Rich and David are back to talk all about the history of their favorite gaming convention, Gen Con. How it got started, and what steps led to its enormous success. Everything from the humble beginnings as a place to play "Fight in the Skies!" and other war games to the ideal incubator for D&D and TSR. early on Gen Con becomes the place to launch games like Magic the Gathering, whos founding company goes on to purchase TSR and Gen Con... Really an interesting story.
::Correction! We claim Gen Con is the largest convention in the world... There is another. and it's an impressive 3x larger with 190,000 attendees! over in Germany: https://www.spiel-messe.com/en/
^ Turns out this convention does turn style accounting instead of estimating headcount. It's a fair bit smaller than GenCon. Unless it doesn't, then it is larger. We're getting conflicting reports and I can't read German.
Some additional resources:
Interactive site with maps, timelines, and every Gen Con program cover
Gen Con Wiki
40 Years of Gen Con, a hardcover book detailing waaaay more than we ever could
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Other places you can connect with the HSG Squad:
Facebook @High Shelf Gaming Podcast
Twitter @highshelfgaming
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Discord Chat https://discord.gg/tMPCXgN
HSG114: Gen Con Online 2020 Wrap Up
HSG113: Losing Player Characters - it isn't all bad
HSG112: Gen Con Survival Guide: Gen Con Online
HSG111: Remote Gaming during "All This"
HSG110: Knights of the Shadow Realm an Epic DnD Module
HSG109: Gen Con Survival Guide: History
HSG108: PAX South 2020 Wrap-Up
HSG107: Terranary RPG
HSG106: Gen Con Survival Guide: PAX vs Gen Con Q&A
HSG105: Oceans by North Star Games with Bruce Voge
HSG104: 2019 Pax Unplugged Wrap-up
HSG103: 2019 BGG Con Wrap-Up [8 games reviewed]
HSG102: Old School Revival RPGs with Luke the Goon
HSG101: Gen Con Survival Guide: Food and Drink [Refreshed]
HSG100: 100th Episode! [giveaways inside]
HSG99: Gen Con Survival Guide: Registration [Refreshed]
HSG98: Gen Con Survival Guide: Running Your Own Event [Refreshed]
HSG97: Gen Con Survival Guide: Housing [Refreshed]
HSG96: Gamer Gift Ideas
HSG95: RPG Storytelling Part 3: Theme & Structure: How to boost or accidentally kill your game
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