GenCon 2013

By Chris Vinton

Getting ready for GenCon and after being declared the lazy member of my group I go with I finally bought my badge and started looking around.  I'm excited to go this year and want to make the best of it so in contrast to my previous years, I'm getting excited far in advance.  Here's what I'm geeked up for this year!



I've decided instead of just trashing the emails sent to me I should perhaps read them.  Maybe there is something of importance there.  Maybe there is something to help me better enjoy the 'Best Four Days in Gaming!"  And there is!

Recently release was everyone's favorite part of any gaming convention: The vendor hall map! After sitting down for a few minutes things started popping up that I definitely want to check out on various levels.  Some I just want to walk through and see if they have anything interesting and others I want to take my time at, shake hands, talk shop, put my nose in places it doesn't belong (brown nosing is included in this!) and generally just dive right in.

Here's my shopping list:
APE games -Mostly known for Order of the Stick.  Satire on the dungeon crawl.  They make a comic, pretty funny inside joke if you're a nerd stuff.

Armorcast- Why not? Its always the same stuff but I'll always bother these guys.

Asmodee Editions- A little gem in the board game world.  If you know board games, you know Asmodee.  These guys make 7 Wonders and other wonderful board games.  I also picked up Skulls and Roses, a great camping type game.

Atlas Games- They make great, original card games.  Usually a 15$ deck of cards is the whole game.  Gloom and Lunch Money are two that stand out.

Badger Air-brush- I don't live near a retailer so I like to stop by when I can and pick up parts or deals on their air brushes. Plus, they sometimes have demos going and I'm always up for learning.

Battle Foam- Walk through, see if I can't get some new foam for the Tau maybe?

Bombshell Miniatures- They make some cool female scuplts,  very pulp.  Imagine WWII bomber girls in minature form.

Campaign Coins- If memory serves, they sell all kinds of marker tokens.  I'll grab some of these for 40k.

Cards Against Humanity- I've heard a lot about this.  I want to get a copy.

Catan Tables/Catanshop.com/Mayfair Games- After years of playing board games I'm finally going to buy a copy of what started it all, Settlers of Catan.  Finally....

Chessex- Who doesn't want dice??  They have a clearence bucket with super cheap bricks because the paint or color is slightly off.

Collapsible Construction- I'm not sure, but I want to know if this is a MDF terrain company.  Can't find anything on the net.

Cool Mini or Not- Blah Blah Blah

Cryptozoic entertainment- I want to learn the new Batman game.  They make other good games too.

Fantasy Flight- I tried to love DUST but it just didn't work out. Maybe they'll have something for me to buy. They make great games so I'll check it out for sure.

Gale Force Nine- They always have a ton of the stuff I want to buy at my local store but the local store is always out.  I love the 'booschy' gaming aids they carry.  For sure stopping here.

The Game Room- Gotta support my ohio people.  But I'm not digging through bits for hours this year.  I wasted too much time dicking around here last year.

Games Workshop- FW finally decided they wanted the money people were willing to throw at them and open a god damn booth at the biggest gaming convention ever. Only took 30 years.  Good work guys.  Maybe they'll have something interesting.

Gamescience- If they brough their dice prices down, maybe...otherwise I'll just keep walking.

Gamin Paper- Not sure what this is, but I catergorize it under the same thing as Gale Force stuff. I consider stuff like this to be the real world equivilent of post-it notes.  If you don't get the analogy you've never worked in an office setting.

Lone Wolf Development- Where is my app?!?!

Mantic Games- First time at gencon I think for these guys.  Might get a big box of zombies.  I hope they bring enough....

Pens and More- More office supplies.  Nurses love pens.  I hope this is actually what they sell and its not some play on words...

Privateer Press- These guys usually have a con model that is pretty cool.  I missed the bombshell chick last year.  Hope they have the same type of thing.

Steve Jackson Games- Steve Jackson makes some of the greatest 'simple-folk' games ever.

The War Store- Lookin' for deals.  They have a lot of used stuff but more consolidated than The Game Room.

TshirtBordello- I always look at this place and never buy anything.  Maybe this year I'll get me a witty shirt.  Probably not considering I can buy them any time I'd like on the internet and they're really not that special to GenCon.

White Wolf- I've always had a special place for the Vampire RPG.  I like to keep an eye on these guys as a reminiscence of back-in-the-day nostalgia.

Wyrd Miniatures- Their new line of plastics...if you haven't seen them you're really missing out.  I'm not a big fan of the game, but god these new plastics are so awesome.  They're come so far from the first year at GenCon when I saw them.  I'm really interested to see what they bring out this year.

So that's my shopping list/plan of attack for this year.  I'm going to look through the catalog for events but I usually just go with the flow there.  Whatever the group does I usually do.

With that, if you're going, what are you look at in the vendor hall?  What are your favorites? Any booths you'd suggest we go to even if you're not going?