Advice for a GenCon Indy newbie.

[KenM]

I'm thinking about going to GenCon Indy. This will be my first major Game con. Can anyone offer advice on best hotels, weather I should get a rental car over taxi's, ect? I know I should take a shower every day. Any advice is welcomed.

 

[Dave Turner]

I humbly present my advice from last year, with apologies to any grandmothers:

The Balls-Out Manifesto

I've been thinking a bit about the conventional GenCon wisdom. If you
cruise EN World or RPG.net and check for "GenCon advice threads", they seem
to have it all wrong. All of the advice seems too safe: eat sensible meals,
wear sensible shoes, be sure to get some sleep, don't blow all your money on
the first day.

That's all ed. What GenCon needs is a more balls-out, gonzo approach.
This is four days of high-octane gaming. My advice would be the exact
opposite. First, get as little sleep as possible. Those among us who truly
exemplify the balls-out ethos would score some crystal meth or cocaine for
their fuel. The less-dedicated will settle for near-continuous caffeine
ingestion. I would recommend some ephedra-based supplements if you can find
them. Join every game that you can find, especially those you would never
normally play. Drop into the LAN party for some 2am Counter-Strike or Halo
2. Demo all the minis games. Hell, get into the Vampire LARP if you're
slowing down and need to "game up". Those who garner the most respect at
GenCon are those who, in a delirous fog of sleep-deprivation, direct their
2nd level wizards into hand-to-hand combat with the ogre barbarian. You
will never game with these people again and you don't get to take these
characters back to your home game. The balls-out gamer leaves no survivors.

Good food is the last of your worries. Eat when you must and don't waste
time with it. The true GenCon warriors just carry PowerBars with them and
never leave the table. If you eat like s**t, who cares? Four days of bad
eating is not going to kill you or seriously impact your diet. If you
normally eat sensibly, then this is a weekend of indulgence that your body
will absorb with little inconvenience. If you normally eat like s**t, then
GenCon is hardly the time to turn over a new leaf. Buy the Jumbo pack of
Little Debbie's snack cakes and have at it. Balls-out is not for the
faint-hearted.

Blow all your money on the first day on your first trip through the Dealers'
Hall. Borrow money from friends with only a vague intention of repaying
them. Nothing will change on the second, third, or fourth days in the Hall.
Any of the "hot" games that you missed in your first-day spending orgy will
be available in a few weeks on the Internet. You won't have time to read
any books anyway. You'll be balls-out gaming and will be sleeping on the
plane back. Purge the urge to spend money in the first few hours and you
can game with a clear conscience. If you do have a spare moment to read one
of the books you've purchased, you can score maximum points by trying to use
it in a game at the Con. So go ahead and buy the new "Complete Dominator"
book from WotC. When you arrive at your next D&D 3.5 game, ask the DM if
you can run the new "Turkish Reverser" core class you just bought. It's in
a WotC book, so it's gotta be balanced, right? Balls-out, my friend.
Balls-out.

This is the vision that we should be aspiring to. There is only one piece
of advice worth salvaging from those threads: personal hygiene. Balls-out
gaming does not mean we don't shower and periodically change our clothes.
The balls-out approach is all about style and there's no style in carrying
around the stale sweat from having your ass handed to you in Starcraft by a
13 year old kid at 4am last night. So shower early and shower often. With
cold water. Hot water is for p***ies who eat sensibly and sleep.

The uninitiated and the unwashed look fearfully upon the balls-out gamer.
They read the Balls-Out Manifesto and worry about boorishness and obnoxious
behavior. But the obnoxious boor at the gaming table isn't the balls-out
gamer. Balls-out gamers are sharks, not chimpanzees. They drift through
GenCon and take huge bites of every game that catches their eye. Open their
stomachs and you'll find a D&D 3.5 PHB along with a platoon of Space Marine
minis with chainswords and a blue/white weenie deck. The balls-out gamer is
elegant and sleek, constantly on the move because if he stops swimming, he
dies. He doesn't scare the tastiest and juiciest games away by drawing
attention to himself. He bides his time, strikes when it is least expected,
and savors the tasty underbelly of every game. The balls-out gamer plays
hard, but he doesn't play stupid.

