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

[billd91]

GenCon 1983, at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, the day before I went off to college.

What stood out was who I saw there: Gary Gygax, Frank Mentzer, Kim Mohan, Ed Greenwood, Jeff Easley (signed my copy of the then-brand-new Monster Manual II), and Larry Elmore (talked to him at length; he was just hanging out in the Exhibit Hall with an easel pad, doing sketches and giving them away).

I'd only been playing D&D for about a year and a half, and was already an avid reader of Dragon...so all these folks were celebrities to me.

Ah, I too have a signed copy of Monster Manual II. Come to think of it, 1983 actually might have been my 2nd Gen Con (my brain gets fuzzy on dates). But in any event, I started attending shortly before it went to Milwaukee. Camping at the grounds, basically around the corner, was a blast. Gamers were up all night playing stuff. Got introduced to Nuclear War there. Someone tipped over the port-a-john, and some poor bastard was yelling the whole night to get everyone else to shut up so he could go to sleep. One of my best Gen Con experiences ever!

 

[Chaldfont]

My first convention was Pentacon in Fort Wayne, in about 1989 or '90. I was in high school at the time and it was a blast.

* I picked up the Pool of Radiance CRPG for Commodore 64 there.
* I saw the biggest game of Starfleet Battles I'd seen before or since--an attack on a base in the middle of an asteroid field. The thing took up something like four tables. I still don't know what to think of hardcore SFB players.
* I walked by a poor typical gamer guy sitting alone at a table with a newly purchased Rocky and Bullwinkle RPG who sheepishly asked me if I wanted to try it out. I declined.
* I ran a game of Paranoia and spent half the session convincing the players that they weren't supposed to work together. Then I spent the rest of the session coming up with semi-plausible ways to recover from traitor-fest TPKs.
* I witnessed the biggest concentration of used games I had ever seen. Remember, this was before games were readily availble via the internet and before ebay.

 

[Lord Ipplepop]

My very first con was one run by my gaming group just south of Washington DC back in the early 80's. What made it special to me, besides being my first experience, was that I helped to organize and worked it... I didn't get to do any games or anything that entire weekend.

My first "big" con was Confusion 1985 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I was actually working one of the huckster's tables all weekend, and didn't really get a chance to do anything except; however, I did get to meet an absolutely gorgeous female that came up to the table I was working and when I went on lunch break half an hour later.. well, you can guess the rest .While she was not my first, she was my first "one-time" thing.

 

[lukelightning]

I forget what year it was, sometime in the 80's. Went to a con that was held at the University of Massachusetts. My biggest impression was "Wow, this place is jam-packed with jerks!"

Every game I played had back-stabbers who's idea of a good time was to have their character murder other characters in their sleep or fireball the whole party. One game (Gamma World), when a couple players had to go home, they dropped 8 grenades on the whole party, killing us all, then left.

And the idiotic DMs just let them do it, despite everyone calling "foul!"

 

[kenobi65]

Amazing! Two folks have mentioned this Con and it was my first GenCon!

I remember seeing you there...you were the guy in the t-shirt, right?

 

[painandgreed]

It was ConTest 1 in Tulsa,OK in the early 80's (83?). Apparently the gamers and the fantasy fans had a falling out* at the main OK con, OkCon, so the gamers took their toys and left to form their own con. A group of us, all about 15, got one of our mothers to chaperone us and we got several hotel rooms and spent an entire weekend doing 24 hour gaming. It was pre-internet so it was a great place to meet other players, see and play new games, and buy stuff. That was where I began my long love of the game Morrow Project and still remember other games such as the Live action Talisman and Paranoia games and Dinky Dungeons from later ConTests.

*Mainly because each group considered the other to be a bunch of improperly socialized losers.

 

[buzz]

My first "real" con was GenCon '04, even though I've been gaming for 25 years now. I just never got around to going (or had the means) until then. I probably had too much gamer-fear.

My first "sorta real" con was an ENWorld Chicago Gameday, probably not too long before that GenCon. I was petrified, for some reason.

Now I run the thing.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

It was some local convention in Crystal City outside Washington DC in early January 1987.

Honestly what stood out about it? I had sex. I was a teenager, and this was a very novel thing.

 

[Henry]

My first Con was Gencon 1993, In Milwaukee. I remember it fondly because of the circumstances:

--A friend had just come back from Saudi Arabia and the First Gulf War, with money to spend and a desire to do all sorts of things he hadn't yet done.

--I had just finished college and had just started planning my engagement for marriage.

--I had money to burn and had never been outside my home state.

My friend and I took a day-long road trip from South Carolina to Milwaukee (20 hours straight, a HELL of a lot of driving!) and saw the Appalachians, beautiful forested valleys in the mountains, some beautiful countryside in Tennesee, Kentucky and Indiana, it was the first time I'd ever been through 5 o'clock downtown traffic in Chicago, and the first time I'd ever seen any of the Great Lakes.

At the con, I met and gamed with dozens of people, Virtual World had brought out the Battletech Simulators, I got to see for the first time, THOUSANDS of people who were just as geeky as me and my friends, and no one being there to harsh anyone's mellow.

 

[diaglo]

It was Origins when it was in Towson, MD...

ditto. i want to say 1981.

also went to Balticon that same year.

my first Gen Con was 1985.