The quiet magic of an open gaming convention is that nobody is running anything for you. You walk in, you find a table, and you play what you want with whoever wants to play it.
Four days of exactly that. Board games, tabletop RPGs, miniatures, trading card games, and everything in the gaps between them. Community-run, built for people who already know what they want to play before they arrive.
The game library stays open throughout — check something out, find a table, go. Organized tournaments run alongside the open gaming rather than replacing it. The RPG schedule carries multi-session campaigns across all four days, with pre-registration for the longer formats.
This is not a show floor with demos and a line for a five-minute taste of something. It is a room full of tables where the gaming is the entire point.
Marriott Burbank, 2500 Hollywood Way, Burbank. August 13-16, 2026.
No spectators. Just games.
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In 12 days· Aug 15
Oxnard Performing Arts Center, 800…
Ventura County has spent years being the place you leave to find your people — an hour to San Diego, an hour to LA, a drive and a crowd on the other end. IchigoCon is the answer the community built for itself: proof that you don't need to be in a major metro to have a real fandom gathering, just people who care enough to make one.
It's run by the nonprofit behind the Oxnard Performing Arts Center, which gives it a genuine arts-and-culture weight most hotel-hall cons never get — a single, packed day of gaming tournaments, anime screenings, voice-actor guests, a vendor hall, and a cosplay competition, all tightly run. For fans from Ventura, Santa Barbara, and the western Valley, this is the home con, the place local fandom actually forms instead of just briefly gathering in someone else's crowd.
Oxnard Performing Arts Center, August 15 — a single-day pass, details and cosplay-contest registration at IchigoCon's page as the date nears. The show that deserves more attention than it gets, which is exactly the kind that grows.
Oct 2 – Oct 4, 2026
25.0
San Diego, CA (venue TBA — check t…
Somewhere between the person who has every card graded and sleeved, and the one who pulls out a binder at dinner to show what they found, is the person Trading Card Con was designed for.
Trading Card Con San Diego runs October 2-4, 2026 -- three days of buying, selling, trading, and being around people who take the hobby as seriously as you do. Badge tiers range from $25 day passes to $200 weekend League Badges, which says something about who shows up: this is not a flea market with trading cards at one table. It is a dedicated collector event built around the TCG community.
The experience covers Pokemon, Magic: The Gathering, sports cards, and the full range of collectibles that orbit the hobby. Tournament play, vendor halls, and the kind of floor conversations that happen when you put serious collectors in the same room. San Diego's collector community is active and established -- the same scene that fills Front Row Card Show in September and Card Party earlier in the year.
If you have been waiting for an October event that treats the hobby as the point, not the backdrop, this is the one. Three days. Full collector floor. San Diego.
Weekend Badge: $40 in advance. Day Badge: $25. Gym Badge ($100) and League Badge ($200) for full experience tiers. Tickets at tradingcardcon.com.
Sep 13, 2026
$20
7626 Miramar Rd Suite 3900, San Di…
By the time fall comes around, the format has stopped being a mystery — the new sets have been picked apart, the regional results already told everyone what's good, and the only question left is whether you can pilot your deck better than the person across the table who prepared just as hard. A City Championship is where you find out, and there's a specific tension to a room full of people who all did their homework.
Fall Cities carry a different weight than the spring events. The game's had time to breathe, the tier-one decks are known, and every round becomes a read — not just of the sixty cards opposite you but of the person shuffling them. TCS Rockets runs it with the infrastructure that makes the day feel like the event it is: organized rounds, real judges, a side-event area that keeps the day alive after you've finished your bracket. Large enough to be real, local enough to be yours.
TCS Rockets, 7626 Miramar Road, San Diego — September 13, $20 to enter. Register at play.pokemon.com or at the door. If you've been building around the fall format, this is the room to test it in.
Every Monday· Next Aug 3
Spikes Lounge, 5211 East Washingto…
Spikes Lounge in Commerce hosts weekly Magic: The Gathering gatherings every Monday, running from 6pm to 11pm. The format rotates based on the group: Draft, Sealed, or Commander — decided each week by the players who show up, which keeps the experience fresh and community-driven. Current sets in rotation include Final Fantasy, Lorwyn, and TMNT.
This is a beginner-friendly environment. If you have never played Draft or Sealed before, experienced players at Spikes are known for walking newcomers through the format. Commander pods are open to players of all experience levels. Entry fees run from $10 to $21 depending on the format selected that night. Free parking in the lot.
Spikes Lounge has become a reliable anchor for SoCal's tabletop community, offering consistent weekly events in a dedicated gaming space. For Magic players in the Commerce, Montebello, and East LA area, this is the closest serious weekly event. Recurring every Monday — the Eventbrite listing updates with the weekly format as it is announced.
Every Wednesday· Next Aug 5
GameStar Hobbies, 27380 Jefferson …
GameStar Hobbies, 27380 Jefferson Ave, Temecula. June 4th and every week. The D&D Adventurers League at GameStar — the ongoing organized play program that opens a seat at the table to anyone who walks through the door, whether you've been playing for twenty years or have never rolled a d20 in your life.
Adventurers League is the format that removes the biggest barrier to tabletop RPG: finding a group. You don't need to know anyone. You don't need to have a campaign. You bring a character — or build one at the table — and join the session already in progress. The stories accumulate across weeks, the characters grow, and the table at GameStar in Temecula becomes the place you spend Wednesday evenings when you'd rather be in a dungeon.
dnd.wizards.com/adventurers-league for character creation and campaign details. June 4th at GameStar Hobbies, and every week after. The Temecula tabletop community is real and welcoming — the kind of table where a first-time player and a veteran share the same session and both find something worth coming back for. Show up. The dungeon is already in there waiting.
Every Wednesday· Next Aug 5
1795 E Colorado Blvd, Pasadena, CA…
Somewhere in your closet is a game you bought six months ago that has never once made it to a table. Wednesday at Odyssey Games in Pasadena is where it finally does. The store opens its back tables for board game night, and the library is enormous - hundreds of titles from gateway games to heavy euros to social deduction, all free during open play. Come solo and slide into an ongoing game, bring a group and teach something new, or finally get that shrink-wrapped box on the table. The Wednesday crowd here has been building for years into the kind of group where regulars know which games are worth the rules explanation and which new releases are overhyped - the informal institutional knowledge that makes a game night actually good instead of just organized. Puzzle games, party games, and strategy titles mean there is something to discover even for players who think they have seen everything. Open 10 AM to 11 PM daily; the board game crowd typically fills the tables from 6 PM onward on Wednesdays. Free entry with open library access.
Every Wednesday· Next Aug 5
173 Fletcher Pkwy, El Cajon, CA 92…
The dread of showing up to game night and finding an empty table -- or worse, a Dungeon Master drowning under nine players -- is the exact thing this format kills. Off The Shelf Games in El Cajon runs structured Dungeons & Dragons every Wednesday under the TAC (Tabletop Adventures Club) banner, and the whole point is that you never walk in wondering whether the game will actually happen.
The campaigns use the 2024 D&D 5.5e ruleset and are set in Primordia, a homebrew world built specifically for this community of players. RSVP is required through Meetup or the store's Discord, where game details and table assignments post before each session. Whether you are a first-time player or a veteran DM, the organized format means a real table with the right number of people at it. Primordia gives returning players genuine continuity -- decisions from previous sessions carry forward -- while newcomers can drop into one-shot adventures without needing to know the campaign. Off The Shelf has been the hub for East County tabletop RPG play for years.
Text the friend who keeps saying they want to try D&D but is scared of showing up cold -- this is where they start. Wednesday nights are when the dice actually hit the table, 6 PM to 10 PM every week.
D&D Adventurers League at Game Empire SD runs every Thursday evening — open-table organized play where you drop in, pick up a pregenerated character sheet, and join a table mid-campaign or at the start of a fresh adventure. Dungeon Masters are provided. Dice are provided. Rules questions are not just tolerated but encouraged. The format is designed for anyone from complete newcomers rolling their first d20 to veterans who have been running campaigns since the original boxed set. Tables are organized by Tier so new characters sit with other Tier 1 adventurers while higher-level parties tackle harder content. If you have your own D&D Beyond character in Adventurers League legal format, bring it — it will be recognized at any AL table anywhere in the world after tonight. Game Empire SD is a dedicated tabletop game store with a committed event space, plenty of tables, and staff who know the rules. No reservation required for most sessions — check the Game Empire SD events calendar before you go to confirm table availability. Parking is available on-site. No experience necessary. The only bad session is the one you did not show up for.
Every Thursday· Next Aug 6
1795 E Colorado Blvd, Pasadena, CA…
There's a specific relief in a room with lighting good enough for detail work and a table you don't have to fold up at the end of the night -- somewhere your army can just live for a few hours. Odyssey Games in Pasadena runs Thursday hobby nights for miniature wargamers, model painters, and Warhammer 40K players who want exactly that. The format is intentionally social: players set up terrain for casual games or spread their models out to paint, Warhammer 40K leading but other systems welcome, the crowd a mix of competitive players testing list builds and hobbyists at every stage of the painting queue. The store stocks paints, brushes, primers, and Warhammer product, which solves realizing mid-session you're out of the one color you need. Bring the friend whose backlog rivals yours. Pasadena's Warhammer scene is active enough that finding a casual game on a Thursday is reliable -- no Discord coordination required. Open 10 AM to 11 PM; the community gathers from 6 PM Thursdays. Free entry.
Every Thursday· Next Aug 6
7626 Miramar Rd Suite 3900, San Di…
Pokemon TCG draft night at TCS Rockets is the Friday format that resets the playing field. You don't bring your tournament deck. You don't need one. The draft format builds your pool from packs opened at the table — everyone gets the same number of packs, you draft the cards in real time, you build a 40-card deck from what you picked, and you play. Your constructed collection doesn't matter. Your ability to read signals and build under pressure does.
TCS Rockets runs these every Friday, which means the table is a mix: the longtime competitive players who use draft to stay sharp, the newer players who find the format more accessible than Standard, and the people who just like cracking packs with other people who know what they're looking at. The energy is competitive but not grim. The Friday crowd is the friendliest version of this game.
TCS Rockets is at 7626 Miramar Rd, Suite 3900, San Diego. tcsrockets.com for entry fee and current set details. Prizes for top finishers. Show up ready to draft.
In 4 days· Aug 7
1795 E Colorado Blvd, Pasadena, CA…
There and back again — in card form. Magic's Hobbit set brings Middle-earth to the table: Bilbo, Gandalf, Smaug, the One Ring. Prerelease is where you play before the set is officially out. Six packs, one deck, complete strangers. Show up alone and leave with three new friends who also hate losing to Smaug.
In 4 days· Aug 7
7626 Miramar Rd Suite 3900, San Di…
Nobody at the table has played with these cards before, and that's the entire appeal. A Prerelease is the weekend you get Magic's newest set before it's officially out — six sealed packs, a deck you build from whatever you crack, and a pod of strangers all solving the same puzzle at once. This one drops Middle-earth onto the table: Bilbo and Gandalf, the One Ring, and a Smaug card that will wreck you at least once before you work out the answer to it. Sealed is the great equalizer — no netdeck, no advantage, just you and what the packs gave you. You show up alone and leave having spent four hours with people who now also have strong opinions about how to beat a dragon. There and back again, in card form. Bring the friend who quotes the movies from memory.
Aug 25 – Aug 26, 2026
COSM Los Angeles, Inglewood, CA
For ten years you have been waiting on Elbaph. Mostly alone — a chapter a week, on a phone, late, inside a story you have been reading for twenty-seven years.
Toei built a room for it. An 87-foot LED dome where the floor and the ceiling and every wall move at once, themed to the arc happening right now instead of one that already ended. First production of its kind in North America.
People who went to the Tokyo edition keep failing to describe it and landing in the same place: the closest anyone has come to standing on the Grand Line. Entry is by lottery, roughly 7,000 across both days, and Discord servers have organized group registrations since the announcement. There is no door to walk up to.
COSM Los Angeles, 777 Prairie Ave, Inglewood. August 25-26, 2026. Sessions 10am-2pm and 4pm-8pm. $109 per pair via Ticketmaster after lottery notification.
Send this to whoever you have been theorizing with for the last decade.
Jul 1 – Jul 4, 2027
Los Angeles Convention Center, 120…
Anime Expo 2027 returns to the Los Angeles Convention Center over the Fourth of July weekend, marking another year of what has become the largest anime convention in North America. AX draws over 100,000 attendees annually to experience the full spectrum of Japanese animation, manga, gaming, music, and pop culture in one of the most densely packed convention weekends in the world.
The LACC footprint spans multiple halls and the adjacent JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels, hosting industry panels, world premiere announcements, screening rooms, an exhibit hall with hundreds of vendors, autograph sessions with voice actors and anime composers, and concerts and live performances that sell out weeks in advance. Industry guests from major animation studios in Japan make AX their primary North American announcement platform — if a major sequel, adaptation, or licensing deal is going to be revealed, AX is often where it happens first.
For fans of specific series, the AX floor is where you find rare imported merchandise, exclusive collaboration products, and limited-run items that do not appear anywhere else. For casual anime watchers, the convention is a crash course in the depth and breadth of the community surrounding the medium.
Badge types range from Premier Fan badges (early access, priority room entry) to general admission single-day passes. The convention runs Thursday through Sunday over Independence Day weekend. Plan for crowds and book hotels inside the connected hotel corridor months in advance for the most convenient experience.
Oct 9 – Oct 11, 2026
Los Angeles Convention Center, 120…
There are only two US Regional Championship stops in 2026. This is one of them.
SCG CON Los Angeles runs October 9-12 at the Marriott Burbank, with the Regional Championship as the headline tournament — one of the highest-stakes competitive Magic: The Gathering events in the country. The weekend runs a full slate alongside it: Classic opens, side events, Commander pods, and the dealer hall.
Star City Games runs the circuit. The Regional Championship determines who qualifies for the national series. If your Magic game is competitive, the question is whether this trip makes the season schedule.
The side events run across all four days — $10 entry drafts, Commander brackets, and Standard opens that don't require the Regional grind. The dealer hall is one of the better places to buy and trade singles in Southern California.
Marriott Burbank, October 9-12. The $10 entry side events run across all four days and don't require Regional-level preparation. Good entry point for players building toward the circuit.