Andrew Seiple's Blog: Transmissions From the Teslaverse - Posts Tagged "reminiscing"

Gencon Memories, Part I

I remember it pretty well. Summer of 2003, a hot August in Indianapolis. First time I'd been in the city, and I was here for one reason and one reason alone; Gencon had moved to Indianapolis, and I wanted to see it for myself.

They called it the Mecca of RPG conventions... not least because back in Wisconsin, it used to be held in a place called the Mecca convention center. The acronym didn't mean the same thing but the saying stuck; it was something you had to see at least once in your life.

Hitherto, Milwaukee had always been out of my reach. Never had the money before, or the time to trek halfway across the country. Not at the same time. But here? Two hours from Dayton? Yeah, I could do that.

The Indianapolis convention center was huge. It put the one in Columbus to shame, and positively dwarfed the one in Dayton. It's only expanded since then, but at the time it had ample room for the events. And the dealer's hall was a decent size, comparable to the one at my old favorite gaming con, Origins. Again, this is something that expanded over the years, the dealer hall now could probably engulf the entire gaming area of the first Indy Gencon and have room left over for a few anime rooms. But at the time it seemed impressive.

That first year? Lots of good gaming, lots of shopping. I didn't know many locals yet, and most of my gaming friends had declined to join me for the trip, so I was on my own and felt it. Stranger in a Strange Land, with apologies to Heinlein.

I wasn't the only stranger. There was a football game going on at the same time, and we had face-painted fans staring at us, with that wrinkled eye look that said their 'weirdo radar' had been triggered. But whatever, we didn't care about stares from randos. Our cosplayers cosplayed, the rest of us slung dice or shuffled cards, and life was good.

Indy really didn't know what to make of us. They'd learn. Oh yeah, they'd learn.

I went home satisfied, resolving to return next year. Seemed like a good supplement to my summer cons, a season that started with Origins and would now end with Gencon.

I had no idea just how much Gencon would grow, shed of its old Milwaukee shell and transplanted to spacious Indy...

Cardhalla. That was the name of the thing. Just some random thing that con staff had come up with.

It was pretty much a roped off area, five foot by ten or so. And there were stacks upon stacks of old collectible card game cards lying around, donations from people who didn't want them, factory excess stock, or games long dead and of no use to anyone.

The instructions were simple. Come in and build. And build the Gencon attendees DID. They folded, stacked, and crimped cards, making towers and castles and buildings and dragons and all sorts of structures, from cards that would never see play.

They called it Cardhalla.

And it had a further purpose, than just being awesome.

On Saturday night, we came with change in our pockets. The rules here were simple.

You threw change, and knocked down the towers, and at the end of it all coins inside the area went to charity.

And as fascinating and awesome as it had been to see those towers rise, it was satisfying as hell to pitch quarters or handfuls of dimes and blow them away, watch them crumble under the bombardment.

Cardhalla's still around today. It's about four times the original size. And the crowd on ending night is usually big enough that I don't attend anymore. But oh, it's still a sight, and one any first-time Gencon goer should experience in its entirety.

It's rare that you get an event that satisfies both creators and destroyers. Cardhalla manages.

Geeze, time got away from me...

That's fine. Packing's done, and we're prepped for tomorrow. Through an unlikely series of events I secured a room for the Tuesday before Gencon this year, and I'm spending the day with my family in Indy, taking my daughter to the Children's museum, and treating them to a Brazilian steakhouse dinner.

Now where was I?

Indianapolis was a good fit for Gencon. The downtown core around the convention center was packed full of hotels, restaurants, and bars, and as I went back again and again over the years I watched the numbers grow.

I laughed to see things the second year around, because the local businesses realized "Hey waitaminute, these weirdos have money!" Soon restaurants started having theme menus, calling Reubens things like "The Dark Wizard," or showing scifi movies on the nearby TV screens. Various companies donated banners to hang over their favorite eateries... to this day, Privateer Press is pretty much an unofficial sponsor of the Ram brewery while Gencon's going on.

The cops love us. We come to game and don't cause trouble. Eventually the other events in Indy in August started scheduling around Gencon, either avoiding it because of the lack of space, or catering to it, with concerts, art shows, even plays. We boost the local economy by millions, whenever we go.

It's been good there... not all fun times, mind. The last few years' bouts of political stupidity caused a lot of ire. And Gencon, thankfully, stood up for its diverse attendees. That show of solidarity secured my loyalty. I may not know how long the con will remain in Indiana, but I will not hesitate to attend whenever I can.

And now here we are, at Gencon's fiftieth anniversary. Badges are sold out, and so are the city's hotels. I have no schedule, I have no plan, I just have a few ambitions and minor goals.

And yeah, I'm bringing my laptop. Got lots of writing to do. No idea if I'll have time to use it, but we'll see.

Be well, friends. I'll let you know how awesome it was when I return.