July 2026
by Sara Nurrenbern
GenCon is the largest and longest running board gaming convention in the U.S. Hosted each year in Indianapolis, IN, and averaging 72,000 + attendees and being known as “The Best 4 Days in Gaming,” it is nerd heaven!
I have been an avid life-long board game lover, but ALS has made it harder and harder to get out and participate in the gaming community like I used to. However, thanks to Team Gleason, along with the help of my mother (Mary) and close friend (Lea), I was able to go be around tons of people who share my interests and I felt like myself again!
Over the past year, the Dungeon Crawler Carl book series has become very popular. There were many, many events at GenCon that were related to that! One of the most popular things was an amazing life-sized statue of Carl and his faithful companion Princess Donut that was really cool to see. I also had the opportunity to get a sneak peek and to play the new role-playing game based on the series! That was exciting and a lot of fun! Role-playing games are one of my favorite types of games, and I hope to be able to play this one with my group when it comes out.
Another great thing that happened on this trip is that I was able to meet my friend Kat in person! She lives in Florida and I live in Indiana. We met playing board games online and became close friends. We talk every day, have watch parties frequently, and play turns on our online board games daily. Traveling is hard for me, so this was an amazing way to finally connect! We got to watch a live session of Dungeons & Dragons that was Keanu Reeves themed, and the next day we got to play an early release copy of a solo game we both like called Final Girl. (The game beat me, hence the picture of me giving two thumbs down, haha!)
On the third day of GenCon, we had some bad weather. Typical for Indiana at this time of year, a pretty bad thunderstorm came our way.
This storm ended up creating several tornados, two of which were apparently over or near the Indianapolis Convention Center! I was luckily already in an underground hallway looking at local art so I would have been safe.
Amazingly, the tornados never touched down and although there was some damage to the roof and some of the connected hotels, no one was hurt.
Of course, what would a convention be without merch! Here are some of the new games I scored, as well as a new dice tower. Her name is Luna and she’s my lucky charm when I play RPGs now! While rolling along (pun intended) through the vendor hall and looking at games, I was able to strike up some great conversations with some of the game designers, developers, and vendors about accessibility. I speak on panels and at events, discussing the importance of accessibility in gaming, so that was a good networking experience for me as well!
Two other amazing things I loved at GenCon were Cardhalla and all of the amazing cosplay that I saw!
For a week, attendees bring in cards from games they no longer need and they build a city of cards. It is so enthralling to watch.
At the end of the week, donations given to help destroy the city are given to the designated charity of the year. The cosplay shown in this picture was my favorite one I saw. That’s an actual person on bouncy stilts!
Thank you once again to Team Gleason for helping make this trip possible! I had an absolutely amazing time bonding with my family and friends, as well as making memories that I will be able to look back on and smile.
GenCon for me is like going to Disneyland for a kid, it is where I want to be! I encourage everyone to take every opportunity you have to go out and make memories, because you never know what life may bring you.
(In this case, it brought me drag queens from California doing a live session of Dungeons & Dragons, haha!)
