The Wyrm’s Turn: Oh Gen Con, How I Missed You
Last year was the first time my wife and I had ever gone to GenCon. It was overwhelming. There were so many games, events, celebrities — and only four days to pack them into. Last year I only got a small taste of what GenCon could be. Due to poor planning, and a lack of knowledge as to how Cons work, I was able to participate in only two games. The rest of my time was spent running around begging for interviews, stalking celebrities and game companies in the exhibition hall, and generally wasting time.
It worked out pretty well. My first year I got to interview: the excellent R. A. Salvatore , creator of the iconic Drow Ranger, Drizz’t Do’Urden; Larry Elmore, the awesome old school fantasy artist; and the hilarious and charming Shelly Mazzanoble, Player-in-Chief of Wizards of the Coast. I also got some awesome swag to review and met with some wonderful gamers and game makers.
It's just the dragon's way of saying "I missed you, Jim."
So what did I learn last year that I could apply to squeeze more enjoyment out of this year’s events? I’m glad you asked. First, sign up early and make sure to plan out your days to maximize your fun. We couldn’t do this because of an error in the GenCon system affecting at least half of the press pre-registrations. Sadly this meant we couldn’t get tickets to any of the games we wanted to get into, and could only buy generic tickets and hope that there were spaces available. Even buying the tickets was impossible until 11:30am Thursday morning. I met another blogger who had complained to GenCon staff about this a few months before, and was told all would be solved by the big day itself. Obviously it wasn’t, or he wouldn’t have been standing in line next to me with his Mad Man lunchbox full of Hero Clix. If you’re going as a normal attendee, this shouldn’t be a problem. Just make sure to check out the website and sign up for everything you want to play ahead of time, so you don’t have to worry about it when you get on site.
The next thing I learned was to be flexible. Friday night my wife and I were waiting to get in on a Dark Sun game up in the Sagamore ballroom, where all of the organized 4th Edition D&D games were happening. After waiting about 30 minutes or so we were told that 15 judges had not shown up to run their allotted games. This left us and about 12-13 other people without anyone to run our games. I stepped forward and volunteered my Game Mastering services, and was immediately bumped to the front of the line and given a party and an adventure to run. With very little prep time, and some creative use of D& D tiles and Gamma World monster tokens, I successfully ran a very exciting siege on the city of Altaruk. With just a little bit of flexibility, not only did I save myself $8 bucks, but I got a free adventure, and the respect and admiration of my fellow players.
And this is Mrs. Stygian's way of saying "hello."
Our group included an interesting mix of players ranging from a grandfather who’d been playing games since before D&D 1st edition and his two grandsons, who were probably only 11 or 12; a 14 year old who knew his Dragonborn Battlemind like the back of his hand; and a couple of guys in their 30′s who were obviously well versed with their own characters. The next day I returned to run 7 ½ hours more of adventures for over 30 people in 1 hour segments, for which I was tipped $8 in generic tickets and my wife overheard at least 4 people saying that I had run the best game that they had played in the entire Con. It’s also important to be flexible in that you may find yourself with more or less people than you needed for a game, or to find a game or event rescheduled or in a different location. Go with the flow and take it in stride. One of the best things about a gaming convention is that you will never be at a lack for things to do, and people to do them with.
Here’s another tip: be social. I know it doesn’t always come natural to us geeks. We’re used to hiding our light under a bushel, but at GenCon, or really any geek convention you don’t have to. We all love the same things, games. Now I’m hyper-social, I will talk to anyone, bikers, buggers, weirdoes, if I feel you have a story, I want to know it.
That said if you’re not that social there’s one question you can ask gamers of any stripe at GenCon. “What’s your game?” It’s the first or second question I ask when striking up a conversation every time. First it lets me know how much I have in common with my new friend. Secondly it tells me a lot about their psychology, their interests, and a number of smaller traits depending on the nature of their answer. I met a lot of great guys and gals this year, and got to meet up with several fellows I gamed with last year because of my open nature and that one simple question. Try it on, you may find yourself with some new friends from all over the world.
Random trooper is random.
The last thing I would recommend to any GenCon or other Con attendee, remember your 1-2-3′s every day. That means one shower, two meals, and three hours sleep. I have to stress this last lesson as being especially important. In reverse order sleep is important, but with hundreds of events and only four days to do it in, 3 hours sleep is the minimum you should be able to function on and get the most for your gaming dollar.
As far as meals go, plan time in between your games and events to get food in your belly. You can buy food at the convention, but it’s expensive and hardly nutritious. At GenCon Indy, there are a lot of low cost options for food in the area, and a number of restaurants that offer vegans and omnivores a wide variety of low cost meals to keep your engine running. Last year the wife and I made the mistake of not eating enough, and suffered headaches and fatigue for our troubles. This year we packed lots of healthy snacks like dried fruit and trail mix, not so healthy, but low calorie Gummy Worms, and other light and easy to carry snacks. One couple we met had brought Herbal Life meal bars and protein shakes so they could skip meals, but still be healthy.
Lastly, and I’m very serious when I say this, take a fucking shower everyday. If you have terrible body odor, or a body that you can’t reach the stinkiest parts of, take a bath, or two showers, but at the very least wash your body daily and use deodorant to keep from developing overpowering “Con Funk” and scaring away all the cute Cosplay girls.
By following these simple rules and guidelines you too can have a great GenCon experience. I look forward to going next year, money willing, and I plan on following all of these rules to the letter. A small side note, you can do these trips on the cheap. Total money spent this year was somewhere in the realm of $600 bucks, and that was being generous. If you really budget yourself you can do GenCon on less that $30 a day, not including hotel stay, which will likely run you at least $50-$60 or more a night, even if you stay all the way out by the airport like I did. With that in mind, we took a bus in every morning at $1.75 a piece for a half hour ride.
Just don’t do what I did, and make sure you know when you’re scheduled to fly out. After three days of lack of food and sleep my tired brain got us to the airport a day early and a dollar short because of an ill fated expedition to a restaurant 8 blocks from the Convention Center that ended in a satisfying, but expensive meal at a local Brazilian Steakhouse.
Good luck, get planning, and hopefully we can all sit across the table from each other throwing dice at GenCon 2012!
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