Pipes, Pints, and Polyhedrons

Ancalagon wrote: ↑June 22nd, 2023, 11:43 pm Some ideas...

1. You , me, and Jared each try to get a reservation at the Grand Geneva. You go for a suite and me and Jared each try to grab a 2 bed room. Or everyone tries for a suite. We can discuss further to optimize chances.

2. We arrive on the Tuesday of the week of Gary Con instead of Wednesday like we usually do. This allows us to spend time in town for dining, fudge shop, and relaxing. It may also be an option to help with room reservations by checking in a day before the crush of people show up.

3. Stay until Monday like the last couple of times.

4. Any interest in flying in to Milwaukee to avoid the chaos and crush of O'Hare?

The extra day may be doable, but we'd have to pay the full resort price for that night, which is probably going to be at least twice the con price. Outside of the standard 2-Queen bed rooms, the Geneva offers a 2-bed room Villa and a 3-bed room villa, but the price on the villas jumps way up, so we'll have to see what the con-rate is for those and whether or not it's worth the extra costs, versus just getting two standard rooms.

I think this year the total cost for the 2-bed room was about $950, including all taxes and fees, another non-con day would add another 250 or so the cost.

Would love to fly into MKE, but the flights from JAX to there absolutely suck in both price and total flight time. No direct flights, all have ridiculous layovers. I had planned to drive up next year, but I have a flight credit for $480 which I don't want to go to waste, so I think we'll plan to fly up again, but I don't know if MKE will be a good choice. Will have to do some ticket scouting after Jan 1st. Won't be getting a ticket before the new year like I did last year, the flight time changes for both Quinn and I that it made a mess of things to reschedule decent flights in on Wed.

At this point, I think I'll just worry about grabbing a Silver badge and then prepping for securing the room(s). Once that's nailed down, I'll look at flights and travel.

Turns out, this year is different in regards to reservations for the rooms. According to a post on the GC facebook group from today:

Luke Gygax
'yes there are rates established from Friday to Monday for F&L and for a Gary Con Tuesday to Monday.'

The good news for this, is that it looks like the rooms will have the con-rate for Tuesday through Monday so no extra cost for showing up early.

There will be some sort of events going on from Friday, Mar 15th, through Monday in regards to the Founders and Legends, and then the regular GaryCon is slated Tue through the following Monday. I would like Luke to expand on this at some point because I'm wondering if this means GaryCon is going to expand the extra day with events starting on Wed, instead of the usual Thursday, or if this just means the con rates will be available for anyone wanting to stay the entire week. I don't think any specifics have been given at this time.

I was also happy to note that the prior weekend events won't affect hotel reservations. Everyone attending, regardless of length, will still be registering for hotels at the same time. This was also mentioned on the same post:

Scott Schwartz
"dont suppose that people who sign up for both weekends get a jump on rooms at the grand so they can stay and play all week"

Luke Gygax
"that’s not feasible for all unfortunately"

But this also means that everyone is going to be gunning for rooms at the Geneva for sure. And with the new run 18 hours, reserve a room first policy going into effect, at least 50 rooms could potentially be gone before general hotel registration happens.

Asked Luke on FB about the extended hotel rates and they are simply in place for people that want to arrive earlier and stay longer, GaryCon itself will not have an extra day of events. But, this does mean that we could plan to arrive a day early if we want to and just hang out. Something to think about.

Necron 99 wrote: ↑June 26th, 2023, 5:16 pm Asked Luke on FB about the extended hotel rates and they are simply in place for people that want to arrive earlier and stay longer, GaryCon itself will not have an extra day of events. But, this does mean that we could plan to arrive a day early if we want to and just hang out. Something to think about.

Excellent. Definitely something to consider.

Event registration opens up when badges go on sale, the 29th of this month. Even though it's the big 50th Anniversary of D&D next year, I've decided to follow through with my initial plan of not running any d20 games when we attend. As of right now, I plan on running other systems and I already have the initial outline for one adventure using Broken Compass. With all of the supplement books available to the game, I may work up a couple of different adventures using different genres. I'm also looking at possibly running either The One Ring or Vaesen, but haven't settled on a solid adventure ideas just yet.

There is a thread on the Gary Con FB page about little known games people would like to see at the con that has hundreds of responses so you're probably on to something with the non-d20 games idea. Make me think about running Mythras even more...

And once again, Luke lied about hotel registration.

I saw some folks talking about the Legends and Founders event, the weekend prior, and decided to take a look at the badges offered. There are two tiers:

Hero of the Realm
Admission to all 3 days, 3 nights stay at the Grand (Fri/Sat/Sun night), seat in the D&D Evolution tournament, lunch daily and evening mixer Sat/Sun and premier F&LC merch. GC XVI early housing

Adventurer
Access to all 3 days of the convention, games and activities.

