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Council of Five Nations Adventure Gaming Convention - General Information Overview

Council of Five Nations XXXIII

October 8-10, 2010

General Information Overview


Last Update: Wednesday, August 4th, 2010


Council of Five Nations is our annual gaming convention, held every year on Columbus Day Weekend in October. It is one of the longest-running adventure gaming conventions in the world. We'll be sponsoring our 33rd Council on October 8-10, 2010.

Please use the links below to get the most up-to-date info on the status of the convention.

If you have specific questions or requests, please email us at council /at/ swa-gaming.org (please replace the "/at/" with the standard "@").


The Council of Five Nations Philosophy

Council strives toward the goal of "quality over quantity". We're a relatively small con, but we try to have top-notch events. We predict an attendance of about 250 this year. As with all the Councils over the years, our goal is a nice balance between role-play games, miniatures, board games and other stuff.

The facility: Proctor's Theatre & Conference Center

Council will once again be held at at the brand new Proctor's Theatre and Conference Center, in the heart of downtown Schenectady, New York. You can learn more about Proctor's, a classic Vaudeville theatre, at their web site (please click here).

Schenectady, New York is:
  • About 3 hours north of New York City
  • About 4 hours south of Montreal, Quebec
  • About 4 hours east of Buffalo, New York
  • About 3 hours west of Boston, Massachusetts.
We had a very good experience at Proctor's for two years now.  So much so that we've made a commitment to stay there through 2010.  We also learned a lot in our first year there, so if you joined us in 2007, please expect things to be even better.  The Registration Area will be on the main floor, much easier to find.  We will have fewer games down in the basement, so noise and crowding will be less of an issue.

Group and Student Discounts

As we all know, things are a little tight with the economy these days.  We're doing a few things to help make it easier for you to attend a Council of Five Nations weekend getaway:
  1. We are keeping registration costs flat with last year.  A whole weekend pre-registration is still $27, plus event tickets (most are $2 each).
  2. We are keeping our policy of a $5 discount to everyone who pre-registers in a group of three or more.  Details will be in the pre-registration packet.  So start talking to your friends now!  Carpool to save on gas, and pre-register together to save even more.
  3. We are keeping our discounted entry fee for full-time students.  Kids age 9 or younger still get in free.  All other full-time students get in roughly half-price; a whole-weekend registration is $14.  All students still pay for individual event tickets (most are only $2 each).
  4. We are keeping our very generous GM policy - run an event and get your whole weekend registration fee waived.  GMs only pay for individual event tickets.  And... submit your event(s) by August 22nd and get a free Council T-Shirt.  More on this a couple of sections down...

Logistics

If you want to get a jump-start on your planning, or if you just want to look around...

You can click here to get directions to Proctors, including MapQuest maps.
You can click here to view and download maps and directions for your most convenient parking options.
You can click here to see our suggested hotel options if you need over night accommodations.

Running games at Council

We're currently looking for volunteers to run games at this years Council of Five Nations.

We have a very generous Game Master incentive program: if you run at least one game that appears in our pre-registration material, you get your entire weekend entry fee waived.  That's a $25 value!  You pay only for the event tickets for games that you play (which are typically $2 each).

Extra Special On-Time Game Master Incentive!  If you submit your events by the August 22nd deadline, you get a free Council T-Shirt!  But only if you get them in on time.

Please click here for more details, and to submit an event using our online form.


Star Fleet Battles

Council of Five Nations is the home of the largest SFB Rated Ace tournament in the country. Some of the best players in the world will be there this year. We're also always willing to teach the game to new people. There will be a coupon in your registration packet good for a free game of Star Fleet Battles. Guaranteed to be redeemable any time before 1:00pm on Saturday, and we can probably find someone to train you later in the weekend too.

We have set up a special web site dedicated to the Star Fleet Battles tournament at Council.  Please click here to go there now.


Hotels

We have two hotels we are recommending for your out-of-town Council stay.  Please check out the page we have dedicated to Council Hotels:

Council of Five Nations Hotels


The Council Discount Auction

The Discount Game Auction is one of our most popular events, and a long-time Council tradition.  It will be happening again this year during the long lunch break on Council Sunday (October 10th), from 2:00-3:00 PM.

We'll have over a hundred games and other gaming-related merchandise available.  This is an open, competitive bidding auction.

If you've got some games you'd like to sell, this is your chance to do so.  If you've got a few bucks left in your pocket at the end of Council weekend, this is also an opportunity for you to pick up some bargains.

If you'd like to sell merchandise at our auction (any Council attendee is welcome to do so), please click here to download the Council Auction Seller's materials in PDF format  (140 Kb).


Why do you call it Council of Five Nations?

Council of Five Nations Iroquois Warrior Logo
The Native American Iroquois tribes called the Upstate New York area their home. Each autumn, there would be a great gathering of the five tribes, or nations.  You can click here for the Wikipedia page that gives a lot more information, and related links. 

We call our annual convention The Council of Five Nations in homage to the Iroquois autumn gatherings from long before most of us had ancestors here. This is also the source of the official Council logo, the Iroquois warrior.

Planning way ahead

If you'd like to mark your calendar now, here are the dates for Councils beyond 2010:
  • October 7-9, 2011
  • October 5-7, 2012
  • October 11-13, 2013
  • October 10-12, 2014
  • October 9-11, 2015
Here's an easy way to remember: Council of Five Nations is always Columbus Day weekend.  When you see that national holiday on your calendar, block it off and make sure you're here with us, sharing in our gaming goodness.


Questions or Comments?

You can contact us directly at council /at/ swa-gaming.org (please replace the "/at/" with the standard "@").
You can also call Dave at (518) 464-1977, any day until about 11pm Eastern time.



Curious about the kind of events we've had in the past?

You can click on these links to see the full event listings for the past seven years of Council of Five Nations.

When you're browsing, it might help to know the following... 

Councils 20-28 were all held at the Studio of Bridge and Games / Price Chopper Community Room.  Space there was limited, we had fewer time slots, and we averaged around 100 attendees over those years. 

In 2006 (Council 29), we made the jump to a hotel.  We doubled the number of events offered.  It was a great success, and our attendance jumped to over 200.  Councils 30-32 in 2007-2009 were at our current location, the Proctors Conference Center.  We again had over 130 events and over 200 attendees.

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