History of the IFGS

The IFGS was founded in 1981 in Boulder, Colorado by John Cade and Mark Simmons. Cade, a fencing enthusiast and Simmons, manager of a local hobby shop, ran a game called The Truing in the summer of 1981 where players who were experienced fencers were the only ones who were allowed to fight in melee - using fencing foils and wooden staves! It quickly became apparent that foam weapons were necessary for the enjoyment of everyone.

By the following year, 8 more games ran, and by 1987 the IFGS had begun to spread across the U.S., with its second chapter in Dallas, TX. The organization in Boulder became the Denver/Boulder chapter and a new organization, the Society, was formed to standardize games in different locations.

Chapters in New England and Los Angeles quickly sprung up, and by 1989 the IFGS was large enough to host is own convention, Once Upon a Con, which ran annually from 1989 through 1993. Once Upon a Con featured guests of honor such as Steven Barnes, Larry Niven, Steven Brust, Mercedes Lackey, Elizabeth Moon, Simon Hawke, Jennifer Roberson, Robin Wood, Walt Freitag and Rick Cook. Many of these guests participated in IFGS games run at these conventions.

By the 1990s there were chapters in Alabama, Ohio, Wisconsin, Atlanta, Oklahoma as well as multiple chapters in Colorado. Today, the IFGS has a number of chapters across the United States.

The list of games run during the first 20 years of the IFGS is long and varied - from small minigames with a participation of a half dozen people to huge festivals with over 250 participants. IFGS games attract young and old alike, and offer experiences for every taste - whether that be serious, heroic fantasy, dark, challenging games or light, humorous romps in the park.

The Dream Park connection

The International Fantasy Gaming Society, Inc. (IFGS) is named after the fictional organization described in the Dream Park series of novels (by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes). Similar to the organization described in the novels, the IFGS designs, runs, and sanctions various fantasy based live action role-playing games. Niven and Barnes attended an early IFGS convention and Steven Barnes played in an IFGS licensed game in Colorado. Niven later played in a game in California. In subsequent Dream Park novels, the authors adopted the "real" IFGS as the historic background for their future one, and provided the "real" IFGS with publicity, as well as donating the original manuscript of one of the Dream Park novels to the IFGS for fund raising purposes.