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So excited for Gen Con! I will also use this post to pump up the project I did for Gen Con's 50th anniversary. If you are interested in Gen Con history at all check it out. It has a bunch of interviews I did with Gen Con attendees, all of the program covers for the first 50 years, and most importantly a database you can search with every Gen Con event that has ever happened in it! http://best50yearsingaming.com/ I hope Lou Zocchi makes it out this year to the Gamescience booth. It was a sad booth in 2022 without him being there, and they had a lot less old product and in particular a lot fewer pointy dice. Very excited for this year. I have been an exhibitor since 2018, but am not doing that this year so I will be attending more like a normal person again this year. I should even have time for some more goon functions for once!
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Jan 24, 2023 16:02
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Dr. Quarex posted:
I can’t imagine showing up to an auction dressed like Mr. Monopoly would be a good bidding strategy. I mean, on one hand people might look at you and assume you are going to win whatever you want so why bother bid against you. But on the other hand people might just bid you up because they can. I reminded of that guppy guy I saw at Game Hole Con this year. That said I definitely want to spend some good time in the auction this year. We’ll have to see what my collecting goals are around Gen Con time this year. Last year I succeeded in getting a copy of every game Guidon Games put out. I already have everything but some of the rarest of rares for OD&D, basic D&D and AD&D. Maybe I should go threw Appelcine’s books again and focus on some of those smaller companies stuff. I think the things I would be most excited about gathering this year are zines, but I don’t know how often those come up in the auctions. I would also want large runs of the zines and just an issue or two out of the whole series, so who knows.
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Jan 25, 2023 02:31
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Dr. Quarex posted:
Your Mr. Monopoly stratagem seems sound. I think you should move forward with that. Good to hear about zines. What I don’t want is to end up with 1 or 2 issues of 30 different zines. I would much rather have large runs of a few of them than scattered issues of a bunch. We’ll see what happens, I don’t know exactly how much time I’ll end up dedicating to the auction this year. I love the auction but I don’t want to sit in it from open to close each day, that’s just too much plus I only have so much luggage space. At least I know there are some must skip categories like the family and commercial games time slot.
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Jan 25, 2023 16:13
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I am partial to this pic of the exhibitors floor from 1987: Someone, whoever took the original photo (a Barbara Young), owns the copyright. It was taken by a fan not someone for TSR or some other company. So I guess it depends what you are concerned about. Is this for a facebook group or something?
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Jan 25, 2023 23:06
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Badge acquired!
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Jan 29, 2023 21:45
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I feel like Gen Con is lacking good restaraunts these days. Or at least places I liked. Primanti Bros and the RAM are both gone now, as is Scotty's. I don't think any of them have suitable replacements within walking distance of the con. Good Wood is ok but I liked everything about the Ram better.
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Jan 31, 2023 15:01
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I just hope either better restaraunts open or the currents one improve by Gen Con this year. I tried the perogi truck last year, and I should have known better because they didn’t list prices, but it was $25 for 3 very overly cooked and kind of cold perogis. Maybe some of the other trucks were better quality but i bet all of them except Island Noodles were just as expensive.
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Feb 1, 2023 00:55
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I predict this will end well: What happens if I go to an event, and they ask me to wear a mask and I refuse to do so? Wearing a mask at the convention is optional, so the EO cannot require that you wear a mask at their event. With this in mind, we request that you and the EO are polite to one another while you resolve the matter. However, if the EO persists, you should contact the nearest Event HQ to have them resolve the situation. Alternatively, in order to ensure that GM and players are comfortable, it is probably best to find another event without this request. If it is not in the Event description can the EO request that we wear masks at the time of the Event? Yes, the EO can politely request that you wear a mask during their event. This is meant to ensure both GMs and players can find events that fit their comfort level. Please be respectful of the other attendees and the EO if you choose to decline the request to wear a mask. What if an EO asks that no one wears masks at the table? While an EO has the right to not wear a mask during their events, you have the right to wear a mask at any event you attend. If an EO persists in asking you to remove your mask, you should contact the nearest Event HQ to have them resolve the situation.
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Feb 1, 2023 18:49
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Dr. Quarex posted:
I am not sure how they handle their no harassment policy. Matt Fantastic supposedly received a life time ban for punching out Hammberlamberly on the streets of Indianapolis and I am almost positive he was at Gen Con last year. It's also possible he never received said ban since that was coming from the punchee but who knows.
