Post/Author/DateTime	Post
LGMoses 01-18-07, 02:41 PM	I live in Guntersville and I was wondering how I could find conventions in my area. I've never been to a con and have always wanted to go. We found a con coming in July that looks fun. I'd just like to know where to go to look for annually held conventions in my area. Also, ne tips on going to ur first con? Ne tips for peple bringing first level chracters?
Britt 01-18-07, 02:45 PM	Deodorant, soap, and mouthwash. Bring extra to give to others. A can of air freshener can be a good hint sometimes, too ;)
LGMoses 01-18-07, 02:55 PM	I'll bring some Axe. :)
Britt 01-18-07, 02:58 PM	Hmm, I'm not sure how that would work. Combining a product that is marketed for picking up chicks with a gaming convention might cause the universe to implode.
jstorrie 01-18-07, 03:03 PM	It's only marketing, Britt. Axe has never, ever succesfully attracted anyone. I find out about cons in my area by being on the local LG mailing list. Check to see if your region has a Yahoo group? I recommend bringing your active characters, a few different first-level PCs for intros, and money for healthy snacks at the supermarket.
kenobi65 01-18-07, 03:04 PM	How to find cons: your region's Yahoo group or Web page should have some sort of info on conventions in the region. (And, if not, asking on your region's Yahoo group is probably a good way to find out.) As far as advice for going to a con...well, Britt hit on the big hygiene thing. You'd be amazed at the gamers who really don't pay attention to this (well, then again, maybe you wouldn't be...) Plan ahead for the convention. Preregister if it's offered. Pre-marshal if it's offered (many cons now use Warhorn for that purpose). Doing these two will help make sure that you actually get to play, and make it more likely you'll be able to play the games you want. Some gamers like to just show up at the convention site on the day of the convention without preregistering at all, and get all offended and shocked that they might not be able to get a seat at the game they want. Wear comfortable clothes. Since you're going to be sitting all day, make sure you're wearing stuff that you want to be sitting in all day. (Since you're going to be in the South in the summertime, you might want to bring a sweatshirt...some hotels love to crank up the A/C). If the PCs you're going to be playing are anywhere close to leveling, be sure to figure out ahead of time what you'll do when you level (class, feats, skill points, etc.). Few things tick off other players than sitting around waiting for you to update your character sheet. Bring minis (or something to act as minis) for your PCs. It's in the RPGA floor rules.
kenobi65 01-18-07, 03:07 PM	It's only marketing, Britt. Axe has never, ever succesfully attracted anyone. Given the name, I'd think it'd attract female dwarves like nobody's business. :D
CrystalBlue 01-18-07, 03:27 PM	www.warhorn.org Lots of conventions do their sign-up here. I'd look it over some time and look for cities around your area. And read the descriptions, as not every one of them are RPGA related. :P Which reminds me...GenCon Indy is pre-registering early Feb. Why?
Britt 01-18-07, 03:31 PM	It's only marketing, Britt. Axe has never, ever succesfully attracted anyone. Yeah, I tried it once and it sucked! Don't worry, I only bought it because it was on sale :) It actually had a worse effect than not wearing deodorant at all! To stay on topic, if you only have low level characters, definitely check what is running first and try to prereg. Having only low level will severely limit what you can play, and some cons don't think to order plenty of low-level stuff for new players.
jstorrie 01-18-07, 03:58 PM	kenobi65 brings up a very good point with prepping - decide ahead of time how to level up. Also sketch out a rough plan on what you want to spend your money on - neat Adventure accesses might mix this up a little, but it's still a very good idea to know what you're saving up for (and what pages it's on) so that you don't have to waste your breaks between mods looking it all up. Those breaks are for snacks, drinks, cigarettes, meeting folks, and nerd romances.
LGMoses 01-18-07, 03:59 PM	It's only marketing, Britt. Axe has never, ever succesfully attracted anyone. I find out about cons in my area by being on the local LG mailing list. Check to see if your region has a Yahoo group? I recommend bringing your active characters, a few different first-level PCs for intros, and money for healthy snacks at the supermarket. True dat. A few of my more unsavory friends have informed me that it does successfully hide the scents of cigarrette smoke, alcohol, and weed. I trust it can overpower BO if it can outstank the ganja.
kenobi65 01-18-07, 04:35 PM	Which reminds me...GenCon Indy is pre-registering early Feb. Why? It's always been that way, though that "pre-registration" is only badges. Events won't be available for registration until May or so. The only reason you'd have for pre-registering that early is to be able to get a hotel room. You can't reserve a room in the GenCon room blocks in the various nearby hotels until you buy a badge. The situation isn't as bad in Indy as it was when GenCon was in Milwaukee (which had far fewer hotel rooms close to the convention center); back then, the "good" hotel rooms would sell out the first day of badge registration. Indy's got a half-dozen large hotels connected to the convention center. Still, if you're wanting to stay in one of those hotels, better plan on getting your badge as soon as you can (or see if you can get a hotel room through other means).
