Misplaced Pages

#513486

110-725: Established in 1968 as the Lake Geneva Wargames Convention by Gary Gygax , who later co-created Dungeons & Dragons , Gen Con was first held in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin . The convention was moved to various locations in Wisconsin from 1972 to 1984 before becoming fixed in Milwaukee , Wisconsin , in 1985, where it remained until moving to Indianapolis , Indiana , in 2003. Other Gen Con conventions have been held sporadically in various locations around

220-584: A boxed set . Sales of the hand-assembled print run of 1,000 copies, put together in Gygax's home, sold out in less than a year. (In 2018, a first printing of the boxed set sold at auction for more than $ 20,000.) At the end of 1974, with sales of D&D skyrocketing, the future looked bright for Gygax and Kaye, who were only 36. But in January 1975, Kaye unexpectedly died of a heart attack. He had not made any specific provision in his will regarding his share of

330-463: A business with her involved as a partner." Gygax relocated TSR from the Kaye dining room to the basement at his own house. In July 1975, Gygax and Blume reorganized their company from a partnership to a corporation called TSR Hobbies. Gygax owned 150 shares, Blume the other 100 shares, and both had the option to buy up to 700 shares at any time in the future. But TSR Hobbies had nothing to publish—D&D

440-500: A counter-suit claiming Lucasfilm had no basis for their claims and owed money to Gen Con. On February 15, 2008, Gen Con LLC announced that it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection , citing "significant unforeseen expenses associated with ... externally licensed events". As a result of the bankruptcy filing, the Lucasfilm lawsuit was delayed until November 19, 2008. Gen Con Indy 2008 was held as planned. On November 20, 2008,

550-584: A dozen players. Gygax left Guidon Games in 1973 and in October, with Don Kaye as a partner, founded Tactical Studies Rules , later known as TSR, Inc. The two men each invested $ 1,000 in the venture—Kaye borrowed his share on his life insurance policy —to print a thousand copies of the Dungeons & Dragons boxed set. They also tried to raise money by immediately publishing a set of wargame rules called Cavaliers and Roundheads , but sales were poor; when

660-742: A few months he spent in Clinton, Wisconsin , after his divorce, and his time in Hollywood while he was the head of TSR's entertainment division, Lake Geneva was his home for the rest of his life. By 1966, Gygax was active in the wargame hobby world and was writing many magazine articles on the subject. He learned about H. G. Wells 's Little Wars book for play of military miniatures wargames and Fletcher Pratt 's Naval Wargame book. Gygax later looked for innovative ways to generate random numbers, and used not only common six-sided dice , but dice of all five Platonic solid shapes, which he discovered in

770-496: A forum for wargamers via its newsletters and societies, which enabled them to form local groups and share rules. In 1967, Gygax organized a 20-person gaming meet in the basement of his home; this event was later called "Gen Con 0". In 1968, he rented Lake Geneva's vine-covered Horticultural Hall for $ 50 (equivalent to $ 440 in 2023) to hold the first Lake Geneva Convention, also known as the Gen Con gaming convention . Gen Con

880-429: A games library was added from which attendees could borrow games. Appearing in 1994 was the first Magic: The Gathering World Championship , won by Zak Dolan, who defeated France's Bertrand Lestrée in the finals. Gen Con has featured a number of events that raise money for a variety of charities. These include Cardhalla , in which donated cards are used to build a large city. Attendees are then invited to throw coins at

990-506: A great periodical to serve gaming enthusiasts worldwide ... At no time did I ever contemplate so great a success or so long a lifespan." TSR moved out from the Gygax house in 1976 into the first professional location it could call home, known as "The Dungeon Hobby Shop". Arneson was hired as part of the creative staff, but was let go after only ten months, another sign that Gygax and Arneson had creative differences over D&D. The Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set released in 1977

1100-527: A hybrid between the third edition of D&D and the original version of the game. In 2004, he had two strokes and narrowly avoided a subsequent heart attack; he was then diagnosed with an abdominal aortic aneurysm and died in March 2008 at age 69. Following Gygax's funeral, many mourners formed an impromptu game event which became known as Gary Con 0, and gamers celebrate in Lake Geneva each March with

1210-538: A lack of response by GAMA concerning Black Lives Matter and the George Floyd Protests , some members of the community who were intending to run or participate in Origins Online events stepped down, and others joined them in solidarity. Such a large number of people withdrew, it is speculated that Origins Online may not have been able to run without them. Regardless of the reason, Origins Online

SECTION 10

#1732772814514

1320-445: A large collection of 54 mm and 70 mm figures, where they used "ladyfingers" (small firecrackers) to simulate explosions. By his teens, Gygax had a voracious appetite for pulp fiction authors such as Robert E. Howard , Jack Vance , Fritz Leiber , H. P. Lovecraft , and Edgar Rice Burroughs . He was a mediocre student, and in 1956, a few months after his father died, he dropped out of high school in his junior year. He joined

1430-503: A large role-playing game convention in Gygax's honor. Gygax was born in Chicago, the son of Almina Emelie "Posey" (Burdick) and Swiss immigrant and former Chicago Symphony Orchestra violinist Ernst Gygax. He was named Ernest after his father, but was commonly known as Gary, the middle name given to him by his mother after the actor Gary Cooper . The family lived on Kenmore Avenue, close enough to Wrigley Field that he could hear

1540-554: A lawsuit brought against them by Lucasfilm in 2008. The organization emerged from bankruptcy protection a year later, while still holding its regularly scheduled events and became larger than ever. The International Federation of Wargaming (IFW) hosted a number of small regional conventions in the months following its foundation in 1967, including the first annual club convention in Malvern, Pennsylvania , in August. Some IFW gamers in

