Events

Jockey for the top spot on the speed puzzling leader board in this month-long jigsaw competition at Diversions! Throughout the month, teams of two or four can attempt their fastest time at assembling either a 300 or 500 piece puzzle anytime during Diversions’ open hours. Simply check-in, pick your puzzle, and let those fingers fly!

The leaderboard will be updated throughout the month, so if another team outpaces your puzzling, fear not – your team can make multiple attempts during the month to stay in the lead! But don’t wait too long – the fastest 2-person and 4-person teams will be selected on the month’s LAST BUSINESS DAY and receive a free puzzle, free drink vouchers, and bragging rights as Diversions’ Lead Marathoning Jigsaw Jockeys!

Entry is $10/team, with each subsequent attempt free with a purchase.

May/June Marathon Leaderboard

Dive into the world of Golarion as an agent of the Pathfinder Society, or perhaps give aid to the people of the Pact Worlds as part of Starfinder Society during Paizo Organized Play sessions at Diversions! These open role-playing sessions welcome players of all experience levels; with the option to join as your schedule allows, this format of RPG play is great for players with busy or unpredictable schedules.

Pathfinder & Starfinder Society meets at Diversions on the second and fourth Wednesday of each month, starting at 5:30 PM. Session playtime varies and usually takes no less than three hours. Details of upcoming sessions can be found here!

Learn more about Pathfinder Society and Starfinder Society, or find out where our local Shifting Corridors Lodge hosts games elsewhere across the Iowa City/Cedar Rapids area! 

Is there an idea for a game you’ve been pondering over for years? Maybe you even have a few rules written down or have a full set of cards already made! Or perhaps you’re a gamer who loves the idea of playtesting games in development and working with designers to refine their concept.

Join us for this monthly game designer meetup, which aims to support and network game designers, artists, playtesters, and the wider community with an appreciation for the game design process. We encourage any aspiring designers to bring in a game or game concept they have been working on to give a brief pitch about it – a bit of a show-and-tell so we can see all the interesting projects our community is working on.

Join us the last Friday of every month (7-10PM) for this game designer meetup, and join our Discord channel to connect with other designers!

Join us anytime during our regular hours on 6/27 to check out the games, freebies, and a bunch of cool, new RPG materials from big name and indie publishers alike. Get a preview of the games and materials at the link above and get hyped to have a chance to take some of it home!

FREE TTRPG GAMING ALL DAY! Anyone who visits our gaming space to play a TTRPG — either with a group or in search of one — won’t be required to have a gaming pass!

CHANCE TO WIN FREE RPG MATERIALS! All TTRPG players who stop in can enter our free raffle for some free merch, games, and more, while supplies last. No purchase required.

Volunteer to run a game from the list below and get a guaranteed copy of the game you run! To volunteer, create a game within the Free RPG Day event on Aftergame – please reach out to hello@diversionsic.com for any technical assistance. Guaranteed prize materials for those who volunteer are first come first served; only one GM per game from the list below.

• Quickstart Adventure Bundle from Magpie Games

• The Secret Wars Expansion Preview from Marvel: The Secret Wars Expansion

• KAGUYA PROTOCOL from Mythworks

• Pathfinder Free RPG Day Adventure: Things Go to Hell from Paizo

• Starfinder Free RPG Day Adventure: Rescue on Raxil from Paizo

• Fossilized Violence from R Talsorian Games.

• Tradition of Destruction from Renegade Game Studio

• Legend in the Mist from Son of Oak:

• Vaesen: Nordic Horror Roleplaying Quickstart from Free League

• Pretenders to the Rat King's Throne from Goodman Games

• Creed Shadow Stalker from Knight Vision Creative

• Runes of the World Tree Quickstart from Kobold Press

• Pirate Borg: Terror in Tortuga from Limithron

• Dungeon Beneath the Brightspire from Loke Battle Mats

• Daggerheart: The Dying Spire from Darrington Press

• Zombicide: Plaguebearer RPG from Edge Studio

• Dungeons & Kittens: An Afternoon Outing from Edge Studio

• Arkham Horror RPG

• Everyday Heroes: All Bets Are Off! From Evil Genius Games

• Dolmenwood Quick-Start from Exalted Funeral

• Obojima: 5e Setting

• Level 1 Free RPG Day indie RPG Anthology from 9th Level Games

• The Cosmere RPG: Law and Obligation from Brotherwise Games

• Wizard Riders from Catalyst Games

• The Age of Vikings Quickstart from Chaosium

• Creature Curation Presents #1 from Creature Curation

It’s back for its 9th year — Iowa City Downtown Block Party is a perfect way to celebrate summer. Diversions will be there running speed puzzling for prizes! We’ll also have casual puzzles and games. The event runs from 3-10pm.

Diversions will be open during our regular business hours.

Time for a summer puzzle swap!

Freshen up your puzzle selection by meeting up with other local puzzlers and trading your gently used puzzles. And we're making swapping easy, too!

• Drop off your gently used puzzles any day before June 27th during Diversions' regular hours.

• For every puzzle you drop off, you’ll receive a ticket that you can use to pick out another puzzle during the swap!

• We will have some puzzle tables open throughout the swap, so feel free to linger, mingle, and put a few pieces together!

• Have puzzles with missing pieces and/or damaged boxes that you’d like to rehome? Feel free to bring those, too! We will add them to our free puzzle pile for anyone to take if they wish. (While you won't get a ticket for these puzzles, their departure from your storage may give you room for a few more new puzzles!)

Jockey for the top spot on Race Day at Diversions!

Can your team of (up to) four assemble a 500 piece puzzle faster than the rest? On Sunday, June 28th from 3-5PM, gather your best puzzle pals to race against the clock (and a few other teams) to be the first to complete your puzzle!

Let your nimble fingers fly as you puzzle to completion. Whether you are competitive or simply looking for a fun group activity, this speed puzzling competition will be sure to grab your attention and challenge your skills.

Team registration is $50 and teams get to keep the puzzle after they've crossed the finish line!

Face off against your friends and foes in a hand-to-hand combat… of speed puzzling!

This 1v1 style of speed puzzling offers a quick challenge, utilizing 100 piece puzzles in a face-off over two rounds. After completing the border together, jockeys take turns placing pieces while timing how quickly they select and place each piece. Whichever jockey has the fastest cumulative time at the end of the two rounds is the winner of the bout!

This is our first time running this style of speed puzzling at Diversions, so entry will be free for now. We hope to get some feedback during these events to help us make any tweaks necessary to turn this into one of our core puzzle events in the future!

This Advanced session is open to any scripts the Storytellers deem worthy – the possibilities are endless! Players will be expected to have a strong understanding of the game, characters, and rules and be ready for a challenge.

Click here to see all scheduled Clocktower events and details.

• Player Pass cost is $12, which is required to participate - grab yours here!
• Spots are limited to 15 players for each session.
• Doors open at 5:00PM and participants are encouraged to mingle prior to the game. Each game starts at 5:30 SHARP. 

STORYTELLER: Jessica I.

OPENING SCRIPT: Blind Man's Bluff

Join in for a weekend of gaming fun at eastern Iowa’s longest running gaming convention: Gamicon! Since 1991, Gamicon has celebrated board games, card games, roleplaying games, social games – and even video games and computer games – with a weekend of game demos, tournaments, play-to-wins, auctions, and more! It’s a gathering of community you won’t want to miss.

Learn more about Gamicon on their website.