Venture-Lieutenant, West Virginia—Charleston
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Looking forward to meeting all of you at GenCon! It'll be nice to associate some names with some faces. Does anybody know of good places to park? Reasonably-priced places to eat? Also, I am scheduled for mostly higher-leveled tables - should I bring along a lower-tiered scenario in case my table gets cancelled for lack of players?
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Prep: Prep a different scenario that is being run during the slots you are running. This is easier for people only running a few scenarios than for those that are running a grab bag of things like me.
Parking: parkwhiz.com! It lets you reserve parking spaces for GenCon. I am not sure what is available this close to Gencon, but take a look. I have a parking space for Wednesday morning to Monday afternoon in a garage 5 blocks from the convention center. It ran me $60 ($10/day).
Food: No clue. I have not been to GenCon since 2008. I assume a lot has changed since then.
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Venture-Lieutenant, West Virginia—Charleston
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Parking: The Denison Parking Lot still has spots available. It's @ 302 E. Washington St., Indianapolis, IN 46204. It will run you $77 for a reserved spot from Wednesday (14th) to Monday (19th).
Yep! Booked there. Thanks for the tip - that's much cheaper than what I paid at Origins!
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P.S. Kyle, I think you and I have some of the same players spilt between our Eyes of the Ten groups... Having never run this at a Con before, is that normal? Does it affect anything of significance in terms of between-scenario transitions?
(Not that it matters, I suppose, since you'll just kill them all anyway... I hope I still have a legal table by Round 2!)
Having played this arc under two different GMs (blech), then run it myself for a static table of players (woot!), I would HIGHLY recommend finding a way for a single party to have a single GM for this arc. It makes everything go better, and tightens the story up immensely.
Venture-Lieutenant, Indiana—Indianapolis
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Parking: The Denison Parking Lot still has spots available. It's @ 302 E. Washington St., Indianapolis, IN 46204. It will run you $77 for a reserved spot from Wednesday (14th) to Monday (19th).
This lot is about 5-6 blocks east of the Convention Center and some of the hotels. Not a bad walk, really. And, if the weather is bad, all you have to do is get 3 blocks or so to Circle Centre Mall, and then you can walk the rest of the way to the Convention Center indoors.
:-)
Mark
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Parking + Gas is why I'm taking the Amtrak from Milwaukee to Indianapolis. First time on Amtrak since I was in middle school. Should be interesting.
I thought about this but there was no direct train to Indy from St Louis. Every route took almost an entire day and cost more than driving. My best options was a greyhound bus or driving and if I picked up a passenger driving was cheaper.
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Parking + Gas is why I'm taking the Amtrak from Milwaukee to Indianapolis. First time on Amtrak since I was in middle school. Should be interesting.I thought about this but there was no direct train to Indy from St Louis. Every route took almost an entire day and cost more than driving. My best options was a greyhound bus or driving and if I picked up a passenger driving was cheaper.
$48 through Chicago which is mostly direct. Takes like 9 hours, but driving takes 5 1/2. Gives me 9 hours of tactics prep for Siege of the Diamond City.
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Parking: parkwhiz.com! It lets you reserve parking spaces for GenCon. I am not sure what is available this close to Gencon, but take a look. I have a parking space for Wednesday morning to Monday afternoon in a garage 5 blocks from the convention center. It ran me $60 ($10/day).
Thanks for the tip! I grabbed a lot spot for $63, Wed-Sun. It's little over half mile away, but I'll be reliving my high school days and carrying 50+ lbs of books on one shoulder (At least a half of a pound of that will be pain patches and pain killers...)
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Venture-Lieutenant, Massachusetts—Boston
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As a diabetic, and a GM at Gen Con, I need to point out that some of the tips here are actually NOT good for diabetics. (Snip)...
Good points. Also, if you are insulin dependent… make sure to ask about fridge in your hotel room or arrange space in another GMs fridge.
This also applies to any refrigerated medication.
