Photograph by Jess Jewell
Yeah, the typical weekly game night or Dungeons & Dragons campaign can be pretty fun at home, but have you considered playing in a castle among the lush forests of Hocking Hills? Travis McElroy—content creator and organizer/cofounder of Champions Grove (May 22–25 this year)—sure has.
“I’ve been doing TTRPG stuff for a while now, doing stuff with Adventure Zone and things like that. I’ve gone and worked at conventions for many years,” says McElroy. “I also have a background as the former technical director at Cincinnati Shakespeare Company and working in theater basically all my life. So it’s kind of those three different spokes of putting on an RPG-based event weekend and I was like, Oh I really want to do this.”
Photograph by Cal Harris
“This” is Champions Grove: a four-day adults-only gaming extravaganza at Ravenwood Castle in Hocking Hills that McElroy has been organizing for the last three years. Attendees can choose their own adventures and select from the plethora of game and activity options on offer, some hosted and DMed by special guests. Cosplay can be spotted around the camp just as frequently as a frisbee being tossed among friends. Since the event is in the middle of the woods, WiFi and phone signals are spotty, meaning typically introverted gamers have the chance to better connect to each other in person.
“People come from all over to the event,” says McElroy. “And then [from meeting here], they’ll form online gaming groups where they get together virtually and keep playing the game they started together. Or “I’m going to keep in contact with them so we can share new game systems that we found,’ and stuff like that. Hosts also do that! Most of them come and they haven’t worked together before, and then you’ll see them guesting on each other’s streams. It makes me ridiculously happy.”
Speaking of guest hosts, this year Champions Grove will have games run by Krystina Arielle (best known from Dropout and Critical Role), podcaster and DM Haley Whipjack, writer and streamer Riley Silverman, Diego Salinas from The Twenty-Sided Tavern, Paul Foxcroft from Questing Time, and McElroy himself.
Photograph by Cal Harris
Fans of any genre of game will be able to find something to do. Beside the 150 board games that Ravenwood Castle already has on premises, hosts and guests will bring even more for both competitive and introductory play. RPG enthusiasts will be pleased to see a mix of both traditional and original campaigns—both longform and one-shot—with varying experience levels required. A campaign McElroy is particularly excited about is a “Battle of the Bards” D&D one-shot.
McElroy is also looking forward to hosting a murder mystery session. “This will be the first year that I’ve carved out time to actually run a game…. And the idea is that they start in a tavern waking up at a table and their minds have been erased by this evil warlock, so now they have to piece together what happened and catch this warlock to get their memories back before he escapes town.”
Photograph by Jess Jewell
If you want a break from gaming for a bit, there will also be crafting sessions, improv classes, workshops, a karaoke night, a trivia night, and a 5k run. Plus, the castle being in Hocking Hills means there are plenty of beautiful trails nearby to explore.
McElroy hopes that the area’s natural beauty combined with the immersive fun of the event is making guests perceive the area in a new way. “I’ve lived in Cincinnati since 2010…and I’ve seen unique things and a real personality develop in the city, and I think this is hopefully contributing to that kind of Ohio vibe where it’s like yeah man, you’d have no idea this is here if you didn’t know about it, but these are the things you should be looking for.”
While the May 22–25 camp is almost completely sold out, if you act fast, you can nab the last cabin in the Huntsman’s Hollow or bid on an attendance package at Know Theatre’s CasiKNOW Royale fund-raiser on Friday, April 24.
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