Gen Con 2017 (August 17-20) Gathering For Buffs™ meet-up.

[Cordovan]

GenCon Pro Tips from someone who has gone the past 6 years.

1. Do not buy your badge online.

2. Do not buy your badge online then try and buy tickets online. They sell out within seconds and you will be extremely frustrated.

3. Buy your badge when you arrive Wednesday. Little to no line, general tickets are cheap and you can almost always squeeze in to the game you want by using general event tickets.

4. Get a hotel away from downtown. We are staying about 10-12 minutes away paying $89/night. Uber is cheap. ~$12 to ride downtown and you avoid traffic, hassle, and paying $20-30 to park near the ICC for a day. Uber kicks butt.

5. Flying is cheap. I pay around $200 at most for tickets bought around March/April. You can still find tickets and Uber to your hotel.

6. Plan your Vendor trip in mid-morning or afternoon. Avoid the Vendor hall when it first opens and at lunchtime it is wall-to-wall people.

7. There is always D&D, Pathfinder, board games, card games 24x7. Around the clock from Wednesday to Sunday night you can find some group of people running some kind of game.

In general I'd agree, although I personally prefer buying my badge online and getting it mailed to me, so I can just walk in on Thursday without having to deal with lines. If you can arrive in time for the Wednesday pick-up, it's not too bad, but DO NOT try to pick up your badge on Thursday, unless you want to spend most of the day waiting in line. I would also add that the convention center is nuts when the con opens each day, but if you show up a half hour later, you can usually just walk right in.

[Uska]

GenCon Pro Tips from someone who has gone the past 6 years.

1. Do not buy your badge online.

2. Do not buy your badge online then try and buy tickets online. They sell out within seconds and you will be extremely frustrated.

3. Buy your badge when you arrive Wednesday. Little to no line, general tickets are cheap and you can almost always squeeze in to the game you want by using general event tickets.

4. Get a hotel away from downtown. We are staying about 10-12 minutes away paying $89/night. Uber is cheap. ~$12 to ride downtown and you avoid traffic, hassle, and paying $20-30 to park near the ICC for a day. Uber kicks butt.

5. Flying is cheap. I pay around $200 at most for tickets bought around March/April. You can still find tickets and Uber to your hotel.

6. Plan your Vendor trip in mid-morning or afternoon. Avoid the Vendor hall when it first opens and at lunchtime it is wall-to-wall people.

7. There is always D&D, Pathfinder, board games, card games 24x7. Around the clock from Wednesday to Sunday night you can find some group of people running some kind of game.

Out of curiosity what hotel

[Grimlock]

Out of curiosity what hotel

I travel each year with around 5-6 friends that play in various D&D tabletop games. One of them booked our hotel this year which I want to say is a Super 8 around 10 miles or so South of downtown. We have not stayed here before as we usually rotate. One year we were fortunate enough to get a room at the Conrad for around $220-230/night which was fantastic. Getting in the GenCon housing block is a waste of your life force so don't even try. If you want to stay downtown my suggestion is to reserve your room while you are at GenCon for the following year, or be prepared to pay $500+/night. No, I am not making that number up. Rooms this year can cost that much or more downtown if there are any left.

Again, buy your badge Wednesday evening when there is no line (you can go any time at night we usually do this around 8 or 9pm to buy our badges/general tix). Walk by the game you want to play at and look for the ST in advance to see if you can get on a wait list if they are full. I do a White Wolf LARP every year which runs Thursday-Friday-Saturday nights from 7pm-1am and for me that game is worth the trip to GenCon with friends by itself. Getting on a table for Pathfinder or D&D is extremely easy as these games run constantly. I wouldn't hold your breath for anything Warhammer related people buy those tickets within seconds of being released and you have no chance at all of making the list if you don't have tickets.

[cdbd3rd]

GenCon Pro Tips from someone who has gone the past 6 years.

1. Do not buy your badge online.

2. Do not buy your badge online then try and buy tickets online. They sell out within seconds and you will be extremely frustrated.

3. Buy your badge when you arrive Wednesday. Little to no line, general tickets are cheap and you can almost always squeeze in to the game you want by using general event tickets.

4. Get a hotel away from downtown. We are staying about 10-12 minutes away paying $89/night. Uber is cheap. ~$12 to ride downtown and you avoid traffic, hassle, and paying $20-30 to park near the ICC for a day. Uber kicks butt.

5. Flying is cheap. I pay around $200 at most for tickets bought around March/April. You can still find tickets and Uber to your hotel.

6. Plan your Vendor trip in mid-morning or afternoon. Avoid the Vendor hall when it first opens and at lunchtime it is wall-to-wall people.

7. There is always D&D, Pathfinder, board games, card games 24x7. Around the clock from Wednesday to Sunday night you can find some group of people running some kind of game.

All good suggestions.

8. Budget time on Friday evening to stop by the Gathering™.

[Seikojin]

In general I'd agree, although I personally prefer buying my badge online and getting it mailed to me, so I can just walk in on Thursday without having to deal with lines. If you can arrive in time for the Wednesday pick-up, it's not too bad, but DO NOT try to pick up your badge on Thursday, unless you want to spend most of the day waiting in line. I would also add that the convention center is nuts when the con opens each day, but if you show up a half hour later, you can usually just walk right in.

Make friends with a vendor booth and ghost.

