GenCon is in full swing and I'm not there again. Al least I am very consistent. I've missed every year. Each year I saw I've got to plan to go, but it just never happens. But I won't give up, maybe next year I'll take the trip. But at the same time I think I would really enjoy going to the North Texas Con and the OSRCon. Crap, now I need to make a list.
My question for this Friday is, what was/is your favorite con that you've experienced?
+Rob Conley and I went to Origins a few years ago and that was fun. But it was mainly a shopping trip. We did get to game with +Ken St. Andre, but that was the only game we played. We were there for about 8 hours. It took a long time to go through all the vendors.
Probably my favorite con experience was my first. Somewhere in a mist of the late 80s a group of us went to a con in Butler, PA. I forget what it was called. I think there was four of us and we all won some great stuff. My favorite part was when we enter the Steve Jackson Illuminati game. There were three of us who joined and there were twelve players overall. We came in separately. Sat apart. And it wasn't until the end that the other players figured out we were working together. The realization was priceless. They scrambled to gather together, but it was too late. We crushed them under our heel.
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Coscon I still have some of the award certificates.
ReplyDeleteIn my early days of gaming, I didn't have much interest in cons, but I had the time. Now that I have the interest, I have no time. I would like to go to the North Texas, OSR, and Troll Con.
ReplyDeleteI love Gen Con. Now I take my kids and they love it too.
ReplyDeleteMy first con was "KommandKon" - A small local wargaming convention back in the early 80s hosted by the (long-since-closed) FLGS "The Panzer Hut". It was very small, but it had RPGs, a few vendors, and the entire gaming community in full force.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite con nowadays is Gary Con by a long shot.
Like Ken says above, I never really had an interest in conventions when I was a young gamer. Actually I might have had an interest if I lived near any cons and had the money to go! However, as a teen I sorta felt better as part of my own small gaming "community" that consisted of my friends. Now that I am older I have more of an interest, but it's not an overwhelming desire. Mostly, I am interested in seeing product at cons and maybe plsying in games to meet new gamers. But like above, I have interest now but no time!
ReplyDeleteP.S. The only con I've been to would be TrollCon East in early 2011. It was a relatively small event, as cons go. It was held in the awesome South Jersey game store called All Things Fun! The Troll Lord Games folks came out from Arkansas for a few days and they were awesome! Like I said, it was a small even and therefore we got to have a lot of personal time with the creators of Castles & Crusades!
DeleteP.P.S. I would love to get to GenCon at least once in my life. I think any gamer should get there at least one time, to experience it. Someday...
DeleteCosCon still happens in Butler (I grew up in Butler, but have lived in Pittsburgh for about 20 years). I've checked the schedule for each of the past few years, but it seems to be mostly living campaigns and organized play stuff as far as scheduled RPGs.
ReplyDeleteI've gone to GASPCon in the Pittsburgh area for the past four years and always have a lot of fun. There is a good mix of old school, story games, and newer stuff. The schedule is looking a little thin this year (November 8-10). I'm running Mutant Future, Swords & Wizardry, and DCC RPG. Others are running Marvel TSR, Labyrinth Lord, LotFP, and Empire of the Petal Throne.
I went to GaryCon earlier this year and it was fantastic. It felt like a local con, in the sense that the focus was on gaming rather than focusing on selling. I'm registered for next year's NTRPG Con and I hope to go to GaryCon again.
Now I really want to convert an old Pizza Hut into a gaming store called Panzer Hut.
ReplyDeletePanzer the Hut
DeleteYou have to appeal to the whole spectrum.
I went to the San Diego Comic Con for 11 years straight from 1996 to 2006. Saw it evolve (devolve?) into something almost unrecognizable from my first experience (which was my favorite one). I got to go to Gen Con once a few years ago, as a vendor when I worked for ACD Distributions. It was interesting, and I am hoping to go again as a patron, and really take in everything it has to offer.
ReplyDeleteBut, I'm really excited to be hitting up Gamehole Con (an odd name until you read where it came from) here in Madison, WI, this Novemeber. Get to sit in on a meet & greet with Ernie Gygax, and play in a game run by David "Zeb" Cook. Should be a blast!
I've only been to Origins (a couple of times). I would really love to go to GenCon one day (I keep promising myself I will). North Texas and OSR con are both tempting too.
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ReplyDeleteYou have to go to NorthTex.
Gotta be gencon 2014. Already on my calendar.
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