And if you have another condition that requires medication… make sure you have it!
Note to self- arrange a stop to the pharmacy before my taxi service leaves…
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Thanks for the tip! I grabbed a lot spot for $63, Wed-Sun. It's little over half mile away, but I'll be reliving my high school days and carrying 50+ lbs of books on one shoulder (At least a half of a pound of that will be pain patches and pain killers...)
You know, you could always unload your stuff at the hotel then move the car over...
Unless you are local and are not staying at the hotel I guess.
Which Marriott are you referring to? I stayed at the JW a couple years back (when it first opened) and they did have the option for a fridge in the room.
Now, everything kept freezing in the fridge, even when adjusting the temp, but that’s another issue.
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Thanks for the tip! I grabbed a lot spot for $63, Wed-Sun. It's little over half mile away, but I'll be reliving my high school days and carrying 50+ lbs of books on one shoulder (At least a half of a pound of that will be pain patches and pain killers...)You know, you could always unload your stuff at the hotel then move the car over...
Unless you are local and are not staying at the hotel I guess.
I'm not staying at the hotel, there were no rooms left when I volunteered and the wait list never got to me. But that's alright. Okay, so 50 lbs was a slight exaggeration. Don't know, haven't a scale to weight the bag, haha.
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If we have mods (I'm running 4-19) with Shadow Lodge or Lantern Lodge faction quests, do we delete those from the mod?
On a separate issue: try to use your diaphragm more than your throat for speaking loudly (teacher/singer here). It's weird to do, but really REALLY works.
I'm sure that'll be handled in the 5.0 version of the guide which is due out on Monday.
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Or, you know... I'm driving. Just sayin'.I could do this. The process is remarkably easy. The two weeks to GenCon is pushing it as far as peak flavor profile is concerned, but this is not my biggest hurdle. That would be transportation. I am flying to Indianapolis and looking to avoid checking luggage. Carrying an open bottle of bourbon in my carry-on bag is inviting a pat down from Johnny Law and confiscation. I think I will start a bottle tomorrow night and bring it with me if I eventually need to check a bag.OOOH! Do I have enough time to make bacon infused bourbon? Two birds with one beverage!If you can't find the time, maybe you can find this
IT HAS BEGUN. SOON THE WORLD WILL KNOW OF MAPLE BACON BOURBON. AND THE WORLD WILL REJOICE FOR THE BOURBON WILL BE AWESOME.
Ryan, I will accept your offer of bootlegging my booze across state lines.
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Low end you can go with shipping tubes from the Post Office or Office Depot. on the high end you can get a art portfolio/documents tubes made of PVC or leather.
Somewhere in between, I'm sure you can find large PVC tubes at home improvement stores, just get some well fitting caps for the ends (or use PVC glue to hold one in place. Just be sure to let it dry entirely before sticking a map in.
I personally use a shipping tube. Light-weight, sturdy enough, easy access.
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My plan is to spray glue my printed maps to a 1" grid easel pad. 27"x34" is big enough for almost every map. This way all my maps stay flat AND together. If I need more grid the paper can act as an extended map from what I printed. Lastly the easel pad has a handle for carrying.
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Venture-Lieutenant, Massachusetts—Boston
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Ask for tubes, and you shall receive. I own 4 of these. :-)
Must buy one or two… but will probably use a shipping tube for GenCon (because I'm not relying on any shipping in between now and when we leave.
Granted, for the mod I am running multiple times, it's a map pack (Sewer System) and a flip-map (Watch Station).
Any suggestions from the gang about transporting map pack tiles,
Venture-Captain, Michigan—Mt. Pleasant
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I picked up a document tube from Hobby Lobby a couple of years ago for $10. Its adjustable, and soft enough that it won't break if my gaming bag falls on it or if it gets slammed in the car door. :) Its been a wonderful thing to have.