kenobi65 01-18-07, 04:40 PM	To stay on topic, if you only have low level characters, definitely check what is running first and try to prereg. Having only low level will severely limit what you can play, and some cons don't think to order plenty of low-level stuff for new players. An excellent piece of advice (and a request that I missed in Moses' original post). Many cons will offer Intros in at least some slots, so those would be good to shoot for; conversely, check the APL ranges for the other modules, to make sure you didn't just accidentally sign up for an APL 10-16 job. :)
CrystalBlue 01-18-07, 05:11 PM	I did not know this. :O See, last year, I never got events registered because I never knew when you could register them. Then, someone told me that events register at the same time as badges. Which made me slightly miffed. :mad: I mean, I had slot-0 everything but the special, and I'm so very, very, VERY glad I got into a game of the special with my free ticket. Otherwise, I wouldn't have this nice dark and brooding exterior now. See? *broods* I can pretend to be a teen goth and wear all black now. And, just to plug my local con, everyone should so come up to Wisconsin this year for Conflict. Conflict is awesome. :D Our interactive was awesome. :D Throwing mobs of rust monsters at APL 10 is awesome. :D Anyways, that's in July, I think. Wish there were more cons around us though...
kenobi65 01-18-07, 05:19 PM	I did not know this. :O See, last year, I never got events registered because I never knew when you could register them. Then, someone told me that events register at the same time as badges. Which made me slightly miffed. :mad: I mean, I had slot-0 everything but the special, and I'm so very, very, VERY glad I got into a game of the special with my free ticket. Otherwise, I wouldn't have this nice dark and brooding exterior now. See? *broods* I can pretend to be a teen goth and wear all black now. Clearly, the whole process has scarred you. :D Keep an eye on the GenCon web site for them to announce when event registration goes live. (The first day is almost always a nightmare; too many people trying to purchase event tickets at once, and their computer system always gorks on it. The first day of badge registration is a pain, too, for the same reason.) RPGA events don't sell out quite as fast as, say, True Dungeon, but some of the events (particularly on Friday and Saturday) will sell out sooner rather than later. BTW -- where in Wisconsin? (I'm originally from Green Bay, but have been in exile down here in Flatland/Verbobonc for 18 years now...)
CrystalBlue 01-18-07, 05:25 PM	Oh, Conflict is in LaCrosse. Best part about Conflict is that we're getting it to be a duel con. Yay! Highfolk AND Shieldland mods to play! I don't know where we're gonna have it this year, as the place we have been has screwed us over too much in the past. I think we'll be in the LaCrosse Center, which is still conveniantly close to Minnisota...for a duel con again! :D
JohnduBois 01-18-07, 06:02 PM	Yeah, I tried it once and it sucked! Don't worry, I only bought it because it was on sale :) It actually had a worse effect than not wearing deodorant at all! I take it Ms. Portman was not impressed?
_m_ 01-18-07, 07:31 PM	how i find cons: 1) wait until clannagh tells me where im going. 2) go where he tells me to. easy.
Britt 01-18-07, 07:40 PM	I take it Ms. Portman was not impressed? Yeah, whatever. I never got the date I keep asking for. :headexplo
LGMoses 01-18-07, 11:13 PM	And, just to plug my local con, everyone should so come up to Wisconsin this year for Conflict. Isn't Wisconsin where all this magic comes from? Have ne wererats running around out there :D
kenobi65 01-18-07, 11:34 PM	Isn't Wisconsin where all this magic comes from? Have ne wererats running around out there :D Once upon a time, 'twas. But then, some Wizards from the coast bought the magic factory and took it back with them to their fortress far in the west ;) I'd also point out that Wisconsin gave the world Ed Gein and Jeff Dahmer. :D
LGMoses 01-18-07, 11:41 PM	I read Return to Quag Keep a while back and it all ended in Wisconsin. Basically, these gamers get ported into Greyhawk, go through a bloody adventure that is nearly a TPK, and finally destroy an artifact that teleports them back to our world. They got to keep their bodies in the end, they end up in their character's bodies in the end. I think most gamers might like that. I wouldn't complain. But what was messed up was one of them had just gotten bit by a wererat and the book hinted he had lycanthropy. So we may have an outbreak in Wisconsin. But it all hinted back to how Gygax came from Wisconsin. It wasn't a great book but it was a fun read I think for dnd fans. I wonder if its canon....? If it is I want to find Ingrge the one handed elven archer.
kenobi65 01-19-07, 12:10 AM	But what was messed up was one of them had just gotten bit by a wererat and the book hinted he had lycanthropy. So we may have an outbreak in Wisconsin. Well, having grown up in the Badger State, all I can say is, if something totally whacked like a lycanthropy outbreak happened there, I'd say, "yup, sounds about right."
