Carnage is a multi-genre table-top

gaming convention A gaming convention is a gathering centered on role-playing games, collectible card games, miniatures wargames, board games, video games, or other types of games. These conventions are typically two or three days long, and often held at either a u ...

based in the

Upper Valley The Connecticut River is the longest river in the New England region of the United States, flowing roughly southward for through four states. It rises 300 yards (270 m) south of the U.S. border with Quebec, Canada, and discharges at Long Islan ...

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

. It typically covers all genres of

tabletop gaming Tabletop may refer to: Mountains *Rangeville,_Queensland#Geography, Table Top Mountain in Rangeville, Queensland, Australia * Table Top Mountain (New York) * Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa * Tepui, flat top mountains in South America ...

, like

board games Board games are tabletop games that typically use . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well. Many board games feature a comp ...

role-playing games A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal ac ...

, CCGs,

LARP A live action role-playing game (LARP) is a form of role-playing game where the participants physically portray their characters.(Tychsen et al. 2006:255) "LARPs can be viewed as forming a distinct category of RPG because of two unique feature ...

s and historical and fantasy miniatures. Carnage was featured on

WCAX WCAX-TV (channel 3) is a television station licensed to Burlington, Vermont, United States, serving as the CBS affiliate for the Burlington, Vermont–Plattsburgh, New York market. It is owned by Gray Television alongside Saranac Lake, New York ...

's ''The :30'' on November 1, 2011.

History

First held in 1998 in West Lebanon, Carnage grew from the motivation "to give New England gamers a place where they could come, be themselves, enjoy their games and have fun." After its inaugural year in New Hampshire, Carnage based itself on the Vermont side of the Upper Valley, moving to Brownsville, VT in 1999 and then to Fairlee in 2003. In 2012, the organizers announced Carnage 2013 would be held at the Killington Grand Hotel. Carnage was once again on the move in 2019 with the organizers deciding to move the convention to the Mt Snow Resort in Dover, Vermont for the 2020 interaction. This move would allow the convention to continue to expand and locate it more centrally in New England. The COVID 19 pandemic postponed the planned move with the 2020 edition of Carnage being held instead as a virtual event; the change in venue will instead occur in 2021 for the 24th year of the convention.

Past conventions

* ''Carnage at the Crossroads'', November 6–8, 1998, Radisson Inn, West Lebanon, NH * ''Carnage on the Mountain 2'', November 5–7, 1999,

Ascutney Mountain Resort Ascutney Mountain Resort was a downhill ski area on the western side of Mount Ascutney in Brownsville, Vermont that operated from 1946 until 2010. It was purchased by local communities and the Trust for Public Land in 2015, with plans to reopen a ...

, Brownsville, VT * ''Carnage on the Mountain 3'', November 3–5, 2000, Ascutney Mountain Resort, Brownsville, VT * ''Carnage on the Mountain 4'', November 2–4, 2001, Ascutney Mountain Resort, Brownsville, VT * ''Carnage on the Mountain 5'', November 1–3, 2002, Ascutney Mountain Resort, Brownsville, VT * ''Carnage by the Lake 6'', October 24–26, 2003, Lake Morey Resort, Fairlee, VT * ''Camp Carnage 7'', November 5–7, 2004, Lake Morey Resort, Fairlee, VT * ''Carnage 8: Signs Point to Carnage'', November 11–13, 2005, Lake Morey Resort, Fairlee, VT * ''Carnage 9 From Outer Space'', November 10–12, 2006, Lake Morey Resort, Fairlee, VT * ''Carnage, We’re Hangin’ 10'', November 2–4, 2007, Lake Morey Resort, Fairlee, VT * ''This Is Carnage: We Go to 11!'', November 7–9, 2008, Lake Morey Resort, Fairlee, VT * ''Carnage 12: Nothing But Carnage'', November 6–8, 2009, Lake Morey Resort, Fairlee, VT * ''Carnage the 13th'', November 5–7, 2010, Lake Morey Resort, Fairlee, VT * ''Carnage in Wonderland 14: Down the Rabbit Hole'', November 4–6, 2011, Lake Morey Resort, Fairlee, VT - Host of 2011 North American

Diplomacy Diplomacy comprises spoken or written communication by representatives of states (such as leaders and diplomats) intended to influence events in the international system.Ronald Peter Barston, ''Modern diplomacy'', Pearson Education, 2006, p. 1 ...

Championships (DipCon) * ''Carnage Noir 15'', November 2–4, 2012, Lake Morey Resort, Fairlee, VT focused on a

film noir Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American ' ...

pulp fiction ''Pulp Fiction'' is a 1994 American crime film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, who conceived it with Roger Avary.See, e.g., King (2002), pp. 185–7; ; Starring John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, Tim Roth, Ving Rhame ...

theme. * ''Carnage on the Mountain 16'', November 8–10, 2013, Killington Grand Hotel in

Killington, Vermont Killington is a town in Rutland County, Vermont, United States. The population was 1,407 at the 2020 census. Killington Ski Resort and numerous vacation lodges are located here. The town was previously named Sherburne, but was renamed to its or ...

