One of the big parts of GenCon is the events. And as we get close, now under two weeks away from sign-up, let’s talk about how to use the events catalog. I think the catalog is solid, it’s not the best but it’s also not the worst for using. But there are some things that are probably worth noting on it. As well as it is good to know how to use it for getting ready for when the events do go live on May 19^th this year.

The Basics of the GenCon Events Catalog

Let’s start really easily with the filters and what you need to know.

• Event Type: The type of event that you might want to play. The big ones are RPGs and Board Games. There are events like TCG’s, Seminars (Panels) and other events. But the big two people come for are RPGs and Board Games.
• Game System: What type of game are you playing. Might seem redundant, but if you want to track down a specific game, say Blood on the Clocktower, you can do that through this. So it simplifies some filtering.
• Day: Which day is it on?
• Start Time: When does it start?
• Company/Group: What company is running it. It’s a great way to say, I want to find anything that company X is doing because I’ll be interested in one of their games. I don’t care which one or when it is. So filter by that.

And there are a few other things that matter a bit later.  Has it sold out or already happened, doesn’t matter now, or when you sign up for events. The system will tell you that. The age let’s you know if there are age restrictions. And the level of experience, well, how much you need to know. Most of the RPG and Board Gaming events will be none because they want to teach you the game and get you to buy it.

The Events Themselves

So what do you need to know about the events themselves? I can go into this in detail, but most of the GenCon event stuff is self explanatory. But let’s talk about a few things of note on them.

• Tickets Available: How many people will be at this event. It is going to determine how likely you are to get into it. The more tickets, the easier it is to get into. The fewer, you get the drift. Also important to note if you want to get all the tickets or multiple tickets because you’re in a group.
• Get Tickets For: The big part of the GenCon event catalog is picking what events you want to go to before the events are live. If you are interested, select one of these, if you have a group, pick all or one additional depending on how many you need.
• Only Get Selected Tickets If All Are Available: It does what it says, but it’s important to see it’s there. Again, if you want to play with your friends, you don’t want to sign up only to get one ticket instead of all of them or two of them.
• Cost: How much does it cost? There are free events, but most of them cost. Why, the companies want to pay their people some and this is one way to offset it. Plus they are paying GenCon some as well
• Ticket Method: Another one that is important to note. If it’s electronic, easy, you just show up with your badge and they scan it. So the thing you need to get into the convention is what you need. But it might be paper tickets. And those you either grab at will call ahead of time or have shipped to you. I recommend the latter, skip the lines when you can.
• Duration: Another easy one, how long is this event going to take?
• GM(s): This is the person who is going to run the game. They use GM (Game Master) which is normally an RPG term, but it’s just the instructor/teacher for the game.

Wish List

Finally we have the Wishlist. As you add tickets for yourself and others it’ll allow you to order a wishlist. And I’m not toing to say that there are great tips and tricks for this. And I will get to how you process this in a minute, but order them how you want. It’s meant to be the one that you most want to make it to at number one. I use it slightly differently. Sometimes the GenCon event I’m most excited for has two hundred or five hundred tickets. I don’t need to put that one as high.

Instead, I use it to rank the ones that I’m most interested in with that lower 4-5 person count higher. It theoretically let’s those process first because of how GenCon processes everything, I say theoretically. So let’s get to that day of signing up for events.

How to Actually Get Events at GenCon

GenCon’s main system is on the day that events go live, May 19^th in 2024, it is going to kick off at 11 AM Central time (noon Eastern). You want to be on right then and you want to be on your wishlist page. When the time comes the page will change and you’ll be able to process your wishlist. Keep in mind, mobile, it’s okay for using the site. But that’s only so relevant.

Your wishlist is going to drop into a queue. I clicked within a minute of the go live time last year and was about 5,000 down on the list, maybe slightly further. So events get processed through as you go through the queue. This is why I say the wishlist only kind of matters. I’m assuming that their backend system processes X number of wishlists at a time. So if they go through ten at a time, which seems possible, your wishlist is going to be ranked and compared against the others to make it more likely that you get yours. I want to explain how they do this programmatically, but that’s not going to be useful.

So the processing will take a while. But you don’t need to babysit it the whole time. Check every 15 to 20 minutes to see where you are in the queue. And once your list processes you can go through and update any that you might not want anymore. And you can buy all your events at once. Then after the fact if you want to add more or you missed out on something you really want but there is another event for it, you can add those in and process them separately. Only that first four hours, maybe, is it going to be that hectic and slow a queue.

Additional Tips and Tricks for GenCon Events

Overbook when you create your wishlist. I don’t do great at this, but add in multiple times for a game that you might want. And at the same times that you have other things. If you’re planning on an event at that time,  make sure you have an event at that time.

The other one is book early events. A lot of people get together at GenCon and stay up until midnight or two in the morning every day. It’s fun to do, it’s fun to play games late into the night. It’s fun to have a beer or two while you do so. But I don’t do that every night, maybe one time. Two reasons, it helps avoid con crud, but also it lets me schedule early events. Events that start at 8 AM or 9 AM, less likely to have people sign up for them because it’s early. And especially on the first day when the dealer hall opens, sign up for events starting around then.

Buy generic tickets. This is something that I haven’t really done. But it’s possible to buy generic tickets. The minimum amount is $2 for an event (unless it’s free). So if you want to play a game and it’s at an odd time, say that 8 AM or Sunday, but you  miss out on tickets, you can show up with generic tickets. If someone doesn’t show up, you can get into those events. Now it’s a risk, you might be sitting there with a generic ticket that you can’t use at the end. And you need to plan on enough, so a $8 event, 4 $2 generic tickets, to do the event.

There is playtesting and new things. Sometimes they are trickier to find, but if you know a company is coming out with a new game, search that company or game. You can sometimes get in on playtesting a game which is fun as well.

Finally, you can add friends. The good thing about adding friends is that you can buy for your friends then. This allows you to coordinate events better. If you both or all in your group want to do all the same events, add them to both persons lists. Then process, and whomever is higher in the queue is going to get more of them and sign up there. Just don’t sign up with the other persons.

Final Thoughts

You won’t get everything that you want. But the good thing about GenCon is that there are several thousand events and more will be added. So there are always going to be interesting things to play. And if you’re like me, you don’t overload with events. I generally pick early and later events. Then I’ll wander the dealer hall during the day demoing as many games as I can. But that’s what works for me. You might want more consistent events.

Hopefully this is interesting and useful for  you as you attend GenCon and start browsing the event catalog.

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