1650-425: A letter of intent to purchase Gen Con LLC's assets was filed with the bankruptcy court. It announced that a to-be-formed company called Gen Con Acquisition Group would purchase Gen Con LLC., for an amount equal to Gen Con LLC's outstanding debt. Gen Con's president, Adrian Swartout, described the letter as "suspiciously cryptic" and concluded that the offer "is not in the best interest of our creditors". Gen Con rejected

1760-463: A live-action version of D&D . In fact, Egbert was discovered in Louisiana several weeks later, but negative mainstream media attention focused on D&D as the cause. In 1982, Patricia Pulling 's son killed himself. Pulling blamed D&D for her son's suicide and formed the organization B.A.D.D. (Bothered About Dungeons & Dragons) to attack the game and TSR. Gygax defended the game on

1870-688: A love of games and an appreciation for fantasy and science fiction literature. When he was five, he played card games such as pinochle and then board games such as chess . At age ten, he and his friends played the sort of make-believe games that eventually came to be called " live action role-playing games ", with one of them acting as referee. His father introduced him to science fiction and fantasy through pulp novels . His interest in games, combined with an appreciation of history, eventually led Gygax to begin playing miniature war games in 1953 with his best friend, Don Kaye. As teenagers, Gygax and Kaye designed their own miniatures rules for toy soldiers with

1980-466: A magazine based around the new game. In 1977, he began work on a more comprehensive version of the game called Advanced Dungeons & Dragons . He designed numerous manuals for the game system, as well as several pre-packaged adventures called "modules" that gave a person running a D&D game (the " Dungeon Master ") a rough script and ideas. In 1983, he worked to license the D&;D product line into

2090-527: A mere 150 pages. He also wanted to create a horror setting for the new RPG called Unhallowed . He began working on the RPG and the setting with the help of games designer Mike McCulley. Game Designers' Workshop became interested in publishing the new system, and it also drew the attention of JVC and NEC , who were looking for a new RPG system and setting to turn into a series of computer games. NEC and JVC were not interested in horror, however, so they shelved

2200-478: A near total ban on abortions, Gen Con tweeted a statement in support of abortion rights, and Gen Con president David Hoppe made the following statement: "Passage of Senate Bill 1 will have an impact on our stakeholders and attendees and will make it more difficult for us to remain committed to Indiana for our long-term home. We are committed here through 2026. We do have to think about what that means beyond that and, of course, we would have to look at what that means for

2310-465: A new product. Gygax announced in 1988 in a company newsletter that he and Rob Kuntz, his co-Dungeon Master during the early days of the Greyhawk campaign, were working as a team again. This time they would create a new multi-genre fantasy role-playing game called "Infinite Adventures", which would receive support through different gamebooks for each genre. This line would explore the original visions of

SECTION 20

#1732772814514

2420-763: A protagonist called Gord the Rogue; both sold well. He also hired company manager Lorraine Williams . She bought the Blumes' shares and replaced Gygax as president and CEO in October 1985, stating that Gygax would make no further creative contributions to TSR. Several of his projects were immediately shelved. Gygax took TSR to court in a bid to block the Blumes' sale of their shares to Williams, but he lost. Sales of D&D reached $ 29 million in 1985, but Gygax resigned from all of his positions with TSR in October 1986, and all of his disputes with TSR were settled in December. By

2530-406: A representative of Guidon Games. Gygax saw potential in both games, and was especially excited by Arneson's role-playing game. Gygax and Arneson immediately started to collaborate on creating "The Fantasy Game", the role-playing game that evolved into Dungeons & Dragons . Following Arneson's Blackmoor demonstration, Gygax requested more information from Arneson and began testing ideas for

2640-607: A return to simple and basic rules. Although he was not able to successfully release a Lejendary Adventures computer game, Gygax decided to instead publish it as a tabletop game. Meanwhile, in 1996 the games industry was rocked by the news that TSR had run into insoluble financial problems and had been bought by Wizards of the Coast . While WotC was busy refocussing TSR's products, Christopher Clark of Inner City Games Designs suggested to Gygax in 1997 that they could publish role-playing game adventures that game stores could sell while TSR

2750-448: A romantic relationship with Gail Carpenter, his former assistant at TSR. In November 1986, she gave birth to Gygax's sixth child, Alex. Biographer Michael Witwer believes Alex's birth forced Gygax to reconsider the equation of work, gaming and family that, until this time, had been dominated by work and gaming. "Gary, keenly aware that he had made mistakes as a father and husband in the past, was determined not to make them again ... Gary

2860-586: A school supply catalog. Gygax cited as influences the fantasy and science fiction authors Robert E. Howard , L. Sprague de Camp , Jack Vance , Fletcher Pratt , Fritz Leiber , Poul Anderson , A. Merritt , and H. P. Lovecraft . In 1967, Gygax co-founded the International Federation of Wargamers (IFW) with Bill Speer and Scott Duncan. The IFW grew rapidly, particularly by assimilating several preexisting wargaming clubs, and aimed to promote interest in wargames of all periods. It provided

2970-666: A segment of 60 Minutes that aired in 1985. Death threats started arriving at the TSR office, so he hired a bodyguard. Nevertheless, TSR's annual D&D sales increased in 1982 to $ 16 million. In January 1983, The New York Times speculated that D&D might become "the great game of the 1980s" in the same manner that Monopoly was emblematic of the Great Depression . Brian Blume persuaded Gygax to allow Brian's brother Kevin to purchase Melvin Blume's shares. This gave

