Attendees put their hands in the air at a past Gen Con in Indianapolis. Photo provided
Gen Con was around before Dungeons & Dragons, but the tabletop gaming convention and the fantasy role-playing game became rising stars together in 1974.
Now a fixture of the Indianapolis events calendar, Gen Con debuted in 1968 in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Gen Con founder Gary Gygax brought Dungeons & Dragons, a game he designed with fellow hobbyist Dave Arneson, to the seventh edition of the convention—which attracted about 350 people at Lake Geneva’s Horticultural Hall.
This year’s Gen Con, scheduled Thursday through Sunday at the Indiana Convention Center and Lucas Oil Stadium, will celebrate the 50th anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons. The convention’s 70,000 attendees will have the chance to visit a pop-up museum of Dungeons & Dragons artifacts and check out 10 new U.S. stamps based on D&D imagery.
“It’s safe to say that without D&D, Gen Con wouldn’t exist,” said David Hoppe, Gen Con’s president. “And without Gen Con, D&D wouldn’t exist. It’s been a symbiosis that has powered both the hobby and our success. It’s a super exciting time. D&D has never been bigger. Gen Con has never been bigger. It’s a peanut butter and chocolate kind of relationship.”
Gen Con, which moved from Milwaukee to Indianapolis in 2003, is a sold-out event. All badges have been sold and no walk-up badges will be available. On Monday, Hoppe said no previous Gen Con sold out all four days as early as this year’s event.
Billed as “The Best Four Days in Gaming,” Gen Con attracts about 80% of its attendees from an eight-hour driving radius of Indianapolis, Hoppe said. That area includes cities ranging from Atlanta and Buffalo, New York, to Kansas City and Green Bay, Wisconsin.
The event also streams video on the Gen Con TV platform, which features content originating from the company’s headquarters in Seattle throughout the year.
“True Dungeon,” a 10,000-square-foot immersive Dungeons & Dragons attraction, will return to Lucas Oil Stadium, but Hoppe noted that Gen Con isn’t limited to celebrating D&D’s 50th anniversary.
More than 500 board games will debut at Gen Con, and the event will host a costume contest for the 38th time. Categories in the costume contest include fantasy/historical, game characters and pop culture.
“We have a big D&D presence, but we have literally thousands of other games that we’ll be playing over the course of the four days,” Hoppe said.
Following last year’s event, Gen Con announced plans to present the convention in Indianapolis through 2030. Hoppe said the city’s downtown configuration allows 1.2 million square feet of an “urban village” atmosphere thanks to the convention center, stadium and nearby hotels.
At the same time, Gen Con is “bursting at the seams,” Hoppe said, and organizers are eager to see the completion of the Signia by Hilton at the former Pan Am Plaza. The hotel is expected to open in fall 2026.
“We’re already making plans for how we’re going to adapt to the space,” Hoppe said of the 40-story project. “In addition to all the hotel rooms, which we will certainly fill, we are starting to think about how we can move into the space. It gives us an opportunity to grow a little more.”
For more information about this year’s convention, visit gencon.com.
By Dave Lindquist, Indianapolis Business Journal
