Gen Con was great this year.
I once again aligned with my co-author Nathan Marchand and his brother as roommates and con buddies. I traveled down with a pastor and gaming friend of mine.
We had a last minute problem with our hotel reservation being canceled. A friend of Nathan’s put us in contact with a church that has a hospitality house. This was a great last minute save! We saved a lot of money staying there instead of downtown and it wasn’t a long commute at all.
Nathan’s book table was doing great with both his fiction works and our devotional books. Admittedly we did not sell as many devotional books as normal. That seemed a bit odd. His kaiju books were flying off the table like crazy. I spent time there to help him out.
Games
This year I hosted games with the group Fight in the Skies Society. The name comes from the very first game ever played at Gen Con. I enjoyed teaching games and was able to see lots of people other gamers and have a great time together. This made for great networking and was a helpful way to serve the Gen Con community while also earning my badge so I didn’t have to pay for it. Games I hosted included Museum, Star Wars the Clone Wars, Just One, Commissioned, and Star Wars Epic Duels.
I did not have as much time to explore the vender hall this year. I did get to play Dragonbond: Lords of Vaala. It was an enjoyable area control game. I came back from behind to win it with a surprise victory. Best of all games wise?
I had the joy of playing Unmatched Adventures: Tales to Amaze! It was so good. I’m so glad I backed it during the Kickstarter.
Panel
The Christianity and Gaming Panel went quite well. I hosted it and had two guys who are involved in gaming and following Jesus be on the panel. One of them just got home form serving in missions work abroad and the other is now arriving at the mission field to serve. One of our questions was how we as Christians should handle things if a non-Christian is being difficult or problematic for the group. The best answer we had was from Josh who encouraged us to find ways to encourage the person at a lunch and then, after building them up, explain that a habit is causing issues and give them the opportunity to change it. We also had a basic question about forming a gaming group at church. One gentleman raised his hand to tell us he wasn’t a Christian but seeing Christians discuss loving others who are not Christians was the highlight of his Gen Con.
Reunions
I had the joy of seeing my friends at the con I had not seen in a while. Min and Elwen were at the con to meet fans of a game they designed. We went out to lunch and caught up after about 8 years. We originally met as students at a YWAM discipleship school in Slovakia. I also saw a high school friend named Jennifer who now works as a manager at a game store.
Cosplay
There was less cosplay this year than previous years. It certainly was present but I saw a lot less than I remember seeing even when we had “diet” Gen Con in 2021 with a much smaller attendance. Friday Nate and I went as Doctor Strange and Captain America. Saturday I went as Obi Wan Kenobi (with a bag of Higher Grounds coffee just for the goofiness of it).
Church
The Sunday morning service went very well! Tom Vasel from the Dice Tower preached a message about loving those who are difficult to love. We had a great time with musical worship and an attendance of over 200.
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