Family Gencon ?

[Silver Moon]

My father wants the family to drive out to Michigan to visit him in August. Because of Cub Scout/Girl Scout camp schedules the only time that works for the family is August 13-21. We'll probably be leaving Michigan to drive back on either Thursday the 18th or Friday the 19th. I'm toying with the idea of driving down to Indiana for one day of Gencon, either the Friday or Saturday.

We have three children between the ages of 7 and 12. My wife and I are avid gamers but none of the kids are gamers yet. I have run a few D&D games for them using simplified rules, and my oldest loves board games. We did GenCon once before, back in 1994, but just had the one child then in a baby stoller so this would be a whole new ordeal. Have any others out there brought younger children to the event? We usually do tent camping when we travel, are there any family campgrounds in the area? Is a day of Gencon a good idea at this point or should I wait a few years until the kids are older?

 

[IronWolf]

We have three children between the ages of 7 and 12. My wife and I are avid gamers but none of the kids are gamers yet. I have run a few D&D games for them using simplified rules, and my oldest loves board games. We did GenCon once before, back in 1994, but just had the one child then in a baby stoller so this would be a whole new ordeal. Have any others out there brought younger children to the event? We usually do tent camping when we travel, are there any family campgrounds in the area? Is a day of Gencon a good idea at this point or should I wait a few years until the kids are older?

We took our eight month old for one day last year, I don't have any experience with the 7 through 12 range. I would think that they would have a good time though. There is always the LAN games for the older ones and the dealer hall can probably be fun for the younger one, just from the sheer volume of things to look at.

There is a KOA sort of nearby:

http://www.koa.com/where/in/14149/

I have not stayed there and do not know much about it. I think someone on the GenCon forums mentioned it once.

It would be a busy day, we did it in one day last year. Drove out from Columbus, OH in the early morning and then stayed Saturday night and headed back home on Sunday. It was a great time and worked fine for us (though we are going for all four days this year). I think the biggest part is if your kids can handle the long day, you will know whether that is the case or not.

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

If I was to take non-gamer children, I'd go on Friday instead of Saturday. Friday seems less crowded than Saturday (from what I remember), so all the maneuvering will be easier with smaller crowds.

GenCon does not have the "guest pass" anymore (where you can't sign up for games but you could shop and go to seminars). One day badges are $27 each this year.

Also, from their website

Children 8 and under are free but require a badge and must be attending with a guardian that has a convention pass. The pass can be picked up at Customer Service or Badge Registration.

Have fun!

 

[woodelph]

My father wants the family to drive out to Michigan to visit him in August. Because of Cub Scout/Girl Scout camp schedules the only time that works for the family is August 13-21. We'll probably be leaving Michigan to drive back on either Thursday the 18th or Friday the 19th. I'm toying with the idea of driving down to Indiana for one day of Gencon, either the Friday or Saturday.

We have three children between the ages of 7 and 12. My wife and I are avid gamers but none of the kids are gamers yet. I have run a few D&D games for them using simplified rules, and my oldest loves board games. We did GenCon once before, back in 1994, but just had the one child then in a baby stoller so this would be a whole new ordeal. Have any others out there brought younger children to the event? We usually do tent camping when we travel, are there any family campgrounds in the area? Is a day of Gencon a good idea at this point or should I wait a few years until the kids are older?

Well, obviously, i can't speak to your particular kids, but i've certainly seen plenty of kids of that age seeming to have a good time at GenCon over the years. We run a whole slew of games, all of which are aimed at the absolute beginner (as in, has never RPed before), most of which are suitable for kids, and some of which (the Advanced Dimensional Green Ninja-Educational Preparatory Super-Elementary Fortress 555 games) are specifically aimed at all-ages play. At both Origins and GenCon we've had a fair number of tweens, at least [i'm not a great judge of age, but there're only two that were definitely under 10 (we asked, because they were such good RPers and seemed quite young)], play, and several parent/child combos, with the kid ranging from under-10 to teenager. You can see our GenCon schedule at http://www.tiltingatwindmills.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=160 [/plug type=shameless]

There are undoubtedly at least a few other RPG events tailored for mixed-age/mixed-experience play, and/or specifically to be kid-friendly. And there are always the many boardgames and such, if your kids aren't into or don't get RPGs. Assuming your kids are into games of some sort, and have the stamina, i'd think they'd have fun there. Smuggle your own food in--i can't imagine trying to feed a bunch of kids at convention prices.

 

[HellHound]

We go every year with our two daughters, now 10 and 14.

There is a great kid's room at GenCon, as of last year, with volunteers who will play games with your kids (board games, mostly), and a TV set playing kid-oriented anime. You can either give your kid in-and-out privileges or not (we give the eldest in-out privileges, and she's allowed to sign out the youngest, but the youngest can't sign herself out - a staff member even walks her to the bathroom, which wass right by the boardgame room last year, so the she and the volunteer (who was obviously enjoying her company) came into the boardgame room together to watch a little bit of her mother and I playing RISK 2210 before returning to the kidtrack).

The dealer room & the art room are guaranteed to at least amuse any kid, whether or not they are gamers. Just growing up around gamers they should have some amount of esoteric interests that they can find stuff for in the dealer room - lots of clothing and jewelry booths in addition to the RPG-oriented stuff.