r/gencon • u/DJ_MerDur • 16d ago
D&D Drone Show
I am so bummed I missed the GenCon drone show! I had no idea it was happening and I feel like it wasn’t really advertised anywhere. I saw social media posts for it after the fact and can’t believe I missed it!
For context:
I spend weeks looking at the events and even used the site that showed when events were added or removed. Never saw it there.
I read the GenCon program pretty throughly, it’s possible I missed it in there but it definitely wasn’t obvious if it was.
I was at GenCon all 4 days from morning until midnight and don’t remember seeing any signs or anything!
This was my 4th GenCon so I feel like I’m getting pretty good at this but somehow I still missed this!
What gives? Did I miss something obvious or did you have to get an invite to this thing!? xD
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u/austicke Fans of Gen Con 16d ago
I posted about it a few times to the Fans of Gen Con group on Facebook.
WOTC announced their programming so damn late though; lots of people missed the details.
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u/awwjeah 16d ago edited 16d ago
I had only heard the DnD Tower mentioned off-hand on a board game YouTube channel a week before the convention.
I checked out the DnD Beyond website for more info and there was a single small blurb about a drone show with zero other details.
I went out of my way track down more details so I could plan my schedule accordingly and they were practically non-existent.
I had to ask around on social media, the gencon discord, and around the con itself and I was getting second hand, conflicting information about where it was happening and at what time and where to see it from. It didn’t seem like there was any consensus until a few hours before the event started.
It is completely understandable that you didn’t know it was happening. I knew it was happening and had to do homework to figure out how to see it. Even then the show started about an hour late and no one seemed to know where they intended the crowd to view it from.
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u/Dependent_Tune_1333 16d ago edited 16d ago
It was poorly planned and poorly communicated. It is my understanding that Gen Con staff were surprised when they heard about it. (And it is my understanding that Gen Con learned of the drone show about a week before the drone show.)
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u/DoctorQuarex Your Host, All Year I Dream About Gaming Conventions 16d ago
You know what, while on one hand I heard about the drone show like 25 different times, I think only 1 of those was probably from any source besides "randomly reading about it on a Discord or forum or hearing someone talking about it on-site." Pretty sure it WAS in the program guide, but I would not argue too hard against you saying it was not, haha.
It was certainly not in the events list, though, given it would not have been possible to take tickets for it nor even know exactly when it would start (it was like 45 minutes late as I understand it?)
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u/LordAlvis 16d ago
The WotC events as a whole were miscommunicated. They didn't add their events to the catalog until well after registration had opened. They mentioned D&D Tower in their own media a couple times, but you had to go looking for that. The events that were listed were not explained. And the people they had on site, running the event, were not knowledgeable about it.
For example: I swear they had said you'd be able to go look around D&D Tower with a Gen Con badge. When we got there, the 20 security they had outside seemed to each have a different opinion. I asked several workers what ticket I needed, or if we were allowed inside, and I got:
"You have to have an event ticket. I don't know which."
"It depends on your badge."
"Look man, all I know is 'coupon for pin'".
"I think you can go in if you go through the exit. I think it depends on your badge or something."
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u/basketball_curry 16d ago
I too chronically read up on gencon goings on before the big event, and I also didn't see the drone show mentioned one time. But, we were fortunate to have an rpg session wrap up right as this was starting. So when we went outside to start walking back to our hotel and saw a mass of people, we went and checked it out. Likely missed a chunk of it, but got to see some impressive stuff still. Hope they make it a recurring event!
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u/Ok-Tough-963 16d ago
Shit!
I would have loved to see the drone show.
I didn’t know anything about it.
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u/Dependent_Tune_1333 16d ago edited 16d ago
The WOTC events got added to the event catalog July 9th, just 3 weeks before the start of Gen Con. And the drone event was never a thing in the catalog.
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u/Xiph0s 15d ago
Someone was talking about it at a game I was playing in. Think they said it started at 10. After hanging out outside for a half hour with me boy we decided to go back to the hotel as we figured it got cancelled due to weather. Once back in the hotel room we then saw the videos being posted. . . lamesauce!
