Is GenCon Worth It?
I survived GenCon. Or I guess not yet accurate as I write these words–tragedy on the tarmac is still on the table–but assuming I have not only written this sentence (a safe assumption for me at this moment) but also that I have lived to post it, I feel confident that I can mark myself “safe” from GenCon 2024 [Editor’s Note: all good]. My previous post detailed my first day at my first GenCon, as scheduled and attended by a bewildered novice.
I will also answer questions posed by a couple of my online TTRPG creator buddies: Is GenCon valuable (a) as a convention itself (i.e., to your average con-attendee), and (b) for indie TTRPG creators. I will also talk about what I would have done differently. The hope is that this post is helpful for anyone considering going to a future GenCon as well as people who have been before but are looking to maximize their enjoyment.
Additionally, I wrote a full blow-by-blow of a blowhard’s three days of gaming, but because the real meat of this post is answering the aforementioned questions (and because said write-up turned out to be quite long, tripling the length of this post), I have posted that to my Patreon, for patrons of any stripe. However, as a very, very brief summary, I attended more seminars, met up with a bunch of other RPG creators that I hitherto hadn’t yet met (but unfortunately didn’t get to meet with everyone–hopefully I’ll see you all next time!), and played the following games (not including those detailed in my last post): Arcs (board game) [5/5], various finger-based time-killing games that Yochai Gal knows [you have to guess how many fingers I’m holding up/5], Old School Essentials (The Dream Shrine, which is out now!) [5/5], Slugblaster: Kickflip Over a Quantum Centipede [5/5], Wanderhome [5/5], Mutant Crawl Classics (Offal Mongers of the Atrophic Hill) [3/5], and Yazeba’s Bed and Breakfast [5/5].
Is GenCon Fun?
Yeah. I mean, for me. I am sure it would have sucked if you hate TTRPGs, board games, card games, war games, shopping, and the state of Indiana. But I love TTRPGs and board games. Lukewarm to cold on the rest. Consider this your warning, state of Indiana!
Subpart: Okay, you prick, but what was so fun about it?
I would say that tops for me was hanging out with people who either I’ve been interacting with via the online (Discord, Twitter, etc.) for the past 4 years I’ve been blogging or people who I am mostly just a fanboy of. Meeting people was by far the highlight for me, from fellow creators to normal people who were somehow both aware of me and had a positive impression of me (my pollsters were shocked) to just people who I have no play culture based overlap with but with whom I had the pleasure of chatting.
It can be undervalued in a world where we have nearly unabated access to each other no matter how far just how nice it is to actually see a person face to face, to eat some food or drink with them. Conventions served that purpose back when game designers were mostly corresponding via letters and zine publications, but their role hasn’t truly been displaced by technology. I love meeting other bloggers, and when I know I’m headed somewhere where a colleague is, I like to make an effort to meet up (and have been fortunate enough to have met at least one handful of bloggers even before I attended GenCon).
The primary source of fun, especially for those you aren’t just looking to mingle with the designer of FishBlade RPG, are the games themselves. Yochai Gal spoke truth when he said that the move was to mostly do unscheduled, impromptu games, but for me, who didn’t have the luxury of not one but two dedicated sidekicks, having a few games on the docket each day gave me something to anchor all my plans around. It also allowed me to play a bunch of games I may have never otherwise. Now, I know that Slugblaster absolutely rules, and that the Cypher System is the one system that absolutely doesn’t matter. Actually playing games recharges me, and I feel supercharged after so much back-to-back roleplaying.
Is GenCon Worth It?
First, I must do math, which will give me the semblance of objectivity to what is ultimately a totally subjective determination. The cost of the 4-day badge was $143, the flight was about $400, the hotel was about $850 for the 4 nights (breakfast sold separately), I spent some modest amount of money on paid ticketed games and buying a few books from the exhibit hall, I also incurred a frustratingly high amount in Uber costs, and I’m sure spent marginally more (but honestly, not too much more) on food and drinks than I ordinarily do. So if Prismatic Wasteland had a CFO who wasn’t also the CEO (these aren’t actually extant titles), the question the CFO would ask is how much did we take in from the trip? Literally no money–maybe there is an economic value to getting to rub elbows with the movers and shakers in our little industry, but nothing that can be quantified and plugged into a spreadsheet. The point is, going to GenCon (solo) is just plain expensive! I could’ve reduced these costs by driving up to the convention instead of flying and figuring out a way to split room and board costs (efforts were made, but didn’t pan out this time), but even then, it is just a splurge if you are going mostly as a con attendee, as I did, and not working a booth or taking actual business meetings.
