Hello Adventure-Raisers! How is everyone doing??? I know not everyone can make it to GenCon, but I still hope you and your little dragons had a good time! One of the many perks of board games and RPGs is the ability to have fun without leaving your house. But at any rate, I do want to talk more about navigating the Con with a bipedal dragon, AKA a toddler. So cozy on up in this Session 27: GenCon 2024 Review, Part 1!
1) General vibe: a lot more kid friendly than before.
So the title of this section really says it all. I’ve only been to the 2019, 2023, and2024 GenCons, but this one by far had the most children. Our host for the week has been going far longer, and he looked with pride at all the strollers and diaper bags and remarked “It’s going back to the way it used to be.” That gave me comfort, too. Pride, even. For every one toddler who was bored in their seat, there were twenty having the time of their lives. There is, as I mentioned in earlier posts, usually a kiddie area set aside in the Indianapolis Convention Center, and it was always packed and bustling when I popped my head in. There was Ragnar’s Safety Swords, and arts and crafts. Unfortunately my little dragon was too small for a lot of those activities (or, honestly, we ran out of the gold necessary to finance it) but Ragnar’s Safety Swords was very generous and let him play with a foam weapon between classes. He had a lot of fun hitting an instructor, who cheered him on happily.
The crowd seemed happier to interact with Little Green Dragon in passing, which suited him just fine! Did
I mention that he’s extremely extroverted???? At one point he learned that if he smiled and waved, like the queen, he could get more smiles in return, and he milked that trick as long as he could! Eventually he would pass out in the stroller, and in pushing him through the Vender’s Hall I’d hear the request “pffft, same” from the passerby. I actually got to have a few small but lovely chats with other moms about bringing their dragons to the Con. Some were reminiscent, some were expectant, and some were in the trenches with me. That’s one thing that I love about these two phases in my life: community. The community of parents with littles, and the community of gamers just living life. It’s nice to be in the middle of that Venn Diagram.
2) Decorate a Safety Sword (GenCon Event)
So, deep diving this a bit: my husband Orin and I found this when we were wish-listing our tickets, and I think we only got one because kid’s activities just aren’t everyone’s go-to at GenCon. The problem was, they didn’t list ages for the event. That was canceled by the price of the ticket for me (only $10), so I thought it was worth the risk to just show up and find out. We honestly should have remembered that generic tickets exist, but we didn’t and that’s on us.
When we arrived about 20 minutes early, we were told he was too young to participate, AND that we’d need to pay another $30 for a sword to take home. The second option we passed on, since he has swords here already. That said, they were very generous and let him play with a sword one:one with the instructors while we all waited for more people to come by. The head instructor chatted with Orin the whole time, since even the big kids like talking about swords all day. The fake Scottish accent wore a bit thin, but we were all in character, so it was fine. I got an adorable video of Little Dragon picking up a foam sword and trying his best and having a blast. The space was quiet before the event, easy to find, and the staff running it were very cordial. In short, I would definitely recommend this event… once your little dragon is maybe in kindergarten. Till then, mine will just have to play with Orin and me, haha.
3) The Stroller
I know I bragged about the stroller I used in the past (Session 16), and I do still highly recommend it. But I was also really apprehensive about taking Little Dragon this year in case he got a case of the toddler zoomies and wanted out. We all know what a toddler can be like when they decide they want something you can’t give.
I think the size of the crowd may have actually worked in my favor on this one, though, and it seemed to work for other parents I passed. When placed in a foreign environment, most kids want to stick to their families and other familiar parties. In this big crowd, I think more kids were eager to explore… from the safety of their strollers. And Little Dragon figured out the smiling and waving trick, and enough folks grinned back, that he seemed content to stay seated. For the most part. Eventually he would need to stretch his legs, and with a little creative maneuvering I was usually able to locate a space that was quiet. The best place turned out to be some abandoned partitions outside the Vender’s Hall. The partitions were about five rows deep, but there was no event set up. While Little Dragon ran along the wall, I parked the stroller and ran alongside him shouting “Mama’s-gun-git-U” in that happy baby voice, haha. I think you could hear his squeals of delight down the hall.
He didn’t fair too well in the toddler area this year… since he tried stealing strollers… but honestly, finding our own quiet spaces seemed to work out just fine.
4) Daaaaaaaaaaaa Daaaaaaaaaaaa
This one just speaks for itself. Or, Little Dragon was speaking for himself. He was happy to shout out for his father as we pedaled up and down the Con, with little remarks form me like “He’s in a game, sweetie” completely falling on deaf ears. The other Con-goers seemed to like the joke, though.
5) Other Party Members
There was one day of the Con when Little Dragon was entrusted to a sentinel, or a baby-sitter, haha. She really wanted a bit of time with him anyway, and I’ll admit, I think one day of just running through the Con as fast I actually can was refreshing. I think it saved us from a very cranky creature on the drive back, too.
One friend in particular that rose to the challenge all five days was the Forever DM. DM is the kind of friend who we’re pretty sure will be a confirmed old bachelor, hiding in a library with books and computers for children long into the future. He was actually the one who was most afraid to hold Little Dragon when he first came home with us. But on this trip DM really stepped up, and was almost always hovering over his nephew like a mama owlbear. Little Dragon barely got ten feet from me and Orin before DM was there with a hand to catch him, a snack, or a half-panicked report for us about what he’d been up to.
The party as a whole helped me out immensely by taking Little Dragon for about an hour on Saturday, when the vampires came and got me. I mean, when I donated blood. Last year when I was bringing Little Dragon for the first time, the donations were advertised as prioritizing the NICU, and it felt like the stars had aligned for me, the new mom at the Con. I’m committed to donating every year that I’m there and not pregnant, haha.
Conclusion
My closing thoughts… the only real regret I have from this Con is that I need to be better about taking pictures. Like, I’m REALLY bad at remembering to take pictures. That’s something I need to be better about EVERY day, because this time in Little Dragon’s life is just too precious not to capture. I didn’t realize how bad it has gotten until I was flipping through to find pictures for this post… and there was almost nothing that would have worked. It was a bit of a wakeup call, honestly.
But anyway, Adventure-Raisers, that’s all I have for this week. Be sure to look me up on Facebook, X, and Tumblr to get more real-time updates! I hope this post helps reassure you that this lifestyle in achievable, and most importantly, safe and fun. It’s a nat 20 choice!
Remember, you’re not on this journey alone. See you next week!
