The ACDC – The ArmChair Dragoons (D)igital Convention
an online gameplay-focused weekend to play great games with their designers, showcase some unheralded gems that need a wider signal boost, and check out some interesting talks & panels with folks in the wargaming industry; held annually on MLK weekend in January, and occasionally when we feel like another one
What is a “digital convention”?
It’s just like any other game convention, except in your pajamas!
Seriously, though, it’s an organized weekend of gaming and game events that takes place online, where GMs lead their game sessions through online gaming tools like Tabletop Simulator, Roll20, VASSAL, Discord, Tabletopia, Virtual Tabletop, and others. Players register for events just like any other convention, but rather than taking a seat at a specific table at the appointed time, they log into a virtual table with their GM at the appointed time.
The Armchair Dragoons use Discord as our central organizing hub. Think of this as our central lobby at the convention site, where everyone gathers, chats, hangs out, and finds their way to their game.
The Armchair Dragoons use Discord as our central organizing hub. Think of this as our central lobby at the convention site, where everyone gathers, chats, hangs out, and finds their way to their game. From our central Discord hub, we have channels for each ‘room’ and ‘table’ where you can find your game events. GMs will normally use the voice channels in Discord to help guide the players to appropriate sessions in the digital game platform, and most GMs will use Discord vote throughout their game sessions. Please do not give out the link to the Discord server to anyone; participants registered for the convention will have the link sent to them.
Panels & talk shows will take place using YouTube, with unlisted links that are shared only with convention-goers. As with the Discord server, please do not share these links. After the convention is over, the links will be made public for others to watch the recordings, but only registered participants will have access to the live chat as the panels are ongoing.
During the convention, different impromptu activities will pop up in the Discord server, from polls, to chat sessions, to door-prize giveaways. These are unscheduled and unscripted, so stick around even when your games aren’t ongoing.
The Armchair Dragoons convention staff, GMs, and tech support are all volunteers, so with that in mind, please keep interactions with everyone calm and polite. Tone of voice doesn’t always come through online in an obvious way, and without facial cues, some social interaction is bound to get lost. Everyone is here for a fun time of gaming, so let’s not get overly-heated with anyone in our online channels. Please refer to the code of conduct for all of our conventions to help guide that behavior.
2025 – The ACDC, 17-19 January 2025
We’ll add the links to the 2025 ACDC pages as needed when it gets here
- Announcement
- Video Feeds
- AAR
2024 – The ACDC, 12-14 January 2024
The annual tradition continues as we kicked off the year with another ACDC, our 5th different ACDC, our 6th overall digital wargame convention, and our 11th different overall digital event
2023 – The ACDC, 13-15 January 2023
The third January ACDC really nailed down the tradition for us, as we’ve made this weekend our home for the first digital convention of the year and getting wargamers back into the games after the holidays
2022 – The ACDC, 14-16 January 2022
Our second January ACDC on our regularly-scheduled weekend, and our 4th overall virtual wargaming convention
2021 – The June ACDC, 18-20 June 2021
With the cancellation of the Summer 2021 Origins, we took over that weekend to hold a bonus ACDC on their original dates
2021 – The ACDC, 15-17 January 2021
Our first ACDC on the regular January weekend, which has now become an annual tradition.
2020 – The Virtual Dragoons Assembly, 31 July – 1 August 2020
Before it was even called The ACDC, we held our first Assembly, in a virtual world, so we could still have a convention in the middle of the pandemic.
More ACDC archives/info will be added as they come