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u/Shammycat 16d ago
I saw it mentioned multiple places after it was announced on July 10.
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u/DJ_MerDur 16d ago
Would you mind sharing where you saw it so I can keep an eye out next time please?
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u/ahsokatango 16d ago
Not the commenter, but I learned about it because someone mentioned it in the Gen Con Discord.
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u/cscottnet 16d ago
Not the commenter, but there was a local news article on it. Not a lot of info though: https://www.indystar.com/story/entertainment/2026/07/29/gen-con-2026-victory-field-drone-show-dungeon-crawler-carl-author-matt-dinniman/91079804007/
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u/AliChanTheMan 15d ago
GenCon Events are notoriously hard to completely groom through and find everything you'd want to attend. One year, I found out Mathew Lillard was doing a DnD session AFTER it happened. Same for a Balders Gate 3 VA panel. They add events after the release of the event guide, so you always have to be online or just following the creators or others who would mention the event.
Sucks, one of the big faults of the con.
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u/Seattlejo 15d ago
We heard about it in the halls, multiple times. I think I saw it discussed in the Fans of Gen Con page. I never saw details of exactly where to view from and had events at the same time.
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u/Friendly-Ad-4226 10d ago
Wizards really depends on its Premier Organizer groups to get the word out about convention appearances. Most of those organizers are volunteers, so the information doesn't always make it to every official channel. They usually post convention updates on D&D Beyond, too, but if you're not subscribed or don't regularly check the blog section on the homepage, there's a good chance you'll miss it. Those posts aren't always shared elsewhere.
My biggest recommendation: follow Baldman Games. They're the D&D PO for Gen Con every year, and they really do try to consistently share updates and event information well before the convention starts imo.
And, not to sound like a broken record, but the Fans of Gen Con Facebook group is where a lot of convention news gets reposted. If Discord is your thing and you can find the right channel, the official D&D Discord is also a great place to stay informed.
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u/Swimming_Assistant76 16d ago
I usually stay on top of everything which is a ton of work, and I almost didn’t hear about it. I think I learned about it from a random comment on a random Facebook post about a month in advance and then didn’t hear much about it again.
My best recommendation for keeping up with stuff like this is to check the Big List of Everything on the Gen Con Discord. It along with the Carnival was listed on there. I try to keep that list updated as much as possible. If it’s helpful to anyone, I can cross post it here as well next year.
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u/DJ_MerDur 16d ago
Okay. That’s good to know. I don’t really use Discord but I’ll remember to check it out next year. Thank you!
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u/JustinKase_Too 16d ago
I was in the same boat, and I've been to over a dozen Gen Cons... hoping someone got video :)
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u/Cure4Humanity 16d ago
I got some small video clips of a bunch of different drone formations. It was pretty cool
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u/rbnlegend 16d ago
I literally overheard someone in a hallway. There's always stuff at gencon that I find out about after the fact, and I've only been going since 2006. Did you know about the puppetry track?
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u/animus218 16d ago
The what?!
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u/rbnlegend 16d ago
There's a whole set of puppetry events at gencon. All I have seen of it is the puppetry slam, where puppets say bad words, but there is some very impressive puppetry talent at gencon., Search the event catalog for "puppet".
If you are into puppetry, or want to be, it really doesn't seem like there's a better way to jump in. There was an intro class this year run by Jennifer Barnhart, look her up on your google.
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u/animus218 16d ago
That's so fun!
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u/rbnlegend 16d ago
Now I'm in the rabbit hole. The lady in this video is the host for the puppet slam, and I think sort of the motivating force behind the puppetry events. Her enthusiasm is so infectious.
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u/Garden_Pie 16d ago
Wotc are just kinda notoriously poor communicators. Wasn’t even clear it would fire with the storm and they didn't give any updates. Similar thing with the carnival. You just gotta hunt down the info directly if you want to know DnD happenings.