The Year that GenCon Went Virtual

There is a magical world where elves, androids, Jedi Knights, and superheroes hang around together and where fantasy and science fiction stories play out all day long. Normally, that world is in Indianapolis around the start of August each year, and it's called GenCon, the largest board game convention in the US. Around 60,000 people attend each year.

GenCon is about more than just games. It's a celebration of creativity, a place for gamers, designers, authors, artists, performers, costume makers, and craftsmen. For instance, "Author's Row" is an area devoted to sci-fi/fantasy authors both new and well-established. The Exhibit Hall is the size of a small town, with over 500 vendors and visitors in spectacular costumes. During my trip to the con in 2017, I made the contact that led to the artist who created the cover of Sellenria.

This year GenCon was online. My wife and I signed up with low expectations because GenCon seems such a physical experience. But, like so many aspects of the creative world, if you suspend a little belief, you can find the magic within. GenCon Online bore more than a passing resemblance to the real thing and even evoked some of the same feelings of wonder.

Visitors could meet vendors, artists, authors, etc., and talk with them about their products, try their games, or watch previously recorded videos of same. Artists of all sorts were doing live-streamed demonstrations, and chat channels and other live feeds offered a chance to play or watch thousands of different games, demonstrations, and seminars. I even did a game design class taught by faculty from the USC Interactive Media and Game Design department.

Something no one had counted on was the many people who came this year who wouldn't ordinarily have come from all over the world.

The last session I watched was a pre-release game where a badger, a possum, and a cat were all on a quest to find a murderer. The story was being laid out and guided by a gamemaster, while the players were the 3 animals. There was an assassin's guild in this world called the "Silent Paw," which seemed to be behind the whole dastardly deed, but when our heroes caught up with the murderer, he wasn't from the Silent Paw after all, he was just pretending to be one of them. He was... Wait for it... Yes... The Faux Paw!! Several thousand people watching this all over the world groaned in unison.

-Dan