Have you ever been to a gaming convention?  Have you ever been to GENCON?  Well, I've been to other gaming conventions before, but nothing ever comes close to GENCON.  Where else can you get a chance to play D&D with your DM none other then Skip Williams himself?  That is definitely one D&D game I will always remember.

We met a lot of nice people and fellow gamers.  The guests of honor, authors and artists seemed as excited to be there as we where.  Being avid D&D fans, we were all excited to have our books signed by the creators Skip Williams, Jonathan Tweet and Monte Cook.  But our biggest surprise came from when we asked D&D artist Todd Lockwood to sign our books... Not only did he sign our books, he drew a custom dragon for each of us.  Now that is someone who loves his job.  For those of you who don't recognize the name, he drew all of the dragon pictures in the 3rd edition Monster Manual among others.

We also met artists Larry Elmore and Keith Parkinson (one of my personal favorites) among others.  There were also numerous authors like Margaret Weis and Ed Greenwood to name a few.

The guests of honor this year were James Marsters (Spike on Buffy), Hudson Leick (Callisto on Xena), Alexandra Tydings (Aphrodite on Xena), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi on ST:TNG), Billy Dee Williams (Lando Calrissian from Star Wars), Richard Biggs (Dr. Stephen Franklin on Babylon 5) and Julie Caitlin Brown (Star Trek and Babylon 5).  I have to admit, that out of all of the performers I've seen to date, Hedson Leick is the most entertaining of them all.  She started of with her infamous Callisto yell and it only got more exciting from there.

One benefit of attending GENCON is to be among the first to play new games and see the latest releases, along with playing a few of your old favorites.  There were too many games to mention, and too many to sit in on all of them.  We tried to play some new ones, although we couldn't turn down the opportunity to sit in on a D&D game ran by Skip Williams himself.  Then my wife and I actually got a chance to sit in on a new game called Zombies, and let me tell you, this game rocks!  It looks like a simple enough game to play, but it's a lot of fun.  And I think the more people playing, the more fun it would be.  Some other games we enjoyed playing were Fairy Meat and Munchkin.   

I think the highlight of the entire event for myself and Tonya  was a live reading of KODT - The Knights of the Dinner Table.  Not only is this comic hilarious, but Jolly R. Blackburn and the KODT crew are just fun to be around.  It's hard not to laugh in a room full of KODT fans.  There we were, sitting in a room with 500+ KODT fans and the KODT crew.  The night started off on a sad note, as everyone paid their last respects (and rubbed their dice) for Gary Jackson.  If you have not been following the comic, you won't understand.  But this was a big deal.  He is one of the fictional characters in the KODT comics and he passed away a few issues ago.  The KODT crew have been bringing a picture (drawing) of him to all the conventions and people were rubbing dice on the picture for luck, and leaving momentos. We saw this picture at Origins, then we saw it again here. 

Everyone entered their name in the drawing for hopes to be called to go on stage to read from on of the comic books.  One by one, names were drawn and the fans were on stage, reading and acting the parts of their favorite KODT characters.  After you performed, you had a chance to get a gift from the Knights.  How did they determine what gift anyone would get?  Well, in true gamer fashion, everyone rolled a 20 sider.  There were some awesome gifts, Kingdoms of Kalamar books and modules, Fairy Meat miniatures etc.  Well, as the last small group of people were called, they drew the name of none other then WK's Tonya.  One would have thought she won the lottery.  She ran up on stage, and proudly played the part of Sara.  I've never laughed so hard in my life.  When the reading was over, everyone rolled their 20 sider.  Tonya picked up the dice, and rolled a 19!  Of all the times in her life to roll a critical hit, this was it.  She won the actual drawing of the departed Gary Jackson - the Holy Grail of KODT items!  Yes, the same one that has traveled the country with the KODT crew, the one that everyone paid their last respects to.  But their was one small problem, the Knights still needed it for Sunday, that last day of GENCON.  So they asked if we could leave it with them for one more day and then pick it up.  In return, the entire KODT crew would personally autograph the drawing.  How could we refuse?  Sunday came, and everyone paid their final respects to Gary, and by the end of the day we picked him up to bring him to his final resting place in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Please hit REFRESH to see more pictures until we post an actual photo page!

Visit the official US site: www.gencongamefair.com   

Visit the official UK site: www.genconuk.com/

--Wizard's Keep staff