D&D General Gen Con Advice

[Clint_L]

I'm going to my first Gen Con this summer - my buddy and I have talked about it since we were kids, and this is finally the year.

What are the can't miss events/things to do. I would like to get into a D&D game - is that feasible? I have tickets to the Critical Role show.

Also, where is the best place to stay? We can afford to spend a bit more.

 

[aco175]

Never been, always wanted. When you give the recap, it's ok to rub in how cool it was.

 

[Oofta]

Tried to go last year, put a bunch of D&D games on my wish list and logged in to get my games 3 minutes after registration opened. Didn't get a single thing on my list and there were no D&D 5E games available for any of he days.

Years ago when you signed up via catalog and had gotten into all sorts of fun games, and had a blast. It turned out that because of something completely unrelated we couldn't go anyway and had no problem getting refunds, but still. So I'd be curious as well - I have no idea how you get into the games you want without a bot signing in at the moment registration opens. Maybe I did something wrong last year?

 

[Alzrius]

I'm going to my first Gen Con this summer - my buddy and I have talked about it since we were kids, and this is finally the year.

What are the can't miss events/things to do. I would like to get into a D&D game - is that feasible? I have tickets to the Critical Role show.

Also, where is the best place to stay? We can afford to spend a bit more.

Getting tickets to play a D&D game shouldn't be too hard; there are a lot of games run at the convention, so if you're not concerned with playing something official but with simply signing up for a game that someone's running, you should have plenty of opportunities.

As for where to stay, I'll first note that you'll want to try for a room via the Gen Con housing portal. Virtually all of the hotels within several miles of the convention center pre-book pretty much all of their rooms for the dates when Gen Con takes place, in anticipation of them being registered only via Gen Con's housing portal. Trying to find a nearby hotel that can be booked directly for the dates of the convention is typically an exercise in futility.

In order to use Gen Con's housing portal, you'll need to have a badge for the convention first; without one, you can't reserve a hotel room in the first place. Note that even with a badge, the hotel rooms go fast once they open. Moreover, the initial opening (i.e. when the housing portal goes live), in order to avoid being overwhelmed by people who've already bought badges, randomly distributes access times via a lottery. So even if you registered for a badge in advance, you might find yourself (on the day the housing portal opens) having to wait several hours before you can even try to reserve a hotel room, at which point all of the good ones are gone.

"The good ones" in this case refers to the hotels closest to the convention center (some are even connected to it via skywalk). Once you log into the housing portal, make sure to search for hotels via their distance from the convention center (you can set this in one of the drop-downs on the search page). Those are the ones my friends and I try for every year; you'll want to take a page out of our book and make sure that everyone who's going with you has registered for a badge ahead of time, so that you can each receive an access time for the housing portal lottery. In my experience, the closest hotel rooms tend to be gone within an hour of the housing portal opening.

 

[Ath'kethin]

One piece of advice I will give re: housing is that you should absolutely not trust garbage like AirB&B or Vrbo.

A couple of years ago I wanted to book a house because a couple of friends were meeting me at Gen Con, with kids, and I wanted a place where we all could stay together. We had all been friends in high school and now one of us lived in MA, one in NC, and one in OR.

Found a nice place a few blocks from the convention center, booked it, everything seemed great. About a month before Gen Con, the owner canceled on me. Found another place, a little farther away, a little pricier, whatever - booked it. A week and a half before Gen Con the owner cancelled on me.

And that's how my friends and I ended up in two small hotel rooms a half hour drive from the Convention Center. At least we found a place to stay, but what with parking and having to drive and all it ended up far more frustrating and expensive.

 

[JediSoth]

It may be unasked for, but after years of attending Gen Con as both a participant and as a vendor, what I've written in my blog should be (IMO) required reading for all attendees.

Take Care, Be Aware at Gen Con

 

[billd91]

I haven't been to Gen Con in a decade - too much of a hassle when I've got Gamehole Con right here and can sleep in my own bed. But...

When last my family and I went in 2013 and 2014, we had 2 distinct experiences.
In 2013, we managed to get a hotel downtown and within walking distance. It wasn't directly on the walkways to the convention center, but it wasn't far off it. So it was nice to be potentially able to walk back to the room from the con independently - though we really didn't because the kids were 9 and 15 and we really didn't want them walking the streets of Indianapolis after dark. Then, since we were right next to a little memorial area that was the meeting place of some Harley enthusiasts, the night was really noisy. Plus, it was expensive. Another complication was we couldn't get all 4 nights (Wednesday - Saturday) - only Thurs-Sat. So Wednesday night, we had to stay on the outskirts of Indianapolis and drive in that first day (though, at least on the outskirts, parking at the hotel was free). So I suspect we were benefiting from a late-ish cancellation that freed up the space for us to snag.
The next year, 2014, we took the advice of some friends and stayed several miles away in a cheaper hotel and drove in daily. The hotel was cheaper (though a bit populated by truckers who were opinionated about the issues in Ferguson, MO that summer, which was... not ideal as far as we were concerned) and the drive was short at about 15-20 minutes. The parking, ironically, was cheaper driving in and parking in Lucas Oil stadium's lot since they were only charging $10/day rather than the hotels, with their own or shared parking structures, charging about $20/day. We had to coordinate our schedule even more, overall, but it was still an OK experience.

Getting events wasn't terrible, overall, for either year with most of us getting at least a few interesting things to do, though it is true that my elder daughter ended up playing a lot more pick-up games outside of official scheduled events. This was the heyday of Pathfinder 1e and we'd be packing the Sagamore Ballroom with the big events. I have no idea how it compares now, but events weren't hard to get overall, particularly if you wanted to play D&D or PF. That said, considering how Gen Con continues to swell at the seams, I can see how things are tougher now.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

There will likely be a ton of Adventurers League games at Gen Con, so signing up for one of those should be easy. As far as where to stay, my advice would be to go for a connected hotel if at all possible.

Other sundry advice - wear comfortable shoes. You do a lot of walking at Gen Con. Also, plan on doing the dealer's room in 2-3 trips. It's just too much, too exhausting, to do in one go.

 

[Marc Radle]

One thing to be prepared for when going to GenCon for the first time - there are a LOT of people! As in A LOT!!

It can be a bit overwhelming and difficult to acclimate at first to just how many people there are, so give yourself time to mentally prepare for it

 

[billd91]

One thing to be prepared for when going to GenCon for the first time - there are a LOT of people! As in A LOT!!

It can be a bit overwhelming and difficult to acclimate at first to just how many people there are, so give yourself time to mentally prepare for it

The funny thing is that since I had been going (1983 was my first), it always felt like a lot of people. My assessment of what felt like a lot has changed since then (with my earlier assessments being increasingly quaint). But that probably just underscores the idea that it has a good chance of feeling overwhelming and needing to be prepared for it.

And on that topic of lots of bodies and being prepared, expect to catch some kind of con crud that will plague you when you get home. And there's a reasonably good chance it will be COVID. So take what precautions make sense to you and your risk factors.