I’m also a gamer, and this year event will be my first Gencon experience. Thing is, im going alone, all way back from Venezuela!!! (oh, we also have gamers here, a few, but good ones who also loves gaming.)

We organized a couple of role playing games tournaments here with the sponsorship of a few hobby stores (actually 3 or 4, the only ones in the city) but nothing that can compare to Gencon, so for us here it’s the Holy Grail of gaming geekness, the promise land, and this year I saved all the money I could to go to that unique experience. Sadly, none of my gaming buddies could´t make it (no VISA to enter the country and some of them no money) so I must face the Gencon trials alone. I also signed for a couple of gaming sessions in there (my English is, well, so so,
so I hope you guys could have patience with me).

I couldn’t afford a downtown hotel (the only available at a “cheap” price was the Westin, and just me renting the room, well, it was expensive) so I have to book a room outside town in the Travelodge South Indianápolis 4950 S East Street US 31 South and East Street. Have anyone stayed there? I guess is about 10 minutes away from the Convention center (by car), im right?

Everyone experience so far has been quite helpful, but I got a couple of questions I hope anyone could help with:

1) Taxis are easy to get?
Im ready to pay 20 bucks for each ride from the hotel to the convention center and so on for the way back. But lets say I hang around the hotels participating in a few gaming sessions made by fans, until lets say, 1 am. Can I go the nearest hotel reception (Marriot, Westin, Omni, etc.) and then get a taxi from there easily?
If not, and if you guys really really recommend it, I could, gulp, make the ultimate sacrifice and stay in the Westin so I can be at walking distance to the convention center. Boy, I will be in debt to the credit card company for a few hundreds years ☺

2) In your experience, are people friendly enough to let unknown people join their games? I’m talking about gaming sessions in the hotels and other areas.

Thanks in advance for any help in this matter, and happy gaming!!
hope to see you guys there!

Since the exhibit hall is a big ‘must see’, if you find an event you like, try to find a time slot in the early AM, or after 5 to gain Exhibit hall time.

Great walking shoes is huge. My repaired achilles of 5 months wouldn’t have made it without them. flip-flops ain’t cuttin it.

a backpack/msgr bag is nice. Some people wield ones that are so huge they cause traffic jams and serious bludgeoning damage, so I’d lean towards a medium size. You always can run back to the room and unload the goods, and change the t-shirt, (another great previous point) as last year there were a couple of days that were over 90 degrees (or maybe i just sweat a lot).

I would try to definitely hit the showroom the first day; mainly because lots of freebies will be gone by day 2-4, and you can avoid the weekend ‘1 day pass’ people.

The digital camera with extra memory is great. last year i needed more memory, and shan’t fail this year.

The breakfast buffets are great and scooping up some chips/crackers/booze at Walgreens and a liquor store a few blocks away, can save a good load of $. The previously mentioned costs for fast food and sit down joints are right on. (nicely allocated mcritic)

Last year I signed up for a free tour by the Gaming Wenches around 8am the first day, and it helped me get a lay of the place really well, so I could gimp from event to event with more success.

If you are into board games, they have a big hall with tons of games where you can play anything there for a generic ticket or two, so board game events aren’t the only option.

The rest:
I didn’t need too much caffeine, just lots of water, and a reasonable chunk of sleep each night.

Last year I spent around $300 or so on goods in the Exhibitor hall. Things popped up, had to have em. I bet it’ll happen to you too. ;) Of course everyone varies.

You should definitely run a little game, or perhaps put out feelers for a gathering of site members to hang, chat, eat, game, drink…

For me, my first year I saw some great game demos–one of Ticket to Ride that immediately sold me on that game because of its fantastic gameplay and balance. Last year, however, the game demos I tried (with exception of the Wings of War table, D&D basic game, and Zombie Fluxx) were poor. The gamesmasters were disinterested, tired, and very busy. This could have been because I waited until Saturday and/or Sunday to do this. Still, I recommend demoing as much as you can–it was one of the great facets of going my first time around. As I’m writing this, I’m getting all excited again to going. There really is nothing like it.

Now, a quick word about picking up products that debut at the con. Last year, the highlight of the con was getting the debut of the 4th edition of the Talisman board game. It was being sold at the manufacturer’s/vendor’s booth in the vendor hall, and it was limited to 50 copies per day. The line for it was very, very long, and if you weren’t there when the doors opened, you probably didn’t get one. If anyone is going to get something that’s debuting at the con, keep in mind that you will need to be outside the vendor hall doors (there are three sets of them) before it opens. You’ll want to do like any solid adventuring party would do, and that is map out the path to the booth before hand. I don’t recommend running to the booth (a few folks did–and it was madness last year; albeit humorous and fun). And remember that some folks only think that one set of doors open (the main ones). Ahem! ;)

Also, last year had the first ever video games area in the vendor hall. Blizzard was there showcasing Starcraft II. The new pirate MMORPG was there along with the upcoming Conan MMORPG. If you like video games, you should definitely check that area out as well.

Another quick word on surviving the hike to Mordor…uh…to the sessions, vendor halls, and such: Use the game demos as resting points. I have back and feet problems, so this is how I work it. It works quite well, too. I second the suggestion for a backpack. That’s the single best thing I got for my first year.

Be sure to check out the independent authors, too, along with the artists. I gave them all of my support my first year.

Above all, have fun! I’d say that all of these suggestions in the comments should give you a +5 modifier to your GenCon initiative roll. :P I hope to see you there!

@Dave:
I’m scared.

@everyone:
The more I think about it, the more I’ll try to prepare a short game and game with whoever reads this blog and is going. Saty tuned for more.

one of my favorite activities used to be collecting souls. I’d go around with an autograph book, track down my favorite artists/writers/developers for various games, an ask them if they’d be willing to sell their soul. a surprising number were very agreeable. at the ‘96 GenCon I owned the souls of entire white-wolf staff at the time.

The ground floor used to be essentially one big show-room for various publishers and companies, booths galore, with TSR right in the middle, having a huge booth that looked like a small castle. and on the last day of the Con a Large assortment of Nerf swords would be provided, and the other publishers would attempt to storm and take the TSR castle.

I especially loved visiting the booths of various artists, you got to see some of their work that isn’t specifically designed for a given product line, and you could find really interesting stuff.

All in all it used to be kind of like a big 4 day party with gamers in charge, what more can you ask for?

MWAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHA!