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WerrWaaa posted:What events seem to be the best use of your time? This thread has already mentioned the problems with tournament play, and your love for the auction. Do you do a lot of demos in the dealer hall? RPGs? Open game room stuff? Wandering aimlessly? Workshops and seminars? My inclination to learn toward a few RPGs I want to learn, one-off demo games, and wandering between the dealers and auction in my free/sober time. It's extremely subjective - what do you like about gaming? Find it and do it. That being said, I'd recommend: Games on Demand - 2-hour and 4-hour indie RPG's starting every 2 hours all weekend All you have to do is show up with a ticket 10-15 mins before, and you choose the game you want to join via a simple lottery system. fantasy, space, cyberpunk, anime... all sorts of systems/settings here, and no pre-work required. First Exposure Playtest Hall Very similar setup to Games on Demand, but instead of indie RPG's its board games that are in development. You pick a game and playtest it in a 2-hour session, the hall runs all weekend. Personal preference here, but I'd NOT recommend doing demos in the vendor hall unless there's a particular game you are interested in and willing to wait for. It's crowded, noisy, and often hard to get seats in demo games. A common recommendation I see here is to not schedule many events and wander around with generics, but I think that advice is outdated. GenCon is just too crowded and structured for that nowadays IMO. Of course, you still want to avoid scheduling an event in Lucas Oil back-to-back with something in the ICC, and build in time to eat/explore a bit. Of course, YMMV and that might work for others.
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May 9, 2019 21:37
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Dr. Quarex posted:Listen, Lord of Texas, I know things are different when you are the sovereign ruler of a state, but in Indiana we still believe in generic tickets I live in Indianapolis  Name is a bit of a red herring... An event that I can highly recommend that generics will almost always work for is Two Rooms and a Boom, they set up in the evenings and games fire every hour right outside of the vendor hall. It's a social deduction game that works well with very large amounts of people, but doesn't drag on, and there is no player elimination. It's a good wind-down activity in the evenings after burning your brain out on Advanced Civ or Twilight Imperium or whatever all day.
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May 10, 2019 14:10
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NeurosisHead posted:I'm attending GenCon for the first time this year, which is cool. I guess everything big is sold out already, which is less cool. Is wandering around the booths something that I can send the whole time doing, or should I start figuring out what else in Indianapolis I want to do? There are tons of great events with spots open, and many that will be added between now and August. What do you like to play/do?
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May 28, 2019 04:54
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djfooboo posted:Ticketed events are overrated. Imagine your dissapointment if you are paying to play with some asshat stranger. Instead play pickup games with your friends or goons! Pickup games are great but ticketed events are great too, and can add some much-welcomed structure to your schedule if you're someone who appreciates that (I am.) Asshat strangers are so rare at GenCon that I can specifically remember the 3 instances I've encountered them. 2 of the 3 asshats were pre-teen children and the other was an MtG player, so no surprises there. 99.9% of people I've met are just really happy to be at GenCon and happy to play games with you.
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May 28, 2019 15:04
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Definitely agree on getting in walking shape before the con if you're not already. You will spend a lot of time on your feet, especially if you're schlepping back and forth between Lucas Oil and ICC or if you spend a lot of time in the exhibit hall. And most importantly - wear comfortable walking shoes, not flip-flops or heels!
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May 28, 2019 15:06
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I enjoyed Origins a lot, but I was in the board room/gaming library for 95% of it, so I didn't have to deal with the event registration system. It's really nice not having to deal with the pure volume of humanity that is GenCon. It was a bit annoying that the unpub room wasn't more noticeable, i didn't even know of its existence until I wandered by it on Saturday afternoon. The first exposure room at GenCon not only has better signage but ads throughout the con promoting it, if I remember correctly. Speaking of open gaming, is anyone interested in heavier gaming at GenCon? I'd love to get in a game of Food Chain Magnate or Sidereal Confluence, and I don't feel like paying the game library prices after $20 getting me 5 days of library access at Origins. Lord Of Texas fucked around with this message at 02:34 on Jun 20, 2019 |
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Jun 20, 2019 02:31
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Bottom Liner posted:I’ll bring FCM with the new milestones. Happy to teach it. I have SC:TaNitEQ and will bring it! I can teach, but we will need at least 4 and preferably more.
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Jun 22, 2019 01:47
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Bottom Liner posted:Sure, if you wanna let me know a block of time you do have free we could plan for it then I'd love to play FCM, all of my Wednesday and Sunday are free. I could also do Thursday morning but would have to be done by noon. If those don't work or there is a better time, let me know and I can look at clearing that part of my schedule. Lord Of Texas fucked around with this message at 17:53 on Jul 29, 2019 |
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Jul 29, 2019 17:47
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OgreNoah posted:Yes. I think it's open 24/7, but I've at least gotten my will call tickets past 10pm on Wednesday before. Will call is open 24/7 from Wednesday at 12pm to Sunday at 3pm
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Jul 30, 2019 22:17
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My first GenCon hanging with goons for part of it, regretful that I didn't start doing so in years past.
