Gen Con 2014

Shell's descriptions saddened me a bit. After every Indy con and 6 prior, those experience are not mine at all ... with a single exception. Without criticism, maybe you just moved on to different things Shell?

Indy is certainly a convention town, especially around the convention center. Everything is geared towards that and because of that there IS a kind of generic vibe to the surrounding blocks. That's great is you're looking for a nice clean safe locale and not so great if you'd like some character. Sadly, you're generally looking at a six-block walk to find some place interesting to eat, perhaps with a couple of exceptions like Patachou (quality) and Loughmillers (character.)

Generics will still get you in to games with ease, at long as you're not too picky. If you insist on playing Boot Hill or Gamma World or some other niche game then you're going to have trouble. If you want to play "an RPG" then you're going to be fine. I know the dealer hall is the center of the con for some people, and the boardgames are the center of the universe for others, while RPG's and LARPs and mini's and CCG's dominate other peoples lives. And that's just in the convention center. Moving out to the surrounding space you can find the center of the CoC universe and furry-ville. The movies are still there and you're still going to run in to the game creators. If you can look past the other 12 subcultures you can find see your own stand out.

I've never had a bad game at GenCon. I've had games that COULD have been bad, but I went with the flow and had fun. As with all things in life, you get out of it what you bring & put in to it. The shy 12 year old running a Spongebob Stargate Toon game with 6 adults at the table. A retro space RPG with no soul and the GM playing favs with his NPC wife. A Merchants of Venus game where one guy tried to move everyones pieces and play for them. The 12-hour civ game at 8am where I dumped coffee down my new white polo at 8:05am. The time I generic'd in to a teen furry game without knowing what it was.

And Shell, I believe the con is now TWICE as large as it was when you attended in Indy. To paraphrase Rocket: Ain't nothing like GenCon.

Maybe my recollections came across a bit negative. I never had a bad GenCon, and some of the greatest gaming experiences of my life happened there. There were a couple of GenCons in Milwaukee that were frustrating because of the lack of open gaming space, because there were situations where somebody just bought a new game and we wanted to give it a try.

I wasn't particularly focused on RPGs, either, except at my first GenCon. In a typical GenCon, I tried to play a mix of RPGs, CCGs, boardgames, in both tournaments and less-structured events. I played some demo games, some ancient OOP games, and some currently popular games. I even played in a fun Call of Cthulhu larp one year. On two separate occasions in two different years, I literally played all night long and walked back to the hotel as the sun rose. And there are still things that I would like to try, like the all-day National Security Decision Game or the auction.

Probably the biggest reason that GenCon Indy fell flat for me was my own personal familiarity. Going to Wisconsin always felt like a vacation, particularly because downtown Milwaukee had a lot of personality. And I was always meeting up with and rooming with old friends from Indy, so it was great to spend time with old friends and also do a lot of gaming together in a vacation atmosphere. GenCon Indy felt more like one of my occasional visits just to see old friends, except that there was this whole convention also going on. And because my friends were no longer isolated in Wisconsin from their families, jobs and non-gaming friends, the gaming often took a back seat to other factors that time around. And while it makes sense that downtown Indy has positioned itself as a blandly-appealing convention town, that plus my own familiarity made it feel like I wasn't on a vacation. None of these reasons should be an issue for normal GenCon attendees except maybe the blandness of downtown Indy.

Shellhead wrote: ...
My first GenCon was in '82, at University of Wisconsin - Kenosha campus. Role-playing games were the big deal back then, and everybody was very accessible. I met and talked with Gary Gygax, Steve Jackson, Steve Perrin, Jeff Herman, Jack Dee, Jerry Ward, and even played in an rpg session run by Bill Willingham. ...

To think I might have run into a young Shellhead since I think that was the first year I went as well. My rpg highlights were getting Gygax to sign my now duct taped together PHB; a session of Gangbusters run by Marc Acre that involved too much jumping through windows, dynamite, and tommy gunning; and a session of Justice Inc. where I played an actor playing the annoying kid sidekick.

