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Well, I missed event reg like a schmuck, but on the plus side that means I can just play games with random people and poo poo. And drink.
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May 20, 2014 00:22
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Quarex posted:Anyone here reaching the "Gen-Con sucks now and I am done after this year" point? Apparently this is becoming a thing due to the constantly-increasing size and difficulty in reserving hotels/getting the events you want. I forget how fickle people can be sometimes until I look at official forms for large game conventions. The hotel costs and room shortages are the suckiest part, especially as someone who flies in and doesn't want to rent a car just to drive back and forth from the hotel daily. There is so much to do otherwise I don't think I could ever hate it. Unless perhaps everyday was like Saturday. That is just too packed for me most of the time. Hopefully they don't put trash cans in the middle of interactions again so poor crowd swimming neophytes don't get stuck on them again like so much garbage on rocks in a river.
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May 20, 2014 01:43
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If it's getting too crowded, I wonder if they'll ever do a Gen-Con West again.
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May 20, 2014 03:08
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Quarex posted:Anyone here reaching the "Gen-Con sucks now and I am done after this year" point? Apparently this is becoming a thing due to the constantly-increasing size and difficulty in reserving hotels/getting the events you want. I'm not there yet. I still enjoy going. The hotel shortages and terrible booking system has put a slight damper on it for this year, but I hope they can get at least a better hotel reg system for next year. Getting more hotel space near the con will be more of a challenge, since we're probably going to see another record setting year in attendance. I wouldn't be surprised if it hit 55k this year, though 52k or 53k is probably a little more likely.
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May 20, 2014 03:17
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Can you buy generic tickets there or do you have to buy them online? I am not sure how many are "enough".
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May 20, 2014 03:44
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Mr.Trifecta posted:Can you buy generic tickets there or do you have to buy them online? I am not sure how many are "enough". You can get them, you just may have to stand in line for a few minutes.
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May 20, 2014 03:57
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I got the main event I wanted (the big D&D thing) for me and a buddy, so we made out on tickets. The hotel situation was screwy but we save some cash staying in the suburbs. Just need a rental car that way, which eats into the savings. Still at least twice as cheap as staying downtown now.
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May 20, 2014 04:03
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Mr.Trifecta posted:Can you buy generic tickets there or do you have to buy them online? I am not sure how many are "enough". You can buy them online or there. Don't worry about getting too many, you can return them for a very small loss.
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May 20, 2014 05:00
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I might be looking for a roommate to split costs (the hotel for 5 days is something like $1000 :P)
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May 20, 2014 06:24
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Crackbone posted:Well, I missed event reg like a schmuck, but on the plus side that means I can just play games with random people and poo poo. And drink. I missed event reg, too. That just means I get to do exactly what you're doing instead, which is still very awesome.
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May 20, 2014 16:06
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For those who missed the boat on hotels and such. Browse Kayak daily. As much as I wanted a downtown hotel, wasn't going to drop $350-400 a night. Instead found a nice triple standard at the radisson at the airport for $160 through some shady website on Kayak. Well worth the savings if you have a party going.
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May 20, 2014 17:26
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LuiCypher posted:I missed event reg, too. That just means I get to do exactly what you're doing instead, which is still very awesome. I was traveling, so I signed up for a whole bunch of nothing, too.
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May 20, 2014 18:38
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I might try to save up for this event next year. I only just started to get some decent income coming in (i.e. enough to actually be able to save up money instead of losing it all to routine expenses), but I don't think I have the ability to save that much money between now and August. EDIT: It honestly might be possible for me to really save up enough (especially if I get a really good deal on lodging), but it would take me forever to save up for an airline ticket, especially since the longer it takes the more expensive those things become. And I don't like flying anyways. A multiperson road trip, strangely enough, might be slightly cheaper and much more enjoyable for me, but I doubt there are too many people road-tripping all the way to GenCon from California. Blue Wher fucked around with this message at 23:09 on May 26, 2014 |
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May 26, 2014 19:21
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You might be surprised. But then, you might not. I have no idea. I can tell you the official forums have had their fair share of "HELLO ANYONE DRIVING FROM (INCREDIBLY FAR AWAY PLACE)?" threads. One guy wanted to car pool from like Las Vegas and was willing to spend all of, I believe, $50, to get to the convention. I am pretty sure he assumed anyone going would be willing to drive constantly for the two days necessary to get there, and that gas costs do not exist.
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May 27, 2014 03:25
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I submitted two games of Dungeon World today. Still in review, but I'll give goons the heads-up first. https://gencon.com/events/65622 https://gencon.com/events/65623 If you played it last year with me, I'm running the same thing, just official this time.