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Feb 1, 2023 21:09
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I have yet to go to St. Elmos or Harry and Izzys. I should probably fix that with at least one of those this year. I tend to like to go to places that more on the beer pub side of things like the RAM was and Goodwood is. Just wish there were more options within walking distance of the ICC. I guess I hit up Loughmiller's sometimes but for some reason they tend not to do it for me.
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Feb 3, 2023 20:53
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Ego Trip posted:Come to Groverlunch I might this year! If I don't have an event scheduled over that slot I probably will.
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Feb 5, 2023 00:52
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I mean part of the problem is its Gen Con, a lot of us won’t have cars or if we do they are stuck in parking we can’t take them out of. I guess Uber exists but that’s more time away from the con as well.
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Feb 5, 2023 20:44
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I’ll eat at the ICC from time to time but only when there is no line and I literally just need any food, and I mean any, to keep going. It’s expensive (though not food truck expensive) with a bonus of being not good. Though I have enjoyed getting the fancy reusable soda cups and just getting unlimited refills at the ICC food court near the food trucks. I am pretty sure you are not supposed to do that but they don’t care.
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Feb 7, 2023 00:29
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How do you feel about the whole note being able to require the other people playing at your table to wear a mask thing if your masking as a judge?
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Feb 9, 2023 19:13
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Yes I think messaging in advance would be a good idea. I am not planning to run any events this year, but if I was and wanted people to mask I’d probably just walk away from the table and refuse to run it someone showed up and refused to put a mask on after being asked. I don’t see any other good solutions that don’t involve sitting their awkwardly with a dick for 4 hours.
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Feb 9, 2023 21:25
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Historically speaking 145 isn’t terrible. Usually downtown hotels hold out till roughly 2pm. We’ll see if that holds true for this year.
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Feb 11, 2023 22:47
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There shouldn’t be, front the info I have they raised the number to 500 and want to keep it more or less there for the time being.
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Feb 12, 2023 15:53
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Pretty sure they are already approving them. Event submission has been open for a while now.
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Feb 12, 2023 17:53
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No it isn't up for a while yet. I forget when it goes up exactly but it isn't until much closer to event registration in May.
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Feb 12, 2023 18:12
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I would buy from them more regularly if it wasn’t for the shipping. As it is, I am just going to wait for the next sale. They seem to have them somewhat regularly.
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Mar 8, 2023 02:32
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Long live the Gen Con Thread!
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Apr 17, 2023 20:41
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The auction will do just fine. Back in Milwaukee it had a prime spot on the 2nd floor of the MECCA for years, but then it eventually got bumped out to another location, I think it was Bruce Hall, that was really out of the way if you didn’t know to look for it. It still just find, and I had a ton of fun attending it at that location. I don’t remember if we found it on accident or saw it in the program book and decided to check it out, but it was definitely out of the way.
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Apr 18, 2023 21:39
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Fate Accomplice posted:has anyone stayed 10-15 miles away from the convention center? I have, but not for several years, and last time I did Gen Con had the shuttle bus program that carted me to and from the hotel. With the shuttle bus it worked pretty well and I would say other than not being able to get back and drop stuff off whenever I wanted it worked pretty well. No idea how it would be now without the shuttle, I guess it depends on your tolerance for paying for ride shares. “IronJef” posted:
I can see why they wouldn’t want that, how would you even find it in their event catalog system? Have you done that before at other shows and had people sign up? I can’t ever seeing doing an event like that myself.
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Apr 26, 2023 21:42
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Ah ok, that makes more sense and sounds more attractive. If I read something build as play an unknown ancient RPG I would be more inclined to join. If it was literally just “you don’t know what you’re playing till you get there!” I would just assume I am going to sit down for 4 hours of Beastfucker.
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Apr 27, 2023 15:31
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I’m pretty sure you just sign up for the first round of the tournament and then keep your schedule open for the 2nd. If you make it to subsequent rounds you just show up.
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May 8, 2023 20:30
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I forgot they changed that deposit from refundable to essentially a payment whether you buy anything or not. That makes me feel less good about the auction, and i was planning on spending a decent amount of time there this year (will have to see how event signup day shakes out with the auction schedule). I would like to think I am going to spend at least $50 at the auction but I’ve also gone and either not had anything i wanted come up, or have it come up and just go for too high of a price for me. I eagerly away to hear what they say about that deposit this year, as well as a tentative auction schedule.
