30 Tips for Gen Con–30 Days Until the Con!

Not to scare you, but as a publisher deadlines are approaching even earlier for us! Below is a list of helpful advice for attending Gen Con.  We’ve gone at least 10 times over the past 15 years and while we are at our booth most of the day, we do go to events each evening and get away from the booth a bit each day.

A lot of this advice (half?) we haven’t seen elsewhere, so much of it should be fresh!

A few weeks before you go (now/this week):

1. Scour the event listings a few more times.  You never know what events have been added late or if someone dropped a session. Take a look for things outside your comfort zone or maybe an old fave you haven’t played in a while.
2. If you haven’t been before, don’t overbook yourself.  Try to give yourself a session off each day if you weren’t already planning that.  Things can be far apart and you’ll need time to walk. Or extra time to eat healthier. Or time to browse the exhibit hall, sit in on a info session, try something new that catches your fancy, etc.
3. If you’re new, space things an hour apart so you are sure to make it–unless you can see events are in the same building–and maybe only if on the same floor.  Moving from one event to another can easily take 20 minutes–and that’s if you don’t get lost.
4. Look at the Board Game Geek flea market thread to buy/sell games. (You do have to arrange a time to meet the other person.)
5. If you want to put things in the official auction and related used games store, you need to list them early. Also, plan to wait in line for 1-2 hours when dropping them off.
6. Do you need to break in new shoes? If you’re not normally very active, time to start training…  Walk each day a little longer than the day before.  It is good for you too!

A week or so before you go:

1. Check out the exhibitor list and map and see who is coming. Check the exhibitors’ web sites a week or so beforehand to see what’s new. (For us, at booth 150, that’s Rock & Roar! for the Shadowdark and Old-School Essentials RPGs.)
2. Plan your route between events, food, and other key locations.
3. Take a picture of your collection so you know what you have! Especially if there is a line of products and you have 5 of the 8. Which 3 are you missing?
4. Have a backup charger ready.  You may be using your phone a lot more than normal.
5. The food truck listing should now (a week before the con) be available–give it a look to see what you might like there. But again, at meal times there can be a long wait.

Final Packing:

1. Don’t forget your badge, phone, medicine, and ID. Everything else can be replaced if needed.
2. Bring an extra large cloth bag. Keep it tucked in your other bag/backpack, but this way you’ll have it ready for any large purchase.
3. If flying, leave room in your suitcase for a few extra purchases.

At the Convention:

1. It has to be said: Eat as healthy as possible. Avoid the exhibit hall concessions. (This is one where we–running the booth–fail!) Drink water. Shower every day. Lots of advice is to sleep at least 3 hours a day… I need 7! (Or at least 6.)
2. Grab some generic tickets so if you see something with an open slot, you can join in. Or if there’s an even you really want to attend but officially it is full, with a generic you can get in if someone doesn’t show or if they can squeeze in one more.
3. Sharpie your name on the back of your badge. For some reason the lanyards turn badges backward more often than not! (OK, probably not, but we notice it more.) But having it on the other side helps other players in your games not say “Hey you!”
4. Pick up the coupon book. Many are just a percent off or get a little freebie with a large purchase (but maybe it is for a game you want)… but a few (like ours) are a freebie for a specialty die or some other stand alone thing. Update your exhibit hall map to include any booths with coupons you wanted to see.
5. Grab the program book. Its nice to have something that doesn’t project light into your eyes that you can flip through as you’re waiting in line or for your GM to arrive.
6. That said, make friends!  Talk to other folks waiting in line or during a session break or whatever.  While it isn’t likely someone is local to you–it does happen!  And even if someone isn’t local it is so much easier to play games online or just connect.
7. When playing a game (especially an RPG) fold a paper in half and make a tent card with your character name and key features (like ancestry & class) and even your real name. Some GMs bring index cards to do this for everyone. If yours doesn’t, usually there is a point early in a convention RPG session where each player details their character–jot each person/character’s name down on scratch paper so you can call a character by name and remember who is the cleric. 🙂
8. Forget to bring an extra bag? Many of the board game sellers have big bags, so if you’re planning on buying something pick that game up. Even if not, if you ask politely the larger ones will give you a bag. It is advertising for them that costs well under $1.
9. Bring a sweater or long sleeve shirt.  You never know when your table will be under the air conditioning.
10. Am I the only one who worries about shaking so many hands? Heck, I don’t think fist bumps are much better. Excuse while I get angry at some clouds. 🙂
11. Rest rooms are gender neutral.  Just wash your hands!
12. If you can, eat at odd times. Getting lunch at 2pm is going to be much easier than noon.
13. To make eating at odd times easier, bring a snack to hold you over. Pack apples, grapes, or even bananas to be healthy and they keep well for days.
14. Check out the auction and store. I find the auction schedule is more of a guideline, so unless you stumble on the right hour it can be hit or miss. But that’s OK, I’m more interested in the more reasonably priced store items.
15. As you browse the exhibit hall, take pictures of anything that you want to go back to–and get the booth number in the picture!  Every year before I did this I’d run into something I couldn’t find again.
16. Try new things!  Games on Demand runs sessions all day long showing off new, independent tabletop RPGs. And the many sponsored game rooms (like CGE’s) will let you walk up and get into a board game. (Theirs start every hour, IIRC.) During exhibit hall hours, many booths for board game publishers have demo areas where booth staff will teach and play the game with you.