GenCon is one of those things that gamers all say they’re going to do at some point. It’s the nerd Mecca; going is the nerd haj — you’ve got to do it, sooner or later. It’s been one of those things on my radar since the ’90s, but I didn’t have travel to Indianapolis to play games and rent an expensive hotel room money in the ’90s. I’ve also always had the kind of jobs that don’t give you time to do it.

One of the players in my group makes the pilgrimage every year, and has since I’ve known him — 20 years! Man, I’m old! So we were discussing GenCon back in January when Matt (said haji) was getting ready for the ticket buying to open. The others all remarked that they needed to go at some point, where upon another player, our resident acupuncturist said, “why don’t we all go together?” Everyone agreed, save one. I was on the fence — time (it was close to when school was supposed to start), expense (yes, I could afford it…but still; it was a hit), and I’ve gotten more enochlophobic in the last decade or so (big crowds.) My wife was coming through the game room as I said, “I don’t know if I’ll be able to…” and stated, “You’re going.”

So I did.

The experience is weird. You buy your tickets through an online portal that opens at a select time. you buy your hotel rooms the same way, and if you don’t get an early time slot to order up your rooms, you find yourself housed in the ass end of nowhere. We got lucky and were in Hotel Indy, about a quarter mile (four blocks or so) from the Indianapolis Convention Center. You pick the events and games you want online and maybe you get them, maybe you don’t. i’m sure this is probably the most efficient way to do it, but it does mean you miss out on a lot. I mostly picked “mature” games, no kids — more because the idea of an old dude playing games with kids not his own was a bit creepy to me. I should have selected teens and mature to get more options.

We chose to come in a day early and leave on Monday. This cut the airline costs dramatically, and I popped for “comfort plus” on Delta so I had legroom and no one next to me for the flight out to Indianapolis. Two of the group flew first class. Must be nice.

Basically, gamers take over the downtown of Indianapolis for four days. There’s people in cosplay, but most of the people are wearing “the uniform” — usually some form of tee-shirt with game or franchise themed stuff on it. I had one idiot yell at me because he thought my Triumph shirt said “Trump”. I told him to read it again. (If you’re reading this…be better.) Traffic is awful and I really felt for the folks that had to get to work. At one point, I had to yell at some of the folks to let the traffic go, as we didn’t have the light. Social graces? — not on display at GenCon.

There’s a lot of walking. I average 6.2 miles a day according to my phone and the longest day was 10 miles. Blister time. Thursday is the start. You want to get in and get tickets and badges and everything, if you didn’t have them mailed to you. (I did. Good move.) The exhibit hall with the vendors opened at 1030 (although they were letting people in through one door a bit earlier.) There’s everyone there — although the Wizards folks were set up in nearby Lucas Oil Stadium. There was a lottery, I believe, to get one of the new Players’ Handbook and they were limited to 750 a day, I think it was.

I got a chance to meet the creators of Outgunned (and before that Broken Compass and Household) and speak a bit of Italian; the Lex Arcana folks were there as well. I finally met some of the people I’ve worked with in the gaming industry but have never physically met — which was nice. I spent too much money on dice, game books, a stuffed cat from the board game Boop! (which my daughter loves) — but much of the expense was food (and booze.)

I can heartily recommend Harry & Izzy’s, which is just a block from the convention center and has a nice Prohibition-era feel to it. the steaks are tremendous. It’s affiliated with St. Elmo’s next door, which is a stable for the GenCon crowd. Taxman was also good.

And that was the strange thing — dinners were the best part of the outing for me. I got a chance to reconnect with an old service buddy from Defense Language Institute who was running games for one of the D&D tables. I got to meet local gamers that were part of Haji Matt’s other groups. The socializing not connected to playing was more interesting for me.

Which brings me to the weirdest moment…I’ve always identified as a gamer, and a bit of a nerd. But that’s it: a bit of nerd. I always was the weird kid way back in school. Here, I felt very normal (witness the traffic incident above). It was strange to be “in the tribe” but not of it, if that makes any sense.

The games were good. We did one of the True Dungeon runs, which was fun and they put some work into it. I played in a Blade Runner game that was decent, and in an Alien game that was downright superb. The GM was on it, I connected well with the “buddy” and “rival” characters and players, and we managed to finish out a scenario that had TPK’d two other parties, and half of another. We lost one guy. Tactical acumen for the win. One game didn’t make because most folks head home on Sunday, so Sunday games often don’t make, so I chatted with other GMs for a while. I did a few drop-in games, as well.

Overall, was it worth it? It was damned expensive, but it was nice to see people I hadn’t in a while. Was it worth getting the newest stuff a few weeks early? Sure. did I have fun? Yes…but I’m not sure I would do it again. That said, when I told my daughter that last bit, she looked disappointed. So I guess, I might be doping GenCon again with my kiddo in tow.