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May 10, 2023 20:23
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If its a $2 charge all that money goes to Gen Con. It’s the minimum fee for an event. They do let some events be free of charge but you have to ask and I am not sure what the criteria is for them to allow it.
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May 23, 2023 04:14
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Not the first time the auction has been exiled. With the Midwest Express Center opened up the miniatures events and the auction were banished to the old arena, which you had to walk *gasp* outside to get to and everyone who was stuck in that old building instead of the shiny new convention center hated it. To be fair, I also have read about several people not going specifically because they didn't feel like walking there.
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Jul 25, 2023 15:37
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Dr. Quarex posted:
Yes you got this from me. It was published in an early zine giving a review of one of the early Gen Cons.
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Jul 27, 2023 00:42
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Anti-Bunny posted:Our Airbnb just now cancelled on us and they're trying to get us to officially cancel the stay with the site, presumably as some kind of scam. Yeah, this definitely sucks and is one of the main reasons I don't think I'd use airbnb for Gen Con unless I had no other option. As others have said, don't officially cancel the booking. If they're going to screw you the least you can do is screw them back.
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Jul 28, 2023 18:13
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Same. Normally I’d be clawing my eyes out right now but with kids the time is actually passing pretty quickly.
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Jul 31, 2023 03:03
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After action report for Gen Con 2023 This is the first year since 2016 I've attended mostly as a regular attendee. It was nice going back and having the time to do pretty much whatever and see whoever I could. I had a couple of business related meetings but it was mostly game play and socializing and it was nice to get back to that, even if it only lasts for this year. Overall impressions of the con: crowded. It felt better after Thursday, but I think that was just the shock of how many bodies were there got normalized for me. Don't get me wrong, Gen Con is always crowded, even last year, though a lighter year, was a ton of people. I don't know if this year actually was busier than 2017 or 2019 but it felt like it was. This year also felt a little bit like going back to 1994. Seeing the people lining up and going crazy for Lorcana reminded me of the big CCG boom at the con that year. There were also other CCGs people were hot for, though they may not have been at the show. Namely the new Star Wars CCG that was being demoed, and then though not nearly as popular there is one company trying to relaunch the Highlander CCG that came out in 1995. It didn't feel the same as 1994 as in there wern't people just lining the walls playing card games, but I got a similar sense of hype and speculation that I remember from then. Wednesday My flight got bumped up earlier so I got into Indy at around 10:30am. Got to the JW Marriott and checked in, no problems. I was worried there would be a line at Will Call to get badges but when I got there around 11:30 I was able to walk right up and just get my packet. Super happy with that. I had some time to kill so I went into the Gen Con Rollacrit Merch store line, which took about an hour, and bought way too much stuff. I was shocked to see when I had got to the front they were already sold out of a lot of 2x and larger shirt sizes even though the store had only been open a couple of hours. I don't know if that was a sign that things were busier, or Rollacrit just didn't plan better (you would think they would know better by now) but it was what it was. After that I went to Good Wood to get lunch. The food was better this year and the beer is fine, but they didn't put any effort in to make Gen Con attendees welcome. Sports on the TVs, no themed menus, nothing really to show that Gen Con was there. The RAM did a much better job, and Good Wood's patronage seemed to reflect that as they seemed to always have seating for the con. After lunch I went to Shots Wednesday and had fun there for sure, was great to be back after being away for a few years. Got back to the hotel a bit after 10 and pretty much went straight to bed. Thursday I wanted to start Gen Con off the classical way this year, and that meant participating in the opening game of Dawn Patrol. If you don't know your Gen Con history, Dawn Patrol was the first game ever played at a Gen Con, its been played at Gen Con ever since, and I am pretty sure there has been a Dawn Patrol game in the first slot of the con every year to open up the convention gaming scene. The game is about WWI dog fighting, and I was on the side of the Belgians. It was my first time playing and I did well, no one shot at me once and I shot up 2 planes. I got one opponents engine smoking but I didn't shoot anyone down. Game ended and I had 39 points. Seemed like a good score for not having shot anyone down? After that it was time for the exhibit hall. I started leaving the Stadium where Dawn Patrol was and immediately was awash with people. I couldn't believe how busy the tunnel was, it was difficult to walk through. This was at noon on a Thursday, which made no sense to me. They moved the block party this year down by the stadium so that might have contributed a bit to how busy it was but this was way more people than I was expecting. I got to the exhibit hall and it was pretty much just gridlocked in the south east corner I entered from. It was quite difficult to move through the crowd, but I managed. There were a few games I wanted to pick up, but it turned out most of them ended up not making to the show despite being listed as available on the BGG Gen Con list. I did pick up some D&D licensed fabric, a couple of bat stuffies for the girls, and a game called Holotype from a first time publisher that took a look at dinosaur paleontology from the academic perspective. I also got my first look at the Lorcana line, which was madness. According to a post on reddit people started lining up as early as 3pm on Wednesday, and then at like 9am on Thursday some one from Gen Con came by and said there was no line and just caused chaos to erupt. The line was big but pretty manageable most of the con but it looked kind of insane when you first saw it on Thursday. I made it through the hall in about 3 hours, and then went back to the room to unload and get something to eat before my evening game. For Thursday night, I played in a Highlander scenario for the new D20 Modern system that just came out. I was a little disappointed with it. It was basically just 5e with some reskinning, which is fine, but at least as we were led through it some things didn’t make sense to me. Like we started off the game in something like 316BC, yet we had the exact same stats as our characters did in the modern day. I don’t understand how a game that has you jumping through different points in history can have you use the same stat blocks and skills for that character no matter when they are in time. There was a dueling mechanic which was kind of interesting but I’m not sold on it, and in the end one of our party lost their head and then the rest of us took our opponents heads. I had fun, but I don’t know if what they created for Highlander really works that well. I have the book for it coming in the mail shortly so we’ll see if its a problem for the whole system or just how that one game I played was set up. Friday I got to sleep in till 8am this day, so hooray for that. Today was a card game day for me, I started off with a 10am Lorcana demo. I lucked into a demo ticket so since it was the hottest game of the con I figured I’d give it a try. Game was ok, only took about 30 minutes and it really felt like a very stripped down version of Magic. I think if the girls liked it when they are old enough, assuming its still around, I would play it with them but I have no interest in it otherwise. After this I went down to Highlander release tournament for the 4th edition of the CCG that was launched in 1995. I had a really bad draw in my first game and my opponent seemed to have attacks for everywhere I didn’t have blocks. Was a short game with me losing. I won the second game pretty easily, and the third game came down to us both at 0 0 for our ability but because the way the time rules for the tournament worked I ended up losing. I was a little annoyed at that since I pretty much lost the game because I was the player that started the game despite the fact in the end I was getting the upper hand on my opponent. Oh well, it was a double elimination tournament so I was out. Afterwards I had a demo session for the new Star Wars: Unlimited CCG that also seemed like a stripped down magic and very similar to Lorcana, though perhaps a tad more complicated. I went back to the dealer hall for a couple hours, picked up a couple things I didn’t notice my first time through, and then had dinner with my friends Kate and Kevin. After that I went to the auction for the collector’s session. I always love spending time in the auction, and the collectors section especially so. I bid on quite a few things but only won 1. The prices this year were all high. There were a couple of things that went for what I would have expected them to, but several went for $10s if not $100 or so more than I would have expected them for. The item I most wanted I lost out on big. It was a program from the 1991-1992 Siege of Minas Tirith game from Gen Con. This was a very large event that happened at Gen Con where dozens of attendees played with 10s of thousands of miniatures over the entire convention. I figured this program might go for $100 or so, but a friend of Randy Porter’s ended up winning it for $1000. Would love to see the contents of that program some day, was prepared to over pay, scan it, and then sell it again if I paid too much but I wasn’t willing to go up to $1000 for it. The biggest item of the night was the TSR financial report from the early 1980s, that went for $7500. Auction ended around midnight, so I went and hung out with some people for a bit and then went to bed. Saturday I had another 10am game this day, this time it was for the Arda format for the old Middle Earth CCG ICE put out back in 1995. The Arda format is basically a cube format so you can play the game with 1 giant deck and a bunch of people. There were 6 people in my “pod” and you were supposed to come to the event with some experience with the game but one person was completely new. I am glad to have new players at games but this one was listed as experience needed, and having a newbie there completely bogged down the game. Many of us found ourselves just sitting there for 