The title pretty much sums it up. I live in Newfoundland (Eastern Canada) and have as yet never had the opportunity to travel the thousands of miles to attend the event ( sigh).
Basically I would love to hear stories or thoughts about this year's Con, or any Con that you have been to in the past. ( The good, bad, and ugly).
thanks.
The title pretty much sums it up. I live in Newfoundland (Eastern Canada) and have as yet never had the opportunity to travel the thousands of miles to attend the event ( sigh).
Basically I would love to hear stories or thoughts about this year's Con, or any Con that you have been to in the past. ( The good, bad, and ugly).
thanks.
Me too; me too - but specifically GenCon 2008. Did you meet people from these message boards? Did you meet authors whose work you've read? Where/what did you eat? Where did you stay? Did you meet Paizo personnel? Did you spend a mint? Was it worth it? Should I save to go next year?
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I had always wanted to go to GenCon, but this year was the first where I was prodded hard enough to get off my kiester and go. It was also the year that I realized I easily waited 10 years too long to make an annual vacation plan (which I will do from here on out). Quite simply I had an utter ball. The people (in general) were great, and the ability to put in a game of Shadowrun, two games of Pathfinder, and a half dozen other games (including some I had been eyeballing for purchase but hadn't done over the course of 4 days was awesome. I met a few of the Paizo people but as far as I'm aware I didn't meet anybody from the boards (but if you played with Ethan Snide in the PFS you played with me).
The first thing that got me is that the energy is absolutely electric. You can feel it in the air; getting together that many people that are that passionate about their hobby/job does something I've never actually experienced before. The second thing is that it really lets you know that there are tons of other cool people out there that enjoy the same thing you do, and that for four days at least we can pretend to be "normal" (in our own little world at least).
We drove (from Minneapolis/St. Paul) a total of 11 hours to get there. I'm glad I did actually since I bought enough stuff to fill two HUGE bags (the FFG bags if anybody saw them). As of Wednesday night there were already probably a dozen groups in the lobby of the Embassy Suites playing various board games. Although we would have liked to eat at the RAM like everybody else, the hour wait to get in just wasn't worth it for our group of four. The good news is that downtown Indy has quite a few reasonable chain restaurants and a few neat local places.
Thursday the doors to the hall open at 10:00 sharp. I didn't run, but I did hurry very quickly to the Paizo booth, and if my receipt is any judge, my 10:05 purchase time for the Pathfinder Beta rules means I may have the first copy sold (there wasn't anybody in line in front of me). I got to meet a couple of the Paizo crew as well. Likely the best things I got though was custom artwork from Aaron Williams (of Nodwick fame) and an absolutely AWESOME piece of custom artwork in the cover of my new Shadowrun book (that's a story in itself and I'm so very happy I skipped a 4E tournament for that). I think in the four hours I spent on the floor of the exhibit hall Thursday I barely covered half of the booths and walked away with five books, a set of dice, and two t-shirts (yes I'm a sucker for my new Sader Krupp t-shirt). Thursday night I got into AT-43 and enjoyed myself so much I spent a small fortune building an army for the game on Friday (which cost me a mint, but saved me about $100 over list prices at my FLGS buying direct from FFG). I also fit in the True Dungeon, which I have to admit is just as much fun as everybody says (even if we did die in the last room :P). Day 1 I literally didn't sit down for nearly 13 hours.
Friday was mostly a game-playing day. Overall the experience was a lot of fun since almost everybody I met was just as interested in playing and having fun. I did meet a couple of people I honestly would never get along with on a day-to-day basis, but fortunately I cut most of those interactions short. I got to chat with the developer of the new FFG Cosmic Encounter version and talked to him for at least half an hour regarding his game design theory into my favorite game of all time.
Saturday and Sunday were more of the same except my schedule filled out so much I quite literally had zero free time on Saturday and didn't have any on Sunday until noon. One last pass-through of the exhibition floor netted me a bunch more stuff (damn me and my obsessive purchasing nature when I'm having fun). Coolest of all though was the print I picked up from the artists quarter. In fact, every member of my party walked away with something from that part of the floor.
