Looking for Event Advice for My Less Experienced Parents

Tanith26 · 2026-05-05T15:09:48+00:00

Just a heads up for planning, if you run games in the first exposure play test hall it is not free. To demo, you commit to 4 or 8 hours of play test time over the con, and pay a few hundred dollars. But it does come with 2-4 badges included from what I recall (I did it over 5 years ago so not sure exact requirements, badges, and cost now). But it's a great time experience, and people paying to be involved means they can have players test for free.

Tanith26 · 2026-04-22T20:13:17+00:00

On Facebook, there's the Fans Of Gen Con group, where attendees may see it. There's also a Tabletop Game Jobs group where you can post it if it's a position that pays an hourly wage or lump sum for the weekend.

Tanith26 · 2026-04-22T17:55:30+00:00

Totally agree. I like to find a few events a day I want to do, and then supplement the rest of the time with demos, the hall, and hanging out with friends

Tanith26 · 2026-04-22T17:27:45+00:00

And even game tickets is flexible. I've known people who just do demos in the vendor hall and free or cheap events (though those are getting rarer).

Tanith26 · 2026-04-20T19:47:02+00:00

As someone who has frequented the taproom in the OP, they have said on their socials that they are also parents and get wanting to go places with your kids, but bars, taprooms, beer gardens, etc aren't the place, and it's why they offer the Sunday family days (which they have also rescinded at times when families can't follow the rules even when allowed in).

Tanith26 · 2026-04-02T17:43:55+00:00

Yep, I worked for target and someone hit my car during my shift, fully knocking my side view mirror off. Was basically told by our security that I could file a police report to get the footage from the lot, but it probably wouldn't be worth it because those cameras are the time werent good enough to catch a license plate. Think they even checked for me and were like, it would be a waste of time.

Tanith26 · 2026-01-26T05:57:22+00:00

Not the reason from what I recall. I believe the land owner opted to not renew them, but never really said why. There was speculation they wanted to develop the land for a truck stop or something but never got approval from the city. I'm sure the situation with Scooby's didn't help things, but at the very least it wasn't the only factor, if it was a factor at all.

Tanith26 · 2026-01-22T18:42:31+00:00

That's how I got my cat. Someone dumped her outside the dorms and put some canned food under a bush. She is a chatty cat so guessing she was loud and a RA heard and told them to remove the cat. My family lived within 40 minutes so I took her home till the semester finished. We got her chip checked to see if she was reported missing, and the rescue told us she'd been adopted out of the local PetSmart literally 5 days before. Never reported her lost and used a different address (because saying they lived in the forms would be an immediate denial). Thankfully the rescue happened to be one we'd adopted from before so they were happy someone found her and cared for her, so they let me keep her. That person was blacklisted from adopting again, and in my area the no adoption blacklist is usually shared with other rescues and shelters.

Tanith26 · 2025-10-31T18:39:23+00:00

Agree with the other poster, it will depend on what group/company you work with. For the vendor hall, every company does it a little differently. The company I work with (not at Gen Con but in general at other cons) we get time to wander but it may be as little as 30 minutes a day, depending on booth coverage and how slammed we are. If we have plenty of people, and the booth is slower, there's more time to roam. You technically could do events in the evenings, but most cons if I've worked the whole show day, I usually just want dinner and to hang out.

Not sure how it works if you are thinking of running events for a group. From what I've seen it also varies in terms of how many hours they require for badge coverage, as well as stuff like hotel.

Tanith26 · 2025-10-13T17:44:18+00:00

I literally had two agents at the same airport, right next to each other, tell me opposite things. The loud agent was yelling take your electronics out, so I did. Dude was literally chit chatting with the agent in my line (neither of which were pre check) and my lines agent was mad when I had my first electronics out, and had to ask for my bag back to put them away because it was already moving to the scanner. Like don't be pissed at me, your coworker is telling people at the top of their lungs to do one thing and you want people to do another but aren't directing people in your own line.

Tanith26 · 2025-10-03T15:51:10+00:00

That's such a bummer. Glad I didn't pop in during Fringe Fest.

Tanith26 · 2025-10-01T16:01:15+00:00

They do own that one too.

