DNAphil

I have been attending GenCon ever since it moved to Indianapolis, and over the past few years, I have picked up a few tips that can help the new GenCon attendee. Over the next few months, as we get closer to GenCon, I will be sharing those tips with you. In our first supplement, I will talk about Even Registration….

GenCon, known as The Best Four Days Of Gaming, is filled with various types of events for you to attend and enjoy. But Event Registration is tricky, fast-paced, and can be downright frustrating. In order to get into events you want to attend, you need to have a plan. So lets talk about this one step at a time…

Step 1: Get Your Badge
If you do not have a badge for attend GenCon then you cannot register for events. So first things first, make sure you have registered for your Badge, before event registration. That can be done by going to the GenCon Registration page.  Once you have your account set up, and your badge paid for, you can then think about events.

Step 2: Know The Event Types
There are 24 categories of events at GenCon. I will not be covering all of them in this post, but rather talking about a few important groups of events:

• Gaming Events- This category are games that someone has chosen to run for other people. This includes the Role Playing games (RPG), RPGA Sponsored events (RPGA), Board Games (BGM), Non-Collectible Card Games (CGM), LARP’s (LRP), Tradeable Card Games (TCG), and True Dungeon (TDA) events. These events all have a fixed number seat at the table, and they tend to be the events that fill up the quickest. The cost for these events is typically just a few dollars. These are the events you will want to register for as soon as registration starts.
• Seminars- This category, SEM, are open talks that are given by various people, on a wide range of topics. The important part here, is that these are listed with a fixed number of seat, but in truth as many people can attend these as can fit in the room. In addition, you do not really need a ticket to attend; seminar organizers do not collect tickets, for the most part. Having said that, and having given a number of seminars in the past, it is nice to register for these, so that the speaker knows how many people are attending, but these are events you can register for after the initial rush. Wait a day or two after the opening of registration and then come in and register.
• Workshops- This Category (WKS) are like seminars, as in they are not actual game events, but they are often hands-on types of events, and have limited seating. The tickets for these often cost a bit more, than a gaming event, because materials are often provided to you. While workshops do not fill up as fast as Gaming Events, they are a fixed number of seats, so consider registering for these when Registration opens.

Step 3: Recon Is Key
To show up to Registration day without a plan for which events you want to register for, is a recipe for disaster. Believe me that the pro’s at this have been reviewing the event lists and have a plan, with first choice and second choice events. You should be no different. Do not wander the registration system on opening day trying to figure out what you want to register for, because by the time you figure it out, it will be gone.

To get your list of choices in order, you need is an updated list of events. There are two ways to do this. The first is using the online search for events. I find this method to be slow and somewhat painful. Its not very good for quickly surveying what events are available.

What I prefer is to get the Excel file that contains all the events. That file can be found on the GenCon Community Download page, and it is updated daily. The file has all the information you will need. My advice is to open the file in Excel and then use the AutoFilter option under: Data –> Filter–> AutoFilter. Then you can limit the spreadsheet to the Event Types, Dates, Rule Systems, etc. This will let you sift through the list in different ways that will help you find what you are looking for.

Now go through the listing and make yourself a list of events you want to attend. What I find helps, is that I add a column to the spreadsheet and just put an “x” on any row for events that look interesting. Then later, I can filter that column to only show the x’s and see just the events I am interested in, and start to make some decisions.

When you are picking your events, be mindful of the times of the events and their durations. Gaming events are often 4 hours long, but Workshops and Seminars can be anywhere from 1-4 hours in duration. The first thing you need to do is to make sure that the events you are registering for do not overlap. While you are doing this, also pick some backup events in case your first choice events are full at the time you register. You are also going to want to make sure you have some time to do some of the non-gaming events like walking the convention floor, take in the auction room, viewing the art gallery, etc.

Also take into consideration things like times for meals, personal needs, etc. If you have a medical condition that requires you to eat at certain times, then make sure you are not gaming over lunch, etc. If you have transportation issues, like carpools and such, be mindful of those late games.

Step 4: Coordinate With Friends
If you are attending with friends, and you want to do some gaming together, then you all need to be making some lists and comparing them. A good tip, if you want to attend a Gaming Event with some friends, then choose one of you to buy the tickets for that event on Registration day. You can buy multiple tickets for an event, and then hand them out to friends. So rather than hoping that 4 of you can get registered separately for an individual event, designate one person to go in and buy all the tickets, and then just hand them out.

Step 5: Event Registration
Event Registration opens at 4/20 at 1:00 PM PDT (note the time zone), and 9:00 AM PDT for True Dungeon. The opening of Event Registration is cyber-chaos. Every year the GenCon people work to make the experience better than the last, but this will not be as effortless shopping at Amazon.com. This is going to be a test of your nerves and patience.

In years past the Registration sever became so overloaded that most people could not even get in to register for events. It was so bad two years ago, that Martin Ralya posted his famous Open Letter to Peter Adkison. Last year, the Registration sever was much improved, and I was able to pick my events quickly, but then languished for the next 45 minutes in the payment server, as I attempted to pay for my events.

Every year GenCon LLC promises to improve the process, so one can be hopeful that this year will be faster than last year. All the same, you would be foolish not to prepare for a protracted fight against the Registration and Payment servers. If you have a laptop, plug it in. Get yourself some of your favorite caffeine beverage and some food. Then, clear the children from the room you are in, so that you may swear freely.

So you are now armed with my best advice for Registration Day. In the weeks to come, I will talk about tips for shopping at the convention, living on a budget at GenCon, and some other tips, before the big day arrives.

Let me know how how your event registration experience goes. Good Luck, and may you get all the events you want.