Founders & Legends Con and the Incarnate Tournament
Founders & Legends Con and Incarnate Tournament
Greetings fellow game enthusiasts. I am drafting this missive to help answer a question I’ve been asked several times by folks at conventions and on social media; What is Founders & Legends Con? My father published Dungeons & Dragons in 1974 and 2024 is the 50th anniversary of the RPG genre. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity- literally. We will never celebrate 50 years of D&D again. I had to do something special to mark this unique event. Thus I designated March 16-18, 2024 for F&L Con.
I knew that demand to attend Gary Con, the memorial convention that honors my father’s life and works, would be at its highest ever. In fact, as I draft this missive there are less than 250 badges remaining for Gary Con, and we are six months away from the con! I knew there would be more demand than we could accommodate so, I decided to organize Founders & Legends to be able to include more people. I think many assume that you must or should attend both F&L Con and Gary Con, but that isn’t the case. I want to welcome as many people as possible to Lake Geneva to celebrate this historic milestone. By creating a second weekend of gaming, we can offer more access to onsite hotel accommodations, more access to our Special Guests and I will have the opportunity to hang out with everyone at Founders & Legends much as I was able to during early Gary Cons at the Ridge. If you are able to attend BOTH conventions that is amazing, however I expect most to attend one or the other.
Another reason I decided to organize Founders & Legends was to be able to focus on the history of the TTRPG industry. The emphasis of F&L Con is our roots. We won’t exclude any games because they are “too new”, however I am encouraging folks to run OD&D, Empire of the Petal Throne, Chainmail, Original Traveller , Call of Cthulhu, Role Master, Gamma World, Champion- you get the idea. We have a host of Special Guests to participate in seminars and panels about where we started in the 1970s and how we progressed to the current day. Sure, we can also discuss the future of our hobby, but the focus is rearward for F&L Con.
The Guest list for F&L Con is amazing, and for a convention of only a few hundred people its incredible! We more than 25 Legends coming to F&L Con including Ed Greenwood, Zeb Cook, Erol Otus, Keith Baker, Kelsey Dionne, James M Ward, Todd Stashwick, Bill Webb, Stephen Chenault, Jeff Richard to name a few. Of course Skip Williams and a horde of Gygaxes will be there too. As my friend Thomas Valley would say, the wizard to muggle ratio is very good. If you aren’t able to get a Diamond or Platinum Badge for Gary Con and you want to game with and be able to talk to Special Guest then this is a golden opportunity.
What events will you see at F&L Con? Much of that is up to you! Just like Gary Con, and other conventions, the events we have are largely submitted by the hardworking GMs that attend. We encourage you to go back to your roots to run an old school game, and to run the game system that made you fall in love with TTRPGs whether its OD&D, Ars Magica or Pathfinder. We all had that eureka moment and I think it will be wonderful to see those shared amongst the community at F&L Con.
We will have some things you have come to expect as well such as a welcome party on Friday evening, Happy Hour specials on Saturday and Sunday, as well as the return of the Tower of Gygax! ToG is a massive old school dungeon crawl that few will survive, if any, but you will have fun and be able to say you played OD&D in Lake Geneva on the 50th anniversary. We will have some Legends running parts of Tower of Gygax throughout the weekend, so you might get your character sheet stamped in red with “I died in the Tower of Gygax” and signed by Zeb Cook, Jim Ward or even me!
There is also a very special tournament at F&L Con called Incarnate. This is something that has never been done before to the best of my knowledge. To get into the Incarnate Tournament you must have a Hero of the Realm Badge. We had 24 seats available initially and they sold out in less than a day. The DMs, and co-authors along with me, are Zeb Cook, Andrew Perry, Keith Baker and Kelsey Dionne. Due to popular demand and the addition of Kelsey Dionne as a DM, we have more seats available. Badges will go on sale at noon Central time on Saturday October 28th. People in the tournament will play the same character across all editions of the game in an adventure inspired by one of my father’s classic scenarios. This is a unique experience that will test your skills in a way like never before.
I hope this information helps all of you who had questions about Founders & Legends. I am looking forward to two weekends filled with fun games, good people and camaraderie. TTRPG’s have played a huge part in my life and I am excited to celebrate 50 years of gaming goodness with all of you at F&L Con and/or Gary Con. I’ll see you in Lake Geneva!
Cheers,
Luke Gygax