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Hey all, I recently started venturing out of my local meta and attending conventions but I wish I had read this article first because I wasted a lot of time putzing around without a plan.
http://midwestwargaming.com/pride-rodinas-guide-gencon/
This article covers the basics such as convention nutrition, plans,and supplies.
Snacks. Oh my, I am not kidding when I say this. Please bring some snacks with you, you’ll need them.
Water bottle. You -will- need this unless you want to hunt down a water fountain every time instead (which might be hard when you’re in the middle of a tournament, trust me).
Comfortable walking shoes and clothes or a change into, if you’re cosplaying.
Cash. Try to refrain some using your card as much as possible to make things easier and to keep your information from being stolen. On top of that, find a good spot to put all of your cash, a wallet, handbag, satchel, backpack pouch, etc. Wherever/whatever’s easy for you to reach, but not too easy for a sneaky thief with quick fingers.
Backpack, and a comfortable one, or whatever else you like to carry things in. You will be carrying lots of GenCon booty with you and you don’t want to have to carry around multiple shopping bags.
Picture-capable device. You know you’re going to want to take pictures. Just please don’t stand in the middle of hallways to take pictures. I will personally be sure I photobomb your picture (just kidding, I won’t, but I will seriously think about it).
Phone charger. Bring your phone charger in your backpack or whatever you decide to bring to hold your stuff in. There are a plethora of sockets everywhere.
As a regular at GenCon since 2000, I would like to add a few Do/Do Nots:
* Do not bring your giant fething suitcase into the dealer's hall. Look, there is very little room between the booths on most aisles. There are 50,000+ people at GenCon. Get out of the fething way! Drop your goddam bag off at your hotel! Don't be these people in the hall.
* Bathe. I shouldn't have to say this to grown fething men and women, but take a shower every day. Especially if you've been eating nothing but corn dogs and burgers and cheetos. While you're at it, pass a toothbrush past your fething teeth. Again, 50,000 people, itty-bitty living space.
* Be polite, be patient. There will be long lines at the more popular booths. Prepare to queue and wait. The people there are mostly volunteers. They're there to help you. Yelling at them because they just sold the last event-only yellow Pokermenio isn't productive. If that ruined you're whole Convention, then you should go look in the mirror. There, now you are staring at a fething loser. Don't come back to GenCon, or any convention, really. Take up knitting. Learn some yoga breathing techniques. Add some fiber to your diet because you're full of gak.
* I want to repeat something from the article. Leave Free Time! The dealers room is HUGE and Awesome. I used to play HackMaster tournaments that took up 3 full days. Once I stopped doing that, I realized how much cool gak I was missing. By all means, play organized game sessions. Play a tournament. Meet new people. But also leave time, and money, to wander the dealer's room and sit in on a demo or listen to salespitch for some new gadget, or check out the Artists' Hall. I have a few friends that sell some cool gamers gear you might like. Give them your moneys!
My tip - pull over before you stop. In the dealer hall especially, there’s lots of shiny things to look at, but there’s also tons of people and someone is right behind you trying to get somewhere. Don’t stop in the middle of the road and stare at something. There are going to be more than a handful of people right behind you that have to stop now because you are stopping, and at least one of them will have road rage that they may or may not be able to hide. If you deftly sidestep, they will be able to get by and you will still be able to see the shiny things.
I wish someone there would sell T-shirts that say “Yes, you are in my way”. I’d buy that for a dollar
Wish I could go this year, but can't :( Next year for sure though!
For those considering going, you should attend at least once if you enjoy gaming.
While I was a bit negative in my post (above), I look forward to GenCon every year. It's a gak-ton of fun, and my group keeps going back. There is always something new to see, plenty of cool costumes, games you've never heard of, and stores/booths selling gak you thought was sold out forever.
Give it a spin. Take 3 buddies and split a hotel room.
Make use of the food trucks that line the street jutting out from the main enterance. The auction hall is usually close to that door, so then sit, eat, digest and revel in old out-of-print stuff!
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the particulate.
Snacks. Oh my, I am not kidding when I say this. Please bring some snacks with you, you’ll need them.
Water bottle. You -will- need this unless you want to hunt down a water fountain every time instead (which might be hard when you’re in the middle of a tournament, trust me).
Comfortable walking shoes and clothes or a change into, if you’re cosplaying.
Cash. Try to refrain some using your card as much as possible to make things easier and to keep your information from being stolen. On top of that, find a good spot to put all of your cash, a wallet, handbag, satchel, backpack pouch, etc. Wherever/whatever’s easy for you to reach, but not too easy for a sneaky thief with quick fingers.
Backpack, and a comfortable one, or whatever else you like to carry things in. You will be carrying lots of GenCon booty with you and you don’t want to have to carry around multiple shopping bags.
Picture-capable device. You know you’re going to want to take pictures. Just please don’t stand in the middle of hallways to take pictures. I will personally be sure I photobomb your picture (just kidding, I won’t, but I will seriously think about it).
Phone charger. Bring your phone charger in your backpack or whatever you decide to bring to hold your stuff in. There are a plethora of sockets everywhere.
As a regular at GenCon since 2000, I would like to add a few Do/Do Nots:
* Do not bring your giant fething suitcase into the dealer's hall. Look, there is very little room between the booths on most aisles. There are 50,000+ people at GenCon. Get out of the fething way! Drop your goddam bag off at your hotel! Don't be these people in the hall.
