A GenCon Schedule Part 1

So what do you do for 4 days at a gaming convention?  I actually don’t know seeing as I’ve not really gamed my way through a 4 day gaming convention.
Wait a minute Dave, I thought you’d been to 3 of the UK iterations of Gen Con?
Ah yes!  That’s a very different story though…. Perhaps for another post.

Looking back at the event list for Gen Con 2013 as a guide you kind of have to go into this with a plan of how much of each day you want to fill with booked slots and how much “free time” you want to wander the halls and just try something out on a whim.
Taking it 1 day at a time…

Thursday

Game	Format	Time / Slot	Price
Star Wars: Edge Of The Empire – Shadows Of A Black Sun	RPG	10am to 1pm	$4
Gaming with Kids: The Next Generation (with Matt Forbeck)	Seminar	2pm to 3pm	FREE
D&D Next : Murder in Baldur's Gate Launch Weekend	RPG	4pm to 8pm	$8
Zero Charisma	Film	8pm to 9:30pm	FREE

There should be no surprise that Star Wars EotE is in this list!
The Gaming with Kids seminar intrigues me for a variety of reasons, not least of which is my plan to introduce my daughter to the hobby more and more over the years.
D&D Next is still in playtest but what better way to get your head around the new ruleset and indeed help shape it than by playing it at GenCon?
Zero Charisma is a “gamer movie” that I’ve been following for a while now and I would have loved to have seen it on the “big screen” at Gen Con.

So Thursday looks like a REALLY busy day but a large part of the challenge is getting the slots to align and of course you know eat, buying stuff and spend time playing demos and moving between events!
If I had to drop anything I’d drop the Gaming With Kids or the D&D Next.  There were other sessions of D&D Next on the schedule which I could have juggled to suit.

Friday

Game	Format	Time / Slot	Price
Star Wars: EotE – Matter Of Life & Death	RPG	10am to 2pm	$4
Battletech : Boot Camp!	Wargame	3pm to 4pm	$2
Firefly: Find a Crew - Find a Job - Keep Flying	Board Game	5pm to 7pm	$2
Atomic Robo - Flying She-Devils of the Pacific	RPG	8pm to midnight	$4

More EotE?! Obviously!
Battletech Boot Camp!  I’d have been up for trying this if only because I own the 25th Anniversary Starter Set and really should play it more!
Firefly – Not a FAN BOY for Firefly but I did enjoyed the show a fair bit and intrigued about how it would translate into a Board Game.
Atomic Robo.  Again this should be obvious to readers of the blog as to why I would want to play this.

Again Friday looks REALLY busy so something might have to drop.  If anything it’d be either the Battletech or the Firefly.

So that’s 2 days out of the 4.  What about the weekend?  That’ll be the next post!

Getting to GenCon Part 2

Getting to GenCon 2014

When do you need to buy your ticket?

GenCon tickets go on sale in January, normally around noon on the last Sunday of the month so that’d be the 26th for 2014.  Timezone wise Indianapolis is (currently with daylight savings etc) 5 hours behind the UK.
Your 4-Day ticket to GenCon will be roughly $70 (£43.25 according to Google) which gets you entry to the convention.  Note that’s entry, not playing any games as those have a supplementary cost which I’ll cover shortly.
For those of us outside the USA you need to arrange to collect your pass when you get there.  This, for me, is the real reason to go a day or so before the con really starts.  You can collect your ticket on the Wednesday which will also include any event tickets that you’ve pre-booked.

When do you need to book your events?

The events themselves go on sale in May which for 2014 looks like being May 18th again normally about noon Indianapolis time.
To get a feeling for the variety of events available I’d recommend that you check out this website - http://gencon.highprogrammer.com/gencon-indy-2013.cgi - which has a breakdown of all events at the 2013 GenCon which not only gives you an idea of what you can do when you’re there it also gives you an idea of the cost of the events.
Event tickets come in 2 forms – generic and specific.  A generic ticket is just that, generic and each of those costs around $2.  You can trade generic tickets for entry into specific events based on the cost of that event.  So if the specific event you want to attend is $6 then you’ll need 3 generic tickets to attend but this is discretionary based on the organiser having space for you to take part.

What can you do at GenCon?

Ok you’ve looked at that link above right?
Obviously there are a lot of games being played at GenCon, after all it’s kind of why most people go.  In addition to that there are a number of seminars, talks, special events, films and many many more events that you can attend when there.  Alongside that in the trade hall you will have the chance to play/demo a whole host of games from established companies and new companies looking to promote their games.
The “showcase” events will be the quickest to sell out so be sure to think about your priorities when booking events when the time comes.

I’m going to build a sample schedule for me based on the link above (you have checked it out right?) in the next post to give you an idea of what the GenCon experience could be like.

Getting to GenCon Part 1

So as I said in my post on GenCon 2014, my intention is to experience the "best 4 days in gaming" next year.

So what do you need to consider when planning such a trip?

How long do you go for?

Well to experience it properly surely you need to go for 4 days, right?  So that means Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Registration / Collection of your welcome pack etc is on the Wednesday (or early Thursday) so you really need to be there on the Wednesday.
You don’t want to be arriving on the Wednesday and rushing about checking in to your accommodation etc etc so arrival really has to be on the Tuesday.  Plus this is my first time at GenCon Indy so I want to be there for all it and experiencing it to the full.
So that means not only arriving on the Tuesday but leaving on the Monday.

How do you get there?

Well I live in Scotland so there are not a lot of options around mode of transport.  It’s basically flights from Edinburgh or Glasgow to Indianapolis.
For me it’s Edinburgh and right now flights aren’t really that well listed for August 2014.  Prices are also a bit all over the place this far in advance but right now the best price I can see for a 1-stop journey is roughly £900.
Not sure if that’s going to be the actual cost as flights are only just becoming available.  Plus at other times of the year they are nearer the £600 mark and that includes direct flights.
But for sake of a budget we’ll go with the £900 price.

Where do you stay?

The conference centre is in the Downtown area of Indianapolis and somewhat unsurprisingly there are a lot of hotels in that area too.   I’ve looked at a number of these but everything seems to be pointing me at another option.  Renting an apartment/condo.
Having checked a number of websites out I can see there are a number of options.  Some options are better with a larger group with others only working if the group I go with is small.
There is however something that’s makes me hesitate about going for an apartment.  I fully expect to be at convention from morning to night and so unless it makes more financial sense I suspect that an apartment might be overkill.
I mean I could eat at the apartment but likely won’t so having a kitchen is probably unnecessary except perhaps for the Tuesday on arrival and the Monday on departure…

So that's most of the logistics of physically getting to GenCon and where to stay but what about booking for the con itself?  That'll be in the next post.