Mr. Labyrinthian Goes to GenCon - Part 1: Look for Our Sign to the North

Ever since I was a little kid I've heard tales of Gen Con.  For years I've wanted to go and dreamed what it would be like, only to be disapointed time after time.  But no longer!  That's right, I have returned safley for my group's pilgramige to Indianapolis where I attended Gen Con for the very first time.

Though this was my first and only Con to this point, one of our members (Moox) had been to a few smaller conventions (like GaryCon) before.  As no one in my group has been to Gen Con before we did a great deal of research and preparation.  We found maps, lists, and articles about attending the Con that all proved useful.  We brushed up on the rules for some systems we haden't played in a while, made our hotel reservations, and of course preregistered for out events. 

The event list was nothing short of daunting at first glance.  Thousands of events to choose from made it very difficult figure out what we wanted to do.  We took time out from out weekly game to go over the event list and see what we wanted to do.  Though I know some people believe in mostly playing with strangers during conventions, we mostly wanted to play with one another.  All of us on one side of the screen was a new experience that we were all intersted in taking advange of. 

Here is a quick recap of my schedule for Gencon

Thursday:
True Dungeon 101
I6: Ravenloft (The Original Adventure that started it all!)

Friday:
The Antagonist
Pimp My Game
True Dungeon

Saturday:
Eureka! Cooking Up Adventure Plots with Gnome Stew
Worldbuilding 101
Castle of the Mad Archmage
Shadows Fall on Absalom

We didn't schedule any events for Sunday as we wanted to leave in the early afternoon and make sure we had some time in the dealer's hall for any final purchases.  Again, these are just the events we had scheduled, obviously we did other things.

The final  preparation that we made was to procure team "uniforms" for Gencon.  We went through one of the many online manufactures for the actual shirt creation, but they were designed by our very own Professor Obsecure. 

Needless to say they are amazing, and they were a huge hit at the Con.  People kept coming up to us and asking us where we got the shirts.  Here is a picture of AngryBear and ManOnFunTrip rocking their shirts.  Trip is the one with the horned Kevlar Helmet. 

The story of why we call ourselves 'The Viking National Guard' is something of a long one, which I'm sure I will relate one day.  For now I'll just explain each of us has a different color logo on the front of our shirts, and a different name and number on the back.  The names were those of various norse gods.  Here what the back looked like...

To show you the amazing detail on the logo designed by the Professor here is what mine looked like...

In part 2 I'll discuss our ride there, my initial impressions of the Convention, and our first night of gaming!