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May 28, 2014 04:34
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I still have no idea what events I should register for. I'm in for some L5R stuff, and building foam weapons. What else is good? I want to RP and board game. ritorix I would like to try DW-- are you expecting experienced players?
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May 28, 2014 17:51
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WerrWaaa posted:ritorix I would like to try DW-- are you expecting experienced players? Nope. It's pregen characters and I teach as we go. Tables will probably be a mix of newbies and not, that's what happened last year.
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May 28, 2014 17:58
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I did post a thread on the GenCon forum about driving from California. If I can get some people to road trip with, I think I'll end up going, especially if camoseven's offer of lodging at their place still stands.
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May 29, 2014 01:33
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I will totally bump your thread if I actually find it. Well, and if it needs to be bumped yet, maybe you literally just posted it. I am still only half-way through last year's "GEN-CON IMPROVEMENTS FOR 2014" thread and I am as always incredibly thankful for our forums. Every third post for a few pages would get someone probated or banned here. And all because some like schizophrenic word salad guy cannot get over the idea that Gen-Con NEEDS A CON SUITE whatever the hell that is or MUST SET UP COTS IN THE HALLWAY FOR PEOPLE UNABLE TO AFFORD ACCOMMODATIONS gguhfhghg. (Yes, I Googled it, and I know what it is now, but ... but.)
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May 29, 2014 05:52
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Quarex posted:I will totally bump your thread if I actually find it. Well, and if it needs to be bumped yet, maybe you literally just posted it. Man some of those sky tunnels connecting the hotels to the convention center start smelling pretty raunchy-- I'm pretty sure there are weird nerd vagrants who sleep in them.
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May 29, 2014 05:59
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There was a lot more hallway play when Gen Con was in Milwaukee. It was pretty difficult not to trip over someone sleeping or going through their loot or playing games along the walls and few sky tunnels there. Especially on the way to the old Mecca. More people just camping out in vans for the 4 days around downtown Milwaukee as well. I am sure we are not far from all of that at Indianapolis now with the current hotel situation.
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May 29, 2014 12:01
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nesbit37 posted:There was a lot more hallway play when Gen Con was in Milwaukee. It was pretty difficult not to trip over someone sleeping or going through their loot or playing games along the walls and few sky tunnels there. Especially on the way to the old Mecca. More people just camping out in vans for the 4 days around downtown Milwaukee as well. I am sure we are not far from all of that at Indianapolis now with the current hotel situation. Hopefully the shuttle service will keep getting better and maybe help with that issue. Still need to get badges for the wife and I but we will be there no matter what. A really good restaurant that you guys will probably want to know about is Loughmiller's (Lock-millers). I ate there with goons 3 or 4 times last year just because the waits for the bigger name places and the food trucks was so bad. It's right between the Westin and the JW Marriott with good food and beer selection. Since it's slightly off the beaten path and isn't the RAM the crowds tend to not be nearly as bad. I on multiple occasions walked, ordered, eaten, and left in the time it would take to just get a table at the RAM.
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May 29, 2014 13:11
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Oh, that is good to hear--one of my buddies and I tried to go to Loughmiller's when over by the J.W. Marriott for a game but it was closed. Why was it closed, I now wonder? Oh! They are only open Sundays for Colts games or other "special events" so yeah do not try to go there on Sunday.Razzled posted:Man some of those sky tunnels connecting the hotels to the convention center start smelling pretty raunchy-- I'm pretty sure there are weird nerd vagrants who sleep in them. Unrelated to anything else, I happen to be in Dallas during a month with both a ComiCon and an anime convention, and attending these events is just reminding me how amazing Gen-Con is. Well, OK, the anime convention has not happened yet and I do not actually like anime so there is no way it would compare. But the point is, Gen-Con is so amazingly overflowing with great stuff to do, and I love it. BUT! Attending Dallas ComiCon really just confused me in terms of """STAR POWER.""" How is it that an event like 1/5th the size of Gen-Con has a dozen celebrities in attendance who are as popular as the most popular celebrity to ever appear at Gen-Con? Who knows? I realize comic conventions are more pop-culture-oriented, but it really does seem like Peter Adkison has actively tried to minimize big names through his tenure owning Tha G-C. There are plenty of gaming celebrities that would make perfect sense to bring in ... where are they? WHERE ARE THEY? I got Gary Gygax's autograph the same day I got Sid Meier's and Traci Lords' in 2002, and I do not think I have actually been excited enough to get an autograph since.
