Hello, Adventure-Raisers!

Today is the day we all need to buy all your GenCon events! Don’t worry if you’re not ready exactly today, I’m sure you can still get into some of the events you want… though, try to be ready for it next year. Additionally, I promise I’ll be better about reminding everyone to prep your wish lists after this year. To honor this special day, I’m back again with more ideas and advice on handling your little dragons at the Con. Let us begin, our GenCon Prep Continued.

1) Battle Plan

Orin, my husband, and I just arranged our wish list with our usual Con party, so I thought I’d start with that. Or as I like to call it, the Battle Plan. This year we have 6 adults and only one toddler to account for, so honestly it wasn’t very hard. One discord conference and one spreadsheet later and we had our battle plan for the weekend. Foundationally, if you are attending a Con with a Little Dragon (anyone under 15, I’d say, really), then you REALLY need to think about who is watching them and when. You may have noticed that a common theme in my writing is “make sure your friends are on board with the child’s presence”, haha. It takes a village and all that. Anyway, if you flip through our blocked-out time in the spreadsheet it’s not hard to see that there’s always at least one adult free to take the Dragon to the kiddy area or carry him through the Dealer’s Hall. I volunteered for most of that this year mostly because I like wondering through the Dealer’s Hall and spending more money than I actually have… but, it’s important to know that Orin, Valinda, Drake BEARHANDED Mahoon, are all available at times as well. Sometimes, gasp, we all hang out… and shop together!

That said, the Con does run from Thursday to Sunday. We do have a babysitter secured for Saturday specifically so that we can all attend a few sit-down games together. I’m a little trepidatious about not having a stroller on Saturday, the day everyone else in the party wants to do all their shopping… but it’s fine. We’re all 30 and younger, we can carry our own swag without regretting it too much the next day. See, “Prep Workouts” below – seriously.

It goes without saying that you could try to take advantage of naptimes for all adult party members to sit down to an event together… just maybe not LARPing. But if you’re lucky enough to have a little dragon who operates on a clock, by all means schedule a panel or a game in that time. Personally, I’m not betting that aggressively, haha. I’ll use Generics if I can.

Also, general disclaimer so your heart doesn’t get broken: don’t expect your whole wish list to come true at GenCon… it’s a bittersweet part of the whole experience. I think this year, in fact, we only got into about 30% of the events we wanted. That said, I wouldn’t over stack your wish list in anticipation of losing out. You could corner yourself into rushing attempting to teleport across the campus with a baby AND no time to eat lunch.

2) Battle Map

Another item about Con Battle Plans that you should keep in mind is the map of the Con itself – note that you can get floor plans (here). If you haven’t been to GenCon, Geneveive’s Domain, The Best 4 Days in Gaming, before then let me stress this to you: it. is. f#$%@&^ huge. Like, we’re talking about an event that consumes half of a state capitol every year, and I am not exaggerating. Just, I dare you, checkout this footage of the doors opening. (link) So don’t plan your events right on top of each other if you can help it, because they will invariably be a mile and thronged crowd apart. For all my talk in (Session 10) about how much easier the Con gets with a stroller, just don’t put your baby through the pressure of running with the bulls if you can help it. Little Dragon was miserable when I tried that before, and frankly so was I. Plan to stroll leisurely for a half hour to an hour instead. That builds in natural time to change diapers and eat snacks.

Speaking of diapers…. if there is any bone I want to pick with GenCon, it’s actually with the Indianapolis Convention Center. There are like, NO CHANGING STATIONS IN THE WOMEN’S BATHROOMS!!!!!!! That was a huge shock to me last year, and it was a much unnecessary stressor. I wound up changing a few diapers against the wall of the dealer’s hall, or any low traffic area I could find… Thank goodness I had a changing mat, I suppose. But honestly, what worked much better was just taking periodic jaunts to Lucas Oil Stadium (security will let you use the elevators and tunnels if you have a stroller) and using the changing tables there. In this respect it’s a much more family-friendly venue. That said, it dose make me laugh a little every time I remember changing Little Dragon in the dealer’s hall and knowing that he mooned the Level Up Dice (link) display twice.

3) Prep Workouts

Like the wise Zombieland authors once wrote: cardio. I highly recommend you do some cardio work before this Con. Because again, it’s HUGE. Although if you have a bipedal child, you probably already get plenty just keeping the little menace form getting a running leap off the stairs, to be honest. And just a general thought, I’ve never gone in cosplay but if I did, I’d break in the shoes a few weeks beforehand. Yes, I’m begging you to wear your Bayonetta boots to work for a few weeks before GenCon, drop me a comment about how it went.

Back to the serious, or as serious as I get: one thing I’m actually trying this year is adding shoulder and piggyback rides to my workout. Little Dragon always wants to cuddle and play when I’m working out anyway, so I just pick him up and slow to a walk. I’m hoping to build up my stamina for carrying him to about 30-40 minutes. Considering I’ll likely have a big, boxy board game backpack I thought ridding on my shoulders would make the most sense for him. I’ll let everyone know in August if this actually helped!

4) Generics, babyyyyyyy!

As some of you probably already know and others are just learning, you will not get into every event on your wish list. TTRPGs and board games are mainstream now, so the competition to get to the table is stiff. And bots are a menace. Anyway, GenCon does offer the sale of what are called “generic” tickets for relatively cheap, I think they either $3 or $5, and some events will take these in the form of direct tickets. So let’s say you really wanted to play a game in Avatar Legends but you didn’t get it for $15 on your wish list (using random numbers). If you show up with 3 $5 generics and someone conveniently dropped out, then you’re in.

What do Generics have to do with your toddler at GenCon, you may ask. Well, honestly, on top of just being a good idea in general, they do make your time with your child more flexible. If naptime is coming up and you think you can venture away from the kiddy area, take your Generics and slip into an event. When the dragon’s asleep, the adventurers will play! And it works in the opposite direction, too. If you sit down to a game and the baby acts up, then you can slip away without feeling too badly.

Conclusion

Ultimately, we’re still early in the planning stage if you think this is an event you want to add to your family memories. My advice is just to remember that you’re human – some of the snacks and blankets you pack for the little one may be used by you, too. So as fun as everything sounds, don’t overdo it and I think you’ll be better for it.

Remember, you’re not on this journey alone. And I’ll see you next weekend, Adventure-Raisers!