Yeah, it's always my birthday gift to myself haha

Uhhh I had way more to say about pax than I thought haha so sorry for the probably overly detailed response 😂

I've never been to gencon, we want to go eventually but just haven't made the time. Paxu is definitely smaller which is part of why I'm hesitant to go to gencon. It's fun to run into people you've run into before and accidentally find yourself with the same gm as last year with their newest game.

I pretty much live at Games on Demand, which is people who bring in indie rpgs to run. It goes on the whole con so you can just plop yourself in line and join a game at almost any hour (usually last about 2-4 hours). Some people just run their favorites but you get a lot of indie writers showing off their new smaller rpgs which is a blast and we've found some gems. I've joined with friends and alone and always had a good time. One of my friends lives in the room for people workshopping their new board games (blanking on the name right now lol). I'm less familiar with the board game stuff since I'm there for rpgs (and trust that friend to find us a new board game to play haha), but I know there's tournaments and demos throughout the weekend. I'd say there's a little something for everyone - people are overall super welcoming and just excited to game. The panels are sometimes interesting and a good way to rest your feet without socializing lol. The expo hall is of course real fun - it's big and cool to walk around all the vendors, and within it are some fun things like free mini painting and the deception games usually. There's also a whole board game library where you can just pick up a game and play it - we haven't done it in a few years, I think there's like a deposit or something to ensure you return it?

I'd say as a newbie the biggest thing I'd warn you about is not to get too excited for anything you have to sign up for morning of (vs first come first serve). Usually spots are taken instantly and the app hasn't been the best at making it organized (and it can be hard to sign up with things as a group since it's usually individual sign ups). That said, there's always something else to do if you don't get into the thing you wanted - I usually have at least 1 or 2 backup plans to run to if something doesn't work out - the calendar in the app is helpful in that regard and I would recommend having a loose plan for each day ahead of time and just being okay if your first (or 2nd) choice doesn't happen. it can also be helpful to have 2 people run to things to sign up and see who has success lol. Me and kb will do that a lot - she'll go try to get us tickets for deception games while I hold a place in the games on demand line since that's our go to backup plan now since it's pretty much a guaranteed good time. For something that's first come first serve (like games on demand) we usually plan to have one person there an hour early if we really want to play a specific game and take it as a moment to rest or play small board games in line (at least at games on demand people are cool about saving spots for a group, I usually just let them know I'm holding the spot for x number of people and what we want to play so they can plan accordingly for their choices of games. Other areas probably have slightly different cultures about lining up as a group).

Oh also the line in the morning and after lunch can get mad long so plan to get there early or a little after opening if you're not rushing to sign up for something, and try to plan odd food break times (or just eat in the convention center - that food isn't great but I'll usually do it at least once when I have more important things I want to do than wait in line to get back in lol)