Gen Con Tip: Gen Con 2015 was the first time I heard about the Quiet Room, a place to just go and decompress for a little bit. It’s a great idea, and there were people napping, reading, or just sitting with their eyes closed and enjoying being out of the crowds and noise. It’s okay for babies if they are quiet, but in general, if the baby is being fussy, the monitors would ask the parent to please take the child elsewhere. There are other childcare facilities in the convention centre, and the quiet room was not for that purpose. If you need a place to chill, check the program for the location of the quiet room and take advantage of it.
And always remember to stay hydrated.
As I mentioned, Thursday at Gen Con was kind of crazy, but I got to bed early, got a good night’s sleep, and didn’t start until 09:00, which isn’t bad for a guy who considers 08:00 sleeping in.
Friday was busy, though not as busy or in the same way as Thursday. It was kind of busy in a good way. The 09:00 start was for a panel I was on chaired by Jason Pitre of Genesis of Legend fame. It was Indie RPG Matchmaker, in which the audience was supposed to tell us what games or kinds of games they loved, and we would offer up suggestions for indie games which they may not have heard of that might hit that sweet spot.
I had told Jason that I probably was a poor choice as my knowledge of indie games comes nowhere near his own. Luckily, we also had Alex Trepanier, an RPG community organizer also from Ottawa, along with us, and between he and Jason, they had it covered. I threw in my two cents (Canadian, so really only worth 1.4 US cents) where I could, and it gave me a chance to plug some games I like and expand on some ideas brought forward.
Very low drag. Good start to the day.
I had a bit of time off, so I quickly hit the exhibitor’s hall. To be honest, being in a rush really doesn’t help, and there was nothing I was actually there to see. Each other year, there has been something or someone of interest – like Cubicle 7’s One Ring or picking up Hillfolk. This year – maybe because I was working as an exhibitor myself – there was nothing that excited me.
I had designated time on Saturday morning for interviews and demoes, so after about 30 minutes, I headed off to my next assignment: Quiet Room Monitor!
The Quiet Room is a really good idea. It’s a room with subdued lighting in which people can disconnect from the frenetics of the con floor. I had two shifts of two hours each, and they actually went really quickly. I think this was a great way for me to decompress as well, after a very hectic kickoff to Gen Con. Next time you are at Gen Con, ID the Quiet Room location early, you never know when you might need to disconnect and go get your head together someplace calm.
I was unfortunately late in leaving my post, which meant I had little time for dinner. Thankfully, the Embassy Suites has a manager’s reception each night, and while I wasn’t up for free beer, I was happy to see veggies and hummus. I had a plate of carrots, a plate of broccoli, and a bowl of hummus – along with copious water. It was actually the perfect dinner. My lunch had been a slice of pizza in the WiFi lunge, which was honestly enough after the massive breakfast I had (also complimentary at the Embassy Suites).
The Nefertiti Overdrive game that night went fantastic – as all of them did, I hasten to add – and it was fun gaming with a Gen Con/internet buddy, Victor. We had made plans to head out after the game, and we met a bunch of people at Scotty’s Brewhouse.
Here’s the thing, if you call your place a “brewhouse,” your staff better be able to explain the intricacies of the beers on the menu. It’s like having a steakhouse in which the staff don’t know about the different cuts of meat or how the level of cooking will affect the taste and texture. So the waitstaff serving us didn’t know the term IBU (international bitterness unit) in regards to the IPAs that were on tap. I got the taster set (3 beers, 6 oz of each) to address this problem.
More sadness. I actually didn’t really enjoy any of them. After that, I got the Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA, which I really enjoyed but which only came in half-pints. Later, I realized I should have just got the taster and had the 90 Minute IPA in all of them. Live and learn.
We didn’t go hard that night, but I enjoyed the company immensely. It’s fun to hang around with geeks and talk geek stuff over some beers. It’s one of my favourite aspects of Gen Con.
You can learn more about Genesis of Legend Publishing here.
You can learn more about Scotty’s Brewhouse here.
You can learn more about Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA here.