Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, is a small city of just over 8,000 people. It is best known for its convenient location between Milwaukee and Chicago, and its picturesque, waterfront setting.
But there’s something else that makes the city special: it was where the game of Dungeons & Dragons was invented. Still, each year, fans embark on a pilgrimage to the game’s spiritual home.
Gary Gygax was the man behind the wildly popular role-playing game. Despite the success it has achieved over the last five decades, with millions of people around the world now playing it, Gary struggled to get it off the ground.
Dungeons & Dragons was the first game of its kind, with its elaborate fantasy world and the ability for players to forge unique, in-game characters and alter-egos, who can come together on shared quests. Games can last hours, days, or, in the most extreme cases, over 40 years. Check out that remarkable story in our video below.
But before it became a global phenomenon, Gary Gygax had to get it off the ground. After numerous rejections, a loan from a friend gave Gary the means to bring his creation to life. It was a risk, but he started his own company and began production in 1974. The company was called Tactical Studies Rules (TSR), and over the next decade, sales went through the roof.
With headquarters in Lake Geneva, TSR employed approximately 400 people. As well as the Dungeons & Dragons game, the fantasy world expanded into novels, a magazine and other media related to the game.
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Even before the small Wisconsin town became home to Dungeons & Dragons, Gary was doing his best to put Lake Geneva on the map as a hub of tabletop board games. In the 1960s, he made it the home of the ‘Lake Geneva Wargames Convention’ – or ‘Gen Con’. It was a convention of board game enthusiasts and Gen Con is now the biggest in North America, with over 70,000 unique attendees in 2023. By 1985, it had moved to Milwaukee and since 2003 it has settled in Indianapolis.
The convention that has come to Lake Geneva in its place is called ‘Gary Con’. It is a smaller, less commercial affair that puts Gary Gygax, Dungeons & Dragons and the creations of Tactical Studies Rules at the very center of its appeal. It takes place in March every year and attendance is capped at around 3,000.
Year-round, there is also the Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum located in the former TSR headquarters as well as a Dungeons & Dragons-themed restaurant.
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