GenCon Day 2

Despite us only staying half of day 2, I think it was even better than Day 1.  I was rested and able to do a lot more walking.  We learned the layout of gencon, and there are significant shortcuts to be taken through the convention center, which cut miles off my day.  Once again we were at the exhibition hall at open, and the crowd was smaller.

I got to catch up with Andy Hopp today, the artist and creator of Low Life.  He really is a great guy to meet in person and he took time out not only to sign my Low Life book, but also drew a couple of sketches in there.  He signed art cards for my kids.  We also picked up a dice bag for my wife and I got the limited edition miniature he had on sale.  It feels good to be able to support such a great contributor of new, unique content in the gaming world.

We also made it to Pelgrane Press over in the front left corner of the exhibition hall.  They were parked right next to an impressive Dr Who section.  Pelgrane Press has made a big impact this year with their rules-light d20-based system called 13th Age.  After all of the great things I had read, I was really happy to be able to pick up a copy, and for exact change, they also gave us an "exact change" die, which turns out to be the perfect die to use as an escalation die.  I am going to post separately on 13th Age.  We wandered around the hall for over an hour before we had to get back to our hotel.

The hotel wasn't letting us stay parked for the rest of the day in their parking garage, so we decided to head home after checkout.  We packed in a lot of stuff for our first gencon and learned a lot of stuff for the next time we decide to attend.

Here's my quick lessons learned list from my first gencon.

• Get a central hotel to minimize walking.  The JW Marriot is on the far end of the convention center.  Because of the extra walking distance, I didn't make it to any of my sessions.  All the sessions I signed up for were primarily in the Crown Plaza.  The Crown Plaza would have been ideal.  The Westin was also in a pretty good spot.
• Arrive on Wednesday night to get your badge, coupon book(!), and program.  The coupon books and programs seem to run out even on Thursday.
• Don't eat at the convention center.  It really is as bad as everyone says.  The food trucks were awesome.
• Order pizza from Hotbox pizza.  I don't know how it fares in the Chicago style pizza challenges of real connoisseurs, but it was better than most places I am used to.  They deliver to hotel lobbies.
• Pack light but make sure you have room for stuff.  Wherever you go, you are going to get free swag and find stuff to buy.
• Bring a couple of bottles of water with you each day in your pack.
• Don't underestimate the time it takes to walk around.  To get from the exhibition hall to hotel was a good twenty minutes walk, though I was hampered by a cane.
• Wear comfortable shoes and comfy clothes.
• Prioritize your plan to visit places in the exhibition hall.  Be prepared to stop by multiple times in case the person you want to visit is busy or out for lunch.
• Plan on meeting "famous" people.  I even got to talk to Monte Cooke with essentially no line.  It was amazing how accessible people are in the exhibition hall.  My wife and daughter even met the Dungeon Bastard in the hall and had a pleasant encounter.
• Explore.  The convention center has a lot of nooks and crannies that your won't even know are there if you don't wander.  There are things going on all over, even at night.  There are games everywhere.
• Be friendly and talk to people.  Everyone was really nice and friendly.  Its a good place to socialize.  In the art section in particular, there were a lot of booths manned with no one to talk to.  They liked having company.
• Fly your geek flag.  Now is the time to show what you like.  I was very surprised to get positive comments on my day one t-shirt:  "It's too late.  You have awakened the gazebo."