The Wild Digest: Musings of a Savage Worlds RPG Designer: Gen Con 2024 After Action Report

Well, another Gen Con has come and gone and this one was exciting, fun, and moderately stressful, but for good reason.

A few years ago, I decided to return to Gen Con (the Best Four Days in Gaming™) after several years away and have made it an annual event ever since. This year, having crashed and burned in the dreaded housing lottery (the nearest hotel was eight miles away!), we (my friend Mike was going to make this year his big return) opted to cancel our plans, instead focusing our energies on Gamehole Con in October.

All was fine and good until it was announced that my most recent big TTRPG, Pinebox Middle School, had been nominated for an ENNIE Award in the category, “Best Family Game.” Though I had just lost my job of eight years a few weeks prior, TaMara encouraged me to try and attend Gen Con regardless.

Luckily, I was able to cobble things together to secure a flight, ensure I had a badge (thank you Pinnacle Entertainment Group), and reserve a decent hotel within walking distance of the colossal Indiana Convention Center.

As everything was so last minute, I was unable to register for any events (everything I was even remotely interested in was already sold out), however I did wind up filling my schedule running several demos of Deadlands: Dark Ages for Pinnacle, shopping (so much shopping), and socializing. I brought a few dozen business cards with me and managed to push all of them into hands, so it was a highly successful trip in that regard.

I also attended the Diana Jones Awards and, of course, the ENNIE Awards (Pinebox Middle School did not win, by the way). Additionally, a great group of gamers livestreamed a session of Pinebox Middle School which you can still watch over on the GenConTV channel on Twitch if you're interested!

In the end, I had a really great time and it was definitely worth the stress to pull everything together at the last minute.

Next up, Gamehole Con in a couple months where I’ll be running my original adventure, “The Locked Door” for Pinebox Middle School along with the tried and tested Savage Saturday Cinema adventure, “Final Rest Stop.”