How do I love GenCon? Let me count the ways!

[DungeonmasterCal]

My biggest regret about last year (my first GenCon) was not looking up ENWorlders and joining pickup games. We bought tickets for several games, and ended up refunding them because we never got to play them. I loved my GC experience, but I didn't get to game as much as I wanted. I played in 3 D&D games the whole weekend; an Eberron intro game, a Blackmoor intro game, and an FR Green Regent game. The rest of the time was spent wandering around the dealer's room, the anime room, the art room, and driving back and forth to the hotel 12 miles away. As we came as a group, we had to leave as a group. If I get to go next year, I hope to stay w/in walking distance so I can do some pickup gaming.

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

Wizards pays me in product to run games for kids and newbies at my local FLGS.

I hat you. If my town had an FLGS, I'd try to get some of that action.

 

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

Sweet! We should get a group or two of just EN Worlders together for next year. Let the bickering begin!

Our second trip through ended up being 6 EN Worlders + 1 EN Worlder's husband. It was **awesome**.

 

[Rel]

I bought nary a ticket for anything at GenCon. The only slight regret was not getting to play True Dungeon. I had chances to buy a couple of tickets for it but it would have meant cancelling pickup games that I had scheduled. Give up playing Piratecat's Mace Hunter and the Fountain of Youth to play True Dungeon with a bunch of strangers? I don't think so.

Anyway, my approach to GenCon was exactly right for me. I packed every minute that I could with pickup games that totally rocked (both as a GM and as a Player). Then I fit in other stuff around my pickup game schedule. Things like manning the ENnies booth (where I pulled two shifts and helped with the teardown) and roaming the dealer floor were perfect ways to fill in times when I didn't have a game full of ENWorlders to attend. And when I had a bit of time to kill after a game in the evenings, well there was always the Canadiana Suite.

I've said before and I'll say again that I never gave a damn about going to GenCon before I was an ENWorlder. This place is really what makes it worth going and my mantra is "Every minute of GenCon that I'm not spending with a fellow ENWorlder is a minute I'm having less fun than I could be." The universally high quality of the folks I met from here is just mind blowing.

 

[Crothian]

Anyway, my approach to GenCon was exactly right for me. I packed every minute that I could with pickup games that totally rocked (both as a GM and as a Player). Then I fit in other stuff around my pickup game schedule.

I did the lost puppy dog strategy. I had few plans and I just wondered around till I saw someone I knew and hooked up with them until they had something to do then I found other people. It was a blast.

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

That's how I'd have liked to have done it, but it was my first time and I was completely lost. The guys I went with (two of which were long time GC veterans) pretty much railroaded everything we did. I'm not hacked about it, but it did limit what I got to do. Pickup games were right out, as when one of them decided it was time to go back to the hotel, we all had to go. I know better, now.

 

[Xath]

Agreed. Why game with strangers, who might smell/act any which way, when you could game with cool people you know?

The game I played last year was ok, but this year we played in an almost entirely un-fun Exalted game. The party didn't start out together and we never entirely met up. The DM kept pulling people off to the side to have private conversations, so in the 4 hour session, we spent maybe 30 minutes actually gaming. The DM said that the reason we didn't finish was because we didn't do the actions he had expected us to do.

And for some reason, the guy sitting next to me thought that because his character was a teenage cat-girl, he had some sort of excuse to touch me repeatedly.

All in all it was very uncomfortable, and I wish I had played pick-ups instead.

 

[Crothian]

And for some reason, the guy sitting next to me thought that because his character was a teenage cat-girl, he had some sort of excuse to touch me repeatedly.

All in all it was very uncomfortable, and I wish I had played pick-ups instead.

Next time just slap him up side the face, some things are worth an assualt charge.....

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

The most amusing/embarassing GenCon moments for me were whenever I was with Piratecat, and he would introduce me to one of you folks: "This is Quartermoon." The blank looks (who??) were priceless...nothing goes together like the most well-known personality on these boards and a lurker lady who has a post count of about...what, 80?

<waves hello>
I wish PC decided to introduce you to the table late on Saturday night when you stopped by and we were playing in Rel's game. Ethernaut & I were actually in your True Dungeon group (he was the wizard, I was the cleric). And I'll have you know, that song you decided to sing as the bard has been stuck in my head ever since

 

[Pielorinho]

<waves hello>
I wish PC decided to introduce you to the table late on Saturday night when you stopped by and we were playing in Rel's game.

Ah, okay! Quartermoon, were you at Gencon back in 2003? You looked extremely familiar to me, but I couldn't think where I knew you from otherwise.

Daniel