JGBGB - Oct 2026 - Austin, TX

The Bash is back.

Three days of board games with a couple hundred people who like what you like, in the same hotel it always was.

Jonathan Grabert started Board Game Bash in 2011 and ran it for twelve years. He kept us coming back to the same hotel ballroom, year after year, with nothing but games, goodwill, and a new d6. He passed in October 2023.

We're not trying to bottle the past. We're setting the tables back up, in his room, the way he would have. We'll take it from here.

Small on purpose

JGBGB is a hundred-ish (now a couple hundred) people in one ballroom, and that's the whole point. No vendor hall, no badge-scanner line, no floor plan you need a map to read. One ballroom (and some side rooms), three days, and more board games than you'll get to.

Most board gamers spend the year explaining what hobby games even are. For one weekend, you don't have to. Everyone here already gets it.

What your badge covers

One badge, the whole weekend. No event tickets, no upsells. You show up, you play.

• Open gaming — Friday evening through Sunday night. Three nights and two full days, scheduled 8am–10pm, though the hotel has always been more generous than that.
• Tournaments and hosted events — all covered by your badge. PitchCar on two tables of track, Fritter's Five, a scavenger hunt, and more. The full program lands here as it firms up.
• The Table Flipping Championship — returns.
• The Jonathan Grabert Congeniality award — exactly what it sounds like, and you'll be doing the nominations.
• This year's die — a new custom die, every year, since 2011. The 2026 die comes with your badge at check-in. Some of you have full sets. Don't let that change to "had".

Badges

34 badges left, and that's all there will be.

• $55 early bird: the first 30 badges. Sold out.
• $65 regular: the next 70 badges. Sold out.
• $75 last chance: what's left.

Every badge covers all three days, open gaming, every tournament and hosted event, the 2026 die at check-in, and a room full of people who don't need the rules explained twice.

We will have a limit to the number of badges we sell, so grab one soon!

Never been?

You won't be the only first-timer. This crowd is welcoming — there is literally an award for it. Sit down at a table, say you're new, and someone will teach you something before you finish the sentence.

Plenty of people come alone. Board games are the fastest icebreaker ever printed; you can have a regular group by Saturday lunch.

You don't need to bring anything, either. Most of what hits the tables comes in with the people who own it, and there's a library too: play-to-win games, games donated by publishers, and Dragon's Lair's demo library on loan for the weekend. There's always more out than you'll get to.

Getting there

The Austin Marriott South, the same hotel the Bash always used, with free parking on site. There's no room block this year, so book the Marriott itself or anything nearby — plenty of people split a room, and plenty drive in each morning.

The full story, the photos, and the rest of the questions are at jgbgb.com.

Some tables are harmed at JGBGB.