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Advice for first Gen Con!
Stranger Danger
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Hello folks! I'll be attending Gencon indy 2013, and it'll be my first time! I've already got basics like transport, a hotel and tickets lined up, but these things often have hard-learned rules and pitfalls. Anyone have any advice?
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My girlfriend and I did that and I think it helped a lot. I mean, we still got hungry, but we didn't buy overpriced snack food in the afternoon because we were peckish.
I hope this kind of input is what you might be after. But it's a pretty easy thing to overlook!
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Gen Con uses this weird as hell "ticket" system. If you're preregistered for an event then they give you a slip of paper and they collect and the world is great. The big thing is the "generic tickets" where they're for any event but can only be used after all the pre-registrations have places. I had great luck last year going to the open gaming area and playing some weird but very fun games using them after missing stuff like that in pre-reg. Also note they can be returned before the end of the con, you'll have to check the program for details on that but I know it's possible.
A bag with some water and possibly snacks is a super good idea. There is also an oddly shaped "Mall" within easy walking distance for "real"ish food. That's all connected by Skywalks.
There will be bikers. Apparently Indy has a biker con at the same time as Gen Con, there isn't much overlap in usage except that there will be a bunch of bikers on the streets.
Around "normal" lunch/dinner times expect places to be just packed and relatively busy other times. Talked with a chain pasta restaurant manager and they said the Saturday of Gen Con was the highest day ever, for any franchise in their chain. Imagine what that looks like...
With Cons I find it's important to remember you're there to have fun. At some point you'll be tired as shit and just want to relax...I suggest not fighting that and getting away for an hour or two or calling it an early day or whatever. If you obsess about missing stuff and just keep going non-stop I find you end up a zombie not really having much fun.
Oh, if you have favorite games look up pictures of their developers. Most of those guys are super friendly if you know who the hell you're talking to.
On the first day (registration), you'll get a coupon book and brochure. Inside the book, they will list a bunch of freebies. These go FAST on the first day. Expect long lines and for them to run out of stock by the middle of the first day. If you really want one of the freebies, I suggest making a beeline for them. There will be a map in the brochure, and I simply marked them on the map with a permanent marker and made a "freebie snagging" plan.
I hope you don't have anything planned for the beginning of the first day, because that's generally the best time to wander around the bustling convention floor. It's a great time to get oriented to what's out there.
I'm into Pen and Paper RPGs, but I generally don't bring dice to GenCon. Instead, I go to Chessex or some other dice-selling place and grab a pitcher full of dice for 5 bucks. You get a lot of random dice, but it makes a great souvenir, and it will give you all the dice that you need for the rest of the con.
If you are into Magic the Gathering (or want to get into Magic the Gathering again), there will be retailers who will be selling long boxes of Magic cards (and other CCGs) for something like 10 bucks for 1000 cards (or other silly numbers like this). I once ran an impromptu sealed draft using one of those boxes, and that was a lot of fun.
On the convention floor, there will be a place where some online retailer is having a fire sale and selling everything for 5 bucks on the first day. This is a great place to get older RPGs or board games or general gaming tchotchkes. Each day of the convention, though, it goes down by a dollar (until the last day, where everything is sold for 1 buck). I collected something like 10 Yu Gi Oh messenger bags for friends for a dollar each on the last day, one year. I would suggest hitting up that place, seeing if there's anything that you want on the first day, buy the "must-haves", then coming back on either the 2 dollar or 1 dollar day and buy up crazy things that look like they might be fun.
Schedule some time in the middle of the day where you can drop off your booty at your hotel room and just take a general rest.
Most people will recommend trying to get tickets to at least one True Dungeon event. I tend to do True Dungeon at least twice each year (and I've accumulated a lot of True Dungeon treasure tokens over the years). It's very difficult to get tickets for this, though, so you may want to be on the lookout throughout the Con.
