Gen Con Shopping List

[Arnix]

Make sure you either bring a bag with good lumbar support or plan on makign a lot of trips to your room. If you buy even a couple of items, after 3 hours of walking the dealers room with it on your back, it begins to get REAL heavy. Do that for a couple of days and you need a week to recover.

Make sure you walk through the entire dealer room in very methodical manner. Otherwise you will not remember where youo saw that really awesome painting in reference to the mint copy of Tegal Manor.

When you are done walking the floor, this can easily take you an entire day, if you are anything like I am, go buy all of your large items at one time and make an immediate trip to your hotel room. Larger items are very unwieldy in cramped spaces.

You will need at least one (1) friend to help lug all of your crap. Take turns. One trip you buy for you, the next for him. That way you each get a ton of stuff without becoming encumbered. GenCon is proof that just because you can carry the weight, you can't carry the bulk.

GenCon and DragonCon are both great places to pick up stuff that you can not find anywhere else. They are not places to get general loot. That stuff you can buy at home. The specialized stuff is only found at the cons. Last year between Gen and Dragon Cons I picked up 4 large prints for my library (sp) at home, a signed Brom print for one of my Alea partners, a signed copy of the Civ board game, a signed copy of the 1st two Krynn books for 3.5, a mint copy of Tegal Manor, and a large amount of other "rare" items. I also used GenCon as a place to get a shopping list for stuff to get through my FLGS when I got back.

I think I am rambling now.

*edit*
And some "nice" shirts for my wife.

 

[francisca]

Very few books, actually, as in general, publishers don't discount.

CL is correct though. I picked up my copies of FDP's CC I & II from a place that was buy one, get one free.

I'll be buying a t-shirt. Maybe the Blackmoor Campaign Setting if it really good and I can get Dave Arneson to sign it.

I'll eyeball the Counter Collection Gold as well.

Other than that, I don't really think I'll be buying much.

 

[mac1504]

Fury of the Shadow for Fantasy Flight Game's Midnight Setting. Provided that is, if they have it available by then, and I make it to GenCon this year.

Might be the first time in seventeen years I'll miss it...

 

[haiiro]

I love the dealers' room, and it's one of my favorite things about the con. I always set aside Thursday morning to be there when it opens, and schedule the rest of my stuff around large blocks of time to be spent there. It's sublime.

New releases (often weeks ahead of my FLGS), odd things I can't find anywhere else, good deals and T-shirts are the main things I buy. Like Henry said, I try to avoid picking up things I know I can get cheaper elsewhere later on, but the urge to impulse buy new things is strong (and enjoyable).

Specifics: Chaosium has put out two new Cthulhu statues I've yet to see; a con T-shirt; World's Largest Dungeon, if it's worth it; Counter Collection Gold; and dice, always dice. There'll be more, but that's what I know of now.

 

[mac1504]

Just a word from personal experience: Don't concentrate too much on purchases, unless you've got about a thousand dollars in cashflow you just want to blow. The Vendor room is an even better source of playing demos of obscure new games you'll NEVER get to play at home, and finding out just how many neat and innovative products are out there. My philosophy is, the shopping I can do at home on the Internet, and for cheaper.

Speaking as someone who worked for a small game company that worked at many different conventions, I try to pick up any purchases from the small companies that attend the conventions (that I like) as I know that it helps offset their costs for attending those conventions (you know how much a booth at GenCon costs? ) They make a much better profit margin selling directly to their customers.

 

[Crothian]

I hit the used game booths. Its rare that I get new books at the cons, but the old out of print books that I've been hunting for for a decade or more...that's what I hunt for.

 

[haiiro]

Speaking as someone who worked for a small game company that worked at many different conventions, I try to pick up any purchases from the small companies that attend the conventions (that I like) as I know that it helps offset their costs for attending those conventions (you know how much a booth at GenCon costs? ) They make a much better profit margin selling directly to their customers.

I've done this on principle at past cons, but this is a really good point -- and not one I'd ever thought about. From a bottom line standpoint, it might actually be helpful. Thanks for the tip!

 

[Alzrius]

I think francisca has the right idea of it. If I preorder, I get 20% off any and all new RPG books at my FLGS, but I doubt I'll see many deals that good at GenCon. Heck, I can even get 10% to 15% off books that are already out just by comparatively shopping between the two stores in my local area.

That being said, I still can't seem to stop myself from buying new books at GenCon, which sounds really stupid now that I'm watching myself type it, since I'm really spending more money than I need to. I'll probably still end up getting:

Mutants & Masterminds
Mutants & Masterminds Annual
Ravenoft Gazetteer IV
Van Richten's Guide to the Shadow Fey
Ravenloft Player's Handbook
Ravenloft Tarokka Deck
Warcraft
BESM d20 Revised (assuming by then the errata'd version is out, since they just announced the recall on this one)

...and that's just off the top of my head.

 

[qstor]

Blood and Shadows The Dark Elves of Tellene by KenzerCo, The war of the lance sourcebook for Dragonlance and D20 future if its out then.

Mike

 

[RodneyThompson]

Right now my must-have shopping list includes just Paranoia XP and the Iron Kingdoms Player's Guide hardcover. Of course, every year I always buy 1 new set of dice (hey, you gotta conveniently "forget" to bring dice).

One thing I do want to say is that if there is anything you KNOW you must have, something that you are committed to buying regardless, buy it right away on the first day. Sometimes you can find a deal, but often publishers run out of hot items and it's a good idea to go ahead and make the purchase rather than risk not getting it at all. You'll find good deals at the non-publisher booths, but for anything new I'd reccommend buying immediately upon arrival.