GenCon 2026 Wrapup – Dragon Luaus, Rage Quitting, and TTRPGs

GenCon 2026 is in the books. Let’s wrap up by taking a look at some of the highlights of this year’s GenCon as we look ahead to next year’s Diamond Anniversary, celebrating 60 years of GenCon. If you’d like a shorter recap, you can checkout the video recap embedded below

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What is GenCon?

For almost 60 years, GenCon has been the undisputed top of tabletop gaming in North America, serving as North America’s largest tabletop convention and the second largest in the world behind Essen Spiel in Germany. What started 59 years ago as a modest collection of wargamers in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin (Hence the name Geneva Convention), has evolved into a massive four-day pilgrimage. After moving as the convention grew, GenCon has called Indianapolis, Indiana, home for the last 23 years. Dubbed by organizers as “The Best Four Days In Gaming”, the event transforms downtown Indy hotels, the Indiana Convention Center, and Lucas Oil Stadium into the epicenter of cards, dice, miniatures, and cosplay.

What’s at GenCon?

You’ll find any game you want. If you’re looking for board games, tabletop roleplaying games, miniature war games, or even cosplay, GenCon has it. Over 70,000 unique visitors descend on Indy over the four days. There are dedicated areas for learning new games, a vendor hall with over 800 vendors, and a variety of charity options.

Highlights of GenCon 2026

Now, a short disclaimer before I get started. I’ve tried to highlight things that were generally just discussed by large groups around GenCon, but I’ve also included some personal highlights and things I really enjoyed. You could read 15 other GenCon articles, and they may highlight different things they enjoyed at GenCon. With 70k people, there’s going to be something for everyone and different highlights for each person.

TTRPG Renaissance

One of the highlights of GenCon 2026 has to be the renaissance of TTRPG publishers that were in attendance this year. Major players like Wizards of the Coast and Paizo always have a big presence at GenCon in terms of the number of sessions offered, but both ramped up their presence at GenCon even more over the past few years, with this year being the icing on the cake. Wizards of the Coast, on top of events offered at the GenCon facilities proper, took over the entire Indiana Repertory Theater, turning it into the D&D Tower, complete with events, merchandise, live plays, and even a full-scale carnival. Paizo supplemented their already packed ballrooms full of Pathfinder and Starfinder players and GMs by rolling out a preview of their new horror-based RPG, 13 Omens. I was able to catch a look at 13 Omens, and I can see why the new RPG has made several sites’ “Best of GenCon” lists.

It wasn’t just the traditional heavy hitters that had an amazing GenCon. Darrington Press, Monte Cook Games, Renegade Game Studios, and Marvel all saw their RPG rooms packed from open to close each day. Darrington Press rolled out their new Daggerheart expansion, Hope and Fear. In addition, at their GenCon address, Darrington Press outlined upcoming plans for Daggerheart, including the fact that they have content tentatively planned out to 2030. Monte Cook Games saw ridiculously busy tables and sold-out events for their various RPGs. The Cypher system remains popular with the new kid on the block; Old Gods of Appalachia events sold out each day.

Renegade Game Studios perhaps had the best GenCon of any of the smaller RPG publishers, capitalizing on the upcoming release of their Dungeon Crawler Carl RPG and Unstoppable game. The excitement led to their games being sold out from the day tickets went on sale for events through the entire weekend. Author Matt Dinniman and Voice Actor Jeff Hays were on hand for all four days of GenCon. Marvel kept their room packed with the Marvel Multiverse RPG, having another strong year at GenCon. For the third straight year, Marvel rolled out a new expansion at GenCon. This year, they teamed up with FanRoll to produce a Con Exclusive cover for the new Secret Wars expansion, as well as the Dice of Doom, a set featuring three resin and three metal dice themed to God Emperor Doom from Jonathan Hickman’s 2015 Secret Wars event. Marvel also announced upcoming solo rules that will be available in PDF form this fall to help players further develop their adventures either without a group or between group play sessions. Free League Publishing got in on the big year for TTRPGs with the release of the Invincible Roleplaying Game based on the wildly popular TV show and comic.