3080-514: A series of puzzles and scenarios designed to recreate a D&D environment. 2008 was a tumultuous year, legally, for Gen Con LLC. On January 10, Lucasfilm filed a lawsuit against them, claiming breach of contract, conversion, and unjust enrichment over Celebration IV , held in 2006. The suit also claims Gen Con failed to give the money raised at a charity auction held at the event to the Make-A-Wish Foundation . Gen Con filed

3190-439: A shield and no armor, then he just has a shield. Shields and half-armor = half-armor rules; full-armor figure = full armor rules. I did rules for weapons as well. Together with Don Kaye, Mike Reese, and Leon Tucker, Gygax created a military miniatures society called Lake Geneva Tactical Studies Association (LGTSA) in 1970, with its first headquarters in Gygax's basement. Shortly thereafter in 1970, Gygax and Robert Kuntz founded

3300-566: A steady income and gave him more time for game development. In 1971, he began doing some editing work at Guidon Games , a publisher of wargames , for which he produced the board games Alexander the Great and Dunkirk: The Battle of France . Early that same year, Gygax published Chainmail , a miniatures wargame that simulated medieval-era tactical combat, which he had originally written with hobby-shop owner Jeff Perren . The Chainmail medieval miniatures rules were originally published in

3410-415: A third line of products, which began with an adventure written by Mentzer, The Convert (1987). He had written it as an RPGA tournament for D&D , but TSR was not interested in publishing it. Mentzer got verbal permission to publish it with New Infinities, but since the permission was not in writing TSR filed an injunction for a period to prevent the adventure's sale. During all this drama, Gygax had

Gen Con - Misplaced Pages Continue

3520-424: A way to market more of his Gord the Rogue novels, but Baker had a vision for a new gaming company. He promised that he would handle the business end while Gygax would handle the creative projects. Baker also guaranteed that, using Gygax's name, he would be able to bring in one to two million dollars of investment. Gygax decided this was a good opportunity, and in October 1986, New Infinities Productions , Inc. (NIPI)

3630-558: A week. It was also from Avalon Hill that he ordered the first blank hex mapping sheets available, which he then employed to design his own games. About the same time that he discovered Gettysburg , his mother reintroduced him to Mary Jo Powell, who had left Lake Geneva as a child and just returned. Gygax was smitten with her and, after a short courtship, persuaded her to marry him, despite being only 19. This caused some friction with Kaye, who had also been wooing Mary Jo. Kaye refused to attend Gygax's wedding. Kaye and Gygax reconciled after

3740-544: Is Fight in the Skies , later renamed Dawn Patrol . The D&D Championship Series (formerly the D&D Open) is a long-running series of Dungeons & Dragons games at Gen Con, beginning in 1977. The RPGA, beginning in 1981, has run large numbers of events at Gen Con, so extensive they have been given their own category. The RPGA events are primarily "Living" games where players create characters who persist between events. The RPGA first ran events in 1981. In 1987

3850-792: Is an annual gaming convention that was first held in 1975. Since 1996, it has been held in Columbus, Ohio at the Greater Columbus Convention Center . Origins is run by the Game Manufacturers Association (GAMA). Origins was chartered to serve gaming in general, including wargaming and miniatures gaming . Origins is the site of the annual Origins Awards ceremony. For many years, the Charles S. Roberts Awards for historical boardgames were presented at Origins, but these are now presented at

3960-526: Is not run for charity. The EN World RPG Awards (the ENnies ) are an annual awards ceremony devoted to role-playing games. Established in 2001, the ENnies have been hosted at Gen Con Indy since 2002, and are organized and owned by EN World , a D&D / d20 System news website. True Dungeon is an immersive life-sized dungeon crawl live action role-playing game (LARP) run at Gen Con since 2003, featuring

4070-525: Is now one of North America's largest annual hobby-game gatherings. Gygax met Dave Arneson , the future co-creator of D&D , at the second Gen Con in August 1969. I'm very fond of the Medieval period , the Dark Ages in particular. We started playing in the period because I had found appropriate miniatures. I started devising rules where what the plastic figure was wearing was what he had. If he had

4180-585: The World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game Setting boxed set. Sales of the D&D game reached $ 8.5 million in 1980. Gygax also provided assistance on the Gamma World science fantasy role-playing game in 1981 and co-authored the Gamma World adventure Legion of Gold . In 1979, Michigan State University student James Dallas Egbert III allegedly disappeared into the school's steam tunnels while playing

4290-546: The Castle & Crusade Society of the IFW. In October 1970, Gygax lost his job at the insurance company after almost nine years. Unemployed and now with five children he tried to use his enthusiasm for games to make a living by designing board games for commercial sale. This proved unsustainable when he grossed only $ 882 in 1971 (equivalent to $ 6,636 in 2023). He began cobbling shoes in his basement, which provided him with

4400-406: The D&D Basic Set , and D&D and AD&D became distinct product lines. Splitting the game lines created a further rift between Gygax and Arneson. Arneson received a ten-percent royalty on sales of all D&D products, but Gygax refused to pay him royalties on AD&D books, claiming that it was a new and different property. In 1979, Arneson sued TSR; they settled in March 1981 with

4510-591: The Dangerous Journeys RPG was released by Game Designers' Workshop, but TSR immediately applied for an injunction against the entire Dangerous Journeys RPG and the Mythus setting, arguing that Dangerous Journeys was based on D&D and AD&D . The injunction failed, but TSR moved forward with litigation. Gygax believed that the legal action was without merit and fueled by Lorraine Williams' personal enmity, but NEC and JVC both withdrew from

