As it turned out I did make it out to Gen Con 2012 this year for what amounted to 36 hours including six hours of driving time from Ohio to Indianapolis. I had a great time while out there and was able to meet up with several of my local gaming group friends and meet several folks that I had only known from online interactions previously.

Game wise I did manage to get a couple of games in. First up was The Red Dragon Inn. A fun game from Slugfest Games you play adventurer’s drinking it up in the tavern. A fortitude score and alcohol content score are the prime mechanics at play. Each player plays a character that has their own deck of cards for that character. It was a quite fun to play.

I finally managed to cross paths with Tracy Barnett (@TheOtherTracy) despite both being from the Columbus, Ohio area and missing each other at Origins. He ran a late night game of his creation, School Daze. It was also a fun, Fiasco inspired game that is fairly free form and improv. Character generation is easy and a d6 is the only die needed. We played the Super Villian version which meant we each had some super power and attended school with other super villains. Tracy ran a great game, I had a lot of fun with it.

I was able to take in a couple of seminars while I was there, one covering freelancing in the RPG industry and the other Meet the Kobold Minions. Both were enjoyable and I was able to meet a couple of the people on the panels afterwards.

I of course spent a good amount of time in the exhibit hall this year. It always amazes me how crowded the hall is, even on weekdays. I really only had one item I was really on the lookout for and that was GameScience zocchi dice. They were easy to find and I picked up two sets of those. Over the course of my time there I did pick up a few other things, including a great deal on the 1e AD&D reprints.

Twitter was an invaluable tool while at the Con. It made running into people (it is how I managed to get into the last minute School Daze game) and seeing what was going on very easy. While I tend to prefer Google+ these days, I have maintained my Twitter presence. At Gen Con twitter definitely seemed to be the best way to keep up with what other folk were up to in real time. Or to let other folks know where I was out for them to find me.

And finally, here is a look at some of the things I brought home with me. I would have had more pics of other things from the Con, but my phone camera lost several photos while I was out there.

It looks like things have come together enough to allow me to sneak off to Gen Con for Friday and Saturday. By the time you read this I will be on the road for the trip to Indy!

Given the last minute nature of the go or no-go, I do not have a lot of games lined up. I plan on hitting the dealer hall up and wandering it aimlessly and then crossing paths with a few other friends I know are out there. I will keep my Twitter feed updated during my two days there. If you are at Gen Con as well, fell free to ping me on Twitter and we will see about meeting up!

Oh – and I may or may not have 20 0-level DCC RPG pre-gens in my bag and a few 3^rd level pre-gens with a couple of DCC RPG mods to run if the urge strikes!

I will be writing up a post-Gen Con report here as well early next week. Also don’t forget that my weekly series covering each character class in the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG will continue next Friday when I will be looking at the Wizard.

Gen Con 2012 quickly approaches and here I sit still not certain if I will be attending. I have my badge, I have a place to stay, and I have plenty of folks to see, socialize and game with, but even at this late point it is an unknown if I will be there.

Due to some recent family medical issues my availability to attend is a day-to-day decision. Even if I am able to attend it will be a shortened trip, most tentatively it would have me heading out on Friday morning and returning home Saturday afternoon. Luckily I am within three hours of Indy, so I can get away with that.

Keeping an eye on Twitter or Google+ will likely be the best way to see what the final decision is. If I end up making it out there I would love to meet up with some people, so drop me a tweet if you see me post that I will attend.

If plans do not work out this year, I think I will take a serious look at attending Gary Con this year. DCC RPG has been a big game for me this year and I think I could get a lot of quality playing up there. I might also check out CONCurrent as a possible option during the Gen Con time frame as well.

Regardless of my presence, The Iron Tavern hopes everyone has a great time at Gen Con.