RPG Museum

Gen Con is a long-standing tabletop game convention held each year in Indianapolis, Indiana, in the United States. A great deal of gaming history and debuts have taken place within Gen Con's walls. In 2019, Gen Con broke its own attendance record with nearly 70,000 unique attendees.

Gen Con's name is a derivation of "Geneva Convention", due to the convention's origins in Lake Geneva. It is also a play on words, as the "wikipedia:Geneva Conventions" are a set of important international treaties regarding war, the subject of many of the early games.

History[]

Established in 1968 as the Lake Geneva Wargames Convention by Gary Gygax, who later co-created Dungeons & Dragons, Gen Con was first held in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. The convention was moved to various locations in Wisconsin from 1972 to 1984 before becoming fixed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin from 1985 to 2002. In 2003 it moved to Indianapolis, Indiana. Other Gen Con conventions have been held sporadically in various locations around the United States, as well as internationally.

In 1976, Gen Con became the property of TSR, Inc, the gaming company co-founded by Gary Gygax. TSR (and Gen Con) were then acquired by Wizards of the Coast in 1997, which was subsequently acquired by Hasbro. Hasbro then sold Gen Con to the former CEO of Wizards of the Coast, Peter Adkison, in 2002. Gen Con is now owned and run by its own LLC, which Adkison founded.

Notable events[]

  • At the second Gen Con in August 1969, Gygax met Rob Kuntz and Dave Arneson. During these early conventions, the events centered around board games and miniature wargames. Arneson and Gygax would later go on to develop Dungeons & Dragons.
  • In 1974, Gen Con became a three-day convention for the first time. This was the same year Dungeons & Dragons was published for the first time.
  • In 1988, Gen Con and Origins were run as a single convention, despite being nominal competitors. This did not continue, though it was repeated once more in 1992.
  • Wizards of the Coast debuted Magic: The Gathering at Gen Con in August 1993; the game proved extremely popular, selling out its supply of 2.5 million cards, which had been scheduled to last until the end of the year.
  • The ENnies are an annual awards ceremony devoted to role-playing games. Established in 2001, the ENnies have been hosted at Gen Con Indy since 2002, and are organized and owned by EN World, a D&D/d20 System news website.
  • Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was no physical Gen Con in 2020, though a virtual convention was held instead.

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