GenCon 50

Greetings Warriors and Scribes.

I just got back from the best 4 days of gaming on a significant year. GenCon 50 was amazing. As seen above, the gamers took over Colts stadium for the week. This was in addition to the entire Indiana Convention Center and rooms at adjoining hotels.  I did spend some time helping Nathan Marchand with his table but I also played games and cosplayed. I had many great experiences but here are some of the cream of the crop for you.

Sagrada:

This game is lots of fun. I played 2 rounds of it. Rolling and assigning dice to build stained glass windows with limited options that must be chosen carefully to manipulate the dice. This was a lot of fun and it is not a long game.

Warehouse 13:

This was the biggest excitement for me in terms of gaming this weekend. I loved the SYFY show and this game is a faithful exploration of the world. It has a traitor element that is engineered with a similar feel to Battlestar Galactica, which is very fitting to the show. Sitting and talking with the designers was very fun and they are definitely fans of the show. One guy playing with us has not seen the show but he loved the game. This was a major high point of the convention.

This is a semi cooperative game. Each play through is a season and each round is an episode. Through the game you will find clues to figure out what item is causing issues and work to gather the needed tech, intuition,  etc. to stop the situation. However, someone else is also seeking the items to use against your team and one member is secretly working for them. There is a cooperative version for 2 players.

Watch for this to hit Kickstarter!

Buy the Rights:

This is a fun party game where the players are all pitching the movie ideas for the money to make them. Each round a different person will be the "producer" with 20 million dollars to shell out to the other players. Winner is the person with the most money at the end. You will lay out four cards: Genre, Hero, Descriptor of the hero, and the plot. You can elaborate as much as you want to get the attention of the producer and have some fun.

Christian Gamers Guild Events:

The Christianity and Gaming Panel went well. This was a question driven panel that discussed things like planning game nights for churches, how to handle magic and other "dark" things found in gaming, etc.

The Church Service was great. Tom Vasel preached about slowing down for resting and for time with God. We had a full worship band with drums, electric and acoustic guitar and some a great list of songs. This is always a highlight of GenCon for me and this year did not disappoint.

Cosplay

I cosplayed as a Blue Lantern on Friday and Martian Manhunter for half of Saturday (before I went to a Heroscape tournament). Unfortunately the only Lantern related cosplayers I saw were on different days than when I was a blue lantern.

Gen Con 2014

Hey guys.

Just one of several huge gaming halls at Gen Con.

Gen Con was amazing. TI spent two hours a day hanging out at the Christian booth, with Fans for Christ, Christian Gamers Guild, and Innroads Ministries. We met a lot of people. Some were pastors/youth pastors who were surprised to find something like our organizations. Some were gamers who were unsure or frustrated with the church. On Sunday we joined together for a worship service in the Crowne Plaza...some 200, I think, in attendance. Derek White (the Geek Preacher) gave a great message on how the Church is Bigger on the Inside (you must be a whovian if you have a huge smile on your face right now). I am sure that the video of the sermon will get on You Tube at some point so I'll share it to the Facebook page when it does.

The Worship Service at Gen Con.

So many gamers were glad to find Christians who don't think them evil for playing D&D. We had a great response from both the convention and the gamers. I remember some buying shirts who just wanted to support us (even a couple who don't attend church regularly).

I pose with a couple other Star Wars fans in the Family Fun Pavilion near the CGG/FFC booth.

The most significant conversation I had was with a guy I'll call Moe. Moe came by and we started talking. I shared that we were gamers, nerds and geeks who were also Christians. We realized that the church doesn't understand gamers and that gamers have had some hard times with Churches. He was hesitant about things but glad to see someone trying to deal with this issue. He admitted that the churches lack of respect and relations with gamers was one of the reasons he doesn't attend church. Moe was hesitant to share much...but I could see wheels turning in his head.

Jesus came for those who are "sick" or those who have been hurt and are weary and caught in sin. Please pray for those who interacted with us this weekend. Some have relatives/friends who are really sick. Some have been hurt by experiences with churches.


If you are experiencing the Nerd Chapel now after find out about us at Gen Con, welcome! I am really glad to have you on board. Nerd Chapel is happy to join with these organizations in working to build bridges between the Church and the Nerd/Geek/Gamer community. There is a lot of work to do but God has given us His presence. As Romans 8 says, "If God is for us, who can be against us?"