[Uska]

I travel each year with around 5-6 friends that play in various D&D tabletop games. One of them booked our hotel this year which I want to say is a Super 8 around 10 miles or so South of downtown. We have not stayed here before as we usually rotate. One year we were fortunate enough to get a room at the Conrad for around $220-230/night which was fantastic. Getting in the GenCon housing block is a waste of your life force so don't even try. If you want to stay downtown my suggestion is to reserve your room while you are at GenCon for the following year, or be prepared to pay $500+/night. No, I am not making that number up. Rooms this year can cost that much or more downtown if there are any left.

Again, buy your badge Wednesday evening when there is no line (you can go any time at night we usually do this around 8 or 9pm to buy our badges/general tix). Walk by the game you want to play at and look for the ST in advance to see if you can get on a wait list if they are full. I do a White Wolf LARP every year which runs Thursday-Friday-Saturday nights from 7pm-1am and for me that game is worth the trip to GenCon with friends by itself. Getting on a table for Pathfinder or D&D is extremely easy as these games run constantly. I wouldn't hold your breath for anything Warhammer related people buy those tickets within seconds of being released and you have no chance at all of making the list if you don't have tickets.

Still waiting to see if they extend my contract here if they do I will try your suggestion, it's only 2.5 hours to Indy if I don't make gen con at least I have origins and I have a great hotel there. My preferred game will only have limited slots so I might miss out on that

[cdbd3rd]

Well, Event Registration went live about 50 minutes ago. I got my Wish List clicked in within the first second and have been watching the little swirly spinning since while my Wish List picks slowly click over to grey.

This would be SO irritatingly frustrating if I was primarily going to Gen Con for the gaming.

Hope everyone else is having better luck.

edit: Got ticket for 1 game from my list. woot, i guess?

[Uska]

Well, Event Registration went live about 50 minutes ago. I got my Wish List clicked in within the first second and have been watching the little swirly spinning since while my Wish List picks slowly click over to grey.

This would be SO irritatingly frustrating if I was primarily going to Gen Con for the gaming.

Hope everyone else is having better luck.

edit: Got ticket for 1 game from my list. woot, i guess?

I had better luck with origins got all I wanted, got zero for gen con since I decided to set up just in case and since I go for primarily gaming I'm feel less likely to go even though it's the 50th

[xCataluna]

I got everything I wanted. The spouse got locked out of one Star Wars game he wanted due to prioritizing things incorrectly.
And as a group we managed to get both our high-demand group events.

I'm sorry you guys didn't have better luck!

[Uska]

I got everything I wanted. The spouse got locked out of one Star Wars game he wanted due to prioritizing things incorrectly.
And as a group we managed to get both our high-demand group events.

I'm sorry you guys didn't have better luck!

Well it is a high attendance con might still go just to go to dealers room it's only 2.5 hours from here and would be cool to go to Gary con, Origins and gen con all the same year

[cdbd3rd]

... would be cool to go to Gary con, ...

That one got my attention. Just signed up for their newsletter.

[Uska]

That one got my attention. Just signed up for their newsletter.

It's a fun and more intimate con around 2k attendees

[Pieter-Bas]

GenCon Europe 2017!!!
Preferably in the Netherlands!

Make.
It.
So!

????

[Cordovan]

I have my tickets, and have signed up for events, so I'll definitely be there. Since I am also driving, I will have a box of (mostly old) DDO swag. Friday's Gathering For Buffs should be cool, so peeps should set aside a few hours on Friday evening as they schedule things if they want to hang with DDO peeps.

[SgtSarros]

I have my tickets, and have signed up for events, so I'll definitely be there. Since I am also driving, I will have a box of (mostly old) DDO swag. Friday's Gathering For Buffs should be cool, so peeps should set aside a few hours on Friday evening as they schedule things if they want to hang with DDO peeps.

Old DDO swag is still DDO swag!

Unless you mean old as in 'worn by a dev to a previous con' old.. in which case can we get them with their signature on them?

[Cordovan]

Old DDO swag is still DDO swag!

Unless you mean old as in 'worn by a dev to a previous con' old.. in which case can we get them with their signature on them?

I just know some of the regular attendees probably already have at least some of this stuff. I do have a small number of 10th anniversary dice+bags, and even a few 10th Anniversary hoodies, although sizes tend to fall into the less-selected sizes. So, you may want to either gain or lose weight prior to August.

[LrdSlvrhnd]

I just know some of the regular attendees probably already have at least some of this stuff. I do have a small number of 10th anniversary dice+bags, and even a few 10th Anniversary hoodies, although sizes tend to fall into the less-selected sizes. So, you may want to either gain or lose weight prior to August.

I would advise in waiting to gain or lose weight until you see which way you need to go. The hoodie's heavy enough you're not gonna want to be wearing it in August anyway. *g*

[xCataluna]

Like Sarros said, old DDO swag is still DDO swag!
And since this is our first GenCon, any of it would be new to us. LOL. ;D

We're planning on being there between 8 and 10, before we scarper off for some True Dungeon.

[Amoneth]

I just know some of the regular attendees probably already have at least some of this stuff. I do have a small number of 10th anniversary dice+bags, and even a few 10th Anniversary hoodies, although sizes tend to fall into the less-selected sizes. So, you may want to either gain or lose weight prior to August.

How about sending some of those dice to the Eu players that lost out just because they were on the Eu servers and not the US ones at the time of qualification? Just sayin'

[Draculetta]

I would advise in waiting to gain or lose weight until you see which way you need to go. The hoodie's heavy enough you're not gonna want to be wearing it in August anyway. *g*

As someone who owns one of those hoodies, and also someone that lives in Indiana, I will confirm that you will NOT be wearing this at Gen Con