FREE Vol. 5 Issue 1 August 2011
Gen Con 2011 had something to offer gamers of all sizes, shapes BY JONDI SCHMITTSOPER Each year more than 30,000 people invade he downtown area of Indianapolis - but not just any people. No, these people are gamers, cosplayers, comic book-lovers, anime fans and more. With this year’s newly opened expansion of the Indianapolis Convention Center, Gen Con was even bigger and better than ever before. With a larger exhibit hall, the board games headquarters nearly doubled in size and the convention’s premier event, True Dungeon, was able to expand to 10-person groups throug the dungeons this year. The True Dungeon is a two-hour massive Dungeons and Dragons liveaction adventure complete wih highly immersive sets, working props and monsters - don’ forget the monsters. A the end of this year’s advenures, a video of True Dugeon creator Jeff Martin was shown to
adventurers, in which he announced that the True Dungeon at Gen Con 2012 will be moving to a bigger locaion and expanding. Information about the True Dungeon adventures can be found at www.truedungeon.com Gen Con’s costumes, as always, were epic. What better place to see amazing cosplay than a gaming convention? There were men dressed as women, women dressed as men, people dressed as animals and robots and there were even a few real robots! The costume competition brought steep competition. The finalists came down to a well-made Batman suit, a halfling-orc (I don’t want to know how that even happens) or a beauiful Warhammer cosplay group that even included a woman. In the end, the judges turned o the audience for the final decree and the results were actually quite surprising when the halflingorc took the winnings (he was pretty adorable).
Mayfair Games expanded their presence at Gen Con this year significantly, and they had a petty large presence last year to begin with. They had several licenses present this year on their area on the exhibi hall floor, which was by far he largest area in the hall. Who North America, a Dr. Who store based Even kids dress up at Gen Con! in Indianapolis, Photo by Amanda Lynn Lupfer was a popular “Torchwood.” booth. With a display that From Wizards of the looked like the TARDIS Coast with their release and a life-sized World of the Neverwinter advenWar II Dalek at the booth, ture and Wyrd Games with even those not stopping their wonderful miniature to shop were stopping to games such as Malifaux pose with the TARDIS or and Puppet Wars to events the Dalek for a photo op. for “spouses” in which The store offered atendees made chainmail books, games and memobelts for a teddy bear, Gen rabilia from all eras of Dr. Con Indy 2011 truly had Who adventures and even something to offer evsome things from the two ery member of the gamer spin-off shows, “The Sarfamily. ah Jane Adventures” and