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May 29, 2014 15:00
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I don't think most attendees care about the stars too much. Maybe it would be different if more stars were actually there, though. I know Gen Con tried for a little bit in the 90s. The biggest year was 1995 or 1994, when they had Mark Hamill, some other Star Wars and Star Trek people, some of the main cast for the Highlander TV show (which I was pretty amped about at the time), and I am sure others I am forgetting. I never saw such a high powered tv/film fantasy/sci-fi actors group brought in a gain. I also think some of those guests were not brought in by Gen Con, but by several of the companies jumping full force into the Magic Wave trying to use star power to promote their brand new licensed card game. I haven't attended a largeish comic convention in a while since the last couple of times it seemed all you could do was get people's autographs or sift through back issues at the comic vendors. If there is more (I know panels exist, but bleh, personally), but that might have more to do with it. There just seems to be much more variety for attendees to do than spend big bucks on big names for signings. How does it compare to conventions like Pax Prime or Pax East? I have never attended but from what I understand it is more like the comic conventions, where you just do a lot of waiting to try something out or do some other relatively short lived exercise. Confirm/deny?
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May 29, 2014 15:44
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I've never really kept my dislike of nerd celebrity culture a secret here, but I'm definitely glad it isn't a priority for GenCon. Celebrities don't show up for free, and that's budgeting that can go towards paying the staff and the people that actually make this already-huge event function on the ground level (I'm not sure if it DOES, but that's a completely different problem if not). Additionally, having a celebrity culture can heavily influence the people present which, perhaps obviously, can change the atmosphere of the event. I don't think there's anything really wrong with being a "personality," but I also just don't care about it, and every other con I've ever been to has had such an emphasis on it that I hardly think people who want to listen to Joss Whedon talk about how being a feminist is making hot blonds your star actors or whatever are hurting for places to do that.
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May 29, 2014 17:11
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So, speaking of food, are there any good sushi places that anyone knows of?
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May 29, 2014 18:42
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the_steve posted:So, speaking of food, are there any good sushi places that anyone knows of? The closest ones are the BUDA Lounge and Forty Five Degrees. Both are in the Mass Ave part of town, which is a 15-30 min walk (depending on how fast you walk) from the convention center. I personally have never eaten at them, but have heard positive things about them.
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May 29, 2014 21:18
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nesbit37 posted:I don't think most attendees care about the stars too much. Maybe it would be different if more stars were actually there, though. I know Gen Con tried for a little bit in the 90s. The biggest year was 1995 or 1994, when they had Mark Hamill, some other Star Wars and Star Trek people, some of the main cast for the Highlander TV show (which I was pretty amped about at the time), and I am sure others I am forgetting. I never saw such a high powered tv/film fantasy/sci-fi actors group brought in a gain. I also think some of those guests were not brought in by Gen Con, but by several of the companies jumping full force into the Magic Wave trying to use star power to promote their brand new licensed card game. I went to PAX East this year and the focus there is on showcasing video games to prospective consumers. Huge booths set up with eye catching gimmicks - multi-hour waits to demo a new game and so forth. There's a huge lan party and MTG tourney and side events, but there are far fewer events for people to play games. Gencon is definitely far more focused on getting people to actually play games. It's for gaming, not for seeing new games before they're available for sale.
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May 29, 2014 22:12
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So am I basically SOL for getting one of the D&D All-Access Passes at this point? I clicked the "sign up" button less than a second after it loaded and I was still #3900 in the queue, and didn't get any events I wanted. 
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May 29, 2014 23:31
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ritorix posted:I submitted two games of Dungeon World today. Still in review, but I'll give goons the heads-up first. I'd like to play this year, if I can fit my schedule around it. What times do you have in mind?
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May 29, 2014 23:43
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the_steve posted:So, speaking of food, are there any good sushi places that anyone knows of? The closest is actually Mikado, it's literally a block from the convention center. It's pretty good for midwest sushi, but pricier than I'd like. 45 Degrees is garbage, and really focuses more on being a bar. Haven't been to Bu Da Lounge, but it's definitely got more of a bar vibe, too. It moved from Mass Ave to Delaware and Market, so it's not as much of a walk anymore. There are several good places farther out from downtown, but unless you are driving it'd be a pain in the rear end to get there. Hawaii_Lame-O posted:I did post a thread on the GenCon forum about driving from California. If I can get some people to road trip with, I think I'll end up going, especially if camoseven's offer of lodging at their place still stands. Yea for sure. Speaking of, I think there was someone else who asked about it previously in the thread, but I can't find the post, and I'm pretty sure I never got back to them. If that person is still reading this thread, hit me up if you're still looking for a place to stay.
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May 29, 2014 23:50
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camoseven posted:
That was me. I have a room with some friends for most of the con, but I could use a place to crash on Wednesday and Sunday nights still if that's cool. My email address is my user name at gmail.
