Looking ahead to GenCon
GenCon is less than 4 months away, and I can't wait for it to get here! This will be my fourth year in a row going to GenCon, and it'll be my fifth time ever. Here are some of my experiences from past GenCons and what I'm looking forward to for this one.
My first GenCon was in 1999 when it was still in Milwaukee. I was playing the CCG Vampire: The Eternal Struggle back then, and I was asked to run the national tournament. While I had run small tournaments before then, this one was and still is the biggest I've ever run. The nice thing was that Wizards of the Coast (who published the game before White Wolf took it over) put me up at a hotel for the days I was there, although they put me with another one of their people which put me on a cot. I spent pretty much my whole convention in the CCG room, and I got to meet a lot of people I knew from the newsgroup (back when newsgroups were popular).
When GenCon moved to Indianapolis, it became a lot easier for me to make it over for the convention. Indianapolis is about 1.5 to 2 hours from where I live while Milwaukee was a 4 to 6 hour drive depending on Chicago traffic. With it being so close, going for just a day was possible.
Four years ago, I went for Friday and Saturday to play in a LARP as well as get in some MechWarrior. I spent a lot of time in the dealer room, but I didn't really get to try out much stuff.
In 2005, I went with my then girlfriend (now wife) for Saturday and Sunday. We both played in the LARP, but there wasn't anything MechWarrior that I wanted to play. This was a good thing! Long tournaments when you're only there for a day or two are not opportune uses of time as I discovered. Instead of playing things I always play, I was able to get in several demos including QAGS, an Iron Kingdoms RPG session, and multiple board games.
Last year, ShoshieB1 was self-employed as an artist which meant it was a piece of cake for us to go for the whole thing. We spent four days at GenCon which meant I was able to not only play in the Warmachine nationals but also try out several different games. I spent one day just going through the dealer hall playing demos of games that looked interesting. It was a blast, and we were both able to enjoy lots of different workshops, gaming sessions, seminars, and demos. We also had our first Tarrasque Burger from the GenCon-famous Ram brew pub.
This year we are growing our plans even more by going over on Wednesday to spend some time as a family and to take in some of the GenCon community aspects of the convention. We're also running some events for the first time. My 8-year old step-daughter is going, too, so it'll be a new experience for all of us as we try to balance how tired she gets and how much stuff we want to do.
