Hey friends,

I am going to Gencon this year and I will be helping out run some events with the Shuttle tydirium Crew, just got the week pass and wives blessing.

If you would like to meet up in real life drop a line below and when I know where they are going to stuff us at Gencon will update.

I have to skip Gencon this year to make the Chaos Cup in September. Will make it back out next year for sure

My choices this year were Worlds, GenCon, or potentially traveling with several other California and Nevada players to Nova.

Frankly, there's a lot to do in DC before I even approach a table.

I am considering Nova.. budget and dates depending this year..

Nothing this year south of the border.

im still in “application pending” limbo.

I am travelling to the US in August for an extended family holiday. So potential to make GenCon, which would be amazing. (Especially as I am missing Euros and UK nationals this year) However, I need to convince my wife!

Is GenCon family friendly in your folks’ experience? My kids love board games (they are 7 and 5).

Clearly we need American reinforcements at NOVA. The damned Canucks came and stole our trophy last year...

2 hours ago, Mundo said:

Is GenCon family friendly in your folks’ experience? My kids love board games (they are 7 and 5).

Honestly, not really. I'm a father, but I don't think I'd try taking my kids to Gencon until they were at least 10. I've been to Gencon the past 5 years, and it's gotten progressively more crowded each year (especially on Saturday and Sunday). It is crowded to the point that moving around the dealer hall takes great patience, and trying to navigate such crowds with two young children in tow would stress me out. The place is generally overwhelming. You have to stay together as a group, which likely means no one is doing what they'd really want to be doing. You might get lucky and find a kid-friendly game you can all demo while walking around the dealer hall, but there is no guarantee you will or no way to know how long it'll take slogging through the crowd per worthwhile demo game. There are certainly some children at Gencon, but not many, and they often seem to be sitting at a table bored or staring at a screen while their dad plays a game.

That being said, if you kids really like particular games, look and see if there are any Gencon events that would suit them (most list any age requirements or recommendations). Then try to book these (and by that, I mean the very minute the event registration goes live, process your cart because most events sell out the day of registration opening). You need to have purchased a badge for everyone you are booking an event for, so it can be a bit of a gamble. Gencon is kind of like Disney in that to get the most out of the trip you really need to plan and book everything months in advances and have a set schedule of events with tickets in hand. Otherwise, you're getting a lot less bang for your buck. That said, if this pre-planning looks promising, I can imagine kids would enjoy quite a bit of the spectacle that is associated with Gencon.

@AllWingsStandyingBy Thanks for the advice - sounds like it would be a tough sell! In which case I will stick to the original plan.

We leave the US on 1 September, so sadly can’t sneak off for NOVA either!

I’ll disagree about the kids answer. It really depends on you and your kids. Yes, they’re too young to just turn loose, but there’s plenty of things for you to do with them. If they aren’t good in crowds - and Gen Con has varying degrees of crowds from jam packed in the exhibit hall to game rooms of all sizes from 10 people to thousands - then you’ll want to plan downtime away from the con at the Children’s Museum or the zoo, both nearby.

Looking forward to another year at GenCon. I have press credentials again, so hopefully I can snag more interviews with various FFG folks.

I wont be there this year blew my vacation time on taking the kids to England. But I will be back leading an Atlanta contingent next year

On 3/30/2018 at 1:37 AM, Mundo said:

I am travelling to the US in August for an extended family holiday. So potential to make GenCon, which would be amazing. (Especially as I am missing Euros and UK nationals this year) However, I need to convince my wife!

Is GenCon family friendly in your folks’ experience? My kids love board games (they are 7 and 5).

Lots of kids running around last time I was there. Bigger question is where you're visiting? Are you going to be in Indiana? Chicago?

6 hours ago, thecactusman17 said:

Lots of kids running around last time I was there. Bigger question is where you're visiting? Are you going to be in Indiana? Chicago?

We are in Florida for the last 2 weeks of August, but the first few weeks are wide open. We fly into JFK, and plan on hiring a car to travel down into Virginia and do some outdoor activities, horse riding, camping etc. Long story short, we could get a flight from JFK to Indianapolis when we arrive then just start our road trip from there!

The Birmingham (Alabama) Contingent will be at Gencon this year, but I don't think any of us are playing in events as of right now. It would be cool to meet up with folks though.

52 minutes ago, moodswing5537 said:

The Birmingham (Alabama) Contingent will be at Gencon this year, but I don't think any of us are playing in events as of right now. It would be cool to meet up with folks though.

This isn't a terrible idea. I've played in the X-Wing/Armada NA Championship events as long as they've been at Gencon, and frankly I'm thinking about skipping them this year. The prize support and attention FFG gives them has become abysmal, with System Open Series offering like five times more prize support. Last year during the Armada event it was difficult to hear your opponent because FFG was doing some loud obnoxious ceremony for their relaunch of LR5, so they had people presenting on a loud speaker, Japanese drummers, crowd chants, and the like that was distracting and made it hard to communicate with your opponent. To top it all off, L5R had buckets and buckets of amazing prize support while Armada had basically nothing, and best of all is that a portion of the prizes (the medallions) weren't even on hand and it took FFG almost 5 months to mail them to us. The winner of the event is supposed to be able to help influence an upcoming Alt Art card selection for Armada, but has yet heard nothing on that front last time I talked with him.