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May 30, 2014 00:16
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GimpInBlack posted:That was me. I have a room with some friends for most of the con, but I could use a place to crash on Wednesday and Sunday nights still if that's cool. My email address is my user name at gmail. Cool, email sent! Guys I am really excited for GenCon.
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May 30, 2014 00:37
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Peas and Rice posted:So am I basically SOL for getting one of the D&D All-Access Passes at this point? Yes, it's way too late. And since this year's rush is over I'll tell you the trick. The wishlist only processes once. So if you are #3900, someone already reserved all the tickets in their carts. BUT they didn't actually buy them and won't do so. They just hoard. And when they release the ones they don't need, they go back to the pool of available tickets. And if #3900 already processed, #3901 gets the ticket instead of you. The trick this year was to constantly refresh, and submit when you saw a ticket become available. Or just submit the wishlist over and over and hope it syncs up. I got 2 tickets for that event, one 1 hour and one 2 1/2 hours after the wishlists processed. The last ticket I got, there were only about 200 people doing what I was (~200 lists in the queue at any given time). I played it last year though and it was pretty awesome, so I definitely wanted to do it again. saint gerald posted:I'd like to play this year, if I can fit my schedule around it. What times do you have in mind? The events aren't approved yet, so those links won't work yet. Times are 5pm-9pm thursday and friday. Same event twice. I'm also free most of sunday so I might run something unofficial then.
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May 30, 2014 01:11
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Yeah, pretty drat certain I'm going to Gencon now. Gonna go by train. Email is mokona2001 at yahoo dot com
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Jun 2, 2014 03:35
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Hawaii_Lame-O posted:I did post a thread on the GenCon forum about driving from California. If I can get some people to road trip with, I think I'll end up going, especially if camoseven's offer of lodging at their place still stands. Time to investigate someone's suggestion of Taking The Train(tm)! Well it would only be $158 to get from Vermont to Indianapolis, but it would also take two days. Certainly not useful information for me at all. Hey, it would only be $188 to get from San Francisco to Indianapolis! And only take 2.5 days! The train. So fast. Wow, in the time it took me to finish this post Hawaii_Lame-O actually decided to take that option. Awesome! Particularly since my wife for some reason thinks I should take the train there and fly back so apparently I might be doing that too  Oh, and I meant to comment about the celebrity stuff. I can definitely appreciate the convention not spending its money on big names and rather pumping it into, I dunno, infrastructure I guess. Certainly it is the best-run convention I have ever attended, for what that is worth. I do still wish there were more gaming celebrities there, though ... though this may be an issue of the type of gaming celebrities I am interested in. I realize people like Larry Elmore and the Dragonlance Duo are always there. I just want Lord British or Brian Fargo or some of my other CRPG heroes.
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Jun 2, 2014 04:47
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Quarex posted:I just responded to someone's thread about driving from California so I can only imagine that was you. Particularly since the person said (s)he had an offer of cheap/free housing already. The only reason you want Brian Fargo there is so you can continue your unhealthy obsession with him and his work.
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Jun 2, 2014 11:49
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Paid for my badge and also managed to snap up a ticket for one of the Formula DE qualifiers that suddenly had one ticket available (they were all sold out the last time I looked).
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Jun 2, 2014 22:17
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Backno posted:The only reason you want Brian Fargo there is so you can continue your unhealthy obsession with him and his work. RED CARD Pssh whatever, I get to go hang out with Brian Fargo at his mansion in August anyway, like I want to have to stand in line to see him  oh god I hope something does not go wrong with the partyMoving right along, do we have any creaky oldster types in this thread? I got the impression from the passel o'Goons at the Colts Grille and some of the other conversation here that I am probably one of the most veteran attendees here, and my first Gen-Con was only in 1997. Generally any thread on the official forums will have a half-dozen people who started going in the late 1970s or early 1980s, so I am curious whether anyone else should be dishing out advice and is refraining out of Wise Sage Politeness.
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Jun 2, 2014 22:31
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Depends on what you mean by oldsters. I started going regularly in 1992 though I have memory of my dad taking me once when I was under 10 which would have put it in the late 80s. Not that any advice about attending a game convention gained from my 8 year old self would do anyone any good. Really, being in Indianapolis makes it a whole new thing in many ways. TSR is neither around nor running the show. Central Midwestern city is fairly different than northern Midwestern. Card games completely changing things in 1993, it's a whole new animal. The only thing to me that feels pretty close to the past cons in the olden days is the auction. Other than being in a different room in a different city it feels pretty much the same as always.
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Jun 3, 2014 16:37
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