My first Gen Con was back in 2004. I was 21 years old, and I had never been to a gaming convention. Because of a thousand different variables in my life, I didn't get to head back until 2024, right after I was fired from my full-time job.

Right after I was fired, Gen Con went from being a fun event I got to cover on behalf of Geek to Geek to a full-on work trip with networking and contract-seeking in addition to the games coverage.

Since then, I've been back every year, and it's been a blast. Turns out, I love Gen Con more as a member of the press than I did back in the day as a player. And 2026 was no different.

First Thing's First: Getting the Badge

The first thing you do at Gen Con is get your badge.

Obligatory Annual Badge Selfie

If you don't have the badge mailed to you ahead of time, you have to stand in the Will Call line to get it. Luckily, I can bypass that because I've been lucky enough to get media credentials (thank you, Gen Con and Stacia!), but I still wait through it for my physical event tickets I've signed up for.

Plus, the friends I went with have to wait on theirs, so we just hang out in line. This year, the line moved pretty quickly on Wednesday evening, and we got through the absurdly long line in about 30 minutes. The Gen Con staff really know how to keep it moving, and it's basically a well-oiled machine these days.

My Top 3 Games

What would Gen Con be without the games, right? While I don't spend a terrible amount of time at game tables through scheduled events, I do get my hands dirty across those 4 days of gaming. After all, why else are we there?

Old Gods of Appalachia

The first game that really caught our eye was The Old Gods of Appalachia by Monte Cook Games. It's been on my radar for years, having heard nothing but good things, but this year, we were able to get some solid, hands-on playtime with the game from a demoer named Chris, who runs the game weekly for his in-person group.

The game takes place in an alternate version of Appalachia, in which there is a war between supernatural forces known as the Green and the Dark. Players are normal people who live there, but might be touched with a hint of magic or supernatural ability themselves.

It runs on an adapted version of Monte Cook's Cypher game system, and MCG told us that some of the adaptations they made for Old Gods were adopted into the new version of Cypher that just ended crowdfunding earlier this year.

After the game, the kind folks at MCG provided us with a review copy of the core book, and my friends liked it enough to purchase the Player's Guide to go along with it. So I'll have a lot more to say about it as soon as we're able to work it into our gaming schedule.

Tatsumi

Tatsumi is a fun board game where you play as a dragon collecting elemental rings and then depositing them at shrines for bonuses and extra powers.

The gameplay is simple and straightforward, but really engaging as you maneuver across the board, trying to block other players from getting the particular elements they need, while planning ahead enough for you to score enough points by scheduling visits to shrines.

We liked it enough after a single playthrough that we bought the deluxe edition and had it signed by the designer. The base game is fun, but the real depth comes in the asymmetric powers that come with the advanced rules that we haven't had time to dig into yet. I'll keep you posted.

Orichalcum

You never know what to expect out of a game that is discounted down to $8, but Orichalcum by Pandasaurus is worth that and a lot more. This was the sleeper hit for us and we played it every night of the con when we got back to the hotel room.

A tile placement game where you fight monsters and manage your resources (soldiers and the titular orichalcum ore), trying to smelt as many victory points together as you can, while gaining the favor of various titans, who count as both victory points and provide special abilities. You construct buildings and statues for new powers, and the game is quick and easy to learn, despite having a lot of moving pieces.

The rulebook makes it seem complicated and overwhelming for what it is, but it's 100% not. We even picked up extra copies of the game at its discounted price just to give away because we know other friends and family will enjoy it.

Networking and Schmoozing

Like I said, Gen Con became much more about industry connections and getting to know people in 2024 than I expected it to. In other years, I've been able to schedule a ton of interviews with designers and developers. This year was a little different because I didn't think I was going to get to attend the con at all because of hotel and travel costs. (Thanks, unexpected medical bills and US heatlhcare system!)

Some of my friends were going, and they offered to give me a ride and let me stay in their room for free. Because of that, I didn't get in nearly as much scheduled time with companies as usual, so I don't have recorded interviews or anything like that this year.

It was a blast this year, and I met some really fun people and talked to some cool folks with different publishers. I went to a few different mixers and meetups, too. For the most part, they went well.

At one in particular, I honestly felt pretty out of my depth.

