Gary Con is a wonderful tabletop gaming convention held here in southern Wisconsin. It got its unofficial start about seven years ago after the death of Gary Gygax, one of the creators of Dungeons & Dragons. After his funeral, his family invited everyone over to the American Legion Hall in Lake Geneva, site of some of the early Gen Cons – and my first ever convention too, a Winter Fantasy. We all had a great time playing games and trading stories about Gary, and his wonderful family decided to make an annual event out of it, to honor their patriarch.
I make it back to the show every time I can, and I’ve brought my kids along many years. In fact, my eldest son Marty played in his first Dungeons & Dragons game ever at Gary Con 1. Frank Mentzer (former TSR VP, game-design legend, and all-around great guy) ran us through the first published RPG adventure ever made, Palace of the Vampire Queen, and we had an absolute ball.
This year, I’ve been invited as a VIP guest, but go check out the entire list of us. It’s a stunning collection of some of the greatest game designers from the past forty years, focusing mostly on the early days. It’s bolstered by the fact that former employees of the long-gone TSR (the first publisher of Dungeons & Dragons) hold their annual reunion on the Saturday night at the show.
Due to family commitments, I’ll only be able to make it to the show on Thursday and Friday. If you can manage it, though, come on out for all four days and enjoy every minute of it you can.
