Well it’s done. I registered for Gen Con and I booked the Hotel.
I’ll be staying at the swanky Omni Severin hotel which, apparently, sits about 0,2 miles from the Convention Center. Wee!
It’s going to be my 1st stay in Indianapolis and my 1st Gen Con experience. I’ll stock up on sleep beforehand!
Here’s what I’m planning so far.
- I should be co-hosting a GMing workshop with DNAPhil and possibly some of the other GMs from the GM-fu seminars of past years.
- I’d like to DM a few events (Iron Heroes, among other things) if people need my skills (I’m offering my services here).
- I’d love to participate in an official Magic the Gathering Sealed Deck/Draft event
- I challenge all GM/DM bloggers who’ll be there to a friendly Magic the Gathering Draft.
- I intend to try out games I’ve reviewed this year (Silvervine for one)
- I also have a meeting with Wolfgang Baur to plan, as we must face off as all self-respecting Nemeses are wont to do.
- Hang out with my Cyber buddies, like having dinner with the Stupid Ranger crowd!
- GM an Hotel-room Paranoia game with my blogging buddies.
- Meet with any of you that make it there…. I’ll try to have a Chatty DM t-shirt on or my stupid Blue and Red Hawaian shirt so you can spot me!
- Get my 4e core books signed by the WotC crowd.
- Meet Monte Cook!
- …
It’s still quite a few months from now, but feel free to start hollering for games and/or meet and greets!
This is going to be an expensive trip and will likely be my only one (unless I get invited/subsided at later dates), so I plan to make the most of it.
Are you going?
Hey Phil!
Glad to know you’re splurging on the Indy trip. It’s the only way to travel – with money to spend!
I’ll probably show up too. I’ll see you then if I don’t bump into you in Montreal.
Phil – You’ll like the Omni… it’s a very nice hotel.
And dinner is definitely on!
You are going to have a great time. GenCon is such a blast. I will be registering on Wednesday.
I too shall be attending this year. I have been regularly attending GenCon since it moved to Indy. I will share with you all my GenCon secrets, for how to have a blast and not go broke doing it.
My wedding and graduate studies have taken all my time, unfortunately.
How about Dragon Con, anyone here attending this year?
I’m trying to get Patrick to decide between a road trip across country to Dragon Con or a quick jaunt (20 hours drive) down to Vegas for the next Star Trek Con in August.
I’m not enough of a gamer to make Gen Con worth it unfortunately; I get my pen and paper fix here at ChattyDM. 😛
This will be my first trip to Gencon, my main convention of choice is Origins. That is mostly because it is only about 2 hours south of me, and there is a huge diversity of gaming styles there. I’m curious as to how Gencon will be, I’ve heard a lot of good things about it, and I’m sure there will be a lot of 4e buzz. What I’m most looking forward to is meeting a lot of people there that I interact with online.
Andy: Gen Con will be the only Con I attend this year, except maybe RoyalCon in Montreal…
Phased: Yeah your Wedding and Grad Studies are inevitables of Real Life (TM)… sigh.
Yax, DNAPhil, Stupid Ranger and John (DavetheGame) and all other potential attendees… I’m sooo looking forward to meet you….
I might draft you in a little skit to swamp Wolfgang’s exhibition table with a horde of minions! 😀
Oh and DNAPhil, thanks so much for the offer of tips (I’ll take them all) and the workshop invite!
I remember my first GenCon, back in the day – traveling north from Chicago into the wilds of Wisconsin. The costumes, the huge variety of games I’d never seen before, and so much merch…
Make sure to pace yourself! It’s all too easy to burn out the first day of the con. Make yourself sleep, eat, and stay hydrated.
I shall heed your Wisdom Lone GM!
Or die trying!
🙂
Planning on coming, if I can talk another person from my cadre. One lesson I’ve learned is that it blows to do a con all by yourself. (Especially paying for a hotel.)
Definitely be at Origins.
Hi Phil, my wife and I are both going to attend Gencon this year. Last year was our first Gencon and we learned a whole lot. The best advice I can give is to make your first time a learning experience for the rest of it. Everyone has different things they enjoy and things they don’t.
Here is our plan for this next trip:
1. You have to do the True Dungeon once during the trip. Sign up for it early.
2. Stick to the gaming. There are a lot of sub-events but d20 gaming and hanging around the dealer room are the primary activities.
3. While it was sort of fun to see the Traci Hickman killer breakfast, I’m not going to do it again. I’d rather be rolling 20s.
4. While the Iron Dungeon Master event was fun, I’d rather be playing a normal adventure. That seems more for the DMs than the players.
5. When you have a spare 20 minutes, go do the RPGA dungeon delve. It’s a blast and you get to walk away with loot. We must have done it two dozen times and we loved it.
6. Sign up for a lot of RPGA games if you want to play straight D&D. Try to sign up for events that don’t overlap with the somewhat narrow dealer room hours.
7. Plan to stand around for a while at the Wizards booth if you want to play their Dungeon Delve. I was really looking forward to it and I only got to play once.
8. Get there on Wednesday night and plan to game on Thursday. We got there Thursday and it didn’t feel like enough time. This time we have four solid days.
9. Plan your meals, buy them ahead of time, and carry them with you. These are real D&D games with long hours sometimes so you’ll want to have your food handy. We had to rush out early on in one of our games for sandwiches because we didn’t plan ahead. Food is somewhat scarce during the day compared to the number of people who want to eat.
10. ENJOY YOURSELF! I shorted out when I first saw all the people and all the stuff we could do. There’s a bit of overload when you see it all. Relax, realize you can’t do everything, triage the stuff you want to do most, and have fun!
Anyway, have a great time and maybe we’ll see you there!
Love the site,
Mike Shea
Thanks for the tips Mike. I think I’ll focus on gaming more than to find occasions to DM. The RPGA idea is a good one, I need to dust off my card!
Hope to meet you there!