It's not about channeling the spirit of Hunter f***ing Thompson while you
prepare to spray the table with a fistful of d10s. You don't need a smack-
addicted porn star on one arm holding your Jack Daniels while you tap your
last Swamp to summon your Sengir Vampire. It's not paying the cabana boy to
scrub your n*****k while you try to stay upright in the shower and plot 40K
strategies. It's balls-out gaming, not balls-out hedonism.

Balls-out gaming is about being a hardcore gamer, not a hardcore rock star.
It's Pi, not Animal House. It's Fight Club, not Fear and Loathing. The
player who burns his wizard in the ogre barbarian fight doesn't get respect
because he's making a crazy play that seems to give the finger to convential
wisdom. He doesn't get respect because he's playing after drinking 12 cans
of Schlitz and four Screwdrivers. Most alcohol or drugs hurt your game,
dulling your tactical wits. Balls-out gamers don't care about fitting in a
few rounds of anonymous sex with women dressed like Renaissance waitresses
or Sailor Moon. There are plenty of cheap and easy women in your hometown,
hotshot. Why are you spending this much money to travel across the country
to get laid? There are hookers within two miles of your house at a much
cheaper price. Balls-out gaming is about playing your game.

The balls-out gamer gets respect because he's at the end of a 36-hour gaming
bender and he's still in there swinging, even though his moves are total
crap. He's in a sharp, lonely place where it's almost impossible to succeed
on a Concentration check even if you've got a f***ing Feat to boost the
roll. But he's still rolling the dice, still hungry for just one more
victory before he collapses headfirst at the table and lobotomizes himself
on a stray d4. He's still rolling dice because when that final critical hit
comes up, it will be the sweetest, purest critical hit he's ever had.

 

[KenM]

Roflmao

 

[Rel]

I humbly present my advice from last year, with apologies to any grandmothers:

Quite possibly the single best post I've read in my entire tenure at ENWorld. You, sir, are a GOD.

 

[kenobi65]

A possible issue you'll run into is the hotel.

There's several hotels directly connected to the convention center...and a bunch more within a few blocks' walk (either outside or via walkway).

But, hotel space can still be tight, and a lot of the close-in hotels sell out as soon as they start offering rooms at the convention rate (and that's when they start selling badges, back in January or February). It's the big reason why there's a big rush to buy badges when they first go on sale...people want the good hotel rooms. (Despite all this, the hotel situation is still far, far better than it was when GenCon was in Milwaukee.)

So, assuming you want to stay within walking distance, you might want to look into which hotels (if any) still have space before you buy your badge.

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

Don't waste valuable shopping money on taxis. If possible, stay close by (see post directly above) and spend, spend spend in the massive 'dealer room' (I don't even know if GenCon still calls it that anymore).

If you go through the GenCon housing office to get a room, all the ones close by may be sold out. If you call the hotel directly, they might still have rooms (just don't mention you're going for GenCon when you book your room).

The best thing about having a room close by is the convenience. Shopped a little too much? Drop off your bounty in your room, and arrive at your next gaming slot with just a bag of dice and a pencil.

Don't sign up for a lot of events. You'll want some time just to "soak it all in" and time to shop. Also, if you hang out with the EN World crowd (so I am told), you may wish to spend a lot of time in pick-up games that aren't part of the 'official' GenCon program.

The Exhibit Hall/Dealer Room usually opens at 10 a.m. each day and closes in the early evening. Leave time to shop--you will at least want to gaze longingly at items, even if you don't purchase them.

Have fun. Socialize! I have only heard third-hand stories about the Canadiana Suite, but I think I'm staying in the same hotel this year (Embassy Suites), so I may have to check it out.

 

[bolen]

Sounds like you are going to write Fear and Loathing at Gen Con.

Gonzo Gaming, I'd buy that T-Shirt