First timer here.

I realize it's not Adepticon (which I've also never been to), but is there any interest in GMT games?  Twilight Struggle is their big one, but they have a load of other good games too that aren't megaton-heavy wargames (the COIN series and Time of Crisis come to mind). 

Does anyone play GMT stuff there?  Should I expect any GMT events?  I know GMT doesn't attend, but in terms of games being played.

Thanks!

http://gencon.eventdb.us/event.php?GameCode=BGM18133168

In 2018 there was one Twilight Struggle game.

It only sold 1 ticket.

There was also a seminar about COIN.
http://gencon.eventdb.us/event.php?GameCode=SEM18131581

Again looks like it only pre-sold 1 ticket.

So certainly it looks like stuff has been run, but it isn't much.

I wish there were more GMT events. As I recall it, the COIN event sold out almost instantly. I know I repeatedly tried to get in.

I think the main problem is, GenCon isn't exactly a "wargaming" convention - it's more for RPGs and "family" games. Also, with two-player games, either the players have to bring their own copies (which pretty much never happens) or the organizer has to have enough copies to fill all of the slots.

I look for GMT stuff each year.  Don’t know how I missed the seminar, boo.  It gives me hope that there will be something like that next year.

Ironic, given it's origins that Gen Con doesn't have more of a wargaming scene (outside of the auction). I wish there were more events along those lines as well.

Makes sense.  They have a pretty big presence at Adepticon from what I understand, but I'm not going to that this year and was hoping to get a chance to try some new games by them. 

That said, I may bring my copy of A Distant Plain in case I can get a game going. 

I contacted GMT 6 years ago and at that time they indicated they would attend Gen Con in a couple years, clearly that never happened.  I think their presence would be received very well considering their game offerings have great titles that aren't necessarily war gaming like Thunder Alley, Dominant Species, Conquest of Paradise, and Winds of Plunder.  Also consider how fast war games sell from the "ding & dent" shelves of Cool Stuff Inc. (I think they are the ones that have that area.)

For GMT games, it's pretty much up to you to organize the event you want to see.

I ran a couple of Commands & Colors: Napoleonics events last year, and I managed to get the game's designer (Richard Borg) to drop by and talk with the players during the games.

IME there's enough demand for their games to run some events throughout the show (my events were certainly well-attended), but I haven't seen any "official" presence from GMT at GenCon, and I haven't heard of any plans to have one.

That makes sense.

I'm hesitant to run my own event on my first Gen Con.  I think I'd rather "do" the con then try to run something.  But in the future it's an option.

So far, I've found events for Here I Stand, Space Corps, and 1846 in the Gen Con event listings. Not bad!

I may have missed something, and there will always be more events added as it gets closer to the convention.

The Fight in the Skies Society would love to host GMT games in their area, but GM's would need to be found and copies of the games as well.

FYI we are always recruiting new GM's

bluemax has a good point: if you want to see more of a particular kind of game at Gen Con, the best way to do that is to submit an event yourself, especially for tabletop games. Run one or two games over the convention and you're very likely to find a couple people to play with. Build that over time and pretty soon you'll have plenty of people signed up to play and you'll have players coming back year over year.

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Derek Guder
Senior Event & Program Manager
Gen Con LLC