Natural Connections: Sandemonium

The Natural Connections event for August will be a Sandemonium convention, co-sponsored by the non-profit organization of the same name. Sandemonium, 7B Idaho’s only convention for all things nerdy, is taking over the Sandpoint Library again for an epic day filled with all of Sandpoint’s favorite convention events! All ages are welcome.

Connect with 7B’s nerd community at any of these family-friendly Sandemonium events:

Featured Workshops:

• 12:00 PM—World Building: Join Cael Amari, published fantasy author, to explore the creative process of world building. Learn about Cael‘s approach and workshop together to cultivate your own world-building process for roleplay, storytelling, or any creative endeavor you wish. Study well-executed fictional worlds and engage in an interactive workshop – be ready to write. Useful for fiction authors, game developers, role playing game masters and concept artists looking to create a lived-in world that feels real.
• 1:30 PM—Pathfinder: Game Master Ian, writer for Paizo, will teach you about the world of Pathfinder and tabletop role-playing games. Join us for this interactive gaming experience.
• 2:00 PM – Relicblade Intro Sessions with Andrew Drexel and Cael Amari: Relicblade is a tabletop tactics-RPG, focusing on heroic characters, dangerous adventures, and intuitive gameplay. Players command a party of champions on an epic quest to decide the fate of a dying world. For novices to the genre, dynamic enough to engage veteran wargamers, and quick-playing, with a framework campaign or one-off scenario play. Panelists are both veteran players of competitive wargames, accustomed to heavy duty rules in the hundreds of pages in length and armies of dozens of models.

Events throughout the day:

• Cosplay: Show off your favorite Cosplay as either a Sandemonium attendee or enter into our Cosplay Contest. Registration for the contest will be on-site during the event until 2:30 PM with a contest at 3:00 PM.
  Cosplay grew out of the practice of fan costuming at science fiction conventions, beginning with Morojo’s “futuristicostumes” created for the 1st World Science Fiction Convention held in New York City in 1939. A rapid growth in the number of people cosplaying as a hobby since the 1990s has made the phenomenon a significant aspect of popular culture in Japan, as well as in other parts of East Asia and in the Western world. Cosplay events are common features of fan conventions and are a staple at Sandemonium!
• Miniature Figure Painting: Join others in painting miniatures throughout the day.  Let the community see your painting skills. Bring a previously finished mini from your collection to enter the contest. Contest registration will be onsite the morning of the event until 2:00 PM with the contest winners announced at 2:30 PM.
• Tabletop Gaming: Play new and classic board games with us. We will have an extensive library of games: Clue, Catan, Unstable Unicorns, Betrayal at the House on the Hill, Ticket to Ride, and more. Play a few rounds of classics like Magic the Gathering and Pathfinder or try a new game with other attendees to build your gamer network.
  • Magic the Gathering (a.k.a. MTG or Magic): Join us for this competitive card game that has approximately 50 million players as of February 2023. Come play or learn this strategic battle game.
  • Pathfinder: Play a game of Pathfinder with the Game Master Ian! Pathfinder is a role-playing game that combines RPG with a dungeon crawling board game.
• Esports: Flex your skills in a Super Smash Bros tournament or catch a couple of casual rounds of great games.
  • 12:00-1:00 PM—Free Play, try your hand at playing available video games
  • 1:30 PM—Super Smash Bros Tournament
• Meet-Ups: Collect Street Passes from other 3DS Streetpass players, introduce your fursona to other furry friends, or volunteer with Sandemonium to host a meet-up for your favorite community.
  12:30-1:00—Furry meet-up
  2:00-2:30—3DS Street Pass Meet-up: Relive the glory days of your Nintendo 3DS!
• Rapier Demonstrations (Medieval Fencing) throughout the day in the garden by The Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) who is devoted to the research and recreation of pre-seventeenth century skills, arts, combat, and culture. Learn and try your skill at this ancient art.
• Fort Respite: A quiet place to quiet minds.
• All-day Bake Sale and more.

About our Co-Sponsor:
The non-profit organization Sandemonium has a mission to cultivate an all-inclusive environment for the exploration and celebrations of all fandoms and nerd communities including but not limited to: anime, comics, sci-fi, fantasy, tabletop gaming, video games, esports, and cinema.