The Hero badge is $2,000, the Adventurer is $100. Pretty big difference there.

I noticed that those paying the $2k get early housing registration, even after he specifically said on the FB group a while back, that everyone registers for GaryCon rooms at the same time. As they say, "follow the money". I guess those with the privilege and option to pay more, get first dibs. The plebeians can fight over the scraps.

Maybe it is just me, but what started off as a simple gathering, a remembrance and an honor to his dad's legacy, has blown up into something else. I know people will attend and people will have fun, but they'll never experience Gary Con as it was, as it should be, in my opinion. It's just another con now, the only difference is this one it tied to Gary. Not to sound harsh, but I almost get the feeling that Luke is now just riding the coattails, almost to the point of grifting off his father's passing and legacy.

I remember reading about how JRRT had stated that he never wanted his work commercialized. He wanted it to be kept as it was, yet even so, look at how commercialized his legacy has become. At least Christopher tried to maintain his dad's wishes up until his passing.

"Follow the money."

GaryCon feels like that now, like watching Tolkien's work become modern and commercialized.

The old days are gone, and I don't think we'll see them return again. I know some will argue that there are alternatives, like North Texas, but for ME personally, even that cannot replace those early years.

See, GCVII was awesome not only because I was tired of the "big cons" and wanted something smaller, but GaryCon was held in Lake Geneva, Gary's home. WotC, had no hands in the pockets yet and there was little to no Paizo presence. Those unfortunately, showed up in later years. I remember the Trolls and their booth, I remember playing Castles and Crusades, and Kenzer having a big pirate/harbor themed table running Hackmaster games. I remember sitting outside around the fire pit one evening, under falling snow, talking with some random attendees.

GCVII was where I met many of the folks from Dragonsfoot, people with whom I had written and talked online for many years prior. I remember meeting "grodog" in the dealer's room for the first time and I remember sitting in a chair in some random hallway talking with "tacojon" about gaming and our kids. I can remember sitting at a corner table, near the window, in the bar with "Handy Haversack and "bigperm" before the rest of the NYC crew started attending. I remember playing in a Basic D&D game run by "Chgowiz" that was set in the Britannia setting from the Ultima series of computer games. I remember sitting with "francisca" and a few others during an AD&D game (run by tacojon) and meeting "Ghul" while he was running one of his early AS&SH adventures. Early one morning, I recall having breakfast at The Egg Harbor Cafe' with "chainsaw", "EOTB", "ligedog", "Guy Fullerton", and a few others. GCVII was the first time I banged together some coconuts during a jousting tournament with "Paul J. Stormberg" and played Chainmail in an attempt to thwart the evils of his modular Moathouse.

No other con will or could replace that. Those memories are once in a lifetime, I can't make them again. I think the realization I have now is that, you can never go back. Even though the writing has been on the wall ever since that year, the GaryCon we knew then is just not there any more. Much like D&D, which has changed and moved on in other directions, so to, has GaryCon. Badges go on sale the 29th, but, the more I think about it, maybe it's just time to hang up the 'ole GC dice bag. Maybe for while or maybe for good.

Necron 99 wrote: ↑July 23rd, 2023, 10:26 am And once again, Luke lied about hotel registration.

I saw some folks talking about the Legends and Founders event, the weekend prior, and decided to take a look at the badges offered. There are two tiers:

Hero of the Realm
Admission to all 3 days, 3 nights stay at the Grand (Fri/Sat/Sun night), seat in the D&D Evolution tournament, lunch daily and evening mixer Sat/Sun and premier F&LC merch. GC XVI early housing

Adventurer
Access to all 3 days of the convention, games and activities.

The Hero badge is $2,000, the Adventurer is $100. Pretty big difference there.

I noticed that those paying the $2k get early housing registration, even after he specifically said on the FB group a while back, that everyone registers for GaryCon rooms at the same time. As they say, "follow the money". I guess those with the privilege and option to pay more, get first dibs. The plebeians can fight over the scraps.

Maybe it is just me, but what started off as a simple gathering, a remembrance and an honor to his dad's legacy, has blown up into something else. I know people will attend and people will have fun, but they'll never experience Gary Con as it was, as it should be, in my opinion. It's just another con now, the only difference is this one it tied to Gary. Not to sound harsh, but I almost get the feeling that Luke is now just riding the coattails, almost to the point of grifting off his father's passing and legacy.

I've not been a fan of the "drift" since the 2015 experience. Its part of why I've been putting the idea out there for a while about finding another option.

Necron 99 wrote: ↑July 23rd, 2023, 10:26 amI remember reading about how JRRT had stated that he never wanted his work commercialized. He wanted it to be kept as it was, yet even so, look at how commercialized his legacy has become. At least Christopher tried to maintain his dad's wishes up until his passing.

