His: #GenCon recap pt. 1

This marks my third time attending GenCon. Now, you may be thinking that GenCon is a total dorkfest and has nothing to offer you. It's understandable. It looks like a place where people who are WAY too into Dungeons and Dragons get together to do exactly that. Well.... here's the thing. Do you have kids? Do you enjoy card, dice or board games? Do you enjoy seeing quality crafted costumes (even if you don't love things like anime and Star Wars)? If so, GenCon is at least something to check out.

Because here's the thing. That first year I spent mostly wondering around with my dorkiness largely diminished. I'm huge into baseball and football. I love video games. I knit. Yet something about the convention enthralled me. It was like my imagination blew up inside the convention center. I played a few games that year and spent most of my time just walking around looking at stuff.  I didn't even know how to participate in events and games, but I had a really, really good time.

Last year I learned that vendors bring new games to the convention center just so you can play them.

"Hey, that looks cool!"

"Yeah? Why don't you come try it out!"

"!!!!! OKAY!!!!"

I ended up walking away with a couple of new games (Dominion and Castle Ravenloft) as the beginning of a tradition to introduce new games to my friends. The best part about it is that I can play them ahead of time so I know which ones they'll go for and which they won't. For example, I know my wife hates complicated, narrative driven games, but she loves games like solitaire. Dominion was right up her alley. My brother-in-law loves action-driven complex games (and fantasy stories) so Ravenloft was great for him. You don't have to like D&D to find a game you like there. Sure, there are games like ZombieDice (which is excellent) and The Hobbit that fit a slightly less mainstream audience, but there are also games like Wits and Wagers and Lego Heroica which are more family-oriented.

This year (which I'll recap more in the next few posts) I actually participated in events, large games and seminars and loved it. Part of that, however, is also letting go of wanting to be cool and realizing that you're there to have fun. The more you can relax and just be a part of it, the more you can enjoy it.

So, if you were there (and this wasn't too tl;dr for you) what was your favorite part of this year? If not, what are you most curious about?