Missouri has the unusual distinction of anchoring both ends of the Midwest convention calendar: Planet Comicon Kansas City in March and GalaxyCon St. Louis in October bookend the year, with Geekway to the West in May adding one of the most beloved board gaming conventions in the country. Kansas City and St. Louis have different nerd culture personalities — KC feels community-built and comics-rooted; St. Louis has the Geekway legacy and a genre community with roots in old-school science fiction fandom.
Kansas City: Planet Comicon and RPGKC
Planet Comicon Kansas City (March 27–29, 2026, Bartle Hall, 301 W 13th St) is Missouri's largest comic convention and one of the biggest in the Midwest — 70,000+ attendees, a legendary dealer's room stocked with vintage comics, and a creator lineup with genuine industry credibility. See the full Planet Comicon guide.
The Role-Players Guild of Kansas City (RPGKC) has been supporting tabletop gaming in the area since 1990 — one of the longer-running gaming nonprofits in the Midwest. They maintain relationships with regional game shops, conventions, and publishers, and run regular events throughout the year. If you're new to KC and want to find the gaming community, RPGKC is the front door.
KantCon, Johnson County's summer tabletop gaming convention, is another KC-area anchor — a focused, community-run event with strong RPG roots. Meeple-a-thon is a fall charity gaming event in KC that benefits at-risk community members. The KC calendar has something at essentially every point in the year.
St. Louis: Geekway and GalaxyCon
Geekway to the West (May 14–17, 2026, St. Charles Convention Center) is St. Louis's crown jewel — four days of pure board gaming in St. Charles with a Play-and-Win library, warm community culture, and about 3,000 attendees who treat it as an annual pilgrimage. See the full Geekway guide.
GalaxyCon St. Louis (October 23–25, 2026, America's Center, 701 Convention Plaza, St. Louis) is the city's pop culture convention — a 3-day festival of fandom with celebrities, artists, voice actors, cosplay contests with $4,000+ in prizes, fan groups, and panels. Hours run Friday 2pm–8pm, Saturday 10am–8pm, Sunday 10am–6pm.
St. Louis game shops serve both the board gaming community that Geekway has cultivated and the broader gaming scene. The metro area's convention infrastructure has improved considerably over the past decade, with America's Center in downtown St. Louis now a regular convention venue.
Missouri Conventions
| Convention | Location | 2026 Dates | Focus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Planet Comicon KC | Bartle Hall, Kansas City | March 27–29 | Comics, celebrities, gaming |
| Geekway to the West | St. Charles Convention Center | May 14–17 | Board gaming, community |
| KantCon | Johnson County (KC area) | Summer TBD | Tabletop RPG, gaming |
| GalaxyCon St. Louis | America's Center, St. Louis | October 23–25 | Comics, pop culture, celebrities |
| Meeple-a-thon | Kansas City | Fall TBD | Charity gaming |
Kansas City or St. Louis for the gaming scene — which is better?
Different strengths. KC has longer-running organized gaming infrastructure through RPGKC, stronger comic convention heritage through Planet Comicon, and a year-round calendar. St. Louis has Geekway, which for pure board gaming is the best convention in the Midwest. Serious Missouri gamers do both. The two cities are three hours apart on I-70 — it's a manageable drive for a convention weekend.
Is the Kansas City gaming community welcoming to transplants?
Very. RPGKC has been deliberately building an inclusive community for 35+ years and explicitly welcomes new members. Game shops run new-player events regularly. The convention community around Planet Comicon and KantCon is known for being accessible to people who don't already have an established social circle in the hobby.
Missouri convention and community information reflects available data as of 2026.