Gen Con Days 3 and 4 Reflection

The rain fell on the city, but that didn't stop the gamers from descending on downtown Indianapolis for the last two days of Gen Con. It was more than just rain and gamers who descended upon Indy on Saturday, as severe thunderstorms erupted, bringing heavy rain and a tornado warning was issued about 45 minutes before the vendor hall closed. The rain subsided soon after 6:30, leaving cloudy to partly cloudy skies for the remainder of Saturday and Sunday.

Gaming did not stop; shopping continued; seminars and sessions were held; drinks and dinners with friends were enjoyed. Gen Con is always a unique experience filled with fun and games. Here are my top 5 moments of days 3 and 4:

5. Halcyon Daze documentary at the Gen Con Film Fest

I have never attended the Gen Con Film Fest before, but I stumbled across a title that I couldn’t pass up. Halcyon Daze: The Final Voyages of Disney’s Star Wars: Galactic Cruiser. Here is a summary of the documentary from IMdb:

A journey from casual interest to full-on obsession with Disney's short-lived, award-winning interactive attraction. Experience adventure, colorful characters, and the surprisingly profound feelings of its cast and fan community. IMdb Halcyon Daze

Having taken the journey in June of 2023, the second-to-last voyage, this film connected to me in a personal way, with a walk down memory lane, but the film went further as it dove into how community is found through the experience. I am not sure I experienced the profound connections the people in the documentary did, but I can certainly relate to them and see how they would find these powerful connections. I appreciated the research and science discussed in this film that answer the question of how the Halcyon experience has such a life-changing effect on people.

4. Nighttime Walks

A tradition that started when our group began securing hotels that are connected to the convention center is walking the convention center and Lucas Oil Stadium after hours. As if we don’t get enough walking around during the day, it is enjoyable to stroll the convention center and see pick-up games all around in the Play Hall. There are hundreds of empty tables where people have found a place to settle down with their new game purchases and play with friends. It isn’t packed, but this year, it was notably busier into the night than past years. I’m not sure what the difference is, but there are more people playing late into the night than before. The same is true for the field level in Lucas Oil Stadium. Many more games are going late into the night in that space as well. One favorite tradition is seeing the social deduction games underway in the main hallway of the convention center outside the play hall. Blood on the Clocktower and Werewolf, among other games, are played in group after group as we walk down the hall. It is great to see the diverse groupings all working together or against one another in each game.

3. Generosity of Vendors

Over the years, I have encountered generous vendors who have supported my game club with products or large discounts on products. This year was no different. I had two vendors offer free products for my students and teachers to use in the club or in classrooms. I know for some it is a write-off and for some they have the financial ability to do that. When they talk to me about the club and ask questions about the students and how the club works, I appreciate their interest and their belief in what we are doing in our school.

2. D&D Carnival at the D&D Tower

I didn’t know what to expect from the D&D Tower, but what I discovered was a ton of fun! We entered the tower on the seventh floor and were given a ticket that stated what character class we were. I was a Ranger. Then we discovered that the Witchlight Carnival had appeared! Legend has it that the carnival appears from another plane every eight years and disappears almost as quickly as it came. Visitors got to play games that tested each of our abilities: Dexterity, Charisma, Wisdom, Intelligence, Constitution, and Strength. We received rewards (stickers) for completing the test of our abilities. The carnival, complete with NPCs, had carriages, tents, signs, and more. There was a cyclops that we had to stare down to test our constitution. We had to test our charisma by convincing an NPC which cup we poisoned. After an hour and a half of participating in the fun, we received prizes for our time at the Witchlight Carnival, and we headed out to the convention.

1. The Dungeon Masters Live Play at the D&D Tower

This may be my favorite activity for the entire convention. I joined several hundred D&D fans in the Indiana Repertory Theater to watch the recently created live play group The Dungeon Masters (DMs) official D&D Live Play campaign. The cast is amazingly talented, all led by The DM, Jasmine Bhuller, with players Mayanna Berrin, Christian Navarro, Neil Newbon, Devora Wilde, and special guest Theo Solomon. We laughed, cheered, gasped, and sat on the edges of our seats as we watched this compelling storyline unfold. It was a ton of fun, and I wouldn’t have wanted to spend this Saturday night at Gen Con any other way.

Dungeon Crawl Classic: A Wild Time!

Our monthly D&D group had to take a hiatus as our DM, was unavailable.  Not a big deal, it happens.  We normally just pull out some board games or just take the month off.  Not this month!  

One of our players has been running a Dungeon Crawl Classics game in our school game club and thought it might be fun for our group to give DCC a try.  We were all up for it, so when Friday night came craziness ensued.  

For those who aren't familiar with Dungeon Crawl Classics, it is, as the name implies, a straight-on dungeon crawl.  What does that look like?  Move into a room, fight, investigate and move on.  That may be simplifying it a bit, but actually, probably not.  One thing that didn't take long getting used to was character death.  All of the characters start at zero level.  We were playing ordinary townsfolk like Squire, Rutabega Farmer, Hunter, Cheesemaker, Locksmith, and our favorite Gongfarmer.  There are many more, but the point being these characters are regular people so hit points and bonuses are quite low.  The max hit points on any character was 4 and the fewest was 1.  They all might as well have been one, because almost any hit was a death.  

