Last week, I attended my 29th GenCon (“The Best Four Days in Gaming”) in Indianapolis, IN. As always, it was a delightful whirlwind of games, shopping, and friends, though this year you could really feel the crowds with a record 70,000 attendees. I wore a mask for the exhibit hall and any movement through big crowds in the hallways, because that’s 69,992 people around me that I don’t know.

One of the things I really enjoy at GenCon is seeing how the industry is changing, year-over-year. The biggest theme in the exhibit hall this year was definitely new dice. I found that surprising since there are always numerous dice vendors, with wide assortments of must-have shiny math rocks.  But this year, with people able to make their own dice with resin and other materials, it really seemed a step beyond. 

It’s All About the Dice

There were probably 10-12 new dice exhibitors this year. Chessex, Crystal Caste and Q Workshop all had 3-4 booths with their traditional, beautiful dice. I got the free GenCon die from Crystal Caste (and ended up buying the set). From Chessex, I purchased 4d8. This was a utility purchase. Somehow, over the last five years or so, I’ve found that I’m running low on d8’s in my standard gaming set. Rather than find them, I just bought some. This impulse buy cost me $2.56, including tax; this seemed quite the deal, given that there were polished resin dice that were upwards of $30 per die.

As for the rest, I always look at dice, but don’t think I’d purchased any in 10 years or so. I’m at the point of measuring dice by the pound, so it’s hard for me to really *need* new ones. I’m as much a die goblin as the next person, but when you almost never play in person, and don’t even get to look at the dice you have, there’s less incentive to get new ones. That said, this year, I bought some new ones.

My big find was these “Stained Glass” dice, by Gate Keeper Games. They had an amazing collection of “pretty” dice, including several glow-in-the-dark models. Firefly dice were sold out before I found them, sadly, but these were must-owns, anyway. 

This article is continued on my blog, DiceDeliberations.com

In the meantime, here are a couple of other pictures I took of the convention.

On July 28th/31st the first game of our new year’s campaign Warrens of the Harengon opened to two full games! Thanks to Guild Master Loni, we opened to a fun and exciting festival hosted by the harengon inviting all animal races alike. Below is a link to some accounts from a few of the characters who attended the festival and got to see all the events unfold.

As a reminder, any member who creates a writeup or delivers a speech based on their in-game experiences is eligible to receive one of the following achievements:

Education Quest

Beyond the Board

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Deliver a speech — in character or otherwise — related to the annual TTRPG campaign.

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The next in campaign game will be on September 29th. Have fun and have a great adventure!

My first experience at Comic Con was good times. My wife recently started producing independent films and one of the perks of her being in the “industry” is we were able to attend Comic Con at no charge. As such, I didn’t feel the pressure that some other folks might have felt to participate in “Line Con 2023” because I didn’t have the same skin in the game. Still, I did make sure to rock my love for Spidey.

Saying the Main Hall is packed to the brim and overwhelming does not do it justice. I made it a point to methodically go row-by-row to see everything I could the one day I attended but despite seeing everything, I definitely did NOT see everything. There is something for everyone with sections dedicated to video games, artists, independent publishers, and big studios/publishers hoarding over the coveted space in the center. Artists Alley was cool but the paths were more narrow which made seeing the work challenging.

Outside of the main hall the Dragonball and Junji Ito installations were both fun for an anime lover like myself. As many of you know, the former guild master has a dark and twisted soul and Ito’s art always speaks to that particular side of me.

Hello, fellow adventurers!

Gear up and join us on Wednesday, September 6 at 7pm PT, as we raid the Nerdmasters Toastmasters club for their last ever club meeting, entitled Nerdmasters: The Ultimate Edition, and bid them a fond farewell!

Sign up for the raid and get the Nerdmasters online meeting information here:

https://dungeonsandtoast.com/rsvpmaker/nerdmasters-farewell-2023-09-06/