Convention Report: Gencon 2006: August 10, 2006 - Part 1 (Day 1)

By Rick Thornquist
August 10, 2006

Today is the first official day of Gencon 2006.  I got to the convention center around 8:30am and headed for my first stop - the press room to pick up my badge.  On the way I ran into Jay Tummelson of Rio Grande Games.  I, of course, had to ask Jay if he had Shogun with him.  The good news - he did indeed bring along a copy of the game.  Yay!  The bad news?  He still didn’t have a copy of the rules!  D’oh!  Oh well, he said he’d show me the game perhaps tomorrow so I can get some pictures of it.

I got my press badge and then wandered by the registration area.  Strangely enough, there weren’t the usual humongous line-ups.  I guess the registration process must be pretty efficient because lots of people do have their badges but the line-ups were minimal.  There was a small line-up at the event registration area, but it was nothing as compared to what I’ve seen at previous conventions.

My next stop was the Exhibit Hall.  When I got in it was about an hour before it opened so I got a chance to walk around and take some pictures of the publisher’s booths while it was still relatively quiet (check out the pictures below - note the some of the booths were still in the process of being set up).  I was also able to get some video - I hope to edit and post it either later today or tomorrow.

At 10:00am sharp the doors opened and the mobs were let in.  I took a stroll around the Exhibit Hall and watched the crowds a bit.  There was some action at the boardgame publisher’s booths but it wasn’t near the mob scene that was at the booths for the RPGs and TCGs.  I took a little more video and then escaped the crowds to check out the Boardgaming Halls.

For boardgaming, there are two halls - a big one and a smaller one - that are beside each other.  They were already hopping and quite a few tables were already occupied with gamers.  There must have been some kind of Settlers event going on because there were quite a few tables of Settlers players in the smaller hall.

After finishing up with the boardgaming halls I headed back to my hotel room to type up and post this report.  In a few minutes I’m heading back into the frey.  I’m hoping to get some scoop from a few game publishers, plus I have a 1:00pm appointment to see the upcoming Axis & Allies: Battle of the Bulge game with Larry Harris.  Should be fun! 

Stay tuned for more!

Pictures - Click the picture for a larger version
	The Indiana Convention Center
	It’s Gencon 2006!
	The Badge Registration area - with no lines-ups!
	The Event Registration area - this one has a line.
	The Exhbit Hall in the final hour before the crowds are let in - Days of Wonder
	Rio Grande Games / Out of the Box Publishing - the whole booth
	Rio Grande Games / Out of the Box Publishing - games for sale
	Rio Grande Games / Out of the Box Publishing - games for playing
	Twilight Creations
	Atlas Games
	Asmodee
	Mayfair Games
	Fantasy Flight Games - tables for playing
	Fantasy Flight Games - stacks of games for buying
	Fantasy Flight - more stacks of games to buy and where to buy them
	Eye Level Entertainment - Mark Anticole shows off the Nature of the Beast summary card
	Cheapass Games
	Z-Man Games
	Playroom Entertainment
	Immortal Eyes Games
	Mattel with Brian Yu
	Real Deal Games
	3am Games
	Tablestar Games
	Your Move Games
	Gamestation
	Wizards of the Coast
	Wizards of the Coast - as usual, their booth is small and intimate
	Wizards of the Coast
	Wizards of the Coast - a space for boardgames
	Pictures for Tom Vasel - Heroscape
	More Heroscape
	Even more Heroscape
	The big Boardgaming Hall
	The smaller Boardgaming Hall
	The smaller Boardgaming Hall - Settlers is already in play

© 2006 Rick Thornquist

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You are taking requests? Can you get a couple of pics of any Cadwallon demos being run in the Rackham booth. This is a deranged RPG/minis/boardgame hybrid that looks stunning. Posted by Frank Branham on Aug 10, 2006 at 11:51 AM | #

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