LGMoses 01-19-07, 01:43 AM	Well, having grown up in the Badger State, all I can say is, if something totally whacked like a lycanthropy outbreak happened there, I'd say, "yup, sounds about right." I don't really know anything about Wisconsin. Its one of those states that you don't hear about that much. It reminds me of a Garfield and Friends skit where they said that they guy doing maps of the U.S. ran out of puzzle pieces to make the map out of. The space he had left he called Wisconsin which in Italian means No state here.
CrystalBlue 01-19-07, 07:46 AM	Yup...we suck up here, in Wisconsin, eh. With the drink'n an' hunt'n an' fish'n. You should come up here, eh. We gots cheese, too. Da really good cheese. And da Packers, eh. What more could a guy want den beer, cheese, and da Packers. God, I hate Wisconsin!! >.< All we are are a bunch of northern red necks who get themselves drunk all the time then go out into the woods and shoot guns. But yes...D&D's birthplace is Milwaukee. And many hard-core gamers consider it a holy place. However, damn Wizards of the Coast moved GenCon to Indy. For no real reason, mind you. GenCon should have stayed here cause this is where all the magic happened.
kenobi65 01-19-07, 10:18 AM	But yes...D&D's birthplace is Milwaukee. And many hard-core gamers consider it a holy place. However, damn Wizards of the Coast moved GenCon to Indy. For no real reason, mind you. GenCon should have stayed here cause this is where all the magic happened. Just to clarify a couple of things: 1) D&D was "born" in Lake Geneva, which is a small town about an hour southwest of Milwaukee...that's where Gary Gygax lived, and still lives today. 2) When GenCon moved, it was no longer owned by WotC: they had sold it to Peter Adkison (the founder of WotC, who left shortly after they sold the company to Hasbro). They moved GenCon for two really good reasons: space and hotel rooms. Even though Milwaukee had just built a new convention center (the Midwest Express Center), it still wasn't big enough for GenCon, which was also using hotel ballrooms at the nearby Hyatt and Hilton, as well as the old basketball arena two blocks north of the convention center (that's where all the RPGA events used to be). The Indy Convention Center is far larger than the Midwest Express Center, and even so, GenCon is bursting at the seams there, and they're eagerly awaiting the expansion of the Indy Convention Center (after they tear down the RCA Dome, which is adjacent to the center, in a year or two, they're going to expand the convention center into that space). The hotel situation in Milwaukee was an absolute nightmare. There were only 2 large hotels near the convention center (the Hilton and Hyatt), and those would wind up booked full on the first day of badge registration. Many con attendees would wind up bunked in dorms at Marquette University (about a mile away), or in hotels on the far north or south side of the city. And, GenCon always wound up on the same weekend as either a music festival at the Summerfest grounds, or the Wisconsin State Fair, both of which would create even more competition for hotel rooms. Compare this to Indy, which has a half-dozen big hotels attached to the convention center, and a half-dozen more within a few blocks. And, in Indy, they usually don't have to compete with other events for hotel space (preseason Colts games in some years being the notable exception). 3) And, GenCon had moved several times already, anyway. It was originally in Lake Geneva (the "Gen" in GenCon), but outgrew the American Legion Hall there, then the Playboy Club. It was then at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside for several years in the early 1980s (I remember running D&D games in campus classrooms there), before moving to MECCA, then the Midwest Express Center in Milwaukee.
kenobi65 01-19-07, 10:23 AM	God, I hate Wisconsin!! >.< All we are are a bunch of northern red necks who get themselves drunk all the time then go out into the woods and shoot guns. Yeah, well, I grew up in Wisconsin. I'm not the stereotypical cheesehead (though I am still a Packer fan), but the real reason I moved is that Chicago was where I could get a job. And, I find myself still here, 18 years later. While there are redneck aspects of Wisconsin I'm not a fan of, I miss the lack of traffic and the low cost of living. I'll probably wind up moving back there someday.
Genghis Cohen 01-19-07, 06:59 PM	www.warhorn.orgI think that its Warhorn.net
Snappa 01-23-07, 08:26 AM	It's only marketing, Britt. Axe has never, ever succesfully attracted anyone. Not quite true. Independent tests indicate that English bulldogs are addicted to the taste of Axe and will assault wearers of said body spray with their tongues.
LGMoses 01-23-07, 09:05 AM	Not quite true. Independent tests indicate that English bulldogs are addicted to the taste of Axe and will assault wearers of said body spray with their tongues. my little brother brought home some Axe roll on deodorant a few weeks ago, and I think it spoiled :yuck: