SFR, Inc.

[deputyfife]

I've never been to a major gaming Con. (I have been to major Comic book cons, so I have a rudimentary idea of what I'm in store for.)
What I'm wondering mainly, in reference to Origins and Gencon, are two things:
How much money should I plan on spending at the Con? I don't mean a specific dollar amount, but more along the lines of "2 months worth of hobby spending", etc....I guess a better way to word it would be: if I don't want to be leaving the Con saying 'If I had just put a little more aside for the show, I could have bought item X I've always wanted for the cheap price of Y', then how many months/weeks worth of my normal hobby spending should I bring to the show? In these kinds of relative terms, how much do any of you spend at a major con? (again, not in dollar terms, but in terms of your normal hobby spending.)
I've heard of people being able to buy things like booster boxes of various CCg's, or RPG manuals or miniatures at ridiculous prices at Gencon, so I don't want to miss out on good deals.

Second, how do all of you divide your time at the major shows between: shopping, playing in tournaments/events, playing pick-up games, attending seminars, taking a break from the tournament to go get a decent bite to eat, etc...and when are the best times to shop? From when I used to run a booth at comic cons, the best time to buy was always dealer day(which I won't be able to get into), the first day of the actual con, and then the last day, especially during the second half of the last day.

[chuckpint]

GenCon is a bit different then from a Comic Book Con. There is no dealer day, I guess dealers may go check each other out a bit on the day before while they are setting up. As for spending money, two things come to mind. First, I'd say about half the booths are manufacters of games or game related merchandise. For the most part they are not going to have any "deals", but instead be there to push their newest game, supplement or whatever, that is just coming out in time for GenCon. TSR (and now WotC) is famous for releasing tons of new books for the first time at GenCon. However, I have been in the exhibit hall during the last hour of the show. It's amazing what stuff they just give away, simply because they don't want to haul it back home.

A lot of the other half of the booths are retailers of some sort. Now what you may find there is that they carry the same stuff that your local gaming store carries, but since they are larger stores, they offer discounted prices. Or they have old stuff for sale that everybody else is out of. And they have a larger selection than many smaller local stores. So they just might have something that you never even saw at your local store, that you just have to get.

As for dividing your day up, I usually start with the events. Since you don't have any choice in event times (other than not going to that event), you have to schedule around the events. Note that the exhibit hall is only open from 10 to 6 each day, 10 to 4 on Sunday. Saturday is usaully so crowded you can hardly walk down the aisle without bumping into people. If you actually want to talk to a dealer about something, don't go on Saturday. As for eating, sleeping, etc., those are just things you don't do. Seriously, we put a break in our events from 4-5 each day just so you have a chance to go eat some dinner. A number of nearby eateries are open late, some 24hours. And there is always the munchies in your backpack trick as well. I always carry some energy bars and things like that, just so if I get caught short on time to eat, I don't have to go without eating anything. And unlike CCGs, no one playing dice games worries too much about food and drink messing up their dice.
_________________
You can never have too many dice.
First Place at the first ever Daemon Dice sealed starter tournament.
Battlefest tied for first GenCon 2012
Single Race Champion GenCon 2008-2009, Sealed Box Champion GenCon 2007,2009,
My collection is 21,500 Dragon Dice, 20,000 Daemon Dice, and others (too many to count).

[slcobbs]

You definitely want to budget at least 2-3 hours for totally exploring the exhibit hall. The first time I went to a con I was completely Awe struck. The Exhibit hall at Gencon is mammoth. So, be prepared to wander the hall for a long time.

Scott C

[cliffwiggs]

I agree, you can waste half a day just casualy scanning everything in the hall, and that includes all the other convention attendies. Bring a camera with lots of film/memory.

plus I normally eat once a day while at a convention. During the day I just get so caught up I forget to.

[deputyfife]

[deputyfife]

One more convention story: the coolest fan I ever saw at a Con was an ex-military guy who had a special water pack on his back (essentially looked like a backpack) that kept the liquid cool, and had a tube that rested about 1 inch from his mouth. Anytime he wanted, he just grabbed the tube with his mouth and took a drank. No need for a cup, stopping to get liquids, etc....

I found a "civilian" version for bike riding, but it doesn't keep the liquid cool (beyond being insulated, but his had some special cooling ablility), doesn't sit right against my back, doesn't hold near as much liquid, and all the straps are a pain.

Okay, next question:

Approximately how much of the total convention time do you usually portion out to events? I realize the rest of my schedule will be made around them, but if there are probably 12-14 good gaming hours every day of Gencon, except maybe Sunday, how many of those do gamers usually spend in events?
I'm looking to get 4 DD events in at least, and then at least one each of D&D minis, Star Wars minis, LOTR minis, and possibly Star Wars CCG if they have anything. (Dragon Dice, I love you, you know that. But we've talked about this, I've got to be free to play other games. I'm not a one-game guy.)
I'm wondering if my eyes are bigger than I'm going to be able to handle, because I'm also hoping for some pick-up games, trying one or two new things I've never seen before Gencon, and maybe a few boardgames if there are some interesting ones being played.
Also, do events ever sell out? Does it happen often?
And nobody answered my question about planning my spending. I'm the type of guy who will go to the ATM and say "Well, since I'm here, I might as well take out the max, but THIS is all I'm spending at the show." Next day: "Well, since I'm here to get money out anyway, I might as well take out the max, but THIS......

[cliffwiggs]

[deputyfife]

[koslowj]

[wuxia]

I always pre-register for those events that I really want to take part in. Some of the miniature tournaments have seat restrictions. I also sign up for some game systems that I want to try or a particular time period that I don't have much experience with. I primarily do miniatures so thats my slant on events at these big cons.

You can also purchase generic tokens that can be used to sit and play at a table of something that just catches your eye.

The exhibit hall is awesome. If there is a new game out that I want, I get there to buy it before it is sold out. I can easily spend 4 hours just looking (or is it drooling) at all the stuff. I have picked up some good buys, but nothing "super good". If nothing else, save shipping cost. I spend about 1/4 of gaming funds for the year on products. In addition to that is about $80 or so just for 4day pass and events. Then add in food/lodging.

I make a generic spreadsheet with the 4 days and 30min time slots in columns. Fill in all my "must" events and shop time. Anything left is food, friends, and pick up games. Yea, I know, spreadsheet may be a little geeky, but I am a Gamer! (organized gamer too)

[deputyfife]

[Netherworlder]

[arcbat]

The chess-type game sounds like Navia Dratp. Which has one of the worst names ever given to a game. Exhibit A - you couldn't remember it, like countless thousands of other gamers. Exhibit B - you can't pronounce it, even if you can remember it. It's a fun game, but it costs too much to get a pair of starters. Plus, it's collectible. So there's even more to buy.

As for sleep: Last year at GenCon Indy, I slept 4 hours total between 8am on Thursday and 8pm on Sunday. An hour-long nap here or there will keep you going. You wouldn't think it possible - but I have done it.

Free food is your friend. It leaves you more money for games. Snacks from home are great, and easy to munch on the run. I recommend Slim Jim's and string cheese. Embassy Suites has free breakfast and a free manager's reception in the afternoon. You can eat a huge b'fast that will hold you all day. The manager's reception usually has snacks, which will carry you on into the evening hours. So I never end up paying for more than 1 meal a day.

Swag is good. A lot of companies give out a lot of free product for those who do demos and such. Wizards always gives out a ton of free product, but that involves numerous demos and much waiting. It's up to you to determine if it's worth it, but 4 hours of demos may get you $50 of product. Unfortunately, there's usually a random element in the WotC give-away, so you might end up with far less (or more, depending). This is well worth doing on Thursday and Friday. On Saturday and Sunday, there will be a lot more waiting in line, and the demos are much harder to get into, because of the huge crowds. Plus, WotC never fails to get stingy by the end of the con. I got the Eberron hardcover book, a pack of D&D giant minis, and Risk: Godstorm on a Friday. On Sunday, I got a Neopets starter. The goodies definitely ramp down as the weekend goes by.

Other companies have free stuff that you can easily get with a 15-minute demo - maybe starters, maybe t-shirts, maybe promo cards/minis/dice/etc. Those are usually worth doing, if you have any interest at all in the game. The Vs CCG usually is a good place to get T-shirts. And Looney Labs and other small game companies may have promo cards available for anyone who walks by the booth.

Many companies that don't give away free stuff still have good cheap stuff at the cons. I've bought $10 books and modules for $1. I've gotten yellow-ink Magi for 50 cents. (Hopefully SFR will have the gumball machines again this year.) And on the last day, the companies are definitely willing to deal. Well, some of them are. I've gotten whole bags full of free Heroclix by waiting until the last day. And then there's salvage. Some companies would rather throw stuff away than haul it home. Last year I got about 200 lbs of free magazines that would have otherwise gone in the trash. Be on the lookout for things like that.

Jason
Seasoned GenCon Veteran and Swagmeister

[arcbat]

Well, there was a batch of words for the spelling cow. (Why I should trust a cow is beyond me...)

GenCon, SoCal, Navia Dratp, CCG, Eberron, Godstorm, Neopets, WotC, Heroclix, Looney...

I just told it to ignore everything, since I couldn't add words.

[arcbat]

[deputyfife]

Thanks! Great advice, and exactly what I was looking for.

So what are the True Adventures? Is that some sort of live role-playing?

There is no way I'm doing one of those "4 hours sleep in 4 days." I did that plenty of times during finals, and I don't think my body could even handle it anymore. I'll be bad enough at DD as it is. I'm sure I'll be able to budget some sleeping time in.

Is the exhibit hall really not worth going in to on Sat. and Sun? I'm assuming I'd be out of money by then anyway, but just wondering.

So who from the message boards here will be at Gencon? It looks like I'm not going to Origins, since I think it is July 4th weekend, right? That's a big family tradition, and I can't miss it to play games.

[slcobbs]

[deputyfife]

[arcbat]

True Adventures runs a couple of really super-cool events, True Dungeon and True Heroes. TD is based on D&D, and TH is based on the comics (last year it was X-Men). They are live-action, walk-through events, but are really not LARP. They focus more on puzzle-solving, and resolve combat with either a shuffleboard-variant (TD) or a darts-variant (TH). The role-playing aspect is left up to each group - you can get totally into it if you like, or not at all into it if you prefer. You can be quite successful without role-playing, which differentiates it from most LARPs. The sets are really awesome, though. True Dungeon is like walking through and actual D&D dungeon. You can play all the basic classes, with each class having its own special abilities. For more info, check out : http://www.truedungeon.com The TD website also has the info for True Heroes. If you like the looks of it, sign up very soon, as it does sell out very fast.

[slcobbs]