15-20 minutes while the new player figured out how to play and what to do, and this persisted for the entire 4 hours. I had fun, and I don’t get a lot of opportunities to play this game, but I wish we could have moved through faster and actually finished the game. I ended with 22 points and all of my characters making it to the council which was pretty good for the number of rounds we went through. Immediately after that game I had a meeting in the Writer’s Symposium which went well, so I was happy with that. I got lunch after that at a new place in town called the Social Cantina that actually put in an effort to attract Gen Con attendees. It wasn’t my favorite place but the food wasn’t bad. Then at 5pm I went to the Deephaven Megagame. If you haven’t done a Megagame before it is essentially 50 or so people on different teams playing a bunch of little games that are all part of a bigger metagame. There is a lot of social deduction and trading and such during these games. It was only the 2nd Megagame I had ever played in, and the first was at professional military gaming conference. In this megagame, you were all dwarves trying to build build the great dwarven city of Deephaven in a mountain. I was part of the Deep Dwarves, which were newer to the city and kind of looked down upon. My guild was for the Inkbeards, which were essentially the news network for the city. I had a couple of side goals but they really weren’t that interesting, and we were supposed to have clan goals but the way they ran the game we really didn’t get a lot of time to plot with our clans and those goals didn’t get addressed effectively. I had fun overall but I was tired, and though I liked the experience it could have been much better. I feel like those running the game missed some good opportunities. We’ll see if I play another Megagame. I kind of like the format but I am not in love with it. I kind of want to play the Den of Wolves Megagame, which is basically just Battlestar Galactica, so I have a feeling I’ll give that one a try and then judge the genre from there. Sunday Last day of the con was super simple for me. I had one RPG in the One Ring system at 10am. We went on a simple quest for Bilbo Baggins and didn’t have any combat. It was fine, but the GM was a little weird, though he did ok, and the game ended super early. We only played for about 2 hours. I didn’t mind too much though as I had to get to the airport. So I headed there, sat at the Sun King Brewery station for about an hour and half and flew home! No travel problems, even got back to Philadelphia early. Always nice when that happens.
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Aug 7, 2023 15:12
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BlackIronHeart posted:Lowlights: A friend I've known for a few years came along this year and shared my room at the Crowne Plaza. We've been to a couple PAX cons together in the past and always had a good time so, Gen Con, right? But I hosed up and I don't think I explained the point of Gen Con well enough as they basically just stuck with me the entire weekend unless I was at a ticketed event. I'm pretty introverted by nature and not having a chance to decompress made me pretty quiet and withdrawn by Saturday morning. They're already talking about GC '24 and I think I need to have an uncomfortable conversation with them. Sounds like this was their first Gen Con? I mean, did you try to talk to them about it during the con? I know that can be difficult, but that bit of pain might have been better then enduring no introvert time the entire con. I hope you get it figured out for next year, whether you tell them it just isn't going to work for next year or you explain what you need your con experience to be like. Out of curiosity, how are PAX cons different for you with this person if you're fine with their behavior there? Or are you all separated so much due to all the time you have to spend in separate lines or something?
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Aug 7, 2023 16:56
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I don't think so, I've seen a bunch of posts about them today and all of them seemed to point to them still being at large.
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Aug 7, 2023 17:10
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Dr. Quarex posted:Nesbit37's writeup definitely makes me think I should always be writing up my own recollections after every convention, though of course it would be half funny or memorable things from the Auction and half how little I ate between breakfast and dinner every day You should do it. I always like looking back at them, and I am surprised how much I forget over time if I don't write it down. Plus a lot of the work I am doing on this writing project has to lean on other people's reports like that one from over the years. They're getting harder and harder to find due to how most people use the internet these days ***shakes fist at facebook and discord***. Think of it as doing future Gen Con historians a favor.
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Aug 8, 2023 19:49
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sasha_d3ath posted:Not really a Gen Con success story for me (I didn't get to go), but my friend Zofia bought me these bad boys, which came this morning: I didn’t realize they made a solo RPG version of Star Trek Adventures. I may have to check that out. I am assuming it came out at Gen Con?
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Aug 10, 2023 19:16
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