Gen Con 2014 in review

My annual trip to Gen Con was a great one this year. The geek fest for RPGs, board games, miniatures, and fans of fantasy and SciFi stuff attracted about 50K people from around the world and certainly the most of the United States. The club I belong to puts on games during the event and I put on about 11 games in 4 days so while fun it is exhausting. My games went very well and I only had a couple folks who tested everyone’s nerves during play.

The 3D Game of Thrones board went over great. Lots of folks gawking and taking pictures. I also put on a couple of 10mm American Civil war games as well as a couple of made up game of 2^nd American Civil War with the scenario concerning a communist attack on docks in Chicago. Lots of fun and lots of hours at the game table (about 45 hours playing games in a 96 hour period)

The gaming hall was huge this year and I strained my voice while running games with 10K people around me playing games as well. The dealer hall was packed every day at all hours and they had some stuff there that is hard to find at any other time. I am always amused at the coverage that Gen Con gets in the news. They always seem to focus on the Cosplay folks (people wearing costumes) but this year felt like to me there were fewer of these but maybes that because I wasn’t out and about but playing hard at the tables. I did feel like there were more families in attendance and also a lot of new folks to the gaming world. I knew a couple of them and the look on their faces when they stopped by to say hi was pretty funny. You could tell that they were on sensory overload.

It was great fun and it was great to see friends from around the country. On a side note I personally know of 5 other priest other than myself who were in attendance this year. I’m sure there were more. I plan to attend next year. Currently the plan is to have the 3D Game of Thrones there (probably 3 games a day) and also bring some miniatures for a Game of Thrones SAGA game and maybe some more 10mm ACW games.