Marmalade Dog is an annual

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 ...

operated by the Western Michigan Gamers Guild (WMGG) and held on the campus of

Western Michigan University Western Michigan University (Western Michigan, Western or WMU) is a public research university in Kalamazoo, Michigan. It was initially established as Western State Normal School in 1903 by Governor Aaron T. Bliss for the training of teachers ...

Kalamazoo Kalamazoo ( ) is a city in the southwest region of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Kalamazoo County. At the 2010 census, Kalamazoo had a population of 74,262. Kalamazoo is the major city of the Kalamazoo-Portage Metropolit ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

each spring. Marmalade Dog is traditionally held in The Bernhard Center (WMU's student union). Exceptions to this were in 1999 (Sangren Hall), 2002 (Ellsworth Cafeteria) and 2006 (Student Recreation Center).

Name

The distinctive name for the convention was given a brief explanation in th
1994 pre-registration book
The name was actually suggested by John Zimmerman (Guild Librarian around the time of the first Marmalade Dog): Prior to 1994 the WMGG was known as the "Western Area Role-Players" and the convention called "WARPCon".

Logos

The original Marmalade Dog logo was also created by John Zimmerman. This illustration was used to brand and promote Marmalade Dog up to and including the 1999 convention. It was at this convention (Marmalade Dog 4) that professional fantasy artist

Jeff Easley Jeff Easley (born 1954) is an oil painter who creates fantasy artwork for role-playing games, comics, and magazines, as well as non-fantasy commercial art. Early life Easley was born in Nicholasville, Kentucky in 1954. He spent time drawing as ...

drew a rendition of Marmalade Dog which he gave to the WMGG. While the Easley illustration did become the new "official" Marmalade Dog, the classic logo was still used on some convention materials until 2001 and after that on certain WMGG materials. Most recently the Zimmerman dog was used as a repeating pattern on the WMGG photo ID membership cards issued 2005–present. A new vision of Marmalade Dog has been created for nearly every convention since Marmalade Dog II, however it was not until Mia Paluzzi's illustration for Marmalade Dog 7 in 2002 that all convention materials (web site, books, badges, T-shirts, etc.) began to exclusively use the annually changing image.

Timeline

1994 * Marmalade Dog: Gamefest 94, January 15–16, Special Guests:

Troy Denning Troy Denning is an American fantasy and science fiction author and game designer who has written more than two dozen novels. Background Denning grew up in the mountain town of Idaho Springs, Colorado. An avid reader of science fiction and fant ...

and

Greg Costikyan Greg Costikyan (born July 22, 1959, in New York City), sometimes known under the pseudonym "Designer X", is an American game designer and science fiction writer. Costikyan's career spans nearly all extant genres of gaming, including: hex-based wa ...

1995 * Marmalade Dog Gamefest II, October 1–2, Special Guest:

Sam Chupp Sam Chupp is a tabletop game designer from the United States. Career Sam Chupp is the co-creator of the roleplaying games ''Wraith: the Oblivion'' (1994) and ''Changeling: The Dreaming'' (1995). Chupp was the Special Guest at the Marmalade Dog Gam ...

1996 * Marmalade Dog III Gamefest, March 9–10, Special Guest: Bill Slavicsek. 1999 * Marmalade Dog 4, March 27, Special Guest:

2000 * Marmalade Dog 5 Gamefest, April 1, Special Guest:

Tom Wham Tom or TOM may refer to: * Tom (given name), a diminutive of Thomas or Tomás or an independent Aramaic given name (and a list of people with the name) Characters * Tom Anderson, a character in ''Beavis and Butt-Head'' * Tom Beck, a character ...

{{ cite web , url=http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.frp.announce/msg/9757ec6b940e4ea4 , title=[con] UPDATE Marmalade Dog 5 - Kalamazoo, Michigan - 4/1/2000 , accessdate=February 18, 2007 , author=Brandon Myres , date=2000-03-22 2001 * Marmalade Dog 6: Gamefest 2001, March 31 - April 1 2002 * Marmalade Dog 7: Gamefest 2002, March 23–24 2003 * Marmalade Dog 8: Gamefest 2003, March 29–30 2004 * Marmalade Dog 9: Gamefest 2004, April 2–4 2005 * Marmalade Dog 10: Gamefest 2005, March 11–13 2006 * Marmalade Dog 11, March 24–26 2007 * Marmalade Dog 12, March 16–18 2008 * Marmalade Dog 13, March 28–30 2009 * Marmalade Dog 14, January 30 - February 1 2010 * Marmalade Dog 15, March 26–28 2011 * Marmalade Dog 16, April 15–17 2012 * Marmalade Dog 17, February 24–26 2013 * Marmalade Dog 18, February 8–10 2014 * Marmalade Dog 19, February 7–9 2015 * Marmalade Dog 20, February 6–8 2016 * Marmalade Dog 21, March 18–20 2017 * Marmalade Dog 22, March 24–26 2018 * Marmalade Dog 23, March 30 - April 1 2019 * Marmalade Dog 24, February 22–24 2022 * Marmalade Dog 25, March 11–13

References

External links

*http://www.marmaladedog.org/ - The Marmalade Dog website. *http://www.wmgg.org/ - The Western Michigan Gamers Guild website. Gaming conventions Western Michigan University