One way to defer some of the cost is volunteering, either for GenCon itself or one of the dealers (Hey Zev!). It's a lot of work but kind of fun to see behind the scenes. One can at least get a badge for the show and if you work enough a shared hotel room.

I didn't think I was going to attend this year but I won one of our local King of Tokyo tournaments the other day so I'm going up for the Nationals on Sunday.

Brewmiester wrote:

Shellhead wrote: ...
My first GenCon was in '82, at University of Wisconsin - Kenosha campus. Role-playing games were the big deal back then, and everybody was very accessible. I met and talked with Gary Gygax, Steve Jackson, Steve Perrin, Jeff Herman, Jack Dee, Jerry Ward, and even played in an rpg session run by Bill Willingham. ...

To think I might have run into a young Shellhead since I think that was the first year I went as well. My rpg highlights were getting Gygax to sign my now duct taped together PHB; a session of Gangbusters run by Marc Acre that involved too much jumping through windows, dynamite, and tommy gunning; and a session of Justice Inc. where I played an actor playing the annoying kid sidekick.

One way to defer some of the cost is volunteering, either for GenCon itself or one of the dealers (Hey Zev!). It's a lot of work but kind of fun to see behind the scenes. One can at least get a badge for the show and if you work enough a shared hotel room.

I didn't think I was going to attend this year but I won one of our local King of Tokyo tournaments the other day so I'm going up for the Nationals on Sunday.

We probably walked right past each other at GenCon '82. I got Gygax to autograph my convention booklet after he did a Q&A about AD&D and the then-new DM's Guide in particular. He signed it "Best Wishes, Gary Gygax." And I played in the first round of the Gangbusters tournament, and the gamemaster was Steve Winter, who was the editor for the Gangbusters rpg. You probably remember the bagpipe player who was who decked out in full Scottish regalia outside every morning. That was a neat location for a convention, though it was too small for what GenCon evolved into over the years.

Here's a dumb question. How hot is it around the main areas? If I wear jeans/long pants am I gonna be dying of heat? If I wear shorts, will I be freezing? (I spent 10 years in the midwest, where they'd bitch all winter about how cold it was and then the second it got above 60 they'd crank the A/C up to "meat locker").

I never noticed the temperature inside at GenCon Indy, so I think the climate control was just fine there. There were some areas at GenCon Milwaukee that were either too warm or too cold, especially before they built the new convention center around 2000. Having lived in Indianapolis for 22 years, I can almost guarantee that it will be hot and humid outside. The downtown area has a decent number of skyways, so you won't need to go outside much.

Wear a pair of hiking pants so you can zip off the lower part of the legs. Problem solved!

I usually wear shorts with a long sleeve shirts that can be rolled up. Last year seemed pretty warm though, so I may just go T-shirt this year (we had an extremely hot summer, so that could have been why, or the record number of attendees last year)I think either is probably fine, but I wouldn't wear pants.

Please wear pants. Don't be that pants-less guy at the con.

I'll be around Friday and Saturday; hopefully see some of you guys there.

My email address is my username at gmail. Hit me up if you want to meet up.

Looking forward to any GenCon coverage from you guys. And hopefully somebody will check out SW:Armada and XCOM for us =)

Some random pics would also be cool.

Yeah, would love to hear about Armada.

Who will volunteer to be the ERP representative at Gen Con? I need someone that will heckle any and all vendor booths showing upcoming Kickstarter projects and to pick up a reasonably priced copy of Around the World in 80 Days and/or Auf Asche.

I played the Game of 49 tonight at a pre-gencon event. They are showing the game tomorrow in the ... AdMagic? booth.

This sort of game is usually a big turn off for me, all mechanics and son on. But it's not. It's VERY social and cutthroat, the way Liar's Dice can be when you play with real asshole. This is something you can bring out with non-gaming friends and then play like bastards with your buddies. Same kind of vibe as Liar's Dice, I'd say. VERY nice.