Gen Con - Misplaced Pages Continue

4620-641: The Indiana Convention Center . Wizards of the Coast helped celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Dungeons & Dragons game at Gen Con Indy 2004. In 2005 Gen Con Indy generated the most direct visitor spending of any annual convention in Indianapolis. Adkison also restarted the convention in California, this time named Gen Con SoCal. Smaller than its mid-western counterpart, it drew approximately 6,300 attendees in 2005, making it

4730-465: The Marines , but after being diagnosed with walking pneumonia , he received a medical discharge and moved back home with his mother. From there, he commuted to a job as a shipping clerk with Kemper Insurance Co. in Chicago. Shortly after his return, a friend introduced him to Avalon Hill 's new wargame Gettysburg . Gygax was soon obsessed with the game, often playing marathon sessions once or more

4840-529: The Unhallowed setting in favor of a fantasy setting called Mythus . JVC also wanted a name change for the RPG, favoring Dangerous Dimensions over The Carpenter Project . Work progressed favorably until March 1992, when TSR filed an injunction against Dangerous Dimensions , claiming that the name and initials were too similar to Dungeons & Dragons . Gygax changed the name to Dangerous Journeys . The marketing strategy for Dangerous Journeys: Mythus

4950-671: The World Boardgaming Championships . Board games , trading card games , LARPs and role-playing games are also popular at Origins. Origins Game Fair was formerly known as the Origins International Game Expo . The name was changed in the summer of 2007. Origins typically has a theme each year, which affects some of the events and decorations like banners or art, and the Origins mascot will be depicted wearing an outfit related to

5060-562: The " Geneva Conventions " are a set of important international treaties regarding war, the subject of many of the early games. Starting in 1971, Gen Con was cosponsored by the Lake Geneva Tactical Studies Association. Beginning in 1975, Gen Con was managed and hosted by TSR, Inc. , original publisher of the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game . During the following decade the event grew and

5170-431: The "satanic" game D&D caused enough friction that the family finally disassociated themselves from Jehovah's Witnesses. Mary Jo resented the amount of time that her husband spent "playing games"; she had begun to drink excessively, and the couple argued frequently. Gygax had started smoking marijuana when he lost his insurance job in 1970, and he started to use cocaine and had a number of extramarital affairs. In 1983,

5280-402: The $ 50 Horticultural Hall fee to sponsor this first Gen Con. Almost 100 people attended. At the second Gen Con in August 1969, Gygax met Rob Kuntz and Dave Arneson . During these early conventions, the events centered around board games and miniature wargames. Gen Con's name is a derivation of "Geneva Convention", due to the convention's origins in Lake Geneva. It is also a play on words, as

5390-430: The 1960s, Gygax created an organization of wargaming clubs and founded the Gen Con gaming convention. In 1971, he co-developed Chainmail , a miniatures wargame based on medieval warfare with Jeff Perren. He co-founded the company Tactical Studies Rules (TSR) with childhood friend Don Kaye in 1973. The next year, TSR published D&D , created by Gygax and Arneson the year before. In 1976, he founded The Dragon ,

5500-567: The Barrier Peaks , The Temple of Elemental Evil , The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun , Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure , Isle of the Ape , and all seven of the modules later combined into Queen of the Spiders . In 1980, Gygax's long-time campaign setting Greyhawk was published in the form of the World of Greyhawk Fantasy World Setting folio, which was expanded in 1983 into

5610-448: The Blume brothers a controlling interest, and Gygax and the Blumes were increasingly at loggerheads over the company's management by 1981. Gygax's frustrations at work and increased prosperity from his generous royalties brought a number of changes to his personal life. He and Mary Jo had been active members of the local Jehovah's Witnesses , but others in the congregation already felt uneasy about his smoking and drinking; his connection to

SECTION 50

#1732772814514

5720-452: The Blumes' employee. Gygax wrote the supplements Greyhawk , Eldritch Wizardry , and Swords & Spells for the original D&D game . With Brian Blume, he also designed the wild west -oriented role-playing game Boot Hill . The same year, Gygax created the magazine The Strategic Review with himself as editor. But wanting a more industry-wide periodical, he hired Tim Kask as TSR's first employee to change this magazine to

5830-463: The Castle & Crusade Society's fanzine The Domesday Book . Guidon Games hired Gygax to produce a game series called "Wargaming with Miniatures", with the initial release for the series being a new edition of Chainmail (1971). The first edition of Chainmail included a fantasy supplement to the rules. These comprised a system for warriors, wizards, and various monsters of nonhuman races drawn from

5940-407: The Castle and City of Greyhawk by Gygax and Kuntz, now called "Castle Dunfalcon". Before work on this project could commence, NIPI ran out of money, was forced into bankruptcy, and dissolved in 1989. After NIPI folded, Gygax decided to create an entirely new RPG called The Carpenter Project , one considerably more complex and "rules heavy" than his original D&D system, which had encompassed

6050-594: The Chicago area could not make the journey to Malvern, so they had an informal gathering that same weekend at the Lake Geneva, Wisconsin home of Gary Gygax . Later this gathering would come to be referred to as "Gen Con 0". In 1968, Gygax rented Lake Geneva's Horticultural Hall to hold a follow-up IFW convention, the Lake Geneva Wargames Convention, later known as the Gen Con gaming convention . The IFW, which Gygax co-founded, put up $ 35 of

