PrinceCon, held annually since 1976 on the campus of

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

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is one of the oldest fantasy

role-playing Role-playing or roleplaying is the changing of one's behaviour to assume a role, either unconsciously to fill a social role, or consciously to act out an adopted role. While the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' offers a definition of role-playing a ...

game conventions in the United States and is responsible for the introduction of the ''super-dungeon'' role-playing marathon format.

History and background

The first PrinceCon convention was run in 1976 under the direction of Howard Mahler. It introduced the concept of a ''super-dungeon'' where multiple game masters led players on adventures into the same interconnected dungeon. The dense, 46-hour, non-stop format allowed participants to experience up to seven or eight related adventures in a single weekend. Each adventure followed a central theme and worked towards a carefully orchestrated climactic resolution on the final day of play, simulating the experience of a longer

role-playing campaign A campaign is a continuing storyline in a game. In role-playing games, it is a set of adventures. In video games, it may be a linked series of quests designed to tell a complete story. In role-playing games A campaign in a tabletop role-playi ...

. In 1978 (PrinceCon III), the convention adopted Mahler's PrinceCon role-playing system, loosely based on

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical Studies Rules ...

with optimizations for convention play. These optimizations included elements such as a Mage 'Spell Point' system (eliminates the overhead of customized lists of memorized spells) and a similar Clerical 'Prayer Point' system. In 1984 (PrinceCon IX), another extensory refinement was the introduction of Clerical religions, where each religion having its own complementary and semi-customized list of Prayers. Over the years, this RPG system diverged from D&D and acquired a following outside of the PrinceCon convention, leading to the introduction of additional guidelines for campaign play. In 2006, it was further adapted to work with the D20 system of role-playing games and was re-released under the

Open Gaming License The Open Game License (OGL) is a public copyright license by Wizards of the Coast that may be used by tabletop role-playing game developers to grant permission to modify, copy, and redistribute some of the content designed for their games, nota ...

. In 2017 it moved to Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition rules. After the first few years, the use of a ''super-dungeon'' was dropped; however, from that concept developed one of the continuing aspects that makes PrinceCon different from other events: a strong ''meta-theme''. All adventures (irrespective of game master) take place in the same "universe" with an overarching plot and goal (which generally results in the events of individual adventures having con-wide effect and players in different parties collaborating over the span of the convention). Generally the ''meta-theme'' and game universe are different every year (however PrinceCons 29 through 31 were a trilogy with a continuing plot that spanned all three conventions). Another noteworthy aspect of PrinceCon, since its conception, is how characters are managed. Instead of being assigned characters by each individual game master for the duration of an adventure, players are allowed to create a character at the beginning of the convention that they keep throughout their stay (barring in-game death), gaining experience, collecting magic items and leveling up as the story progresses between adventures, which is generally more representative of campaign play.

Interesting facts

In a 2001 interview, Skaff Elias a Game Designer for Wizards of the Coast, and author of the Miniatures Handbook (Dungeons & Dragons Supplement) when asked, said that his favorite miniatures engagement was a series of battles he experienced at PrinceCon.D&D Chainmail - Designers' Roundtable (June 2001)
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References

External links

Princecon web sitePhillyGamer.com
- A recent podcast on PrinceCon. Role-playing conventions 1976 establishments in New Jersey Recurring events established in 1976 Annual events in New Jersey