What is Dundracon?

by Lucas David

DunDraCon, (short for Dungeons and Dragons Convention), is a four-day celebration of role playing games that has come every President’s Day weekend since 1976, and is still recurring today. For the past three years, they have utilized the Santa Clara Marriott, converting hotel rooms and meeting rooms into game rooms and Live Action Role Play arenas. DunDraCon allows visitors to pre-register for games through the month of February, which I highly advise, given how greatly it raises your chances of getting into the types of games you enjoy. 

One of the games includes Dungeons and Dragons, or DnD, often considered the first real Role Playing Games. It’s a collaborative storytelling game where 3 or more players each control a single character, and one person playing the Dungeon Master or DM runs the narrative. Another game often played at DunDraCon is Live Action Role Play, or LARP. LARP is much like DnD, but rather than rolling dice and moving tokens, players act out everything their character does. They use items similar to movie props as they improvise scenes, along with foam weapons to whack each other with. Last listed but not least, is the open gaming room, where you can take a board game to a table and, if you like, put up a “Players Wanted” sign as an invitation to conventioneers seeking a game. 

The hotel lodging works if you wish to spend money on a hotel, though Santa Clara is just a 1 hour drive away if you’d rather drive home at the end of the day. The hotel cafe is tasty, though their menu only consists of about 2 items most young children will enjoy, those being a hamburger and pizza. The Marriott breakfast diner was excellent however, as well as the local restaurants. One of my favorites was an Indian food place called the Indian Sizzler that had delicious chicken tikka masala and samosas, despite having limited options for choosy eaters. 

Despite my forewarnings at the beginning of this text, it’s relatively easy to find a game enjoyable to you even without pre-registering, so I highly recommend dropping in when DunDraCon returns next year.