I spent the last weekend hosting friends at the Gamers Ranch, a gaming-focused vacation property in the middle of Missouri. I had an amazing time, and I loved seeing the power of the tabletop community in action, especially in seeing different gaming friends intermingle.

As I reflected on the weekend, I realized that among the dozens of games played, there were 5 games that hit the table more than any others. I thought I’d briefly look at each of those games to see what made them work particularly well for events and conventions, which can sometimes be the difference for a game to break out.

Moon Colony Bloodbath: I taught and played this 6 times over the weekend, and nearly everyone played again later. Even though it’s heavier than the other games on this list, the single deck of cards (flip a card and everyone does what it says) helps a teacher to guide everyone through the first few turns. It’s also entirely simultaneous, so there’s no downtime. There’s also the dark humor of the theme and the bold name, which seemed to attract curiosity from those who hadn’t played.

Lord of the Rings Trick-Taking: The cooperative nature of this game creates a sense of camaraderie; camaraderie is often a primary motivator for someone to attend a gaming event. Also, the short playing time and the variety of each chapter–all based on a simple core system–created a “just one more game” mentality.

Bomb Busters: I’ll continue what I said above about the Lord of the Rings trick-taking game, as this applies to both: I’ve noticed at gaming events that many people are hesitant to commit to a 3-hour game, yet they’ll end up playing short, escalating, cooperative games like Bomb Busters for hours. I love the idea of breaking a longer game into bite-size pieces.

Magical Athlete: Everything about the product design of this whimsical racing game lends itself to events. While it asks players to make a key decision before the game starts (which characters you select in the draft), the rules are so bare-bones that this isn’t a problem. I noticed that people seemed to gravitate towards this game after playing a heavier game, as it’s a great brain break.

Mindbug: This snappy two-player dueling game has a unique hook that seemed to intrigue people (twice per game when your opponent plays a card, you can claim it as your own instead). An accessible, quick 2-player game is really nice for an event when a few people are waiting for longer, larger-group games to finish.

Also note that all of these games are super fast to set up.

One other commonality between these games is that they all had someone championing them. This can make a huge difference at an event or convention: If there’s someone visibly excited to play a game they already know, people will gravitate towards that game.

Have you noticed a game spreading like wildfire at events or conventions? What is it about that game or the situation that resulted in the game returning to the table over and over?

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Here are the events and conventions in which Stonemaier Games is participating in 2026.

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I just spent a delightful weekend at Geekway Mini here in St. Louis playing tabletop games–including several play-and-win games–with a variety of wonderful people. Among some new-to-me favorites, I also taught and played Origin Story, Viticulture with the new expansion board (subscribe here for more info), and an epic 7-player game of Scythe on a friend’s stunning custom board.

With many game conventions big and small happening around the world in 2026, I thought this might be a good opportunity to shine the spotlight on the amazing play-and-win system that originated with Geekway many years ago. Also, tickets for the bigger version of Geekway will be available starting this Friday–I’d love to play a game there with you in May if you decide to attend!

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My favorite way to market our products is to facilitate and encourage them to get to the table more often. Your table, my table, the tables of reviewers, ambassadors, etc–any table will do. The more our products get to the table, the more they’re exposed to people, and hopefully the more fun people can have with them.

This is a big part of the reason why we support our products with reprints, expansions, and ongoing reviews, as well as focusing on accessibility (Watch It Played videos, ability to teach to new players on the fly instead of frontloading rules, etc). Our goal is to bring joy to tabletops worldwide, but a key element is that our games must actually get to the table.

One of my favorite ways to accomplish this goal is through play-and-win donations for game conventions and 100+ person events.

Play-and-win is a convention concept where people can check out a game, play it, and then enter their name in a lottery to win that specific game at the end of the convention. If I donate a play-and-win game to a convention, it can be experienced by dozens and dozens of people in a short amount of time. Only one of those people will win it, so if other people liked the game, they’re now informed in their decision to purchase it later.

I’ve been talking about play-and-win on this blog for a while after discovering it at St. Louis’ own Geekway to the West (which I’m attending again this year–I highly recommend it), and I’ll post those links at the bottom of this entry. Stonemaier Games sends dozens of games each month to support conventions around the world.