6160-731: The Netherlands in 1998 and re-occurred there in 2000. Gen Con Barcelona occurred five years, in 1994–1996, 1999, and 2004. Gen Con UK was held between 1998 and 2005. A Gen Con was held in Brisbane , Australia, in July 2008 and again in September 2009. A third Gen Con Australia was scheduled for 2010, but was cancelled. When the COVID-19 lockdown prompted Gen Con to cancel the in-person convention in 2020, it instead ran an online version. While

6270-809: The Origins convention in Ann Arbor, Michigan in July 1978. In each of 1988 and 1992, Origins and Gen Con joined together to hold a single convention in Milwaukee. In April 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic , it was announced that Origins would be postponed from its usual mid-June date to October 7–11. In its place, an event called Origins Online was to be held that would allow attendees to "demo and buy games and merchandise" and offer "streaming workshops and educational seminars with guest authors, artists and game designers, plus hundreds of games online that attendees can sign up to participate in." In June, due to

6380-496: The United States, as well as internationally. In 1976, Gen Con became the property of TSR, Inc. , the gaming company co-founded by Gary Gygax. TSR (and Gen Con) were then acquired by Wizards of the Coast in 1997, which was subsequently acquired by Hasbro . Hasbro then sold Gen Con to the former CEO of Wizards of the Coast, Peter Adkison , in 2002. Gen Con spent a short time under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection , due to

6490-543: The United States, with more than 18,000 people. Gen Con briefly joined with its primary competitor, the Origins Game Fair , and the two were run as a single convention in 1988. Wizards of the Coast debuted Magic: The Gathering at Gen Con in August 1993; the game proved extremely popular, selling out its supply of 2.5 million cards, which had been scheduled to last until the end of the year. The ensuing collectible card game craze has been credited with generating

6600-498: The West Coast, as he rented an immense mansion, increased his cocaine use, and spent time with several young starlets. Gygax was occupied with getting a movie off the ground in Hollywood, so he had to leave TSR in the hands of Kevin and Brian Blume to oversee its day-to-day operations. He reached an agreement with Orson Welles in 1984 to star in a D&D movie, with John Boorman to act as producer and director. But almost at

6710-616: The World, Adventure, Futuristic, and Top Secret. According to the 2019 Origins Sitebook, the theme for 2020 will be Games Around the World. Origins started in 1975 with a gathering of game players in Baltimore, Maryland . The Interest Group Baltimore, a local wargaming club, worked with the Baltimore-based Avalon Hill game company to put on the first show that year at Johns Hopkins University . Avalon Hill produced

SECTION 60

#1732772814514

6820-556: The agreement that Arneson would receive a 2.5-percent royalty on all AD&D products, giving him a six-figure annual income for the next decade. Gygax wrote the AD&;D hardcovers Players Handbook , Dungeon Masters Guide , Monster Manual, and Monster Manual II . He also wrote or co-wrote many AD&D and basic D&D adventure modules, including The Keep on the Borderlands , Tomb of Horrors , Expedition to

6930-535: The city to destroy it. The coins are collected for charity. Cardhalla was first run in 1999. The gaming group NASCRAG has run Dungeons & Dragons events at Gen Con since 1980. NASCRAG events sometimes donate their ticket fees to charity. The games run tend to be humorous. The Gen Con Live Games Auction is another long-running event, though the majority of the Auction (including the Consignment Store)

7040-506: The company, simply leaving his entire estate to his wife Donna. Although she had worked briefly for TSR as an accountant, she did not share her husband's enthusiasm for gaming, and made clear that she would not have anything to do with managing the company. Gygax called her "less than personable... After Don died she dumped all the Tactical Studies Rules materials off on my front porch. It would have been impossible to manage

7150-412: The company, then worked with Mohan and Mentzer on a science fiction-themed RPG, Cyborg Commando , which was published in 1987. But sales of the new game were not brisk. As game historian Shannon Appelcline noted in 2014, the game was "seen as one of the biggest flops in the industry." Mentzer and Mohan wrote a series of generic RPG adventures, Gary Gygax Presents Fantasy Master , and began working on

7260-431: The convention. The first show under Adkison's leadership took place that August in Milwaukee. The convention moved to Indianapolis in 2003. Peter Adkison attributed the move to the lack of hotel space, the convention center layout, and frequently broken escalators in Milwaukee's convention center. In Indianapolis, the convention, now called Gen Con Indy, continued to draw between 20,000 and 30,000 visitors each year, at

7370-431: The edge of insolvency. Gygax brought his findings to the five other company directors. He charged that the financial crisis was due to Kevin Blume's mismanagement: excess inventory, overstaffing, too many company cars, and some questionable projects such as dredging up a 19th-century shipwreck. Gygax gained control and produced the new AD&D book Unearthed Arcana and the Greyhawk novel Saga of Old City , featuring

7480-635: The extra attendance that produced the 1995 record. Wizards of the Coast purchased TSR in 1997, which was in turn purchased by Hasbro in 1999. Gen Con moved to the Midwest Express Center (now the Wisconsin Center ) in 1998. In November 1999 Wizards announced that Gen Con would leave Milwaukee after the 2002 convention. Peter Adkison , founder of Wizards of the Coast, purchased Gen Con from Hasbro in May 2002, forming Gen Con LLC to run

7590-469: The fantasy periodical The Dragon , with Gygax as writer, columnist, and publisher (from 1978 to 1981). The Dragon debuted in June 1976, and Gygax said of its success years later: "When I decided that The Strategic Review was not the right vehicle, hired Tim Kask as a magazine editor for Tactical Studies Rules, and named the new publication he was to produce The Dragon , I thought we would eventually have