"Follow the money."

GaryCon feels like that now, like watching Tolkien's work become modern and commercialized.

The old days are gone, and I don't think we'll see them return again. I know some will argue that there are alternatives, like North Texas, but for ME personally, even that cannot replace those early years.

A few years ago I researched Gary Con and found it was not a non-profit operation. So, naturally, as a for-profit entity, prices go up, sponsors like WotC are brought in, which was particularly distasteful considering how WotC talked unfavorably about the older versions of the game. Other stuff was added that detracted from the feel that made the 2015 experience so enjoyable. Stuff like hundreds of 5e events that outnumber the TSR versions, costume contests and the play dress up crowd, etc. GC went from a small con that honored Gary with a focus on TSR era games, mostly those he had a hand in, manly (A)D&D, to now being a "celebration of playing games" which was a convenient way to open the door for everything else we see. This has caused membership to swell (follow the money) to the point of bursting at the seams with people having to get rooms miles away from the Grand Geneva which is a PITA. While a lot of the people who attend are great to hangout / talk / game with, GC's change of focus is making it feel like most every other con. I can get that experience with a lot less hassle (O'Hare, commute to Lake Geneva, freezing ass cold weather) and expense.

Necron 99 wrote: ↑July 23rd, 2023, 10:26 amSee, GCVII was awesome not only because I was tired of the "big cons" and wanted something smaller, but GaryCon was held in Lake Geneva, Gary's home. WotC, had no hands in the pockets yet and there was little to no Paizo presence. Those unfortunately, showed up in later years. I remember the Trolls and their booth, I remember playing Castles and Crusades, and Kenzer having a big pirate/harbor themed table running Hackmaster games. I remember sitting outside around the fire pit one evening, under falling snow, talking with some random attendees.

GCVII was where I met many of the folks from Dragonsfoot, people with whom I had written and talked online for many years prior. I remember meeting "grodog" in the dealer's room for the first time and I remember sitting in a chair in some random hallway talking with "tacojon" about gaming and our kids. I can remember sitting at a corner table, near the window, in the bar with "Handy Haversack and "bigperm" before the rest of the NYC crew started attending. I remember playing in a Basic D&D game run by "Chgowiz" that was set in the Britannia setting from the Ultima series of computer games. I remember sitting with "francisca" and a few others during an AD&D game (run by tacojon) and meeting "Ghul" while he was running one of his early AS&SH adventures. Early one morning, I recall having breakfast at The Egg Harbor Cafe' with "chainsaw", "EOTB", "ligedog", "Guy Fullerton", and a few others. GCVII was the first time I banged together some coconuts during a jousting tournament with "Paul J. Stormberg" and played Chainmail in an attempt to thwart the evils of his modular Moathouse.

No other con will or could replace that. Those memories are once in a lifetime, I can't make them again. I think the realization I have now is that, you can never go back. Even though the writing has been on the wall ever since that year, the GaryCon we knew then is just not there any more. Much like D&D, which has changed and moved on in other directions, so to, has GaryCon. Badges go on sale the 29th, but, the more I think about it, maybe it's just time to hang up the 'ole GC dice bag. Maybe for while or maybe for good.

Since badges go on sale in less than a week, if you really want to pass on GC for 2024, I'm OK doing so since I've been floating for a while now of trying something else. We should decide before the 29th and communicate with Jared so he doesn't buy a badge under the assumption we're all going as discussed.

Ancalagon wrote: ↑July 23rd, 2023, 5:07 pm Since badges go on sale in less than a week, if you really want to pass on GC for 2024, I'm OK doing so since I've been floating for a while now of trying something else. We should decide before the 29th and communicate with Jared so he doesn't buy a badge under the assumption we're all going as discussed.

I agree with everything you said, man. I think the primary reason I've wanted to attend, was for seeing friends and hanging out. There's nothing outside of the gaming side of GaryCon that I have an interest in. I don't attend the gatherings at the bar, I don't go to the auction, I don't get in on the GaryCon photo, or go to the blessing of the dice/con that is held, and I damn sure don't care for the cos-play.

I'm there to play games, hang out with friends, maybe make some new ones and hit the dealer's room. That's pretty much it. I'll shoot out a text to Jared so he knows not to get a badge and we'll plan for somewhere else in 2024. Seriously thinking GenCon (early August) as it's the only big con, I've never attended but open to suggestions from anyone else.

Thanks for the shout-out, Jay.

It’ll be hard to recapture the feel of early- to mid-GaryCons these days, but NTX still has my focus on that front.

2024 may be my final GaryCon, assuming I end up going as currently planned .

Allan.