Park University’s club for gamers, whether they are tabletop RPG enthusiasts, console gamers or otherwise, are putting together a gaming marathon in hopes of starting a scholarship fund.

Licia Crawford, The Guild Club’s sponsor and head of tutoring services for the academic support center, has been working to host this gaming marathon over the past two years.

“We want to get it done this year,” Crawford said. “Before we move forward on actually doing the marathon, we have to have commitment from people to help us this year. We have to know how big we can make this tournament.”

The goal of the marathon is to earn enough money in order to set up a scholarship fund that will provide textbook vouchers for students who apply and then qualify.

“We plan for the scholarship to be available to any Park University student anywhere in the United States,” said Crawford.

Crawford said she is looking forward to working with Barnes and Noble, the university’s supplier for books, to put together the fund.

But before that can happen, the gaming marathon must be a success.

The marathon will be held Friday, March 6, the final school day before spring break.

The club is still looking for a location on campus to host the event and have been working with Campus Safety to decide what area of the school would be safest for them to monitor.

Regardless of the location, the marathon will last from 10 a.m. to 2 a.m., a true all-day gaming event.

Crawford and the club have been in contact with professional game tournament runners to understand how to best run an event.

“The more mistakes we can know about, the more we can avoid,” said Crawford.

There will be three different gaming arenas. The first will be the role-playing tabletop game that the Guild favors called Pathfinder.

The second will be console gaming, which will either be head to head matches or a tournament based on scoring. The final will be of up to ten different board games including chess, which will be able to hold up to 20 competitors.

At this point, each gaming session will be approximately three and a half hours with half hour breaks.

The $10 admission fee to the event will provide access to all the games and eligibility to the 16 possible prizes that can be won for each category.

The club plans to start contacting local sponsors soon to provide prizes and possibly participate in the event.

Aside from the logistics and concerns around getting enough volunteers to get the event off the ground, the members of the Guild are looking forward to all the fun that comes with a day long gaming session.

“I have been in the Guild since freshman year,” said Alexandra Manthei, a junior in graphic design. “I am looking forward to seeing how many people show up to have fun. I hope to encourage other people to join the Guild and learn how to create characters and help future (Dungeon Master’s) become strong writers. The Guild encourages those with big imaginations so this is a good start for them.”