7700-592: The first commercial war games in 1958. In a nod to Baltimore's position as the home of Avalon Hill and the birthplace of the commercial wargame hobby, Don Greenwood , a game designer with Avalon Hill and founder of the convention, suggested calling the show "Origins". Over the next few years, both Avalon Hill and SPI (another wargame company) ran the show. As the show continued expanding, the Game Manufacturers Association assumed management in 1978. RuneQuest debuted as Chaosium 's first RPG at

7810-510: The game forget the spells that they have learned immediately upon casting them and must re-study them in order to cast them again), and the system as a whole drew upon the work of authors such as Robert E. Howard , L. Sprague de Camp , Michael Moorcock , Roger Zelazny , Poul Anderson , Tolkien , Bram Stoker , and others. The final draft contained changes not vetted by Arneson, and Gygax's vision differed on some rule details Arneson had preferred. Gygax asked Guidon Games to publish it, but

7920-456: The game in a three-volume set: The Lejendary Rules for All Players (1999), Lejend Master's Lore (2000) and Beasts of Lejend (2000). The new owner of TSR, WotC's Peter Adkison , clearly did not harbor any of Lorraine Williams' ill-will toward Gygax: Adkison purchased all of Gygax's residual rights to D&D and AD&D for a six-figure sum. Gygax did not author any new game supplements or novels for TSR or WotC, but he did agree to write

8030-454: The game on his two oldest children, Ernie and Elise, in a setting he called "Greyhawk". This group rapidly expanded to include Kaye, Kuntz, and eventually a large circle of players. Gygax and Arneson continued to trade notes about their respective campaigns as Gygax began work on a draft. Several aspects of the system governing magic in the game were inspired by fantasy author Jack Vance 's The Dying Earth stories (notably that magic-users in

8140-480: The gaming community expressed disappointment about the decision; author and game designer Rich Burlew , for example, called it "insulting," and the response by gamers led both the CCF and Gen Con to issue official statements explaining what had happened. As a result of the misunderstanding, Gen Con chose to support a different charity. On March 23, 2015, Adrian Swartout sent a letter to Indiana Governor Mike Pence , asking

8250-458: The governor to reconsider his intent to sign SB 101 , the so-called "Religious Freedom" bill that already passed both state legislatures. The bill would allow businesses in the state to deny service to anyone on religious grounds, with opponents of the bill stating that it would allow businesses to unfairly single out and discriminate against the LGBT community and other groups. Swartout pointed out in

8360-472: The ground. He had been able to keep the rights to Gord the Rogue as part of the severance agreement he made with TSR, so he made a new licensing agreement with TSR for the Greyhawk setting and began writing new novels starting with Sea of Death (1987); novel sales were brisk, and Gygax's Gord the Rogue novels kept New Infinities operating. Gygax brought in Don Turnbull from Games Workshop to manage

8470-416: The hostile takeover bid, and the bankruptcy court allowed Gen Con to emerge from bankruptcy in January 2009, 11 months after it had entered Chapter 11. In 2008, Christian Children's Fund was reported to have turned down $ 17,398 from a GenCon Live Game Auction, during that year's Gen Con. The donation was made in honor of Gary Gygax, who died in 2008, and was a frequent donor to CCF. Some individuals within

8580-402: The in-person convention returned the following year, an online version was run concurrently until Gen Con ceased operations of Gen Con Online after the 2023 show. The convention features a large exhibit hall filled with game publishers, artists, and related businesses, wherein most attendees spend at least $ 100. The only game to be on the event schedule every year since the convention's inception

8690-423: The letter that "Gen Con proudly welcomes a diverse attendee base, made up of different ethnicities, cultures, beliefs, sexual orientations, gender identities, abilities, and socio-economic backgrounds" from over 40 countries and all 50 states, and that welcoming such a "wide-ranging diversity has been a key element to the success and growth of our convention", as well as injecting "over $ 50 million dollars" annually to

8800-452: The local economy. Swartout stated that signing such a bill "will have a direct negative impact on the state economy and factor into [Gen Con's] decision-making on hosting the convention in the state of Indiana in future years," after the Indiana Convention Center had already completed a major expansion in 2011 to accommodate increased attendance to Gen Con. Pence signed SB 101 into effect on March 26, 2015. In August 2022 when Indiana passed

8910-651: The official Star Wars convention, called Star Wars Celebration , which was held in the banner years of the franchise. The Indiana Convention Center completed a major expansion in 2011, in large part, to accommodate increased attendance to Gen Con, at a cost of over $ 275 million. Gen Con was held in Europe in the 1990s, with the first annual European Gen Con held in Camber Sands, Sussex, England, in 1990, and Gen Con Barcelona in Spain in 1994. The European convention

9020-486: The period up until that time." Attendance at Gen Con conventions, based on the numbers given below: [REDACTED] Gen Con is scheduled to remain in Indianapolis through 2030. Gary Gygax Ernest Gary Gygax ( / ˈ ɡ aɪ ɡ æ k s / GHY -gaks ; July 27, 1938 – March 4, 2008) was an American game designer and author best known for co-creating the pioneering tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons ( D&D ) with Dave Arneson . In

9130-425: The point that Mary Jo, pregnant with their second child, believed he was having an affair and confronted him in a friend's basement only to discover him and his friends sitting around a map-covered table. In 1962, Gygax got a job as an insurance underwriter at Fireman's Fund Insurance Co. His family continued to grow, and after his third child was born, he decided to move his family back to Lake Geneva. Except for