Games, Games, Games

GenCon 2026 wasn’t just all TTRPGs. Plenty of board games found new homes. GenCon always serves as a premier opportunity for new board games, promotions, or exclusive content for existing games, and a chance to find other people to play your favorite games with. When it came to board games at GenCon 2026, two trends really seemed to carry the day: short play time and portability. Some of the most popular board games at this year’s events were games that kept their play time in that sweet 30-45 minute play range. In addition, games that were compact and relatively portable, like Containers, Wingspan Pocket, and Dnup hit all of these checkmarks.

While each attendee will have their own “favorite list”, games like Containers, Drillers, Hell of a Deal, and DC: Brave and Bold were consistently the talk of this year’s GenCon. These games stayed sold out throughout the weekend, with new restocks coming almost every day to sell out again almost as soon as the vendor hall reopened. Two games that really stood out to me that some folks may have missed were String Theory and Rubber Ducky Rampage. I actually discovered String Theory while waiting in line to pick up my copy of DC: Brave and Bold and upon seeing that all demos of the event were sold out through the whole weekend, I stood and watched. String Theory sees you as a conspiracy theory podcaster, literally connecting the strings to prove you have the best theories. After about 15 minutes of play, I logged into the QR code provided by Tessellation Games and put my deposit down. Rubber Ducky Rampage, I got a little taste of at DieCon in Illinois, but it was great to see this battler game getting some looks and plays at GenCon.

Cosplay

I was able to get a full video of the cosplay parade for this year. Check it out for yourself and see some of the creativity.

Charities and Food

By the time the weekend was done, GenCon attendees had raised or donated about $50,000 to charity. Through events such as the charity auction or the auction for the first throw to knock down Cardhalla, GenCon raises funds for a variety of partners. This doesn’t include vendors who may give away badge ribbons or other trinkets for a small charitable donation, like the Circle City Ghostbusters organization. Cardhalla alone raised almost 12,000 dollars. In addition to monetary donations, the Red Cross has a presence yearly at GenCon where attendees can use some of their time to donate blood and help refill the Indy blood banks.

In addition, the block party, complete with food trucks, was hopping again this year. Despite shutting early one day due to the tornado warning for the area, a variety of food trucks were available. Hotbox Pizza came in with what is the best GenCon pizza I’ve had in all my years of going to GenCon. This year’s official pizza of GenCon was Dragon Luau, featuring spicy pepperoni, bacon, spicy red sauce, hot honey, pineapple, and mozzarella. Sun King also dropped one of the best GenCon beers in years with Rage Quit selling out almost every day. Whether you were looking for wok-fried noodles, soul food, empanadas, or lobster rolls, GenCon had a little something for everyone when it came to food.

Vendors, Vendors, Vendors

This year’s GenCon saw almost 800 vendors selling their wares. In addition to board game publishers, there were authors, artists, and artisans selling their creations. Artist alley always features some beautiful work, and this year I was happy to see Tran Nguyen return. I was able to get her to sign my Captain Marvel: Dark Past variant cover she designed. When it comes to non-board game vendors, a highlight for me is always picking up a new nerdy mug from Pawley Studios. I was able to pick up a Royal Court of Princess Donut mug this year, along with a Muggle mug for my wife. As I roamed the floors, I saw beautiful dice and some of the most magnificent leatherworking I’ve ever seen. It truly is great to not only hit the part of the vendor floors that deal with board games, but to take time to see the craftsmanship that some fellow nerds possess.

The Not So Good

While GenCon was an amazing experience, you can’t talk about GenCon 2026 without mentioning the tornado warning. While the GenCon and ICC staff were incredibly helpful, the deluge of water overwhelmed drainpipes, leaving water bubbling out of manhole covers on the streets, and vendors trying to protect their supplies, and the roofs of both the ICC and Lucas Oil Stadium had leaks. As always, a few bad apples reminded everyone to be aware of their surroundings with various promo cards, and even Artist’s Proof cards from some of the Magic: The Gathering Artists present in artist’s alley grew legs and walked away. The scam artists on the sidewalks surrounding the ICC were a continual problem, with various individuals trying to get people to tap their cards to “donate” to various charities and then abusing the card numbers. Despite these few things, GenCon was an overwhelming success. I can’t wait to bring you coverage of next year’s 60th anniversary right here on Nerd Initiative.

What did you think of this year’s GenCon?