As for ad-hoc events, I can highly recommend the "Who's Line Is It Anyway?" event. It's a lot of fun to watch people make asses of themselves (in a good-natured way). Hickman's Killer Breakfast is also an awesome event in a similar vein (he calls up people to the stage and narrates a Survivor-like Dungeon Crawl... one year, a dude brought a cardboard standup of himself and called it his "Mirror Image"... by the end of the Dungeon Crawl, the only survivor was that cardboard standup.
I will second bringing water and snacks. This can be a lifesaver, especially since food gets more expensive the closer you get to the Con. There is a skywalk that goes to Circle Center Mall, which is pretty much like any other mall in America (a food court, pretzel kiosks, etc.). It has "normal" priced foods (at least, for malls). You are in downtown Indianapolis, though, so you will find a mix of expensive and cheap restaurants all around. Consider altering your normal meal schedule, since during normal lunch and dinner hours, all places within a block of the convention center are going to be totally packed during those hours.
In general, try new things, get out your comfort zone, and have fun! I'm so jealous that you get to go.
I'm mostly into the tabletop scene so I already have a list of devs to hunt stalk talk to. Are there any other good events? Or good restaurants that I should check out? Any places to avoid?
General Advice
Bring your own dice. Seriously. Otherwise your dice will hate you for leaving them behind and never roll good for you again.
Expect to stand in lines. No, seriously, the lines get super duper long for things such as event registration, buying anything from a semi-major publisher, or getting anything to eat. By the time the lines are short, there will be little left, so stand in line.
Try to give yourself a half-hour to an hour between events, just in case you want to grab food/drink/bathroom/whatever.
Bring a backpack with only the things you need for that day. Dice, pencils, a note pad, something to drink, something to snack on, maybe a core book or two if you're in any games for them. Never take more than what you need for 1 day. You'll be doing a lot of walking and you don't want to carry 30lbs of stuff everywhere.
Set yourself a budget. No, seriously. There is a massive amount of awesome for sale at the con, and if you don't budget yourself, you could end up spending WAY more than you want. I tend to bring and pay for everything non-Food related in cash so I can stick to my budget.
Event Advice
Pre-register for things you actually want to do. Most events tend to fill up, which means you're not getting in with generics. Nothings worse then saying "Oh, a game of that is going on, I gotta check that out!" only to show up, find all seats are filled and there are already 4 people with generics in line in front of you.
Try new things. Seriously, one of the best parts of GenCon is the exposure to new games and systems. Don't stick with the old standard stuff (though there's nothing wrong with a single game of D&D). Any event that says "No experience needed" means just that.
Seminars are awesome and mostly free. Some are done by companies, some by fellow players and DMs. They have a vast range of topics from DM advice, to discussions about upcoming products, to advice on publishing your own works.
Films are a good way to end the day. You can turn your brain off and watch fun movies with a bunch of other people who also are there to turn their brains off.
There are a bunch of arts and crafts things available, from making foam weapons to lessons on painting minis. Don't be afraid to spend a bit of money if they interest you.
As for other places to eat, I can't recommend two con staples, Scotty's and the Ram, enough. Both are brew pubs, and have if you're into the craft beer scene they have pretty decent selections, not to mention more standard domestics. The food is fairly reasonable for what you pay for, and the atmosphere, my god. Both replace their many screens showing sports channels with non-stop rotations of classic (and some newer) 'nerdy' movies, like Princess Bride, Star Wars, Galaxy Quest, Flash Gordon, etc., and decorate the restaurant with fare from whoever is sponsoring them that year. Last year and the year before the Ram was decked out in Privateer Press regalia and Scotty's was sporting Wizards of the Coast banners everywhere. Both, I believe, also stock a GenCon-only beer brewed for the con, and also shirts, etc. It might get a little pricey eating there regularly, but both or either are worth at least one trip for dinner.
Something I recommend is not to overextend yourself as far as event registration. I've been progressively registering for fewer events each year (culminating in nothing but general tix for me this year), as I found that I was more relaxed last year when I scheduled one event a day, and more often than not found myself in the middle of a pick up game or event and ended up skipping a scheduled event anyway.