* ''A Fistful of Carnage'', November 7–9, 2014, Killington Grand Hotel in Killington, Vermont * ''Carnage in the Lost World'', November 6–8, 2015, Killington Grand Hotel in Killington, Vermont * ''Carnage Royale'', November 4–6, 2016, Killington Grand Hotel in Killington, Vermont * ''Carnage XX'', November 3–5, 2017, Killington Grand Hotel in Killington, Vermont * ''Carnage 21: A Space Odyssey'', November 2-4, 2018, Killington Grand Hotel in Killington, Vermont * ''Carnage 22'' was held at the Killington Grand Hotel in Killington, Vermont, November 1–3, 2019. The theme for 2019 was an homage to

Joseph Heller Joseph Heller (May 1, 1923 – December 12, 1999) was an American author of novels, short stories, plays, and screenplays. His best-known work is the 1961 novel ''Catch-22'', a satire on war and bureaucracy, whose title has become a synonym for ...

's novel ''

Catch-22 ''Catch-22'' is a satirical war novel by American author Joseph Heller. He began writing it in 1953; the novel was first published in 1961. Often cited as one of the most significant novels of the twentieth century, it uses a distinctive non-chr ...

''. * ''Carnage 23'' was held as a virtual convention due to the COVID 19 pandemic November 7-8, 2020. * ''Carnage 24: Lost in the Carnage Triangle'' will be held at the Mount Snow Resort in

Dover Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maidstone ...

, Vermont, November 5-7, 2019. Previous themes have included: the wild west, horror,

B-movie A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double featur ...

sci-fi, heavy metal (a la Spinal Tap), surf, ''

Alice in Wonderland ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creatur ...

'' and summer camp.

Events

Carnage accepts submissions from GMs, or game masters, volunteering to host sessions of games across the tabletop genres. Typical fare includes board games of the

Eurogame A Eurogame, also called a German-style board game, German game, or Euro-style game, (generally just referred to as board games in Europe) is a class of tabletop games that generally has indirect player interaction and abstract physical componen ...

and Amerigame varieties, collectible card games like ''

Magic: the Gathering ''Magic: The Gathering'' (colloquially known as ''Magic'' or ''MTG'') is a tabletop and digital collectable card game created by Richard Garfield. Released in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast (now a subsidiary of Hasbro), ''Magic'' was the first ...

'' and '' Legend of the 5 Rings'', boffer and dialogue-driven

s, miniatures in fantastic and historical milieux, and role-playing games, including ongoing campaigns in living worlds and standalone adventures. Recently Carnage has started including learn-to events such as introduction classes and miniature painting and game creation seminars. Carnage also offers a number of non-gaming events such are "sip'n paints", needle felting and a steam punk fashion show. Other notable events at Carnage have included the Carnage Accords, an annual ''

'' tournament; a computer-assisted game trade known as a "math trade"; the Centuries of Conflict umbrella theme for many historical miniatures; dramatic readings and panels held by convention guests; and most recently at Carnage Noir, a geek pub quiz sponsored by Gygax magazine. In 2022 Carnage is slated to be the host convention for the Diplomacy World Championships (World DipCon).

Guests

Carnage has hosted a number of guests of honor from the gaming industry and literary communities. Past game-related guests have included
James Carpio

Ann Dupuis Ann Dupuis is the owner of Grey Ghost Press and designer of a number of GURPS supplements. Career Dupuis began working as a game designer in 1991, first working on ''GURPS'' books for Steve Jackson Games. Dupuis also did some design work for ...

, Walter Hunt
Tracy Hurley

Steffan O'Sullivan Steffan O'Sullivan is the author of several role-playing game books. Career Steffan O'Sullivan was a ''GURPS'' writer whose projects included ''GURPS Swashbucklers'' (1990) and '' GURPS Bunnies & Burrows'' (1992). He designed the ''FUDGE'' role-p ...

Jeff TalanianBrad Younie
and members of

Steve Jackson Games Steve Jackson Games (SJGames) is a game company, founded in 1980 by Steve Jackson, that creates and publishes role-playing, board, and card games, and (until 2019) the gaming magazine ''Pyramid''. History Founded in 1980, six years after the cr ...

' Men In Black demo team. In 2019 Carnage welcomed David Phipps, creator o
Pulp Alley
a skirmish level miniatures game. Authors have included C. J. Henderson
Howard Coffin
an
Lisa Comstock
Artis
Don Higgins
has made several appearances.

References

External links

*
Green Mountain Gamers
{{Multigenre conventions in North America Gaming conventions