GenCon 2013

Preregistration opens in four days, and the housing block opens in six.

Who all's going?

I'm going!

In - although I'm not sure if I'll be getting a hotel room or crashing with friends in Indy though.

Me and the wife will be there. Pre-registered last weekend and took a vacation day to snag a spot in the housing block. Going to be staying at the Comfort Suites next to the airport. We had a big debate for a few weeks on whether we'd spend the extra on a closer room, but decided the extra not spent on the room could be extra swag to bring home. This will be our first convention, gaming related or otherwise.

My wife and I will be in Indy that weekend. I'm heading to MotoGP, she's in for GenCon.

Got her ticket on Sunday, and wound up scoring a room at the Marriott Downtown, just across the street from the convention center. I'll probably be swinging by on one day, but most of my time that weekend will be taken up by watching motorcycles go racing.

MonoCheli and I ended up with rooms in the Marriott as well. Now to try to get tickets for Real Dungeon...

Rhydius wrote:

Me and the wife will be there. Pre-registered last weekend and took a vacation day to snag a spot in the housing block. Going to be staying at the Comfort Suites next to the airport. We had a big debate for a few weeks on whether we'd spend the extra on a closer room, but decided the extra not spent on the room could be extra swag to bring home. This will be our first convention, gaming related or otherwise.

Emboldened for shrewdness.

IMAGE(https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTbqk9QKdq8F9kHxKFT9EHqJ-H9g_5xj_m5vybKrRo1phy0dY7FfA)

Whether it's needed yet or not I've put together a form and chart/spreadsheet that should help those who want to carpool. I saw the carpool sheet that got put up for last Pencon and it got me thinking ahead. Plus on the Gencon forums some-one was already asking about carpooling. This is up there as well. If there's a demand I can set up another side sheet just for GWJers.

Here's the link to the form.

And this one is the sortable chart.

If you have any ideas on how to improve it send them my way.

For future reference if you want your listing taken off the chart, change your Notes section to: Remove Please
I will be manually removing them until I can get around to scripting it, so it may take a few days for it to be removed.

I'm considering since I've never been and it's not that far away (about 4 hours). Looks like the 4 day pass is $70. What did hotels run you? I think I'd want to share with another person, possibly 4 to cut down on costs.

carrotpanic wrote:

I'm considering since I've never been and it's not that far away (about 4 hours). Looks like the 4 day pass is $70. What did hotels run you? I think I'd want to share with another person, possibly 4 to cut down on costs.

Hotels aren't that unreasonable. Getting one in the approved block is the bigger issue, but I hear the waiting list works well. I believe this year I'm paying $200 a night for a room in the hotel right next to the convention center. Last year MonoCheli and I were about 10 minutes away, and I think those ran about $100 a night.

Looks like rates are listed here.

So turns out I won't be heading to Indy MotoGP, which means I'm going to GenCon!

Badges still available, and my wife already had a hotel booked.

WOOHOO!

I plan to go. This will be my first time to 'Mecca'. I will be flying in on the 7th for a different event that runs until the 11th. I'm figuring out the pros and cons of reserving a downtown hotel room for the 11th to the 18th/19th or staying at an airport hotel and renting a car for the week.

Just remember, if there's a specific game you REALLY want to play, be it P&PRPG, Boardgames, or whathaveyou, you should buy tickets to the event online when they're available come May. Especially if there's more than one in your party, getting in early for the popular games/systems is a must.

Generics are fine, of course, and great for if you want to just go to the Indy Games booth or something, but any spots opening up on the big events, never mind multiple, are very rare. Plus if it turns out you can't do it you can always exchange it for credit later less ten percent if I recall, so there's not too much of a loss.

I'll be there, helping out at the Slugfest Games booth for most of the con.

I will most likely be attending this, this year.

I'll be there, probably just soaking up as many board games as I can.

So, who's planning to share lodging with other Goodjers and what days?

Have you guys / gals been looking through the event list. Remember that registration opens on sunday at noon. Be there or be.. out of a ticket. Nothing really super hot on the board game front this year, but lots of solid titles in there. Relic, Space Cadets, Expansion for Mansions of Madness and more. What are you all looking forward to?