Marc our game judge (that is what they call the Dungeon Master in DCC) handed out four characters for us to start with.  I knew things were going to be a little crazy when I saw that the stack of pre-made characters was quite large.  Marc gave us a bit of a preview for the game and we were off.  The first room we examined had some statues that we all investigated and a negative energy field of some sort killed off about 6 characters, two of them mine.  Great start!  The night went fast as we got the hang of fight, investigate, survive, move on.  We also got used to character death.  I was the worst about it as I lost my original four pretty quickly.  I drew two more characters...lost them.  Then I drew two more and one of those survived the end.  A couple players, Paul and Nate, managed to keep an original character to the end.  Careful, they were, or maybe they were just lucky.  

I think what made this so fun is that we were playing with a group that has been playing Dungeons and Dragons for a few years and we caught on to what each other was doing pretty quickly.  The other aspect to the fun was, even thought it was kill or be killed and characters didn't last long, we still tried to build in some role play.  This is when things got crazy.  You could have some fun with the personalities of the characters

because you knew the likelihood of them hanging around was pretty slim.  So, why not have a little fun?  Olfana the Rutabega Farmer just wanted to get back to her plants, while Grave Digger, Bob Shovelsmith, was excited at the job security the group was creating for him.  These conversations teetered on the ridiculous, but on a Friday night hanging out with friends, why not let loose?  Dungeon Crawl Classics did just that.  

My Top 5 Gen Con Moments

Gen Con is a massive gaming convention in Indianapolis, Indiana.  This year was my third time attending the convention, and I learn something new each year which makes the next year even better.  It is the second time that I have presented at the Trade Day, attended by librarians, educators and gaming entrepreneurs including game designers, and game store owners the day before the convention opens.  I presented with my friend and Teachers in the Dungeon podcast cohost Dan Reem as we discussed strategies to integrate game stores, schools, and public libraries in building gaming communities.  The presentation went well, and like the previous year, we gained a good amount of insight from our audience.  

It was a great way to start the convention.  Then, Thursday morning came and there were 4 full days of a gaming convention!  Here are my Top 5 moments of the 2024 Gen Con: 

5. Hanging out with friends:  I was fortunate to attend the convention with my good friends Dan and Marc who are a part of D&D games that I play at home, and we also work together.  We had time to hang out with our friend Adam Watson of Kentucky Educators for Role Playing Games.  We played game demos, ate at the food trucks, played a little pinball, and walked the show floor looking at new games and art.  I also had the opportunity to visit with Michael Witwer, co-author of Art and Arcana; Margaret Weis, co-author of  DragonLance; listener, Gabriel from Bucky Productions; Dan Crawford of Kings and Cabbages; Ryan Calhoun of Cephlopod Studios and more.  Meeting up with friends is quickly becoming a top reason to attend Gen Con. 

4. Starfinder by Paizo:  In 2023, I had the opportunity to play a Starfinder game which was an enjoyable experience and kept me interested in this RPG system.  I purchased the core rule book and the beginner box.  So, in 2024, I signed up for another game, but this year, I used the beginner box to create a character for the game.  I sat down Thursday morning at 8:00am for a 5 hour gaming session, and I had a wonderful time.  The game was led by an experienced GM from Salt Lake City, and I played with two young men from southern Indiana.  The boys hadn't played Starfinder before, but were experienced D&D players.  We all had a great time learning the system, and our GM was super patient in helping us to have fun and learn the game.  I am a believer and happy to find a science fiction RPG I enjoy.  I went to the Paizo booth later that afternoon and continued to build my Starfinder collection of books.  

3. My new favorite game:  In 2023, I visited the Czech Games HQ where they host their store, demos, and game playthroughs.  I played Galaxy Truckers, which I love, but I had my eye on a new game titled The Lost Runes of Arnak.  I never had a chance to play Arnak in 2023, so I had to wait another year to try this out.  On Thursday night in 2024, I finally had the chance to learn how to play The Lost Runes of Arnak, and it has quickly become my favorite game to play!  Besides the cool archeology theme, I love the combination of worker placement and deck building.  I had a chance to play this game several times (see Moment #2).  This is a highly recommended game if you are in the market.  

2. Late-night games:  We were fortunate in 2024 to have an onsite hotel room which was a first for us.  This opens up several opportunities for evening activities in addition to a chance for downtime during the day.  We discovered the open gaming area where players can play games all hours of the day and night.  It was here that we played The Lost Ruins of Arnak in addition to Grand River Glass works.  Dan, Marc, Adam and I all played late into the night Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.  This open gaming room is where the essence of Gen Con is realized.  

1. 50 Years of Dungeons and Dragons:  This by far was the highlight of 2024.  There were many activities with the creators and stars of Wizards of the Coast.  I attended the 50 Years of D&D in history books with Michael Witwer, David Ewalt, Jon Peterson and Ben Riggs moderated by Matt Forbeck.  This was a great discussion of many turning points of the game through the years.  The United States Post Office was on hand to release the D&D stamp set which went on sale Thursday, August 1.  I was also able to secure a ticket to pick up the 2024 Players Handbook which was offered for sale a month prior to its general release.  D&D also had a massive presence throughout the entire convention with live plays, a ballroom of games, and several panel sessions.  

This convention is an amazing spectacle of table-top gaming.  If you plan to attend in 2025, be sure to secure your badge early as the 2024 convention was completely sold out.