Why I Heart Hoop & Stick Con!

Tomorrow Abigail and I will travel to Southeastern Ohio to attend Ravenwood Castle’s 10th annual Hoop & Stick Convention! A four-day gaming convention raising money for Extra Life. . .in a castle!! It is an exciting time for us not only because it will be our first out-of-town convention for Open Heart Games (we attended a local con this past fall), but because Hoop & Stick is a convention near to our hearts.

I participated in my first Hoop & Stick Convention in 2014 (the con’s second year) while I was working as an innkeeper at Ravenwood Castle. The next year I would be managing the castle’s sister-company The Malted Meeple and would be a representative as such and Abigail would participate in her first Hoop & Stick, now working as an innkeeper at the castle herself. [Yes, we met in a castle! Does it get nerdier than that?!] Hoop & Stick 2016 would be perhaps the most memorable convention ever, at least on a personal note, as during the closing ceremony, I asked Abigail to marry me. This convention was also how I was introduced to Extra Life, which of course is a charity that I still hold near and dear to my heart. Extra Life supports local children’s hospitals, which is something I have always been very supportive of due in part to the fact that I am alive today thanks to children’s hospitals. When I was 2 years old, I had to have open-heart surgery (thus the name of our company). Open Heart Games raised over $4,000 for the charity last year in support of our local hospital, Carilion Children’s.

So as you can see, Hoop & Stick Con is a very special convention, not only because it is in support of an amazing cause, but because Abigail and I can mark many of our milestones together by it. We haven’t attended a Hoop & Stick Con since moving to Virginia nearly 4 years ago and we are so excited that our first time back will also be a year where we get to represent the company that we have been busy growing this past year. Not to mention, we will get to help celebrate Hoop & Stick’s 10th year, a major anniversary. I will be running 3 systems at the con: D&D 5E, Call of Cthulhu, and Star Wars: Force & Destiny. I am looking forward to reconnecting with old friends, making new ones, and of course, helping to raise even more money for Extra Life!

Take Heart!

Karington Hess

Game Master and Founder of Open Heart Games