The Breakdown of Gen Con 2025 RPG events

[Marc Radle]

Tales of the Valiant has 48
Gen Con 2025 Events

 

[Autumnal]

An intertesting thing to know, which I doubt we could, is what percentage of gen Con attendees play an RPG game at GenCon.

A fair number of folks we both consider friends or at least acquaintances who go to GenCon play very few games there, mostly just short demos. They buy a lot of games along with their socializing, but play them later; when they do game at the con, it’s heavily tilted toward the annual chance to game with old friends.

I’ve no idea how common that is overall.

 

[payn]

A fair number of folks we both consider friends or at least acquaintances who go to GenCon play very few games there, mostly just short demos. They buy a lot of games along with their socializing, but play them later; when they do game at the con, it’s heavily tilted toward the annual chance to game with old friends.

I’ve no idea how common that is overall.

Im thinking id do the same if I ever went back to Gencon. Im mostly into Battletech these days, at least publicly, and the offerings of classic play are kind of pitiful at conventions. Adepticon for example, was a lot of fun despite not really having great games. If I went back id spend a lot more time in the dealer hall and doing demos instead of cramming into events.

 

[Lanefan]

Gen Con rpg list

It's fun to look at lists like this and draw conclusions. Thing is, I'm not sure what conclusions to draw.

Gives a list of most popular rpgs? A long list of games you thought were dead but still around? Indie darlings that we think are far more popular than they really are?

D&D has 1247 events. Not a shocker.

Too bad it doesn't break D&D down by edition.

Also, despite all the airtime these systems get here, I see:

Dungeon World - 4
Burning Wheel - 0

 

[CandyLaser]

This year's Gen Con is a little odd because some publishers from overseas won't be attending thanks to our current political situation - Rowan, Rook, and Decard aren't going to be there, and I think Pelgrane is missing the con as well. They typically run a good number of games using their systems.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I'm mote interested in D&D panels.

 

[John Lloyd1]

Are there any better statistics on RPGs played (rather than bought)? Even given all these data sets have pretty obvious selection biases. I think the ORR group report (Roll20) was a better sample, but is no longer published.

 

[John Lloyd1]

Just noticed that Avatar (137) is doing better than DCC (113).

 

[Clint_L]

This year's Gen Con is a little odd because some publishers from overseas won't be attending thanks to our current political situation - Rowan, Rook, and Decard aren't going to be there, and I think Pelgrane is missing the con as well. They typically run a good number of games using their systems.

My best buddy and I had tickets to the con and the Critical Role live show booked, along with a great hotel, and we canceled all of it a few weeks ago. Sucks as it's been on our bucket list since we were thirteen, but as Canadians we just couldn't feel good about traveling to the US right now. We'll reassess if the US stops threatening our country.

 

[TerraDave]

My main takeaway is that almost 400 different rpgs have sessions at GenCon.

And close to 90 have a number of events in the double or triple digits.