Any point in signing up for Gen Con now?

[Felon]

So, never been to GenCon before, and old buddy who lives on the other side of the country has asked me if I want to sign up with him. I figure it'd be something cool to do.

But apparently GenCon is not like DragonCon, or so I'm told. It requires a lot of prep work. We can't just show up and start gaming. I have to purchase tickets. So, I head to the web site and find that all the scheduled RPG events I'm looking at are full. No Mutants & Masterminds, no D&D, no nothing. There are actually a lot less events than I thought there'd be.

Any point in going now? Is there any mechanism in place by which a procrastinator can get into games?

 

[Teflon Billy]

But apparently GenCon is not like DragonCon, or so I'm told. It requires a lot of prep work. We can't just show up and start gaming. I have to purchase tickets. So, I head to the web site and find that all the scheduled RPG events I'm looking at are full. No Mutants & Masterminds, no D&D, no nothing. There are actually a lot less events than I thought there'd be.

Any point in going now? Is there any mechanism in place by which a procrastinator can get into games?

I disagree that you "can't just show up and start gaming". Honestly, I don;t sign up for much of anything official at Gen Con, just because the overall quality has been so low in the past.

Sign up for a M&M Demo at the Green Ronin booth, Steve Kenson will probably be your GM (and he is a great).

Sign up for D&D games here at EN World (there's a whole forum, for it), the quality of games is--in my experience--generally higher than that of the con in general.

Buy generic tickets and see if you can just jump into stuff that people don't show up for (I'm told you can do this with several non-RPG events I am interested in...no I won't tell you which ones)

In short, yes I think there is some value in going even if you haven;t signed up for anything yet.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

You can get generic tickets and then hang out at the sessions you want to play hoping for no-shows. Based on my (admittedly limited) experience, that was fairly common. There are also ENWorld games available, and I know I'll have tickets I won't be using that I'll offer up to the folks here gratis once I have my schedule nailed down.

 

[wingsandsword]

So, never been to GenCon before, and old buddy who lives on the other side of the country has asked me if I want to sign up with him. I figure it'd be something cool to do.

But apparently GenCon is not like DragonCon, or so I'm told. It requires a lot of prep work. We can't just show up and start gaming. I have to purchase tickets. So, I head to the web site and find that all the scheduled RPG events I'm looking at are full. No Mutants & Masterminds, no D&D, no nothing. There are actually a lot less events than I thought there'd be.

Any point in going now? Is there any mechanism in place by which a procrastinator can get into games?

I've gone to Gen Con for years and never bought a ticket and never signed up for a game.

You can spend an entire day (at least) in the Exhibit Hall looking at vendors. You can spend lots of time at demos, and pick-up games and lots of other gaming options.

 

[Contrarian]

I made a serioulsy last-minute decision to go to Gen Con last year, registering on the last day of pre-reg. I only managed to get into 2 games via prereg, but I still enjoyed myself.

Anyway, like others have said, there are lots of demos running, and generic tickets are an option for many regular events. In fact, if you're a late-night kind of gamer, the RPGA's Open Fiesta is generic tickets only.

If you can't preregister for games, load up on free seminars. That way, you'll always have some option for your time, and a guaranteed seat to sit in when you need to rest. (Note that they're still adding seminars to the event listing -- most of the Media Guests and Insider Guests were just announced this week, so events involving them haven't been scheduled yet.)

The Gen Con Auction is both entertaining and educational. You can hang out there and hear the auctioneers talk about gaming history all day long.

If you look at Gen Con as just a chance to play the same old games, yeah, it's probably too late to register. If you're open to doing other stuff, then late registration is no problem.

 

[Felon]

Sold, gentlemen! Thanks for the advice. You've done at least one good deed this day!

 

[Steel_Wind]

The only problem is getting a room. That's the issue - not events.

Generics and pick up gaming is MORE than ample. I find pick up gaming to be the most fun aspect of the gaming at the con.

 

[Felon]

I'll consider it a dry run if nothing else.

Got a hotel out near the airport. That could suck.