What is GenCon you may ask? Well it started long ago, and it’s about games. Long before you could look at cats on this wonderful thing called the internet, before every house had a computer with 256k of memory, there was wargaming. Historical re-enactment on your tabletop. Fantasy battles. You name it.
Without internet some of these games got played by mail, with each player having a copy of the board, and pieces in their basement, and mailing the details of turns. Or having the occasional get together. There were newsletters, and zines.
And near Lake Geneva, Wisconsin an idea was born, let’s get a bunch of people together, and have a gaming convention. And of course it was called the Geneva Convention because of the place, and the fact that the main focus was wargames it had a nice little ring to it.
Forty+ years later it is possibly the biggest gaming convention around. Board games, card games, miniatures, role-playing, video-games you name it everything is represented. It’s moved to Indianapolis to be more central as people travel from all over the US. I’ve been about 5 times now (missed last year) and it is an absolute blast. This year I’m planning on focusing more on the RPG aspect, I’m going to be spending a bit of time at Games on Demand, but I also intend to help out with the Men In Black (Steve Jackson Games super secret demo team).
I plan on attending the True Dungeon a time or two (especially if I can rope a few friends in) which is basically live action D&D. I am NOT going to fail to play the Mech Warrior pods this year. I might play in a UFS tourney. There is just so much awesome stuff, I can’t wait. I probably won’t take quite as many pictures of the cosplayers this year… but then again, I might not be able to resist. I might even try my hand at it, though I doubt my purple mohawk is still good.
3 Comments
So THAT’s what GenCon is! 😀 that sounds so cool, I had no idea that tabletop wargaming and this sort of con were this old! Have a great time, and maybe post some pics.
Now I really want to go someday. This year I can’t, but gosh. I’d do the True Dungeon with you! And, what are the Mech Warrior Pods, do you sit in them?
Yeah, the Mechwarrior pods simulate being in an actual mech. I think it’s generally either free for all, or 8 on 8 teams. I’ll definitely post any/all pics I take (probably on G+ first).
That’s what I hoped you’d say 😀 yay for pics, too.