I went into this year’s Gen Con a little differently than I have in the past. Usually, I would purchase event tickets ahead of time, so I had an exact idea as to what I was doing every day. This year, I didn’t pre-purchase any event tickets. This allowed me to stumble upon things that I wouldn’t have discovered had I been busy. I wanted to share all the new things I tried at Gen Con and what I would do again in the future.

As a side note, I did receive a press badge from Gen Con. This means that I did attend the convention for free. When I applied for my press badge, I applied under Twin Cities Geek versus BizarreBrunette. While I did receive a press badge, all my thoughts are my own.

Paint Minis

I saw one of my friends painting a miniature at this rectangular table near the exhibit hall. I asked him if he had to sign up for this or if he could sit down and paint at any time. One of the booth attendees approached me and asked if I was interested in painting a mini for free. I couldn’t say no to that. I have never painted a mini nor would I consider myself a crafty person. They quickly had me set up with a few paintbrushes, a mat to blot the brushes, and a pedestal to put the mini on. I was surprised at how relaxed I felt painting. This was a speed painting event, so I only had 30 minutes to paint. As such, my mini has paint blotches in different areas. However, I was impressed with what I accomplished having never painted before. On Sunday, I found another painting booth on the second floor that had different minis to paint. I chose an Eldritch Foundry mini with a jet pack.

This was such a great event to stumble upon. I have Malifaux minis I bought last year that I still haven’t painted yet and now I feel inspired to do so. This will be something that I will aim to do every year at Gen Con.

Attended a TTRPG Live Show

One of my friends alerted me to the fact that BlackwaterDnD would be at Gen Con this year. I have never heard of BlackwaterDnD before this, but my friend raved about them. I checked my schedule and I could make their live show. It was hilarious! They didn’t play Dungeons and Dragons, instead, they played a roleplaying game where they flipped coins instead of rolling dice. Several of the players kept dropping the coins or losing them. Their live show was only an hour and I felt that went by quickly.

I’m always looking for new TTRPG content to dive into, so I do plan on listening to BlackwaterDnD within the next few days. I want to be on the lookout for any other TTRPG groups or live shows in the future.

Lined Up for a Signing

AHHHH!!! I got to meet the cast of The Command Zone!!!! Can you tell that I’m still not over it? I have been listening to The Command Zone specifically their Game Knights episodes where they play Commander with members of the cast and with special guests. While I consider myself a casual Magic: The Gathering fan, The Command Zone has inspired me to do more deck building and to play at more pre-release events.

I was walking towards the Wizards of the Coast panel room and saw that the cast of The Command Zone was doing a signing. I wasn’t sure what to expect since I didn’t see that I needed to purchase event tickets ahead of time. I arrived at the room forty five minutes early because I wasn’t sure how early I had to be there. While I waited, I talked to a variety of fans who were also in line. Many fans brought Magic cards for the cast to sign which I did not do. If anything, my plan was to talk with them briefly and say that I was a fan of the show.

As the panel doors opened, I saw they had someone from their team being willing to take photos. I grew more excited because I’d much rather have a photo of the experience than their signatures. When it was my turn, Josh (the man on the left in the photo) shook my hand and asked me my name. He also said that my staff was cool. Everyone else was lovely to speak with. It all happened so fast and they even had a box of free stuff that fans could take. It might be embarassing to admit, but my hands and legs were shaking. I didn’t think I would be that nervous, but here I am. I took a few of their token cards which I gave to a friend since they couldn’t make the signing.

This was such a cool opportunity and I have started relistening to The Command Zone podcast which I fell behind on. It’s cool to be able to say that I met them in real life.

There were so many cool opportunities that I discovered this year. I do want to have at least one event per day to do, but I’m glad I left my schedule fairly open at the same time.