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Aug 5, 2019 15:35
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Pangaea Ultima posted:I had a really great first Gen Con. Against conventional wisdom I booked a bunch of events, and I ended up having the best time during these ticketed events. I also concur that the conventional wisdom of "don't schedule much" is not always best. You can have a lot of fun without ticketed events (and I did - primarily pick-up games with goons and people in the gencon discord) but i feel a lot of people who spout the conventional wisdom are coming to the con with a group who share their interests. If you're going solo, or you're picky in terms of what activities you do (I am), scheduling events is a must.
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Aug 9, 2019 14:28
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Meyers-Briggs Testicle posted:Agreeing with everything here. Last year was light scheduling and once the vendor hall closed it was me walking around with a friend wondering what's still open. This year was 8 games nearly back to back and it was mentally draining but really fun. I don't know if being able to book overlapping events would be a net positive for the community. The problem of no-shows could get even worse, there are definitely some who would abuse that feature and leave lots of tickets bought but not used (especially since unused event tickets can be used as generics later on.) There are situations where the no-overlap rule makes things tough (e.g. tournaments where you're eliminated in the first round - whoops, now you've got 3 unbooked hours!) Tournament organizers can help alleviate that by using swiss pairings instead of single-elim (this is a change that the Spirit Island tournament made this year.)
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Aug 9, 2019 15:28
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Meyers-Briggs Testicle posted:Let me unbook events for no refund. I couldnt unbook FREE seminars That is one annoying problem that e-tickets should remedy. Unbooking events is locked sometime in June due to the mailing of event tickets.
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Aug 9, 2019 15:36
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Haystack posted:You can do it, but it's pretty deeply buried and I don't know when the cutoff is. I believe the cutoff is the same cutoff for electing to have your tickets/badge mailed, which this year was in mid-June. Unbooking before that cutoff is definitely possible and I've done it several times over the years, including this year. Regardless it is a lovely system and we all pray for e-tickets to be released in a timely fashion.
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Aug 9, 2019 15:45
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nesbit37 posted:FYI, any event at Gen Con in the system as a tournament you can overbook. They do that because they know you might be eliminated early, so they don't want you to block out your entire day for a 12 hour tournament when you could get knocked out in the first hour. That's good to know, I incorrectly assumed that tournaments behaved the same as other events. Thanks!
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Aug 9, 2019 17:34
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Agrias120 posted:Have they said if they're working on eTickets or anything? They've been testing them both last year and this year, I believe with True Dungeon. I don't think they have a mass rollout date yet.
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Aug 9, 2019 19:13
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nesbit37 posted:I talked to a Gen Con staffer in Lucas Oil this year about how the con was going and they said they plan next year to have ~75% of all tickets be e-tickets. This was just a casual conversation so I would take it with a grain of salt, but they definitely want to move that way. Reliable wi-fi is a huge blocker for e-tickets that seems to have been removed this year. Of course, there are events in adjoining hotels which aren't covered by the free wi-fi.
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Aug 9, 2019 19:49
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Reynold posted:The only times I've ever bought tickets were for mini war gaming tournaments which I refuse to participate in anymore, and generics which I never end up spending. The hassle of hunting for events and playing with the website to schedule one in advance is enough to turn me away. The vendor hall is pretty much all I ever do. More evidence that there are many ways to enjoy GenCon. I can't stand the vendor hall - the crowd, noise, and general dehumanization is not worth the off chance that I actually get into a demo, and even then, the types of games I typically like enough to fight for a demo are not very numerous.
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Aug 10, 2019 14:06
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Dr. Quarex posted:And for as much as it has always been either my favorite or second-favorite thing about Gen-Con, I suppose if you are the kind of person who knows what you like and is interested in looking year-round for gaming things, it might not be the absolute must-do event of the year, even if it never fails to introduce people to dozens (or dare I say hundreds) of amazing vendors any given person would probably never have encountered otherwise. Yup this makes a lot of sense. I am an attendee of several other board gaming cons and enjoy playing at local stores and with local friend groups, so I've got a pretty good feel of what i'm looking for in games, so for me it's not worth fighting the crowds to explore new releases. I also like to spend money at my unironically great FLGS to support them, not that money going straight to publishers is a bad thing. I do like vendor halls though - the hall at Origins is far more enjoyable for me since it's soooo much less crowded and they usually have a lot of the same stuff that's demo'd at Gen-Con. Very few wrong ways to enjoy Gen-Con
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Aug 16, 2019 19:15
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