I was so underwhelmed with the support and attention last year, that after Armada I dropped the X-Wing ticket and spent a day actually going around the convention and doing other stuff and it was so much better. That being said, you don't want to go to Gencon without any plans at all -- definitely buy some tickets for events for the games you like or demos you might want to try. Being at Gencon with no plan and no tickets will likely be a squandered experience, as cool as it is to wonder around the dealer hall and check out the tables and games being played throughout the game hall, that's only gonna fill about a day.

Also keep in mind that badges sold out last year and are likely to sell out again this year, so buy them as soon as you know for certain that you'll attend.

I had to miss Gen Con last year because Europe was our top vacation priority, and we can't afford two vacations that cost thousands of dollars each. I'll be back this year, waiting to plan my schedule once the event listings come out in the next few weeks.

@moodswing5537 - you better play Armada because playing against someone on Vassal only half counts. If you are into even just a session of it, I'll likely be GMing Starfinder Society for Paizo with my fancy GM rig in some of the rest of my time.

I will be there this year! Don't know exactly what I'm gonna be doing yet, but it'll certainly be "something".

1 hour ago, comatose said:

I'll likely be GMing Starfinder Society for Paizo with my fancy GM rig in some of the rest of my time.

OMG.

My son @FunkyPriest is super taken by Starfinder so far.

57 minutes ago, CaribbeanNinja said:

OMG.

My son @FunkyPriest is super taken by Starfinder so far.

Oh, THAT Starfinder! now I'M super psyched!

4 hours ago, comatose said:

Also keep in mind that badges sold out last year and are likely to sell out again this year, so buy them as soon as you know for certain that you'll attend.

I had to miss Gen Con last year because Europe was our top vacation priority, and we can't afford two vacations that cost thousands of dollars each. I'll be back this year, waiting to plan my schedule once the event listings come out in the next few weeks.

@moodswing5537 - you better play Armada because playing against someone on Vassal only half counts. If you are into even just a session of it, I'll likely be GMing Starfinder Society for Paizo with my fancy GM rig in some of the rest of my time.

Shoot me a link when they post the events for your starfinder stuff if its on the schedule. I know we'd love to sit in on one to see it. It's one I'm considering running eventually.

3 hours ago, moodswing5537 said:

Shoot me a link when they post the events for your starfinder stuff if its on the schedule. I know we'd love to sit in on one to see it. It's one I'm considering running eventually.

The way Starfinder Society works is that I’ll be assigned to GM particular scenarios at specific times. You’ll want tickets for those scenarios and times, and then find which table I am at so you can request to be sent to it. I’ll send you and Gene a PM when I have that schedule.

We will at least get some kind of forum meetup setup for the weekend. Maybe dinner/drinks after the Armada finals.

Secured my ticket for the Armada tourney at GenCon. We should do a meetup for drinks and dinner after the Swiss rounds on Saturday.

On ‎4‎/‎2‎/‎2018 at 6:19 AM, AllWingsStandyingBy said:

This isn't a terrible idea. I've played in the X-Wing/Armada NA Championship events as long as they've been at Gencon, and frankly I'm thinking about skipping them this year. The prize support and attention FFG gives them has become abysmal, with System Open Series offering like five times more prize support. Last year during the Armada event it was difficult to hear your opponent because FFG was doing some loud obnoxious ceremony for their relaunch of LR5, so they had people presenting on a loud speaker, Japanese drummers, crowd chants, and the like that was distracting and made it hard to communicate with your opponent. To top it all off, L5R had buckets and buckets of amazing prize support while Armada had basically nothing, and best of all is that a portion of the prizes (the medallions) weren't even on hand and it took FFG almost 5 months to mail them to us. The winner of the event is supposed to be able to help influence an upcoming Alt Art card selection for Armada, but has yet heard nothing on that front last time I talked with him.


I was so underwhelmed with the support and attention last year, that after Armada I dropped the X-Wing ticket and spent a day actually going around the convention and doing other stuff and it was so much better. That being said, you don't want to go to Gencon without any plans at all -- definitely buy some tickets for events for the games you like or demos you might want to try. Being at Gencon with no plan and no tickets will likely be a squandered experience, as cool as it is to wonder around the dealer hall and check out the tables and games being played throughout the game hall, that's only gonna fill about a day.

This, plus it was day 1 and my friends got TONS of promos that were all sold out by the time I dropped from the tourney. I gave up a top 32 prize to get a few promos that were still available in the trader area as they required you to not drop to collect a prize, even if you qualified with 0 more points Hoping to make it next year but playing in the main Armada tourney is dependant on schedule.