‘Sup, gang? Ok, I am still feeling out the exact direction and scope of this blog, but I think the bread and butter will be these kinds of advice columns until the Little Dragon is old enough for me to get comic anecdotes from his adventures at the table.

Last year, 2023, was my family’s first time at GenCon, or really any convention, since COIVD began. And what a year to go! Not only did I have a 6-month-old with me, but it was a record year for attendance. The number I hear was 300,000+ people, can you believe that?!? I personally blame Disney’s Lorcana (I really hope someone had the forethought to get a picture of the line of Mickey’s and Yen Sids waiting to pick up their starter packs, b/c I was too busy gapping), but who knows? We might be mainstream now, guys. Don’t get me wrong, the Con was a blast and I will ABSOLUTELY do it again every year, but any parent can tell you that navigating a crowd of 300k strangers with a child that small has a high challenge rating… and I totally get it if that CR is too high for you, I was certainly nervous about it. I had a white-knuckle grip on that stroller for most of the Con.

Now, this post will go up in April 2024, and GenCon isn’t until August. So you may be wondering why I’m bringing this up now, and that’s a good question. Simple is that I’m a big believer in the power of a plan. I’m going to use this blog to give you ideas on how to build your own plan for navigating this encounter and I want to give you plenty of time to think about it… and admittedly I want more material for the blog, so I’m going to stretch this out a bit.

So, today’s topic is obviously Strollers at GenCon. We lucked into this Nat20 hack for Cons simply because Little Dragon wasn’t walking yet, and we knew that going to a Convention means being on your feet for up to 8 hours at a time. But, hooo-boy! I think we’re going to be finding excuses to take strollers to GenCon for many years to come. The Indianaoplis Convection Center and Lucas Oil Field are both designed to be ADA compliant, or wheelchair friendly, so getting the stroller around the place was actually really easy. There are elevators everywhere and security will let you onto all of them. You’re going to want one with a good turn radius, though, for the dealer’s hall. That is easily the artery of GenCon’s foot traffic so pushing a stroller through the throng will require you to 1) keep you head on a swivel and 2) make sharp turns into any gap in visitors that you can find. Imagine if your grocery store was full of people and you’re looking for gaps in the people to push your cart forward, that’s what it’s like. But really that’s the most inconvenient part, and it’s not that bad at all. Remember, it’s a crowd of nerds and most of them have families, so they’re pretty forgiving of strollers, and they’ll happily let you pass so that they can stealth a peek at your gorgeous baby.

And don’t worry about parking the stroller once in a while to let your little dragon get some air and stretch their legs. The Convention Center actually took the time and space to set up a quiet playroom near the main entrance of the Con in 2023, and when we were there it was always being used so I would expect that practice to continue. It was just a suite set up with a little privacy for parents and young children. There was a corner for diaper changing (they needed more of those, honestly, but I’ll cover that later) and an area full of toy cars and blocks for toddlers. But anyways, that room had a stroller parking lot and a bench for parents to rest while the dragons played. Besides that, there are a lot of little pockets you can find to just rest, like in the featured photo n this post: that was taken in just a hallway with low foot traffic.

Ok, now for the REAL reason you want to bring a stroller to a Con. Obviously, stroller are designed with a lot of storage space, right? Because babies need their entire house packed with them every time they get out of the crib, lol. But imagine with me, imagine this: if your diaper bag doesn’t take up all that space in your stroller, imagine how much loot you can put in there instead!!!!!!!!! Oh my Lord, guys, I spend SOOOOOOOOOOOO much money at these Cons and before last year I had the literal back-breaking task of carrying all this beautiful, expensive crap with me for hours on end after every impulse purchase. It’s a swagbag on wheels, and there is no price on that. We love things which enable us to spend more money on our hobbies, ya’ll know what I’m talking about…

Finally, the safety of the baby is also assured in the stroller. This year Little Dragon will be walking at GenCon, and I’m honestly terrified of him getting stepped on. But, I will navigate those waters more thoroughly in August and don’t worry, I will be sharing my plan of attack here as well.

That’s all I have today, Table Toppers. Give your little dragons some love, and rest assured you are not on this adventure alone! See ya next week 🙂