So what are some of your favorite memories from GenCons in years past? Doesn't matter if they're official events, accidentally meeting a favorite celebrity, or something else.
Standing on that landing overlooking the Capitol Corridor and meeting the one other person from my country at Gen Con - Neither of us knew the other one was there.
Playing in a session of ARRPG which demonstrated to me exactly what I'd been doing wrong when I'd tried to run it, & how to make the game work.
Arranging to meet up with the same folks, year after year, even though our gaming tastes are so wildly different that it's not likely we'll do much gaming together, to find out how their Gen Con is going.
One of my favorite memories is from last year. I was Cosplaying BatGirl and as I was walking through the convention center was invited to join the other DC cosplayers in an impromptu photoshoot. It was a blast! :)
Soooo many good moments. Its super hard to pick just one.... I got married at Gen Con last year, I think I would be in trouble if I didnt pick that as my favorite memory. We got to ride Chicken Limo to the venue and it was the best.
August 19, 2005 - The RAM - First run episode of Battlestar Galactica.
Then RAM manager Dave Hornak, was an early adopter of being welcoming to Gen Con attendees by decorating the bar and showing sci fi genre movies on the copious televisions that were normally used for sports bar programing. However, even with the movies, they were played with the captioning on with bar music still being played, and a few in the bar still had some sports on, that was until Friday night, when the new, first run episode of Battlestar Galactica came on. The music was turned off, the television sound was put on the speakers, and every television in the place was turned to Battlestar Galactica. For the next hour it was almost dead quiet as everyone watched the new episode.
Meeting Gary. Hands down.
Quite possibly the nicest person in gaming, as far as I can tell. He autographed two of my three 1st Ed Core Rules books. I mentioned that I had left my third back in my room by accident and he looks at me and says "go get it, I'll be here!" and I raced back to my room, came back, and yep, he was still there, chatting amiably, and autographed the third.
Made my year.
Gary? You mean Gary Gygax?
Nothing's going to compare with meeting Gary, but my first GenCon was 2013. I had the opputunity to meet and talk with the Sundering authors, which included the authors of the first and second books I bought with my own money, Ed Greenwood and Troy Denning! I realize that might not mean much to some, but to me it was the highlight of my trip. Well, that and Ed making my friend blush so badly she had to walk away from the table. Good times.
There are so many memories that I can pool from! I guess a very touching memory is meeting people at th stink for the first time at my second gen con. Brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it. i love you guys!
One of the later years in Milwaukee. After a Friday night game, two really nice young guys had (I deduced) accidentally walked away from a game I had run with two of my out of print game books (one of those sort of RPGs where everyone brings their books, as there's always rolls and equipment to look up). All I knew was that they were leaving Saturday at noon, and were going to take that morning to walk through the exhibit hall one last time.
So Saturday morning I spent walking up and down the aisles of the hall, for three and a half hours, looking for two particular people out of the crowd of thousands. Yeah, hopeless.
I'm about to run out of time, have to get to a game I'm running, and I'm standing in the middle of the old TSR castle (they used to construct a huge castle in the hall to sell out of), just looking around hopelessly. I happen to turn around, and see two people sitting at a little booth in the castle, talking quietly, no one else around them. Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.
I walk over and strike up a very brief conversation. I'd just finished reading Hickman's "The Immortals", and I mostly wanted to tell him how much I had loved and appreciated that book. We talked for a bit, and then I said that I had to go to my game (and abandon my search for the guys with my books).
I turn around from the booth...and the two guys walk right in front of me.
Me: "Hey, you-" Them: "We have your books!"
Turns out they'd been looking for me all morning too.
One of the coolest five to ten minutes I've experienced at Gen Con.
Mine was being at the first GenCon. The one this year will be my first in a long time since GenCon V (the only other one I was at). Gary, and I and Bill Speer had organized a gaming club called the IFW. Bill and I organized a gaming convention in the Philadelphia, PA suburbs. Gary could not make it from Lake Geneva and held a gathering at his house that year. The next year, he organized the first GenCon and the IFW put up $35 to help fund the $50 it was going to take to get the hall. I came and stayed at Gary's house.
I also got to play a pre-D&D version of D&D. That is, me sitting across from Gary with Ernie beside us with a piece of graph paper in front of me and Gary dungeon mastering the "playtest."
Last time I saw him was not long before he passed away. We played an old wargame on his porch. He won.
So I'm looking forward to coming this year and wondering if I'll run into anyone from that 1st or 5th GenCon (or from any of the very early one's).
Serious question: to what extent did anyone in those days hope, expect, dream, etc, that it would still be going on at this point? (forget the size and scope for the moment, just the duration)
You might remember Mike Carr -- he's one of the few people who has been to every GenCon.
He's running a Dawn Patrol game on Saturday at noon:
https://www.gencon.com/events/90394