Has anybody heard whether or not the Battletech Pods are going to be at Gen Con Indy 2021?

They're not coming this year.  Their company's president stated so on the Fans of Gencon facebook page.

Damn :(

Thanks for letting me know.

I hear that disappointment.  Cardhalla and the Battletech Pods are two things I have absolutely never engaged in and definitely never will, but also tell me GEN-CON, WOOO! when I see them.

Honestly, there's so many things missing from Gen Con this year - the pods, the auction/consignment store, Pathfinder and Starfinder Societies - that it feels like a bittersweet Gen Con, at least to me.

YMMV, of course - people who never did any of the above won't notice their absence, I imagine. But with all that gone, not to mention thousands fewer events than normal (Gen Con 2019 had around 19,000, I read), I know this isn't going to feel like the Gen Con I'm used to, and while I'm glad the con's even happening, it still makes me kind of sad.

It's definitely going to be different this year. May even be a little depressing, but just getting back to GenCon, no matter what is missing and what is different.. it's a start. Hopefully turning a corner to see it begin to regrow into what it once was. 

While vastly different this year, much of my desire to go is to make sure that Gencon is around in 2022 and they don't take a financial beating to the point that GC disappears.

I will admit though, barring a significant change in the current trajectory of everything going on in the world, if 2022 Gencon is like 2021 Gencon, I'll be passing.  Not sure they can have 2 years in a row of this.

Honestly though, if Gen Con 2022 ends up being this small/limited - after 1.5 years of vaccinations, and without a future catastrophic surge in COVID numbers - I would say that doesn't bode well for the con as a whole.

Honestly though, if Gen Con 2022 ends up being this small/limited - after 1.5 years of vaccinations, and without a future catastrophic surge in COVID numbers - I would say that doesn't bode well for the con as a whole.

If it's not back to normal, even with both of those things going for it, that's a bad sign for the con as a whole.

Probably for all conventions at that point.

But, really,  is there reason to think people won't go back to doing stuff?

For example, I don't know precisely why Paizo isn't showing up to this year's Gen Con. Will that factor (or those factors) that made them no-show this con still be present next year? Hopefully not, or other companies could follow suit, leading to 2022 feeling as sparse as 2021.