9240-533: The preface to the 1998 adventure Return to the Tomb of Horrors , a paean to Gygax's original AD&D adventure Tomb of Horrors . He also returned to the pages of Dragon Magazine, writing the "Up on a Soapbox" column which was published from Issue #268 (January 2000) to Issue #320 (June 2004). Gygax continued to work on Lejendary Adventures which he believed was his best work. However, sales were below expectation. Origins Game Fair Origins Game Fair

9350-481: The printing costs for the thousand copies of Dungeons & Dragons rose from $ 2,000 to $ 2,500, they still did not have enough capital to publish it. Worried that the other playtesters and wargamers now familiar with Gygax's rules would bring a similar product to the market first, the two accepted an offer in December 1973 from gaming acquaintance Brian Blume to invest $ 2,000 in TSR to become an equal one-third partner. (Gygax accepted Blume's offer right away. Kaye

9460-399: The project, killing the Mythus computer game. By 1994, the legal costs had drained all of Gygax's resources, so he offered to settle. In the end, TSR paid Gygax for the complete rights to Dangerous Journeys and Mythus . In 1995, Gygax began work on a new computer role-playing game called Lejendary Adventures . In contrast to the rules-heavy Dangerous Journeys , this new system was

9570-736: The roar of the crowds watching the Chicago Cubs play. At age 7, he became a member of a small group of friends who called themselves the "Kenmore Pirates". In 1946, after the Kenmore Pirates were involved in a fracas with another gang of boys, his father decided to move the family to Posey's family home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin , where Posey's family had settled in the early 19th century, and where Gary's grandparents still lived. In this new setting, Gygax soon made friends with several of his peers, including Don Kaye and Mary Jo Powell. During his childhood and teen years, he developed

9680-430: The same time, he received word that TSR had run into severe financial difficulties, and Kevin Blume was attempting to sell the company for six million dollars. Gygax immediately discarded his movie ambitions—his D&D movie was never made—and flew back to Lake Geneva. He discovered that industry leader TSR was grossing $ 30 million, yet it was barely breaking even; it was in fact $ 1.5 million in debt and teetering on

9790-493: The setting for the world of Greyhawk, and Gygax was not happy with the new direction in which TSR was taking "his" creation. In a literary declaration that his old world was dead, and wanting to make a clean break with all things Greyhawk, Gygax destroyed his version of Oerth in the final Gord the Rogue novel, Dance of Demons . With the Gord the Rogue novels finished, NIPI's main source of steady income dried up. The company needed

9900-627: The standard six-sided dice. He also collaborated with Arneson on the Napoleonic naval wargame Don't Give Up the Ship! Dave Arneson briefly adapted the Chainmail rules for his fantasy Blackmoor campaign. In the winter of 1972–1973, Arneson and friend David Megarry , inventor of the Dungeon! board game, traveled to Lake Geneva to showcase their respective games to Gygax, in his role as

10010-537: The successful D&D cartoon series . Gygax left TSR in 1986 over conflicts with its new majority owner, but he continued to create role-playing game titles independently, beginning with the multi-genre Dangerous Journeys in 1992. He designed the Lejendary Adventure gaming system, released in 1999. In 2005, he was involved in the Castles & Crusades role-playing game, which was conceived as

10120-410: The terms of the settlement, he gave up his rights except to Gord the Rogue and to those D&D characters whose names were anagrams or plays on his own name (for example, Yrag and Zagyg). Immediately after leaving TSR, Gygax was approached by a wargaming acquaintance, Forrest Baker, who had done some consulting work for TSR in 1983 and 1984. Tired of company management, Gygax was simply looking for

10230-470: The theme as well. The theme in 2012 was Time Travel. In 2014 it was Monster. 2014 was also the 40th Origins convention and, keeping with the Monster theme, they introduced the mascot Crit. In 2015 the theme was Space. In 2016 it was Robots. 2017 was Dragons. 2018 was Mystery. 2019 was Mythical. A survey was distributed online to help select the theme for the 2020 show. The options were: Scary Fun, Games Around

10340-559: The third-largest consumer hobby game convention in North America. It was held in the Anaheim Convention Center . In spite of Adkison saying that he did not want Gen Con to become a "mini-E3" in 2003, when E3 downsized in mid-2006, Gen Con LLC announced it would provide more show space for video game businesses. Gen Con described their intention to "pick up where E3 [left] off". Also in 2006, Gen Con LLC ran

10450-461: The three-volume rule set in a labeled box was beyond the small publisher's scope. Gygax pitched the game to Avalon Hill, but it did not understand the concept of role-playing and turned down his offer. By 1974, Gygax's Greyhawk group, which had started off with himself, Ernie Gygax, Don Kaye, Rob Kuntz, and Terry Kuntz , had grown to over 20 people, with Rob Kuntz operating as co-dungeon-master so that each of them could referee smaller groups of about

10560-527: The two got an acrimonious divorce. At the same time, the Blumes wanted to get Gygax out of Lake Geneva so that they could manage the company without his "interference", so they split TSR Hobbies into TSR, Inc. and TSR Entertainment, Inc. Gygax became president of TSR Entertainment, Inc., and the Blumes sent him to Hollywood to develop TV and movie opportunities. He became co-producer of the licensed D&D cartoon series for CBS , which led its time slot for two years. Gygax' life continued to unravel on

