What was your first gaming convention and what stood out about it?

[Nightchilde-2]

Dallas Fantasy Fair...don't remember the date, but it was way late 80s or early 90s.

Two things stand out about it.....

Hanging out with Butch Patrick (of Eddie Munster fame).

Something that happened that I can't share 'cause it would invoke the wrath of Eric's Grandma (uh, but most certainly NOT with Eddie Munster..).

 

[humble minion]

Arcanacon 2002 remains my first and only Con. Memorable maybe, but not always for the right reasons...

- Having to climb three flights of stairs to most of the games, while still being on crutches after utterly destroying my knee the previous weekend. Owwwww.
- Playing a brutal tribal orc - who fenced nimbly with a masterwork rapier
- A terrible Living Death GM ("the take 20 rules mean you roll a skill check, then add 20 to the result and if you don't like it then get the hell out of my game!"), who ran us through a terrible prewritten adventure (4 1st-level characters ended up fighting six third-level cultists, a 9th-level spellcaster, and an imp, after blundering through a plotline mostly consisting of bad plays on words), but who found it in the goodness of his heart to award me the 'best player' award at the end of the con. I still have the trophy, somewhere...
- Dwarves with Austrian accents. The GM had ME talking like that by the end of the module!

 

[Rel]

The first Con that I REALLY wanted to go to was GenCon 2004. And after I saw all the cool stories about it here, I vowed to go last year. And I did. That was my first Con. I had such a tremendously good time that I knew that if at all possible I'd be back this year, and I will.

I'm fairly lucky in that I live in an area with lots of gamers and I can find games to go play just about any time I want. But the PEOPLE are the thing for me. If I can meet and game and socialize with very cool people that I've met here at ENWorld, THAT is worth the extra effort. That is why I put together the NC Game Days (and what a success those have turned out to be!). And THAT is why I go to GenCon.

If it were not for ENWorld, there really would be no reason to go. Since there IS an ENWorld, I have every reason to go.