The “she rolled an important check and it landed on a 6 (critical success) but landed in her water cup” is one of those “you had to be there” kind of gaming moments…
A metric that I often use to justify my splurging (and also to point to TTRPGs, when bought to be played and not just read, and say “wow, what a swell deal!”) is comparing things to movie tickets. Movie tickets where I’m from are about $17 for 2 hours of entertainment. I spent a total of roughly 50 hours doing GenCon or GenCon-adjacent activities (which likely isn’t representative–at every moment it was possible to be doing something, I was doing something. My hotel was too far to take breaks and I am both an early bird and a night owl). If, instead, I spent 50 hours over 4 days watching the new Deadpool movie over and over and over, it would cost roughly $850 (and likely also my sanity). For some things, the value-over-movie was exponential: spending an hour playing a TTRPG I’ve never played before with people who are passionate enough about the medium to drop, at a minimum, hundreds of dollars just to be there, is so much better than just watching Twisters. It’s more akin to watching Twisters in 4DX where the chairs shake you, punch you, and spit on you as you watch the movie (I have not experienced this first hand, but have to assume it must rule because why else would you pay twenty five smackers just to get smacked around?). Other things are maybe closer to seeing a mediocre movie. I enjoyed just wandering around, but I won’t pretend it is Twisters 4DX-level (the new standard) of engaging.
My verdict is that the experience of going alone to GenCon is probably worth about $800-1,000, all in, if you are willing to say yes to every experience that is offered to you (for me; it’s subjective, and all this rationalization is pure hokum). So for me, this year’s trip was about 60-70% worth it. If you aren’t looking to cram as much into every moment of GenCon because of your crippling fear of death and instead want to take it easy and be more choosy about what you do, maybe it is closer to a value of $500-800 (remember, these numbers are made up). Because it is totally feasible to get the costs down to that about level (mostly by going halfsies or quartersies on accommodations and driving or doing some real extreme hitchhiking), I’d encourage fence sitters to consider it. Or maybe go to your local gaming convention first?
How Would I Do GenCon Differently Next Time?
My goal would be to go from 70% “worth it” to at least 100%, and the only ways to do that is some combination of making it cheaper and packing in a higher proportion of the activities I enjoyed the most. This would involve, for instance, (A) perhaps arriving on Thursday morning instead of Wednesday night to cut out one night from the hotel (GenCon really starts heating up each day after about 10am, so the 8-10am hours are a bit more superfluous), (B) driving instead of flying, which would entail a trade off of time for money, but if I could get anyone to carpool with me, might feel worth it—a few local friends are considering going up with me next time since it’s only an 8 hour drive one way, which is doable, (C) splitting lodging costs with one or more people [this is the most high impact option], (D) booking a hotel closer to the convention center, which wouldn’t reduce costs but would increase my ability to sleep–I was getting up around 5 A.M. each day to get some of my IRL job’s work done before heading to the convention, (E) booking an Airbnb instead of what is described in the preceding sentence. If I were to get an Airbnb with friends, it would also potentially a good way to play even more games with people, (F) play more games, which would be difficult without staying longer, but I could manage, and (G) run my own games. I am a forever-GM by choice, not by circumstance, because I enjoy it more than playing. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy playing too, but refereeing is sublime. And although I am no aspiring Matt Mercer, I am pretty good at it.
The games I would be interested in running are first and foremost a session of Barkeep on the Borderlands for the latest time slot I can get where myself and whichever players desireth so can follow up the game with going out to the bars for an IRL pubcrawl in Indianapolis. If you’re local, give me your downtown Indy bar recommendations. I’d also like to run some playtests for my next adventure, and GenCon seems like an ideal place to do that. I also want to just play more games with people I know from my past four years trapped in the walls of the internet. Getting GenCon to be 100% worth it, for me, seems doable. I enjoyed this year’s convention, but I am an advancementpilled improvementcel, always twirling, twirling, twirling toward freedom.
As a final word, you have ONE WEEK left to submit your entry for Barkeep Jam! This weekend is the perfect weekend to cram for the jam and get out something. I’ll be highlighting my favorite entries on this blog once the jam concludes. Jam on.
This was gone when I went back to this booth on the last day. Did someone actually buy it?!