I learned that I’m not good at unstructured schmoozing. I showed up to the ENNIE awards cocktail hour and saw everyone arriving in their established groups already; being new to the industry means I don’t already have those connections. And inserting myself into them felt awkward. 😬

I also learned that there are pretty wide interpretations of what a “content creator” and designer are, especially whether it’s in a board game or TTRPG context.

I’m hoping to go to GAMA next year, too, though it's unfortunately moving from Louisville, KY to Baltimore, MD, which makes it a much harder trip for me. Additionally, I'll be at PAX U this year, working a booth with a group of coworkers from Sordane, which I expect will help break the ice ahead of GAMA time since some of those folks already have the connections I'm hoping to make.

Introductions and "it's not what you know, but who you know," and all that stuff, yeah?

And Then There's D&D

The past 3 years at Gen Con have been a lot of fun for me regarding D&D, and this year, it was both really great and really disappointing.

The great part was that they did a keynote where they announced a ton of new stuff like the D&D Icons line where they're bringing back Weis and Hickman for Dragonlance content, same as RA Salvatore for Drizzt stuff, and even a 5.5e Dark Sun mature-rated campaign setting.

In addition, they are bringing back and working on old campaign settings like Greyhawk and subcontracting some out to Ghostfire Gaming (Ravenloft) and Kobold Press (Forgotten Realms). That's all really cool stuff, I think.

They also had the D&D Carnival, which was a free event everyone could go to and play mini-games that matched the stats of D&D characters. Can you guess who sees a beholder and got a perfect score on the Intelligence Check quiz?

It was super fun to go around and see the sights and play the games. We kicked around an inflatable D20 like it was a soccer ball, and then we got free, fun prizes like blind boxes of various miniatures and sets of dice before we were shown the way to the exit and the merch shop downstairs.

Then there's the bad stuff, which is basically everything else about the D&D Tower if you ask me. And maybe I'm biased so take this with a grain of salt. But when they advertise there to be 6 floors of awesome D&D stuff, and literally everything except the carnival and keynote was a paid event, I think it's kind of lame.

And not just that they're paid events, they were almost entirely Actual/Live Play shows. Outside of a single, hour-long 5.5e scenario being run constantly using the Maps VTT in person (eye roll), all the content in this D&D Tower was a live play show of some sort.

NGL, I found that disappointing and kind of lazy.

I was hoping for exhibits, demos, hands-on kinds of things. I wanted to see cool stuff and the beautiful building they'd decked out. In previous years, there had been displays of old D&D artifacts and books (they weren't official exhibits, I know), and I was hoping for that kind of thing. Even a third-party merch area.

But no, we got live plays. And then some more live plays. Then an actual play, then back to live plays.

And you know what else? They wouldn't even let you into the merch shop if you didn't have a ticket from one of the events. (And my understanding is that even then it was an Exit Through The Gift Shop experience, not a Go In While You Wait one.) Add in that getting in even with a ticket was a long line in a winding corral, and the whole thing just felt off to me.

So yeah, the D&D Tower was a cool idea, but incredibly lackluster in execution. I hope next year there's more stuff to actually do and experience from D&D instead of just watching other people roll dice.

Onward to Next Year

Needless to say, I'm already planning my trip back to Gen Con next year, and I really hope that I can return the favor to my friends for letting me stay with them this year.

Also, with a hopeful lack of medical emergencies and expenses blocking my way like almost happened this year, next year I'm going to try to secure a hotel close to the convention center so it's easier to partake in after-hours events in the hotels and game halls, which I haven't really been able to do since my initial visit back in 2004.

There was also some drama with a tornado warning and flooding in the convention center, but I'm not going into detail about that for two reasons. One, I'm from Alabama, and we have (and ignore) tornado warnings regularly, so it was no big deal; and two, I just went across the street to eat dinner and didn't experience anything firsthand other than my hamburger, so I got nothing really to say. You can find plenty about it on Instagram and the Fans of Gen Con Facebook group, though.

All that said, you can also expect a write-up soon on Assault on Absalom Station, the sequel to last year's Starfinder novel, Era of the Eclipse (read that review here). Many thanks to the magnificent Rue Dickey for providing a review copy.

And again, thanks to Gen Con for the press pass so I can experience all of this stuff and bring reports back to you all. I'm working on getting better at Instagram, so follow us over at @geektogeekmedia to see various updates and Gen Con-related stuff there, too.