Gen Con Current Year Planning Thread

Traditionally the GWJ crew is at the the downtown Hilton every Gen Con but this thread is about planning your Gen Con events, hotel, and fun for the current year.

Who is going to Gen Con this year?

Not sure if I'll buy a badge this year. Had an emergency surgery happen, couldn't go and they refused to refund the money.

My wife and I are thinking about it, but haven't decided yet. If we go, we might stay with friends. And the downtown Hilton is now totally sold out.

This would be my first GenCon, and only my second convention overall. Any pro tips?

How does one manage to get a room at the downtown Hilton?

Time machine?

Edit: I had just checked it at the time of my earlier post. Not just the Hilton, but almost all downtown Hilton- and Marriott-brand hotels are either sold out or very expensive (like $500 / night). Plenty of availability, and much better rates, near Indy’s beltway.

Yeah, almost all the hotels downtown either go rack rate (the $450/night and pre-paid only with no refunds) or block themselves out. The company Gen-Con uses bought blocks of rooms in all of those hotels which also led to them being sold out, which is what we'll be trying for tomorrow.

So you get a room at the downtown Hilton by either booking really early and at high prices in the past or by going through Gen-Con's housing system and getting lucky with an early slot before they're all sold out.

That's pretty much how it's been, with some changes to how Gen-Con's lottery system works, since I started going ten years ago.

A friend and I will be driving down from Chicago to attend this year (so much cheaper than flying from San Antonio!) though our housing slot is pretty bad: 5:15pm Eastern. We'll see how it goes. I'm hoping to meet and play games with more GWJers this year!

I'll be there! My Friends and I will be at the Embassy Suites. We'll be driving from Raleigh.

For anyone who doesn't have housing (or know how to get it), the Gen Con housing information page is here.

Gen Con's reserved housing started to be released to pass-holders in blocks 40 minutes ago as of this post.

They recommend following Gen Con twitter for housing updates.

So I just got done with my slot. Closest hotel to downtown available is the "Sleep Inn & Suites And Conference Center Downtown" which is a 40 minute walk or a 10 minute drive. I just went with a Hilton branded hotel near the airport; if I'm driving into the convention center 10 minutes is the same as 20 minutes, and it was ~$50/night cheaper.

Edit: But sometimes people do cancel, so there's still the possibility of something closer for y'all. Just not at the moment.

Ugh, I've got my room reservation slot in a couple of hours, I assume it'll be entirely picked over by then. Oh well, Airbnb or direct reservation it is!

My 2:43 slot had nothing closer than 3 miles.

I have a non-block reservation at the La Quinta downtown, but it is 7 blocks away. I guess I'll keep it for now.

I’m debating whether I’m going to go again this year. Anyone want to try and talk me into it?

We took last year off because we bought a house, and my wife and our old roommate went without me the year before.

So of course we're going back this year.

Not thrilled with a non-downtown hotel, but I recognize there's not much that can be done.

So does GWJ generally do a meet and greet each year?

Hassasain wrote:

So does GWJ generally do a meet and greet each year?

Yea, it’s super fun. Highly recommended.

One of my former neighbors and friends just took a job in Indianapolis so this might be the year I go! I'll have an excuse and a place to stay free. How can my wife say no?

What is the absolute last date I could decide to go to Gen Con? Last year I ended up in a hotel that was eight 35-40 minute Uber ride from the main event. If I’m OK with that again, how much longer should I wait befor I have to pull the trigger?

jrralls wrote:

What is the absolute last date I could decide to go to Gen Con? Last year I ended up in a hotel that was eight 35-40 minute Uber ride from the main event. If I’m OK with that again, how much longer should I wait befor I have to pull the trigger?

There's usually tickets available up until a couple of weeks before the event. Hotel rooms, I don't know about.

For any GenCon vets, any pro tips on ways to make the most of my time there?

A GWJ meet & greet sounds great. Anything in particular that the group usually does?

LastSurprise wrote:

For any GenCon vets, any pro tips on ways to make the most of my time there?

A GWJ meet & greet sounds great. Anything in particular that the group usually does?