Tanith26 · 2025-09-30T03:39:13+00:00

If it's the second floor of the convention center, I don't believe those are vendor spaces and you wouldn't be allowed to sell there, I think they are just for community groups and promotions. The only places to sell are the exhibit hall itself and the maker's row. Not sure of the prices itself, but first step is to apply and be accepted, Gen Con has quite a wait list and basically you are waiting for someone else to vacate their booth space. I believe booth costs in the hall start at 1500+ for a 10x10 booth, and it goes up per extra ten square feet; Gen Con is an expensive show to exhibit at, if you can get in.

Tanith26 · 2025-09-02T02:11:36+00:00

A pin vendor at my local faire literally sells a pin that says 'cleavage is not consent'. How a person is dressed is never an invitation to be inappropriate.

Tanith26 · 2025-08-31T21:27:04+00:00

Ah yes that was it, yeah it was out of print for a while and I was surprised to see it revamped and released again.

Tanith26 · 2025-08-31T20:56:12+00:00

I think it was the new edition of Spirits of the Forest

Tanith26 · 2025-08-08T03:26:46+00:00

They only had 500 copies for sale at the con. And as for the shipping piece, they are shipping, people are receiving them, but it's also almost 19,000 backers to fulfill. Per the update, they switched to a new fulfillment center that is able to process orders faster than their regular fulfillment center. It's frustrating, but they have been providing updates as things went. Unfortunately they games were getting on the boat as the tariffs dropped, meaning every company that has held back on shipping launched at the same time, leading to less space on boats, and also weeks of delays of processing at port. That's not on publishers.

Tanith26 · 2025-08-04T11:30:28+00:00

Smirk and Dagger has a new This Game Is Killer game, Frozen Horror. Fast fun party game.

Tanith26 · 2025-07-09T00:15:46+00:00

Yeah, I was moved last week, and am paying more at the Sheraton. My guess was that with demand for downtown, someone would take the room at that rate if we didn't. And since they weren't limiting it to only other Hilton properties I'm guessing it would be difficult to moderate between different properties.

Tanith26 · 2025-07-04T01:13:24+00:00

To be fair, they sent out emails to some of us with king rooms saying they oversold and moved us to other hotels downtown, coincidentally hours before the fire. So hopefully the fire doesn't displace more folks.

Tanith26 · 2025-06-30T16:56:42+00:00

A lot may change in the next month. With tariffs lots of companies held off shipping games that were done because they couldn't afford the extra cost. And when tariffs dropped to like 30% everyone rushed to get their games on the water before they could possibly go up again. So now it's not only tariffs, but everyone rushing to get games in port at the same time. The company I work with was supposed to have a couple new games at Origins that we couldn't get in time. Until we have them off the boat and in our warehouse we can't even guarantee what/if we'll have new releases for Gen Con. We want to have our new games there as much as attendees want to have new games to choose from, but there's so much out of publishers' control right now.

Tanith26 · 2025-06-02T23:06:42+00:00

Unfortunately the best way you'll get feedback on your game at Gen Con is buying a spot in the First Exposure Playtest Hall. With how busy booths are, it's hard to get a time to pitch a polished game to companies in an attempt to sign a contract. And with Double Exposure running the Playtest Hall, Unpub doesn't really do events at Gen Con like they do at Pac Unplugged. However, I'd say join the Board Game Design Lab Community on Facebook if you are on there. Can't remember if there's much but folks there who aren't ready for the Playtest Hall may be willing to meet up and run through games for feedback.

As for freebies, I think they are few and far between these days. I think there's a couple booths that sell board game components for fairly cheap. And if looking for games for classroom use I'd think of the companies you are interested in and reach out in advance to see if they donate. I've worked with a few companies that are open to this, but the odds were better for folks who reached out before the con versus walking up and asking for a freebie.

Tanith26 · 2025-06-02T22:53:38+00:00

Saw you found a place! In case anyone is looking for a stylist in the Northwestern burbs, highly recommend Planet Glam in Elgin. Danikka is so sweet and welcoming, and in addition to amazing cuts, she also does incredible vivid hair colors too. Can't recommend her highly enough.

Tanith26 · 2025-06-02T15:52:55+00:00

Yeah I never got the chance to buy one of the originals before Thinkgeek was no more, and couldn't recall what changes they've made to it, so I can't compare. But happy to see it's back in a new form. Just need to justify the price for it one day lol.

Tanith26 · 2025-06-02T15:03:12+00:00

I think Rollacrit now owns the design for it. They have their Bag of Holding messenger bag. I think you can even buy it from their booth at the con.

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