If you couldn’t make it to GenCon in person but want to see what was up, are maybe considering going to Trade Day next year and want to know what it’s like, or are just curious about getting a different perspective on the event…. check out my recap of GenCon 2025!

Jump to:

• Vendor hall, LOOT, games, and the Motley Kids Room
• Trade Day and Writer’s Symposium
• Events that I was part of
• Meeting with some AWESOME folks
• Where to next?

Vendor hall, LOOT, games, and the Motley Kids Room

Vendor hall!

So, I did not get to spend nearly as much time as I wanted to in the vendor hall, in part because I crammed my schedule with meeting folks 1:1 (which I REALLY enjoyed), and in part because the family came and kiddo did NOT like the vendor hall…. which I 100% get. It’s loud and crowded and there’s tons of cool stuff that you can’t buy… and add on to that that your face is at butt height for everyone else… I get why it’s probably not going to be the favorite thing (the Motley Kids Room was, which we will get to below).

THAT SAID! I did get to check out a few pockets of booths, particularly in the vacininty of IPR, and did some diving style plunges in to meet with particular folks for interviews or to chat about some cool new games that were on my radar.

AND I got to see my books out in the wild thanks to Indie Press Revolution (Making a Tabletop RPG for YOUR Particular Kid and A Construct’s Nature) and 9th Level Games (Bakers, Charge)!

LOOT!

While at these booths, meeting with folks, or via the partner diving into the hall while I took kiddo to a game of No Thank You, Evil!, we did accumulate quite a few interesting games to try out!

There’s a nice collection of indie TTRPGs, a set of light up dice, and more than one deck builder (we like deck builders). Some of this we’ll share with kiddo, and some are games that I just want to play, and I’m excited to try them out! Several have been on my “want to play” list for a while now, and it’s nice to have a physical copy.

Games!

For games that we played actually at the convention, we only had time for two games, which was OK because there was already a lot going on. We played No Thank You, Evil! (facilitated by Kat the Dungeon Mom) in the Monte Cook Games room and Starfinder Academy (a version of Starfinder that’s tailored for kids) over in the Paizo area! Both sessions were GREAT, and I am planning on writing reviews for each.

The Motley Kids Room!

The Motley Kids Room is a playspace for young folks to get out of the main hall, do some crafts, and participate in LARP training! Kiddo spent quite a bit of time here, and particularly liked the LARP (no photos of the LARP since we don’t take pics of kiddo for the site, but enjoy some of the crafty parts below).

Kiddo did maybe 4-5 crafts from the kits available and then used some of the free supplies to decorate an extra paper bag, color on the cardboard cottage, and so on. They have a GREAT setup, and I’m hoping more conventions pick this kind of room up in the future.

Trade Day and Writer’s Symposium

The Wednesday before GenCon was Trade Day, an event consisting of several talks and showcases that are aimed at professional development on a wide range of topics. These talks covered everything from game-related education and library resources to raising flood management awareness via game design to direct advice for game writing.

I attended five sessions, and each had a strong focus on education, libraries, or youth resources.

These talks were given by actual teachers, librarians, and community leaders who are using games with their respective audience. The XP share came from very practical knowledge; it was not a “this game could be applied”, it was “this is how I applied games, and here’s how you can do it too”. The advice here spanned from general to niche and followed a lecture + Q&A format for most presentations.

The Writer’s Symposium was held on Thursday and was similar in some ways but with a focus on writing your own book. This one I found had more panels versus a single (or dual) presenter, like during Trade Day, so it was people from the writing industry sharing their experience but in more of a discussion based format versus a lecture. This was good for getting some general advice from a variety of persepectives.

I enjoyed going to both and felt like I learned quite a bit, or at least felt a bit seen in each talk. It was a great opportunity to meet with other folks in the all-ages TTRPG and EDU TTRPG space, and, if you have the energy and can get a badge, it’s a good opportunity for learning more about applied gaming or get a leg up on writing your book.

Events that I was part of

More Than Alt Text: Designing For Accessibility

First up was the panel, organized by Chris Hopper, on More Than Alt Text: Designing For Accessibility. This panel included Chris Hopper (accessibility consultant), George Bergstrom (from ALA’s Games & Gaming RT), Sara Nurrenenbern (disability advocate), and myself (Steph Campbell).

The audience was active and asked us lots of great questions, so we had plenty of opportunities to share our XP, make suggestions, and generally just get to chat with the crowd. I really enjoyed the experience and getting to connect with others who were either interested in implementing these elements into their games or who were actively using or seeking them out. I hope they walked away with some actionable information, which is a good transition into….

We also published a resource doc to go alongside the panel! It was created by the whole team, but we’ve set it up on the TTRPGkids itchio for visibility to other creators and ease of access. You can find it here for free.

AND… on September 24th, we’ll be repeating the panel (with an extra panelist) as part of ALA’s Games and Gaming Round Table What’s up Wednesday series! You can sign up here to be attend online!

Author signing at the IPR booth

I did a one hour signing event at the Indie Press Revolution booth, and there were folks that stopped by!! I got to chat with people who had questions about the game and were interested in the art, signed a book, and met a librarian who was using Making a Tabletop RPG for YOUR Particular Kid for their library D&D group! And they’re from the same state as me!

It was kind of awesome to be able to hear from others about the impact the books were having or just see general interest in the material, and I’m very grateful to IPR both for the opportunity to do that and for stocking my books.

Photo is courtesy of my partner/hubs who was trying to be sneaky and take a picture without me noticing (I spotted him).

Adventures in Parenting: Raising The Next Generation Of Nerds

On the last day of the con, I was part of the Adventures in Parenting Panel organized by Kat the Dungeon Mom! This panel included: Kat Harden (Dungeon Mom), Charles and Tammie Webb Ryan (Monte Cook Games), Ashley Falletta (Critical Narrative), Luis Sala (GM, tech pro, storyteller), Taylor Navarro (game designer and editor), and myself (Steph)!

This was one of the larger panel teams I’ve been on, but Kat was an EXCELLENT moderator, rotating between everyone, and having more people on the panel meant that we were able to give really honed in answers to questions from the audience.

We talked about getting kids engaged across multiple ages, the lonliness that can come with parenting, how TTRPGs can be a medium for answering some big questions, and quite a bit more. I’m glad to have been part of it, I hope it helped the audience, and it was helpful for me to feel connected to the community of geeky parents as well.

Meeting with some AWESOME folks

Throughout GenCon, I got to meet up with some wonderful people that I only ever get to really see at conventions. I was glad to hang out with existing friends and to meet some new folks that I want to keep in touch with.

I don’t know if everyone is OK with me listing and linking under here, so I’m not going to be calling particular people out, but I do want to say…

Some of the best feelings in the world are getting to really connect with others in the same space, taking a minute to catch up on life over a meal, and finally meeting a fellow online TTRPG’er in person. It’s incredibly uplifting and, while this may not tell readers much about the events at GenCon, it’s a major part of the experience for me, and I didn’t think I could write this article without talking about the friends facet of the convention. So, thank you, friends, for making GenCon a wonderful experience, and I hope to see you again soon!

Where to next?

My next few conventions are going to be Ban This Book Fest (October in Michigan) to uplift the voices of marginalized authors, Gamehole Con (October in Wisconsin) to panel and meet up with friends, and Pax Unplugged (November in Pennsylvania) for some panels and a workshop. I’ll have more info coming out on these in the future, so stay tuned!

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