Sure! Wear comfortable shoes. It's a BIG place and you'll do a ton of walking. Get a refillable water bottle as there are water coolers littered through out the place. Don't stress out to see and do everything, it's impossible. If you are so inclined, pick up a couple of tickets to games you are interested in trying out for the best chance of trying them out, but don't schedule your day down to the minute. The vendor hall is always incredibly busy, so be patient. Wait until Sunday to buy things from wholesalers as they lower their prices quite a bit. There's quite a few really good restaurants in Indy, so if you want a break from it all grab a lyft and go up to Fountain Square or Broadripple. I can also recommend Granite and Yard House for closer restaurants. Spoke and Steel has an amazing bartender who makes the best drinks downtown.

Usually hang out, play games and drink drinks

LastSurprise wrote:

For any GenCon vets, any pro tips on ways to make the most of my time there?

A GWJ meet & greet sounds great. Anything in particular that the group usually does?

We refer to them as Slap & Tickles, so prepare to be slapped and/or tickled, and to reciprocate.

Spoiler:

I've been to dozens in many different cities and never seen a single slap nor tickling.

jrralls wrote:

What is the absolute last date I could decide to go to Gen Con? Last year I ended up in a hotel that was eight 35-40 minute Uber ride from the main event. If I’m OK with that again, how much longer should I wait befor I have to pull the trigger?

Event registration begins on May 19th. If you want to get into specific games, rather than using generics and going to Indy Games on Demand or various other open events, that's a good date to keep in mind.

Not that events/sessions won't be available after May 19th, but they might not be the events you're really super interested in.

As stated badges will likely be available longer, they sold out in late July last year.

LastSurprise wrote:

For any GenCon vets, any pro tips on ways to make the most of my time there?

A GWJ meet & greet sounds great. Anything in particular that the group usually does?

Again, my big one would be having a look at the Events before the registration happens and making sure you queue up for anything you're really interested in. It's the way to (hopefully, if you aren't screwed by the system) ensure you get to try out whatever system you really, really want to try.

IF they get the Hilton rooms again (I haven't seen anyone confirming that?) those tend to be board game free-for-alls where everyone brings their own. Pretty fun overall, though I usually only pop in for a few hours on Saturday or Sunday.

Also Indy Games on Demand is always a ton of fun and does new games every hour from 10a-8p on Friday and Saturdays as I remember.

Unfortunately, because of some family medical issues, I won't be able to attend this year. I see that badge sales are non-refundable, but I've contacted customer service anyway.

My main question is that there is a pop-up GenCon about 5 miles from me (GigaBytes Cafe in Marietta, GA), but the system won't let me buy a pop-up ticket because I already have one. I've contacted Giabytes and their response was "Hey, you're going to the real con! You should be happy!" (I'm not going... that's the problem.)

Hopefully customer service can sort things out.

I really wanted to go...

I'll be going again this year! Looking forward to stopping by the GWJ room again, had fun last year.

Yeah, I had to cancel. Just stuff going on, no job until recently, living far away, bad hotel and so forth. Shame to miss one but that's how it works.

Bump.

Any details on the GWJ room? I stopped by there last year, but if you blinked you missed me.

Looks like my Thursday schedule is packed. I'll just have two hours to drop into the dealer's room. Then just one scheduled event on each of Friday and Saturday. I think the front-loaded schedule may suit me.

Getting hyped!

What are people looking forward to seeing/playing the most? (Could be new, could be old.)
Life has been too busy for me to formulate much of a plan. The Gen Con marketing emails got me interested in seeing if Video Vortex gameplay can possibly live up to the graphic design...
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I am doubtful, but plan to check it out on the art alone.

I will also be bringing my Avalon Hill release of Nexus Ops, in case there isn't enough new hotness going to burn up all the excitement in the GWJ room.
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PM me ahead or look for the neon plastic if you want in on the timely 2005 goodness.

I'm signed up to play the new edition of Blue Planet. Very hyped for that. Blue Planet was a beautiful sci-fi RPG setting back in the day, but as it is (omg) 20 years old, it really needs this update.

Looking forward to testing out Air, Land & Sea, bugging Tim Fowers about Burgle Bros 2, Undaunted: Normandy, Video Vortex looks really neat, as well.

Staying at the Hilton, planning on popping by the room at some point over the weekend. Getting in some quality time playing games that I own but never hit the table, as is the custom..