selling our souls, hitting up various workplaces for prize support, and asking companies to send us stuff as free advertising. That, and we like SWAG.
RPC: What games did you participate in during the con?
EP: I was able to actually play in some games this year, a new trend. I was under orders to play in things this year, and was made to play a few things last year as well. I played in a Deadlands game run by Shane Hensley, the Tomb of Horrors Celebrity Game, helped my fiancée run her first Realms of Cthulhu game, and played in a game of Paranoia.
RPC: What is the one game that you didn’t get to participate in that you really wanted to be a part of?
EP: I really wanted to play the Aliens board game with Allan Grohe of Black Blade Publishing. He has a complete 3D setup of the game, and I really was looking forward to playing that. Instead, I opted to help my fiancée, the now former Food Czar, run her first RPG ever. I chose wisely.
RPC: You used Conplanner for KantCon. What are your thoughts – did it make your job eaiser?
EP: ConPlanner has its problems. Because of the way we run our convention, we ended up needing to do a lot of things manually, mainly because of also utilizing Kickstarter as a registration platform as well. The interface was confusing to some people, and downright didn’t work for others. I think it is a good platform, it just needs to be much more customizable.
RPC: Please explain KantCon’s Jabbergluck and his conflict with the Gnome?
EP: You’d have to ask the Jabbergluck and the Gnome. They’re on Twitter at @Jabbergluck and @GnamelessGnome.
RPC: You had a well planned kids track. How did that go?
EP: I don’t think that there was a lot of participation in it, and it was probably a bit more of a headache than it was worth. We will probably do something different next year.
RPC: How important is it to create a family friendly atmosphere at a Con?
EP: Very. I want KantCon to be welcoming for all ages of gamers, whether it’s the old generation that still plays Chainmail, or the new players who are just figuring out how to roll dice. Gaming is a great social activity, and we want to foster a great gaming community in the Midwest.
RPC: You have sent out surveys to Con attendees, what are you hoping to accomplish with these surveys?
EP: We always want to know what we did right, and what we did wrong. We try new things every year, and it is through the feedback we get from these surveys that we can make an event that gamers actually WANT to attend. We look at all the feedback, and do everything we can to make KantCon a fun place for as many people as possible.
RPC: What advice would you give people who are thinking about starting their own Con?
EP: Be prepared to work very hard, be very tired, and be sure to surround yourself with good friends that will help you. Delegate as much as possible, and be sure to enjoy the con yourself at least a little bit.
RPC: This final question is a free-for-all, please feel free to pimp yourself, KantCon and feel free to talk about what we can expect from the Con next year. Go ahead, post some links, I double dog dare you!
EP: KantCon 2013 planning is underway. We have already been notified by JCCC that we will have to move venues next year, which is always a big step for a fledgling game convention (if KantCon can be called that after being around for three years). We are going to try to keep things updated on http://www.kantcon.com as much as possible, and will announce dates for next year as soon as we get a venue hammered out. In the meantime, you can listen to some actual play recordings from KantCon, and from the gaming tables of the Gamer’s Haven, over at http://www.gamershavenpodcast.com.
You can also hear me rattle on about movies on my other show, Confessions of a Movie Snob at http://www.confessionsofamoviesnob.com. Lastly, we are expanding the scope of the Gamer’s Haven Library very soon, and you will be able to book us for events such as weddings, watch parties, commencements, corporate events, or any other event you want a large selection of RPGs (that’s right, we’re adding RPGs to the library), Board Games, Card Games, and Miniatures Games available at, we are soon going to become available for hire through our website at http://www.gamershavenlibrary.com. You can also go on Facebook to 43KixKansasCity and get a lot of free movie stuff.
‘Nuff said! Well not quite, this last statement from Ethan is something I should have asked about, but didn’t.
Since KantCon is switching venues, we are upping our search for convention sponsors to help cover the increased cost. We spent three years at JCCC because cost was much less than other places, but with our growth also comes the hard choice of finding somewhere that can handle KantCon’s increasing size. So, with that being said, we are hunting for sponsors to help us make KantCon 2013 a sure-fire reality next year. If anyone is interested in supporting KantCon, either as a future attendee, volunteer, or a sponsor, please feel free to contact me over at http://www.kantcon.com.
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