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canyonwalkerWe'd been casting around quite a bit for things to do on Sunday while visiting my sister and her family in southern Wisconsin. We mulled ideas from driving to the Wisconsin Dells for the day, to driving/riding the train to Chicago, to visiting Six Flags, to spending time at Lake Michigan, to going to a zoo. Then late Saturday evening as we were enjoying ice cream together after my niece's graduation we chanced on an idea that stuck: The Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum in Lake Geneva.
What's so significant about the Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum? Well, we old-timer role players know Lake Geneva, Wisconsin is where roleplaying games started. It's where RPG pioneer Gary Gygax lived and where he founded TSR, the publisher of the original Dungeons & Dragons game.
Lake Geneva is also where Gen Con, the biggest convention for tabletop games in the US, got its start— and its name. (Partly.1) The con moved locations in subsequent years, ultimately landing in Indianapolis, Indiana, to make it easier for attendees from far away to get there. ...Because Lake Geneva is far away from almost everything. It's a small town, pop. 8,500 or so, an hour southwest of Milwaukee. But that meant it was only a 45 minute drive for us. Thus the four of us adults, all D&D players from back in the day— my oldest sister and I first played D&D in 1982— decided we'd take a trip to the place where it all started... and to visit the home of Gary Gygax, Creator of Worlds.
The museum occupies a building of historical significance to gaming. It was the first headquarters TSR had outside of Gary Gygax's home. And when we arrived at around 11:15am the museum was closed. A website updated a few weeks ago said it opened at 11am on Sunday, but the paper sign in the door had been taped over with news hours of 12-6. We gave brief consideration to just hanging out near the museum for 45 minutes, but it's at the corner of a residential street in postcard-perfect small town Americana. We decided not to weird out the neighbors. Instead we decided to embark on a self-guided walking tour.
I mentioned the museum is a different building from Gary Gygax's home. Well, his old home is just a few blocks away, at 330 Center Street. We walked there, along the quiet, tree-lined streets of bucolic small-town Lake Geneva.
For anyone reading this and thinking, "Oh, I'll go see Gary Gygax's home, too!" know three things. One, Gygax moved away in 1976, so this is not his home anymore. Two, the people who live here now have no connection to him— so don't ring the doorbell asking for a tour. Three, the owners do understand the curiosity of well-wishers. They permit respectful visitors to snap photos from the street and ascend the steps to the porch to read a historical placard placed inside one of the front windows.
More to read!
1. Gen Con started as the Lake Geneva Wargames Convention in 1968. The name Gen Con is both a shortening of that name and a deliberate play on words of The Geneva Conventions (Wikipedia link), the famous international treaties establishing protocols for humanitarian conduct in war.
What's so significant about the Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum? Well, we old-timer role players know Lake Geneva, Wisconsin is where roleplaying games started. It's where RPG pioneer Gary Gygax lived and where he founded TSR, the publisher of the original Dungeons & Dragons game.
Lake Geneva is also where Gen Con, the biggest convention for tabletop games in the US, got its start— and its name. (Partly.1) The con moved locations in subsequent years, ultimately landing in Indianapolis, Indiana, to make it easier for attendees from far away to get there. ...Because Lake Geneva is far away from almost everything. It's a small town, pop. 8,500 or so, an hour southwest of Milwaukee. But that meant it was only a 45 minute drive for us. Thus the four of us adults, all D&D players from back in the day— my oldest sister and I first played D&D in 1982— decided we'd take a trip to the place where it all started... and to visit the home of Gary Gygax, Creator of Worlds.
The museum occupies a building of historical significance to gaming. It was the first headquarters TSR had outside of Gary Gygax's home. And when we arrived at around 11:15am the museum was closed. A website updated a few weeks ago said it opened at 11am on Sunday, but the paper sign in the door had been taped over with news hours of 12-6. We gave brief consideration to just hanging out near the museum for 45 minutes, but it's at the corner of a residential street in postcard-perfect small town Americana. We decided not to weird out the neighbors. Instead we decided to embark on a self-guided walking tour.
I mentioned the museum is a different building from Gary Gygax's home. Well, his old home is just a few blocks away, at 330 Center Street. We walked there, along the quiet, tree-lined streets of bucolic small-town Lake Geneva.
For anyone reading this and thinking, "Oh, I'll go see Gary Gygax's home, too!" know three things. One, Gygax moved away in 1976, so this is not his home anymore. Two, the people who live here now have no connection to him— so don't ring the doorbell asking for a tour. Three, the owners do understand the curiosity of well-wishers. They permit respectful visitors to snap photos from the street and ascend the steps to the porch to read a historical placard placed inside one of the front windows.
More to read!
- We get surrounded by cicadas
- Even more cicadas
- Learning More about Gary Gygax
- The Gary Gygax Memorial Bench and Brick... plus more cicadas 🤣
1. Gen Con started as the Lake Geneva Wargames Convention in 1968. The name Gen Con is both a shortening of that name and a deliberate play on words of The Geneva Conventions (Wikipedia link), the famous international treaties establishing protocols for humanitarian conduct in war.