10670-473: The wedding. The couple moved to Chicago where Gygax continued as a shipping clerk at Kemper Insurance. He found a job for Mary Jo there, but the company laid her off when she became pregnant with their first child. He also took anthropology classes at the University of Chicago . Despite his commitments to his job, raising a family, and attending college, Gygax continued to play wargames. It reached

10780-407: The works of J. R. R. Tolkien and other sources. For a small publisher like Guidon Games, Chainmail was relatively successful, selling 100 copies per month. Gygax also collaborated on Tractics with Mike Reese and Leon Tucker, his contribution being the change to a 20-sided spinner or a coffee can with 20 numbered poker chips (eventually, 20-sided dice) to decide combat resolutions instead of

10890-445: Was "up over 9% from 2023's attendance total, which was 16,082 people, but still down around 14% from the last pre-pandemic show in 2019, where Origins drew 20,642 people". Additionally in 2024, Origins "had 326 exhibitors, up for 2023's count of 305" and event totals went "from 6,135 to 6,528, up about 6%". Throughout the first twenty years of its life, Origins migrated from city to city, until in 1996, GAMA decided to anchor Origins in

11000-666: Was also a realist, and knew what good fatherhood would demand, especially at his age." On August 15, 1987, on what would have been his parents' 50th wedding anniversary, Gygax married Carpenter. During 1987 and 1988, Gygax worked with Flint Dille on the Sagard the Barbarian books, as well as Role-Playing Mastery and its sequel, Master of the Game . He also wrote two more Gord the Rogue novels, City of Hawks (1987), and Come Endless Darkness (1988). But by 1988, TSR had rewritten

11110-455: Was an introductory version of the original D&D geared toward new players and edited by John Eric Holmes . The same year, TSR Hobbies released Advanced Dungeons & Dragons ( AD&D ), a completely new and complex version of D&D . The Monster Manual was also released that year and became the first supplemental rule book of the new system, and many more followed. AD&D 's rules were not fully compatible with those of

11220-414: Was announced publicly. To help him with the creative work, Gygax poached Frank Mentzer and Dragon magazine editor Kim Mohan from TSR. But before a single product was released, Forrest Baker left NIPI when the outside investment he promised of one to two million dollars failed to materialize. Against his will, Gygax was back in charge again; he immediately looked for a quick product to get NIPI off

11330-500: Was cancelled completely, and GAMA offered to "match, dollar for dollar, any exhibitor, sponsor, advertiser, or vendor who donates the amounts they are owed for Origins Online to one of" several different black organizations. Soon after, the regular Origins convention was cancelled for 2020 as well, citing fears of a second wave of COVID-19. This would mark 2020 as the first year without an Origins convention since 1975. ICv2 reported that Origins had "17,706 attendees" in June 2024 which

11440-657: Was held in 1981 and 1982, first in Cherry Hill, New Jersey , and then in Chester, Pennsylvania . In 1985, Gen Con moved to the Milwaukee Exposition & Convention Center & Arena (MECCA) in Milwaukee , due to a need for more space. After the move, attendance steadily rose from 5,000 to a peak of 30,000 in 1995, making Gen Con the premier event in the role-playing game industry. In 1992, Gen Con broke every previous attendance record for game conventions in

11550-570: Was held in England for 8 years, eventually migrating from Camber Sands in the mid-1990s to Loughborough, where the final UK-based European event was held in 1997; the same weekend on which Princess Diana died. There was no European Gen Con in 1998, but it reappeared in Belgium in 1999 for a single year, before again reappearing in Paris for three years between 2006 and 2008. Benelux Gen Con was held in

11660-563: Was hosted at a variety of southern Wisconsin locations, including an American Legion Hall, George Williams College , and the former Lake Geneva Playboy Resort . In 1978 the convention moved to the University of Wisconsin–Parkside campus in Kenosha , where it remained through 1984. A Gen Con West was held in California for only three years, 1976–1978. From 1978 to 1984, Gen Con South was held in Jacksonville, Florida , and Gen Con East

11770-440: Was less enthusiastic, and after a week to consider the offer, he questioned Blume closely before acquiescing.) Blume's investment finally brought the financing that enabled them to publish D&D . Gygax worked on rules for more miniatures and tabletop battle games including Classic Warfare (Ancient Period: 1500 BC to 500 AD) and Warriors of Mars . TSR released the first commercial version of D&D in January 1974 as

11880-523: Was multi-pronged. The RPG and setting were to be published by Game Designers' Workshop, and the Mythus computer game was being prepared by NEC and JVC. There would also be a series of books based on the Mythus setting written by Gygax. He wrote three novels published by Penguin/Roc and later reprinted by Paizo Publishing : The Anubis Murders , The Samarkand Solution , and Death in Delhi . In late 1992,

11990-545: Was otherwise occupied, so Inner City published the fantasy adventures A Challenge of Arms (1998) and The Ritual of the Golden Eyes (1999). Gygax introduced some investors to the publication setup that Clark was using, and although the investors were not willing to fund publication of Legendary Adventures , Clark and Gygax were able to start the partnership Hekaforge Productions. Gygax was thus able to return to publish Lejendary Adventures in 1999. Hekaforge published

12100-511: Was still owned by the three-way partnership of TSR, and neither Gygax nor Blume had the money to buy out Donna Kaye's shares. Blume persuaded a reluctant Gygax to allow his father, Melvin Blume, to buy Donna's shares, and those were converted to 200 shares in TSR Hobbies. In addition, Brian bought another 140 shares. These purchases reduced Gygax from majority shareholder in control of the company to minority shareholder; he effectively became

#513486