Gen Con 2014 is just around the corner. In this post I am going to give some advice that appears simple but can make your time at the convention so much easier.

Lockers

The convention center in which the convention is held has several coin operated lockers. If you get to Gen Con on Wednesday, I highly recommend dropping the money on one of these lockers. If you are a shopper, they provide a nice place to safely store your stuff while you are out and about. Sure, you can haul all your stuff back to the hotel room. The problem is that not everyone has a hotel that is connected to the convention center. On top of that, not all the hotels are right next to the vendor’s hall. If you have a locker, you are able to drop your stuff off and go about your merry with a little care in the world.

If you are a gamer and ignored my basic advice of not bringing everything, this gives you place close to the action to store your stuff. You can take what you need for each game and just run to the lockers to drop off stuff you no longer need and pick up the new necessities.

The downside of the lockers is that there aren’t a lot of them and the keys go pretty quick. This is why I say if you get in on Wednesday to check them out. If the keys are all gone it still worth swinging by and checking to see if any lockers have opened up as they are nice little hidey-hole when you don’t want to lug around your stuff. The other down side is that they have been doing so much work on the convention center that they may have moved or been removed completely. Fingers crossed here that they have not.

Food Trucks

Another piece of basic advice was that you need to get two meals a day. If you’ve been to Gen con before you know that the hotel breakfast bars are exorbitantly priced. The other difficulty is that the restaurants fill up quickly during peak hours. If you have a short amount of time between slots, getting a meal can be difficult. Gen Con and Indianapolis have made getting a meal easier by locating a large selection of food trucks down the street right next to the vendor hall. The variety of food available is wonderful and the quality ranges from OK to phenomenal. They also have catered to those with special diets such as vegetarians and gluten-free as well. Sure, you can still get a cupcake as big as your head from one of the food trucks but having healthy food options for lunch and dinner within easy reach is a good thing.

Games on Demand

Sometimes the best laid plans fall apart. The game you really wanted to play has had nobody sign up for it or the GM doesn’t show up. This leaves you with a slot open. My first advice would be to make sure you have hit the 3-2-1 rule with this time. If you have made sure you’ve met those minimums and aren’t feeling crabby or tired, then I suggest giving Games on Demand a visit. This is a group of indie game designers and volunteers that run these types of games. All you need to do is show up with a generic ticket or a ticket of some kind and they will do their best to get you into a game that will mostly likely be new to you. When you show up, keep an open mind as they games fill up quick and you may have to take what is available but the staff will try their hardest to get you into a game that you may enjoy. The slots run on the even hours so make sure to drop by when you have time to check and see when the next set of games start and see what might interest you.