Complete Carnage

Vermont is known for many things: Newhart, Woodchuck Cider, Orson Bean (the voice of Bilbo). It is also known, in nerdier circles, as the home of annual gaming and geek culture convention Carnage.

This year's celebration – the convention's 11th – arrives under the auspicious theme "We Go to 11." As such, it has taken on a bit of a musical theme. So, in addition to regular events like CCG, miniature, RPG, and board gaming, attendance will also be encouraged to test their mettle in Rock Band and Guitar Hero tournaments. To the victor of such undertakings go the spoils, but, uh, spoils are sort of hard to come by in small New England towns.

To that end, the con’s venerable Dr. Nik approached me regarding his attempt to secure some handsome prizes from the greater geeky music community. It turns out that Carnage is also looking to screen nerdy documentaries, so, in short, they’re pretty much looking to help promote your projects in the greater northeastern US. But rather than steal Nik’s thunder, I’ll let him drop the knowledge concerning specifics:

Greetings Nerds & Geeks!

I am Dr. Nik. I am not a real doctor, but I play one in RPGs. Currently I am secretary of Carnage Gaming Convention, now in its eleventh year. (http://www.carnagecon.com Nov 7-9th, 2008)

This year’s convention has a "rock n role" theme, because, much like Spinal Tap, this one goes to 11. And to help keep with the theme, we have two console game tournaments: Rock Band and Guitar Hero.

We plan on giving the winners a Rock Band II kit, but we’re currently looking for secondary prizes with more pizzazz than a puny iTunes gift card. This is where you come in.

Are you a nerdcore, geek rock, filk, or Wizard Rock performer? Do you have DVD, CD, or promotional material (T-shirt, sticker, etc) that you’d be willing to donate to help us make a nice prize package?

Time is short, but if you have any swag that we could use as prizes for our Rock Band and Guitar Hero contests, we'd be honored to distribute them to the geeks and nerds participating.

Alternately, if you have any rockumentaries, concert footage DVDs, or other geek culture docs, we would likewise be honored to show them at Carnage 11!

Mail your nerd documentaries or prize support by Oct 31st to:

Carnage Gaming
64 County Road-Hartland
Windsor, VT 05089

Or contact us at info@carnagecon.com for more details.

We promise to send you something special from CARNAGE in return.

-dr.nik-

So there you have it, folks. If you’ve got some nerdy goods you’d like to donate or a geeky documentary for which you’d like to arrange a screening, hit up Nik and the Carnage crew. In exchange, Ben & Jerry’s promises not to make the switch to breast milk.

Those Vermonters looks after each other!