Today I’m going to focus on the play-and-win Google Doc that I created and maintain, as well as my current approaches to maximizing the potential of play-and-win for publishers, conventions, and gamers.

Publishers

If you’re a publisher who likes the play-and-win system, but you don’t like getting solicitations from hundreds of conventions, the Google Doc is for you. You can simply enter your information on this tab, which communicates to the participating conventions that you’re in the know and don’t need to be contacted individually.

As a publisher myself, my process for sending out play-and-win games is that I have a calendar alert late each month to remind me to check the Google Doc for conventions happening 2-3 months in the future. For example, today (mid-January) I’m looking at conventions happening in March and April. Conventions have told me that this advance notice is really helpful, particularly so the coordinators can tell vendors which games are coming in time for them to stock up via distributors.

The number of games I send to a convention depends on the size of the event. Sometimes the play-and-win coordinators enter their information on the Google Doc and forget about it, so I help to remind them of what the package is by including the words “play-and-win” as part of the address label.

I try to keep our ambassadors informed about the various conventions that feature our play-and-win games. If any of them attend those conventions, they can make sure to drop by from time to time to see if players have questions. Otherwise, you don’t need to be worried about having teachers present–people who use play-and-win are usually comfortable to learn the game from the rulebook, and random fans of the game often stop by to help out.

Last, while we donate our games to play-and-win sections for free, it’s perfectly reasonable for you to offer a convention a discount instead of a free game. This can actually be helpful to the convention, as it lets them buy exactly what they think will be the most exciting for their attendees (instead of letting you choose).

Conventions

If you’re completely new to play-and-win, read this blog entry about the core details (or these instructions on the Geekway website). Then take note of the following:

• Please enter your convention on the Google Doc (use open rows at the bottom of each month or insert a new row). In doing so, you’re committing to use any contributed games for play-and-win, and you’re committing to actually having a play-and-win section with at least a dozen total games (even if it means allocating part of your convention budget towards buying games specifically for this purpose). You can now indicate if you prefer different games or multiple copies of the same game.
• In filling out the Google Doc, there’s no need to contact publishers–particularly publishers on this tab–to solicit donations. You will either receive games 30-45 days before your event…or you won’t, in which case you have plenty of time to purchase games to fill your play-and-win section.
• At least several weeks before the convention, tell vendors which games were donated for play-and-win so they can stock those games at the event. The play-and-win section should close (and winners announced) before the vendors close their booths.
• When you receive the games, prepare them to be played (i.e., punch the punchboards, open shrinkwrapped decks of cards, sort tokens, etc). This serves the attendees hoping to show up and start playing.
• It never hurts to follow up with a publisher after a convention to let them know how their games did in the play-and-win section (number of plays and ratings from participants). I understand that this is extra work, and I won’t ever hold it against a convention for not doing so, but it’s really nice when conventions do this.
• I recommend only letting each person win at most 1 game for the entire event–that way you spread out the prizes among the most people. Also, instead of interrupting the event to announce the winners, simply post them at a few key places around the convention hall or on an online forum designated for attendees to check.

There are other tips from specific conventions on this tab of the play-and-win Google Doc.

Gamers

If you like the idea of play-and-win, feel free to check out the conventions listed on the Google Doc. You might discover a nearby game convention that you haven’t heard of.

If you’re new to game conventions, you might be pleasantly surprised by them–especially the type of convention where you just play lots of games for a few days. I’m an introvert who does not get excited about big events, but my experience at Geekway is consistently amazing. I really appreciate people who have invited me to join their game or when someone teaches a new-to-me game, and I’ve tried to be just as welcoming to others. If you attend Geekway in May and you see me, please say hi–I’d love to play a game with you!

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What are your thoughts on play-and-win?

Also see:

• a developer has created some proprietary play-and-win software
• An Open Letter to Small Game Conventions from a Tiny Publishing Company
• The New Play-and-Win System
• The Hard Data Behind Play-and-Win
• The Magic of Play-and-Win: Data from Geekway 2015
• 5 Google Spreadsheets That Can Help Every Tabletop Game Creator

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There’s no one at Stonemaier Games who travels as much as Alex Schmidt, our COO. Alex frequently flies to conventions and visit with distributors, meeting our partners face-to-face and learning how we can work together better.

Given Alex’s extensive business travel experience, I asked him if he might be willing to share some tips that might benefit other creators. Alex was kind to write the following guest post.

