My: Maryanne Cullinan
TTRPG summer started with a bang in Columbus, Ohio, with the 50th anniversary of Origins Game Fair. This annual five-day gaming convention was held at the Columbus Convention Center the weekend of June 19th, 2026.
Why Origins? An Overview
If you are a snobby East Coaster like me, you may never have been to the MidWest or Columbus, Ohio. Dear reader, let me set you straight! Between Origins, Pride, and the Ecuadorian Soccer Team in town for the World Cup, Columbus was a happening place in June this year, and every year I find it to be a lovely, welcoming city.
The Columbus Convention Center is a massive building with a giant vendor’s hall, the largest local collection of public art, and myriad rooms set out over several city blocks. The upside to this grandeur is that Origins Game Fair does not have the packed, almost claustrophobic vibes of more tightly packed conventions, despite having 19,000 attendees. Every corner has some little game demonstration, panel, or public event happening, but it feels busy, not overcrowded. The downside to being that spread out is that it takes a little getting used to not to get lost. I can confidently say that after three years at the CCC, I pretty much know where I am going now…mostly.
On a practical level, the 5-day event is half the price of PAX East and similar in pricing to GenCon and PAX Unplugged. There is plenty of hotel and AirBnB space in Columbus, and a tradition of food halls in the city, with the nearest one to the CCC, The North Market, being only a 5-minute walk away. The CCC itself also has some fast food stalls and the restaurants in the connected hotels if you want to have the full never-leaving-the-con experience.
There are hundreds of game and game-adjacent events that take place during Origins – competitive jigsaw puzzles, cosplay competition, karaoke, game demos, mini painting- you name it. Some of the events are free, while others cost a small fee to play. This year I attended a Pirate Borg event one evening, where piratically dressed DMs walked us through a swashbuckling adventure. Mood lighting, (electric) candles, and the slight scent of scurvy set the scene. It felt well worth the $8 I spent for several hours of playing a new RPG system. There is lots to do that is free, or you can spend all your money at the vendor hall, which includes an artist alley, tons of indie board game and TTRPG publishers, and more. 9th Level Games and their one-of-a-kind RPG system, “Kobolds Ate My Baby!” is always a fun presence that I recommend checking out.
My two small beefs with Origins are as follows: A, The scheduling app remains very clunky, and it takes a bit of time to get used to. It is frustrating not being able to find what you are looking for. B, Origins has the potential to be a real family-friendly destination for gamers of all ages. The CCC has room for kids to run and explore, and Origins and Columbus are relatively affordable. However, they are still working on children’s programming. When I brought my elementary and middle schoolers three years ago, we were able to piece together some things to do, but it took some effort (see: clunky app). Programming for children varies a lot from year to year. I imagine that this is something that will continue to be refined and looked at by GAMA, as they do seem to want to appeal to families.
Overall, Origins and the city of Columbus itself are fun places to be, a good value, and have a lot to offer.
Game-Based Education and Therapy Mini-Con
My true purpose at Origins this year was to launch the Game-Based Education and Therapy Mini-Con. This professional conference was created by a team of educators and therapists to help other educational and therapeutic-based professionals who use games!
We all know that games are fun. If you are reading this post, you have likely been impacted by TTRPGs enough that they are a hobby, help you create community, and maybe even impact your life in bigger ways. Now that all of the 80s and 90s kids who grew up playing games are professionals in their fields, there is a growing body of practical experience and research into how we can use games to help people learn and grow. The purpose of GBET is to help people who use games already, or want to start, find each other and learn. Origins is a great place to do that!
This year, practitioners who use TTRPGs and tabletop games of all kinds came together to learn from each other and grow both the community and the field. Everyone who presents at GBET has an advanced degree in their field and expertise in doing the work. This year’s GBET presentations occurred over three days and included presenters who work with middle school, high school, and undergraduate students, librarians, speech pathologists, and, of course, therapists who work with people at all stages of life.
One of my favorite presentations was called Roll For Communication: Using TTRPGs and AAC to Build Inclusive Spaces for Diverse Communicators. It was presented by three amazing speech pathologists named Jessica Girth, Jenny Siler, and Jaclyn Lewis. It asked: How can we create inclusive game spaces for people who do not communicate like the majority of players? It was incredible hearing the strategies for how to make the table even bigger. There were more than 25 presentations and workshops that touched on topics such as deconstructing trauma through gameplay, how to use games in classrooms from elementary through college levels, representations of disability in gaming, how to create library-based game programs, RPGs and adult leadership, and many more.
Origins Game Fair is a fun time, and GBET is a great place to learn more about applied gaming. GBET will be returning to Origins Game Fair in 2027. We hope to see you there, whether you are just curious, someone who uses games in their work occasionally, or someone with a lot of experience, it is important to grow the community together. After all, we always adventure in parties! Come on down to Columbus; it’s awesome!
About the Author
Maryanne Cullinan is a middle school teacher, PhD in Education and Academic RPG Researcher. She multi classes as cleric/bard/cat herder. She is the co-founder of Tabletop.Edu and GamingThe System(s) Collective. You can check out some of her work on http://www.culliopescauldron.com/, at http://www.tabletopedu.org/ or say hello @culliope on Discord
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