As for the events themselves, my only advice if you plan to go is to overbook yourself. One of my party didn't schedule much of anything and he thought the whole experience was boring as hell. I overbooked my schedule to the point of unreasonableness and I didn't stop going.
So now that I've rambled like a child outlining his visit to the candy store, I'm off to bed. But seriously, if you ever get the chance to go, go, it's worth every penny.
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Sadly, for the first time in a long time, my wife and I decided to bow out this year thinking (incorrectly) that WotC would be piling 4e all over everything and everyone and so we decided to get windows installed instead.
Then the Paizo announcement came, and we shed a tear. ONE. Before making plans to be there for 2009 and the rollout of the PFRPG!
GenCon is great. And last year for the first time we also bought our two daughters (10 and 14) and they had a blast and there was plenty to keep them busy and happy.
Seeing old friends and meeting new ones you only know by a messageboard alias is also super.
-DM Jeff
Sadly, for the first time in a long time, my wife and I decided to bow out this year thinking (incorrectly) that WotC would be piling 4e all over everything and everyone and so we decided to get windows installed instead.
Then the Paizo announcement came, and we shed a tear. ONE. Before making plans to be there for 2009 and the rollout of the PFRPG!
GenCon is great. And last year for the first time we also bought our two daughters (10 and 14) and they had a blast and there was plenty to keep them busy and happy.
Seeing old friends and meeting new ones you only know by a messageboard alias is also super.
-DM Jeff
I think I'm definitely going to try to make it in 2009. Felt like Pathfinder was a big hit this year and I don't want to miss another opportunity to meet the great guys at Paizo.
Gen Con is Mecca for gamers!
If you can at all go, the way to do it is to plan for it. Start saving now. (Like a Christmas Club account, but for Gen Con.) Buy your badge early to get the discount, and sign up for a hotel room with friends. Even if you can only go once, it's worth it!
(Oh, if you would like to read some 2008 recaps, go to www.varianor.livejournal.com for some of mine. Scroll back a couple days. Click on Calendar and go to August 0f 2005, 2006 and 2007 for even older ones!)
. . . Quite simply I had an utter ball. . .
Thank you for the detailed description. Felt like I was there.
Varianor, when I pasted www.varianor.livejournal.com as the address, live journal gave me an error report. : (
Gen Con is Mecca for gamers!
So sad it is no more :(
I live in southern Wisconsin so, until it moved to Indy, Gen Con has always been less than 2 hour drive for me. I started going in the UW-Parkside years and only missed, I think, two Gen Cons before it moved out of state. Granted, I didn't always go for 4 days. In fact, about half the time I only went for a single day, but it was still an awesome experience. I took my infant daughter, 2 months old, to her first Gen Con and carried her around the exhibit hall in her little sling.
I went to the first one in Indy and found that it translated pretty well to the new digs. I had no complaints with how the con ran or the facilities. But the next year, my son was within 30 days of due date and we couldn't go. He's now such a high energy monkey (turned 4 today!) that he will be hard to control there and still find time for gaming. But maybe next year...
The big disappointment for me is the change in location makes it hard to keep in touch with the con by just going for a day. It's a 5-ish hour drive to get there, so a single day jaunt is not feasible (not with 2 kids in the car). It's got to be a 4-day trip and that's a bit rougher on the budget. But, as I said, maybe next year... since Griffin will enter kindergarten that fall, our day care bills will be way down.
When your kids get older, they even have some children's activities!
Sorry about the bad link. No www. I keep forgetting that.
http://varianor.livejournal.com/
Meaning?Gen Con is Mecca for gamers!So sad it is no more :(
The Mecca Center, where Gen Con used to be held at in Milwaukee, was demolished years ago when Gen Con moved to the Midwest Express Center. It was actually undergoing some demolition during one of those Gen Con fairs. You got to see a lot of returning gamers gawking at it and remarking on their memories of the place.