I'm there for the alpha and beta P&P RPG systems. Well, specifically I love trying out new and (hopefully) interesting role-playing systems and I've at least played a game or two of most of the major systems out there after four years of Gen-Cons so the best bet for me is the alpha and beta games they've been letting in lately.

The Indy Games section also has a lot of systems I've not played, but without knowing what's available I often end up in a game of Fiasco, which is all well and good but I'd still prefer trying something new even if it's something I end up being not very fond of.

Got a few things on my wish list:

AEG's big Friday night game bash, play a lot of board games and they are famous for the swag they give out here.
Game of the Atomic Robo RPG. I love the comics, love Fate, and it is being run by one of the writers of the game.
Fantasy Flight's inflight report, another event famous for the swag.
Heavy Gear Blitz Begginer's Tournament. I've been flirting with this game off and on for years and figure this is a great way to see if I really like it.
Malifaux Achievement League. Playing pick up games of a fun minis game all weekend with actual prizes and such? Count me in.

Between Malifaux and the Indie Games on Demand, I should be able to fill in any dead spots in my schedule with awesome gaming.

I will be the first to admit I have no clue what I'm doing with this whole event search thing...

I mean - there's 116 PAGES of RPG events alone! Where the heck do you even start.

McIrishJihad wrote:

I will be the first to admit I have no clue what I'm doing with this whole event search thing...

I mean - there's 116 PAGES of RPG events alone! Where the heck do you even start.

I generally look for things that interest me vaguely and ignore anything that's doesn't say it's beginner friendly if it's a system I'm unfamiliar with. I put those in the queue/cart/circle them or in some way save them. Then I figure out what I can actually get to, since many of them are two to four hours and will overlap with others.

I try to give myself at LEAST half an hour to get between events because they're often quite spread out along downtown Indianapolis and it'll take that long to get from one event to another, even ignoring overruns. I also try to keep some block free mid-day so I can leave and get some food as well as in the evening, keeping in mind any free time can be easily filled in the seller's hall or at the random board game areas. And also keep in mind early-morning RPG sessions often don't happen, either due to not enough of the people showing up (often due to hangovers) or the GM not showing up (also often due to hangovers) whereas late-evening sessions are often there because they can go over-long since there's no one else who needs the table when the end point is reached.

Thankfully, I was able to log in as my wife and our roommate and accept my friend invite, so I can run tickets out of one account.

I figured we could always fill in games after the fact, and that today is really just to secure the bigger events and a True Dungeon slot.

Ugh.. screwed again by the gencon system. Due to my first button press not being registered and the page hanging, I doubt I'll get to play many of the events I wishlisted.

I (foolishly) only put in one TD slot. So I bought all the other tickets that were available, and now doing another wish list submit for a dozen different TD slots.

I guess this is a situation where my going in and just clicking on whatever I feel like works out for the best; I'm not disappointed something is sold out because I never bother to look.

I ended up with some nifty systems, looks like Sixcess Core, Cartoon Action Hour, Trin'Dar, Spacers, and so on. I've also got some spaces in the Games on Demand because that's always fun and pretty quick, and some generics. I'm curious about a couple of the ones I signed up for that say materials aren't provided but I'm guessing I'll just need some D-whatever, some paper and a pencil.

Is this something compatible with driving in for the day from Cincinnati with the fam and wonder around gawking? May be a pricey way to gawk but where we're a gaming family of sorts we're n00bs on P&P RPG stuff.

muraii wrote:

Is this something compatible with driving in for the day from Cincinnati with the fam and wonder around gawking? May be a pricey way to gawk but where we're a gaming family of sorts we're n00bs on P&P RPG stuff.

Yes, there's a sunday family day ticket which is much cheaper than the other days.

Fredrik_S wrote:
muraii wrote:

Is this something compatible with driving in for the day from Cincinnati with the fam and wonder around gawking? May be a pricey way to gawk but where we're a gaming family of sorts we're n00bs on P&P RPG stuff.

Yes, there's a sunday family day ticket which is much cheaper than the other days.

!!!

muraii wrote:
Fredrik_S wrote:
muraii wrote:

Is this something compatible with driving in for the day from Cincinnati with the fam and wonder around gawking? May be a pricey way to gawk but where we're a gaming family of sorts we're n00bs on P&P RPG stuff.

Yes, there's a sunday family day ticket which is much cheaper than the other days.

!!!

Be aware that the con closes around 3pm that day.