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Hi! I do a decent amount of travelling for my work with Stonemaier, going to various conventions and B2B events to meet with our various distributors and retailers. Here are a few travel tips I’ve learned along the way:

Upgrade (but only if it’s cheap)

This really only applies to international flights. For domestic flights I never pay for upgrades, though with loyalty rewards (see below) it’s pretty common to get free upgrades. That said, it’s always worth looking at upgrading your seats for international flights. I don’t recommend taking expensive upgrades, but when you’re travelling for work, your time is not only valuable to you but to your company. If you can arrive more rested, then you’re a more valuable employee for your company as well as personally having a better experience.

Fly at reasonable times

This one seems obvious to me but I’m always surprised just how often I hear about people taking early morning or overnight redeye flights. Sometimes it’s unavoidable (like travelling internationally), but I find that I’m a much happier traveller when I’m not getting up at 3AM to get to the airport at 4:30AM for a 6AM flight. Unless you absolutely have to, be kind to yourself and take a flight at a more reasonable hour.

Take the bus or train instead of a layover (in Europe)

In my personal experience, this suggestion only really applies in Europe where distances between locations tend to be shorter and public transportation tends to be better. Sometimes you’re travelling somewhere where there’s not a good airport with a lot of direct flights. For example, frequently the flight route from the US to Birmingham is to fly to Amsterdam to catch a layover back to Birmingham. Post Brexit this also means you’re dealing with EU and UK customs.

My preferred alternative has been to fly to London directly from the US and then catch a bus to Birmingham. The train is possible too, but the bus station is right in the Heathrow airport. The result? I get to Birmingham just as fast if not faster, it’s cheaper with a bus instead of the layover, and the last part of the trip is more relaxed without the need to go through customs a second time.

Stick to one hotel chain and one airline when you can manage it

There are books worth of content on maximizing travel and credit card points. I’m not going to attempt to expound too much, but if you’re travelling a lot and when you can stick to one airline and/or one hotel chain, you get perks and those perks do add up. Upgrades on flights and rooms are fairly common. So are things like free breakfast. So, when you’re travelling for work, it benefits your company as well as you.

Plus, even when you’re travelling for work, you do get points for airlines and hotel chains which you can turn into free personal flights or hotel rooms when they add up. If you split things up more, you’re going to get fewer points and fewer perks. Plus the points you do have will be spread out in ways that make it difficult to actually use them.

Add days to explore

Your company sent you to a distant location for work. That’s great! But you just spent the entire time working there. Maybe you had some different meals. But, you’re already there. It doesn’t cost your company anything to have your arrival flight come in a few days early or your return flight a few days late. You’re already there. Take advantage of where you are to take a cheaper vacation and explore a different part of the world.

Plus, if you’re going to the same location year-after-year, well that’s a chance to explore more nearby places and get even more familiar with it. Maybe even ask your company if they’d be willing to fly you in to a different nearby location and then you can get yourself from there to your destination at the end of your vacation. Italy’s a lot cheaper to get to the UK from than the US is.

A few purchases to consider

Comfortable shoes go a long ways, but that’s as much about walking around at a convention or sightseeing as it is actual travel. A battery pack as a backup to charge your phone/kindle/earbuds/etc is always a good idea. Travelling is what got me to finally adopt a kindle versus physical books just because it’s smaller and takes up less space for travel.

Relax

This may be more important than all of my other recommendations. Travel is stressful. And you’re generally surrounded by other people who are also stressed out. Figure out what lets you relax when you’re travelling, and lean into it. For me, personally, I’d much rather get to the airport early and let myself read a book while hanging out and waiting for my flight.

I always check my bag. Yes, it might get lost, but if it does I’ll figure that out when it happens. And in the meantime, I’m not trying to manage keeping track of and moving around a roller bag. Yes, I could be more efficient about all of my travel, but I’d much rather have a more restful, relaxing experience while I am travelling. It’s going to take time. But I’d rather it took a bit more time and have the quality of that time be better than being done faster while being more stressed. Relaxing looks different for everyone, though. Just take the time to ask yourself how you can relax best while you’re travelling.

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Thanks so much for these insights, Alex! I’ll open the floor to readers as well: What’s your #1 business travel tip?

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