For episode 30, Geoff Moes (@ThallidTosser on Twitter), Nat Moes (@GrandpaBelcher), and Josh Chapple (@joshchapple) talk about Gen Con, an annual gaming convention with 64,000 attendees and the erstwhile home of the Vintage and Legacy Championships.





Here’s the timestamped table of contents for your listening ease and enjoyment:

00:24 – On Feet and False Starts

01:55 – Gen Con Magicking

24:38 – Gen Con Gaming

53:59 – Gen Con Eating and Drinking

Total runtime – 1:08:03

Magical Fun Times at GenCon

With Wizards of the Coast ramping up its presence at PAX and making its Grands Prix larger, more elaborate affairs, Magic: The Gathering at GenCon has taken a back seat to the rest of the conference. Magic events are run by Pastimes, and were smaller overall affairs this year. We played in one Vintage event with 28 players and had a good time, but it’s a far cry from previous years’ events with Vintage and Legacy Champs, and even Worlds.

Many of the players at the Vintage events of GenCon are regulars, coming every year. There’s also a healthy group of new players who may just be getting into the format. Nat tells about playing against a newer player who was using Delver of Secrets with Kiln Fiend and Reckless Charge!

Josh did the best of us, playing BUG Control:

BUG Control and @joshchapple, representing #SeriousVintage in the 2-0 bracket. #GenCon2016 #vintagemtg pic.twitter.com/UKOKT5gQLV

— Grandpa Belcher (@GrandpaBelcher) August 5, 2016

BUG Control, by Josh Chapple, GenCon 2016 Friday Vintage

From all experiences with the deck, you play some bad cards and then, just when you’re about to lose, you find one that just crushes your opponent.

On Saturday, we played Vintage Artist Constructed, hosted by Josh Krause. The rules for this format are simply Vintage, with the additional restriction that all of your cards need to be illustrated by one artist. It’s a lot of fun, and I would anticipate an event at Eternal Weekend this year.

You can see how much fun I was having here (playing against Sam):

Turn 1 Walking Dead from @GrandpaBelcher. The beat down has started! pic.twitter.com/JqCimXkPIp

— Josh Krause (@OriginalMtGArt) August 6, 2016

But seriously, the format has a surprising amount of life. There are several varied decks and options for people to play, and you can have as much fun or be as competitive as you want, just like regular Vintage.

Gaming Highlights from GenCon

The main reason for going to GenCon (besides the friendship of course!) is for the games. Every year the event hall is wall-to-wall with new games, old favorites, and plenty of accessories and related oddments. Every year improves because you learn more what you want to do and can focus on that. We highly recommend it.

We played many games this year, but the ones we talked about on the podcast were these:

1. Pocket Dungeon Quest, which we referred to as Nethack the Boardgame. It’s a light dungeon crawler that mimics a roguelike computer game.

2. <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/182351/thiefs-market" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="Boa