Luke Gygax is lending his expertise on Greyhawk to WotC, D&D is headed to Gen Con, and more news out of this year’s Gary Con.
Big news out of a press briefing at Gary Con XVIII this year. If you’re unfamiliar, Gary Con is a gaming convention as well as a “heartfelt tribute to Gary Gygax, the father of role-playing games and co-creator of D&D, and a celebration of the community he inspired” that is held annually in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin (where D&D was born). It started as a memorial gathering and has become a welcoming event for “gamers of all ages, backgrounds, and experience levels.”
And this year, the D&D team was there for a press briefing, featuring Luke Gygax alongside Dan Ayoub, head of D&D and mastermind behind the nascent “seasonal model” of releases. The two had much to say during the briefing, including the revelation that Gygax will be collaborating with the D&D team on an upcoming project, as well as D&D headed to Gen Con.
Gary Con XVIII – Greyhawk And Big Announcements To Come
First of all, you can find the whole press briefing linked above. It’s about 49 minutes long, so you might want to wait until your afternoon ‘here’s what we’re going to work on next week’ meeting to watch it. And… we’re all watching longer videos during meetings, right? It’s not just me? (Note to the editor, this is a joke hahaha. I would never do this in real life, certainly not at one of our meetings.)
But there are a couple of real juicy, some might even say salient, tidbits to take away from it all to whet the appetite. Or satiate it entirely if you, like me, have a hard time finding 49 consecutive minutes of free time. First of all, D&D head Dan Ayoub revealed that Gygax will be collaborating with the D&D team: “One of the things that I’m most excited about is Luke coming back into the franchise, we’re going to be doing some stuff together.”
That stuff seems to be a return to Greyhawk in some form. Because without getting into detail about what exactly, Gygax is quick to talk about his experience growing up playing in Greyhawk and how he’s eager for a new generation to experience it:
“The memories of playing with my dad, my brothers and other great friends is what makes me want to dive back into Greyhawk and give that experience – that world – to others. To a new generation to enjoy. In a way that I experienced. Or a way that I thought was fun. So I’m hoping to share that with a new crowd of gamers.”
And then the other big piece of information is a big announcement at this year’s Gen Con. When asked about the book accompanying the ‘Season of Champions’ (which is the last planned season for this year), Ayoun said that WotC would be making the reveal at Gen Con 2026. Along with a roadmap of the upcoming Seasons, new products – in general, a return to one of the biggest gaming conventions.
All of which lines up with Ayoub’s desire to realign with “fan expectations.” Which is partially the goal of the seasonal model – to support print copies of books, and to support retailers (aka your FLGS) with organized play and so on. You can find out more in the press briefing, and in the meantime, Gen Con this year is gonna be big!
See you at Gen Con!
Editor’s Note: when the meeting could maybe possibly have been an email.
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