* Bathe. I shouldn't have to say this to grown fething men and women, but take a shower every day. Especially if you've been eating nothing but corn dogs and burgers and cheetos. While you're at it, pass a toothbrush past your fething teeth. Again, 50,000 people, itty-bitty living space.
* Be polite, be patient. There will be long lines at the more popular booths. Prepare to queue and wait. The people there are mostly volunteers. They're there to help you. Yelling at them because they just sold the last event-only yellow Pokermenio isn't productive. If that ruined you're whole Convention, then you should go look in the mirror. There, now you are staring at a fething loser. Don't come back to GenCon, or any convention, really. Take up knitting. Learn some yoga breathing techniques. Add some fiber to your diet because you're full of gak.
* I want to repeat something from the article. Leave Free Time! The dealers room is HUGE and Awesome. I used to play HackMaster tournaments that took up 3 full days. Once I stopped doing that, I realized how much cool gak I was missing. By all means, play organized game sessions. Play a tournament. Meet new people. But also leave time, and money, to wander the dealer's room and sit in on a demo or listen to salespitch for some new gadget, or check out the Artists' Hall. I have a few friends that sell some cool gamers gear you might like. Give them your moneys!
^^^This^^^ All of this^^^. I've only been to GenCon once, last year, and it was the best time I've had in a long time. I went purely for the booths and some of the terrain building class which I highly recommend.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2016/07/21 04:30:22
"Success is not final, failure is not fatal, it is the courage to continue that counts."
^^^^^This again. Especially the luggage draggers.
Mr way-too-big-backpack should also take a hint. When he turns to look at something he can knock people over.
For people with babies in strollers......backpack carriers exist, people. My wife and I took our six-month old, and saw so many instances where either stroller tried to cut us off or run us over, or once where a guy in a giant backpack almost knocked a stroller over when he made a quick spin to stare at something, and then decided to back his ass up without looking.
But us? Perfectly fine. No stroller to leave out in the flow of traffic while we looked at a booth, and perfecrly easy to merge in and out of the flow.
Also-screw you parents who are carrying your kid, but still using a stroller to haul your stuff like a wagon. Make trips back to your car; you don't get to take up space with a wagon-train just because you are buying more stuff than you want to carry.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2016/07/21 11:00:18
"By this point I'm convinced 100% that every single race in the 40k universe have somehow tapped into the ork ability to just have their tech work because they think it should."
Not sure if this will be useful to anyone, but here's my thoughts on a few places around Indy to eat/drink from the last two years I've lived here.:
Food: Indy is chock-full of great restaurants, we're just a bit deficient on ethnic options. Here are some of the places I've enjoyed...
- Bru Burger: great burger place on Mass Ave, well ranked on Trip Advisor and has a large number of options regarding burgers (plus some good salads)
- St. Elmo's: ranked one of the top 10 steak restaurants in the US, I love the (exceedingly rare) occasions I am able to partake. Very expensive though, but going just to get the super spicy shrimp cocktail is worth it!
- Rathskeller: really good German restaurant in the old YMCA building (across from the Shriner temple), has great sit down meals (Rouladen, spatzel, etc etc) plus a very nice outdoor biergarten section
- Santorini: Greek restaurant over in the Fountian Square area (probably 7min drive from the convention center), I like to recommend it because the food is excellent and they have belly dancers on the weekend (always a hoot) and the Saganaki cheese dish that they flambee always get an "Opa!" from the patrons
- City Market: not a specific restaurant per se, it's a lot of little stands inside the old City Market building downtown. Lots of options ranging from vegetarian to greek to Texmex
Bars: too many to name, but here's some of my personal favorites...
- SunKing: this downtown brewery has expanded a lot since last year and has a lot more options than previous years, a lot of which are really good. Plus they have fun little games on the counters (Jenga, etc) that you can fiddle with while downing a beer. They are sponsoring this event, so going to their brewery might not be high on your mind but I enjoy the visit
- Tappers: a new bar that opened on Virginia ave, this place is fun because it's full of old arcade machines that are all free (excluding the pinball, which is $0.50). All they ask is that you buy a drink and you're golden
- Thunderbird: a really trendy-hipster-y bar over in Fountain Square specializing in mixed drinks. I think the drinks are great and they're not too expensive
- Broken Beaker Distillery: I haven't actually been to this one, but some of my colleagues have and it seems fun/kitchy to try out. All of their drinks are served in beakers, so it has the science gag going. Drinks are about $10, mostly cocktails
- Black Acre Brewery: this one is a bit of a trek down Washington street, about 15min away from the convention center, but the beer is excellent and the atmosphere is quite cool (very hipster-y IMO)
- Slippery Noodle: very close to the convention center, this place has a reputation for being haunted and a great jazz bar. I've been there a couple of times and have always thought it was great
Other than that, there are a ton of places on Trip Advisor that I've been and have enjoyed, so you can't go wrong there. Hopefully this list might give you guys a couple of places to try out and enjoy while you're in Monument City! And if I can help suggest any other options while you're here, either post in this thread or shoot me a PM!
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2016/07/21 18:00:17
Also keep in mind Circle Center Mall has restaurants/fast food as well. They're usually not as crowded as the food trucks to boot.
Plus they aren't another "Southern Soul Food" truck, or whatever they want to call it. There were at least 2 trucks I saw that had "southern food". If you're like me who just came from the South, the last thing you want to eat is fried catfish or cornbread. There's enough of that back home.
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