Gencon 2011 Day Minus 1

Dinner looked like this, only busier and nerdier.

So we survived our five and a half hour journey this morning (bright-eyed and bushy tailed at 7:00 AM) from Wisconsin and made our way to Indy. The big news of today (which we knew about a little bit) was that the convention hall has finally been completed and there's just a huge amount of space opened up now for the con. We began our Gencon experience by registering all our Auction items (over 100 from the group of us). The Auction has always been our favorite part of the convention since it winds its way through the whole weekend. This year we were blown away by the huge room for their new location. We're so used to the Auction being in one part of the hall, but now it has a much better location if not a little less centrally-placed. It's going to be pleasure hanging out in the Auction room and randomly bidding on cool little games throughout the next four days. Additionally, it appeared to us that the Auction was having a ton more people contribute items, so the new room with extra space is very welcomed.

Talking amongst my very tiny party of Indy adventurers, it really feels like this is a lot of people's first Gencon (which, sadly, really applies more to the volunteers or maybe the organizers more than anyone else). Things were not running smoothly today, and the Will Call line, the place where people who ordered in tickets in advance, was atrociously long. Will Call has always been the place to get in and out quickly with your tickets in the most efficient way possible.

On the plus side, although we waited a good chunk of time for Auction item registration, I've already managed to get a ton of games in without much effort. We started by playing the free Magic: The Gathering decks that came as a part of the swag bags along with the tickets. I lost both games. We then played some Liar's Dice (since I have about 30 d6's with me), and I had better luck with those games because, for some reason, I'm pretty good at Liar's Dice. My little sister and I ended the Auction wait with some good old-fashioned dot game action. I bet my little sister, badly. For that, I feel great. Back at the hotel, after a full day of exhaustion and a full belly of amazing food from The Ram, we played some Lord of the Rings card game. We lost, both times, different quests. I have mixed feelings so far based purely on my overall win/loss record...