I don't know where you booked your hotel, but I hope that it was within walking distance of the convention center. My first year I booked a room at the airport Comfort Inn, and while they promised a shuttle to and from the convention center all day, the schedule was in constant flux as they figured out the logistics on the fly, and they stopped running the shuttles at ten, resulting in at least two 3am cab rides back as a result of a pick-up game, which was rather pricey. Last year was much better, being a 2 block walk back to the hotel to drop off my stuff or catch a breather.
Also, regarding Chessex and their pitcher o' dice, it doesn't hurt to wait til the last day, as they often don't want to take inventory home. Last year, the guy running the booth gave me an extra scoop at no additional cost! Quite nice of him.
There's also a story I have about drinking far too much, too early in the day to empty the cooler for the drive home, that resulted in me blowing $300 in an hour on the show floor...just...don't do that.
I almost mentioned this (though I've never stayed anywhere farther than a half mile from the convention center), but at this point its too late. There's nothing closer than 6 or 7 miles with rooms available at this point, so there's not much he can do about it.
I never had any difficulty getting into the nearby mall parking garage but I showed up in the morning but by no means super early. Was something like 20 dollars a day for parking doing that.
You have to be careful with that. Not all of the garages in downtown Indy are open 24/7. I had a friend who went to do that once, and he showed up a bit after midnight to get his car only to find the garage he used closed at 11pm and there was no way to get the car out.
The first day of the convention, get up early- I mean, early early- before registration opens- and get your gear together for your first few events. Clean up, shower, and dress and head down to the registration area. Odds are there may be a few people there, but most people are lazy-asses the first day of a convention and some won't arrive until the first day of the convention and spend the first day in line for their badges. This is where you strike- you want to be there when registration opens, and get your favorite events all nice and paid for and registered. Also buy about ten or twelve tickets, in case something strikes your fancy and you want to play it. These are really useful- and you can always turn them in before the con ends if you want your money back. Then run and get a sit-down breakfast, then hit your first event.
Allow yourself time for meals- I mean an actual, honest-to-Happycat sit-down meal, not overpriced convention garbage food. Your body will thank you for it by not crapping out on the possibly limited sleep schedule it's going to be getting. Try to avoid caffeine until you absolutely need it- this allows it to keep its punch, and it's actually more beneficial than slugging down 20 ounce after 20 ounce and still feeling droopy. In fact, I would recommend something like 5-Hour Energy. They're small, don't collect condensation, and pack one hell of a kick.
For transporting gear and stuff, a backpack or wheeled bag works wonders. If there's something large that you absolutely have to have, make a special trip to the floor, buy it, and carry it back to the room. Secure it there, and go back. Taking some time to run around the dealer rooms is always fun. Having fewer bags also means less chance of something disappearing on you- in fact, I'd say keep all unnecessary electronics in your room- the only things in your pockets really ought to be your hotel keycards, your wallet, and your tickets. If you have a free pocket, maybe your cell phone. All you really need to bring on the con floor should be able to fit in a pack, your pockets, and your hands.
I can has cheezburger, yes?
This is not actually true. I've hit ticket pickup/registration on Wednesday night and have stood in hour long lines. I have it ticket pickup/registration at 8am Thursday morning and stood in hour long lines. The only real time to avoid lines is late evening Friday/Saturday. If you will called your stuff, I would suggest you pick it up on Wednesday. That way you don't have to stand in line on Thursday for things. Get the standing in line out of the way like the smart people do so that they can sleep in a bit on Thursday.
Personally, I never schedule an event earlier than 11am, so I can always sleep in if I end up staying out till 4 in the morning. Of course, I don't really do that anymore. My body just can't take it.
Sitting in line for over an hour is not goddamn worth spending an hour visiting less popular booths.
Take your time, walk around the convention center and try out new games that you may have otherwise not checked out.
Seriously, the hour you spent waiting in line for whatever is super popular is much better spent checking out smaller games you may as well never have heard of.
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