GenCon turns 50 next year! It's hard for even an old-timer like me to wrap my head around that.
My first GenCon was in 1980 back at the University of Wisconsin Parkside, in 1980. I was 16 years old at the time and I was too intimidated to do much more than hang out and walk through the dealers area. It was awesome though. The feeling of belonging was something that you didn't get often back then as a gamer. These days the Geeks and the Gamers have conquered the world and there are on-line gathering places where you can interact with like-minded people and feel included. Not so back then.
Interestingly that was also the first year (1980) that Nascrag started running tournaments. I didn't discover them for another 7 years or so, but they (now we) will be celebrating our 38th year at GenCon next year. We've run 37 tourneys and 12 secondary events to date. That means next year, at GenCon's 50th anniversary, we'll run our 50th event! (and our 51st).
Nascrag was D&D at first, of course, but we switched to Pathfinder in 2011. I think this probably makes us the longest running Pathfinder tournament in existence. WWW.NASCRAG.ORG
When was your first GenCon? What cool memories do you have of the old days?
I've only been to one GenCon, and that was in 2004. My friends paid my way for my 40th birthday. I had a blast, and even played in a Nascrag game. So much fun.
I know GenCon is saying that but ... The first GenCon was in 1968 -wouldn't that make the 50th anniversary 2018?
Nope, 1968 is one, 69 2, 70 3, 71 4, 72 5, 73 6, 74 7, 75 8, 76 9, 77 10.
Then 87 is 20, 97 30, 2007 40, and 2017 50.
My first was 1995, then 2001, 2002, 2007, 2013, and 2017. My favorite old school GenCon memory was having a nice conversation with Margaret Weis and her Beer bong in the Hilton elevator in 2001. That was also the year the guy I was staying with stopped taking his meds and had a manic depressive episode. Apparently if you don't sleep for the entire convention you end up in the Psych Ward in Milwaukee.
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I know GenCon is saying that but ... The first GenCon was in 1968 -wouldn't that make the 50th anniversary 2018?Nope, 1968 is one, 69 2, 70 3, 71 4, 72 5, 73 6, 74 7, 75 8, 76 9, 77 10.
Then 87 is 20, 97 30, 2007 40, and 2017 50.
You're right!
I was subtracting 1968 from 2017 ... math is not my strong suit!
I ran into Margaret Weis a bunch of times back in the old days. She was a friend of a friend. She always seemed like a lot of fun and really smart.
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My favorite GenCon memory is storming the TSR castle with nerf weapons.
I remember the TSR castle! That was awesome. It's amazing how D&D has totally given up on GenCon. They don't even have a booth these days
Their loss.
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NASCRAG was one of my favourite things about Gen Con, until I got too busy in my days of GMing Pathfinder Society games. I still have an orange T-shirt around somewhere that I got as a prize from "Nexus: The Weather Stone". I'll have to try to get into a NASCRAG next year if all goes as planned and I attend.
Next year Nascrag will be running at 1pm and 7pm every day. There is even talk of running a few tables in the morning if there is interest.
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We just found out that Nascrag will be located on the playing field of Lucas Oil Arena this year. That ought to be pretty cool. Gen Con is getting so big that they're going to use the entire arena going forward.
We can get as loud as we want!
Sad DMCal is sad because he will probably never get to go to another GenCon.