@mgcady: For the specific map tiles you mentioned I still have the box they came in and am keeping them in it (I'm running that scenario 4 times at Gencon) If you have a lot of maptiles, I have a index card holder for the big index cards which the maptiles fit in perfectly. (Though it is fairly heavy now, and I won't be hauling that around with me.
To keep the tiles in place when I put them on the table, I bought a roll of shelf liner and it works really well to prevent the tiles from sliding around.
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Kyle you are a man of true inovation. If I see you at Gencon remind me to buy you a beer.If? I tend to be hard to miss. Just follow the trail of player's tears and it will lead you to my table. ;-)
Just watch out for the Kolossal Ego, you might get trapped underneath.
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Venture-Lieutenant, Massachusetts—Boston
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I picked up a document tube from Hobby Lobby a couple of years ago for $10. Its adjustable, and soft enough that it won't break if my gaming bag falls on it or if it gets slammed in the car door. :) Its been a wonderful thing to have.
I have one of this by me… I'll have to see if they still have them.
@mgcady: For the specific map tiles you mentioned I still have the box they came in and am keeping them in it (I'm running that scenario 4 times at Gencon) If you have a lot of maptiles, I have a index card holder for the big index cards which the maptiles fit in perfectly. (Though it is fairly heavy now, and I won't be hauling that around with me.
It doesn't have so much a box, but a paper wrapper thing. Is that what you meant?
To keep the tiles in place when I put them on the table, I bought a roll of shelf liner and it works really well to prevent the tiles from sliding around.
I have to check that out! Thank you for sharing!
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Venture-Captain, Michigan—Mt. Pleasant
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The tube I found was with their art/frames section. It is black with red trim and a black/red strap.
My Sewer System tiles came with a cardstock sleeve with flaps that close either end. I consider that a box <shrug>
As for the shelf liner, I picked that up in another thread specifically about the map packs. I tested it, and I can even tip the surface they're on quite a bit and they still stay in place.
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Just wanna point out something regarding avoiding illness at the con:
(1) There's zero evidence that AirBorne prevents colds or mitigates them.
(2) Vitamin C "boosting" has almost zero effect. Vitamin C is a long-term boost to immune health and does almost nothing short term.
(3) Zinc-based stuff, on the other hand, has been proven to work in studies. It prevents approximately half of cold viruses from gaining a hold in the membranes of the throat and thus sometimes prevents colds and sometimes shortens them.
You can find impartial studies on these with a quick search.
How to get the zinc is a matter of preference. I personally prefer melt-away tabs. I'll be popping them pretty much continuously starting on Wednesday night.
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IF you can get access to them, saline nasal sprays are fantastic. One of the reasons we get so sick at cons has to do with dry, inflamed, irritated nasal passages (makes it easier to pick up bacteria/viruses). Unfortunately, saline sprays usually demand a prescription (? Seriously, it's salt water) But if you can, get one. Hotels and convention centers, while often nicely air-conditioned, can dry you out. Just, you know, don't make it look like your snorting the pixie dust or whatever.
Also, continuing my thought about shadow lodge and lantern lodge, we may very well have tables of folks who didn't realize they'd need to choose a new faction before they played. Maybe we should have a quick reference handout for folks who need to make the switch on the spot?
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IF you can get access to them, saline nasal sprays are fantastic. One of the reasons we get so sick at cons has to do with dry, inflamed, irritated nasal passages (makes it easier to pick up bacteria/viruses). Unfortunately, saline sprays usually demand a prescription (? Seriously, it's salt water) But if you can, get one. Hotels and convention centers, while often nicely air-conditioned, can dry you out. Just, you know, don't make it look like your snorting the pixie dust or whatever.
Also, continuing my thought about shadow lodge and lantern lodge, we may very well have tables of folks who didn't realize they'd need to choose a new faction before they played. Maybe we should have a quick reference handout for folks who need to make the switch on the spot?
Use the faction section in the 5.0 version of the guide due out Monday late afternoon.