The Coolest Things We Saw at GenghisCon 2024

GenghisCon returned to the Hyatt Regency Aurora-Denver Conference Center this past weekend, strutting its gaming stuff and hosting a special guest that immediately leveled-up its game cred: a Gygax, no less.

Gary Gygax, of course, was one of Dungeons & Dragons' forefathers, and a celebrated dungeon master and gamer in his own right. When he passed away in 2008, he left a legacy of game history behind him — and his youngest son, Luke, was part of it.

As much as a gaming celebrity adds to the cachet of the 46th annual GenghisCon, owner Andre'a Arnold and crew have once again done heroic work in organizing a weekend full of adventure, camaraderie, and dice, dice, dice. Westword was there on Sunday, February 18, to capture some of our favorite things.
Luke Gygax!
Okay, so we already mentioned the Gygaxian appearance, but it's too cool not to explain a bit more. Luke isn't just the offspring of his more famous father — he's part of D&D history himself. His character, Melf, was immortalized not only in the LJN toy line (in which he was later renamed Peralay, for some reason), but also name-dropped in spells of Luke and his dad's own creation, such as Melf's Acid Arrow and Melf's Minute Meteors. Fun fact: Melf was so named because Luke couldn't come up with another name, so he just combined his character's gender and race: M(ale) Elf = Melf. A true (and totally goofy) gaming story — the best kind.
This Very Necessary Shirt
It's quite possibly the most oft-spoken line in D&D, perhaps after "I check for traps," "Do I hit?" and "Am I dead?" Every game, tabletop or digital, includes the requisite looting of your foe once said enemy has been vanquished. We don't call it grave-robbing. We call it dungeoneering, thank you. Find this shirt at creator Haili Holub's nerd-supply website threeheels.com.
Tables and Tables of Laughter
Okay, sometimes those laughs might be at the expense of someone who just got totally screwed by a bad dice roll, or a particularly lucky card draw, or maybe just a super bad decision. But that's the great thing about gaming — even losing can be a wonderful time, especially when you're doing it with friends. GenghisCon has more tables of happiness than an angry druid can shake a stick at.
Geek Way Homes
How has no one ever thought of this before? Denver-area realtor Nate Oswalt specializes in partnering up with folks from the gaming community and helping them look for homes that might best fit their geekier passions, whatever they might be. And since booty is one of the best parts of any adventure, he brought a trove-full: a custom comic book, playing cards, a game token, pens, cups and even a pocketknife. (The homes, we assume, cost a bit more.)
Custom Miniatures
Fifth Field Miniatures is an Arizona-based company that picked up the lapsed licenses of some old companies, and is adding to those lines while keeping within the same scale and style. This is miniatures-playing the way the grognards used to do it. Get your paints ready and bring these monsters to life.
Gaming Gone Wild!
Fire and Ice Rock Shop is based in Aurora and offers a wide variety of natural-stone carvings, from the cute (squirrels and birds) to the spiritual (crystals, y'all!) to the surprisingly sexual. Ever wanted a hematite phallus? Someone out there does, and this here's the place to find it. Gives a whole new meaning to "rock-hard," doesn't it?
Whatever This Contraption Is
It's a mystery, but it seems to have some Rube-Goldbergian purpose for holding dice. Is it unfinished, or is it art? We don't know, but as long as it holds our dice, we don't care.
Speaking of Dice...
Yes, many — maybe most? — of the vendors at GenghisCon were selling dice or dice-related stuff, from dice jails to dice bags to dice prisons to the polyhedrals themselves, in any number of materials. Wood, stone, resin and more, in a complete and utter chaos of colors. Have a number range you need to randomize? There's a die for that.
Crafty and Clever Cups!
Our favorite is the mug that insists despite the clearly visible eyes and teeth that it is not, in fact, a mimic. Ah, the opportunity for your morning coffee to finally taste you back.
This Dude
Straight from the cover of the original Player's Handbook (and artist D.A. Trampier) comes this sacrificial statue animated for GenghisCon, complete with flickering flame and a darting and disturbing tongue. The fact that this was displayed proudly on monitors all over the gaming floor was both a reminiscent gesture to the Satanic Panic of the 1980s and a reminder of how far gaming has come since.

GhengisCon will return in 2025; its sister event Tacticon takes place in August.