This is my First U-Con

Welcome! Thousands of gamers have poured through the doors of U-Con over the decades. Each of them came with a different level of experience gaming and attending conventions. Most of them had a good time, and many came back for years and years, and are still coming back this year. If you’re feeling a little nervous, or just aren’t sure what to expect, this guide is for you!

First, a little about conventions in general:

Generally, cons are broken into two size distinctions – smallish and largeish. On the smaller end, cons could have as few as a couple dozen energetic enthusiasts over a few hours, or as many as a couple thousand over a few days. On the larger end, you’re looking at anywhere from 10,000 attendees to as many as 190,000 at Essen Spiel in Germany last year. Larger conventions tend to focus more on the business of gaming, with lots of space dedicated to publishers, dealers, speakers, etc. At a smaller con, the focus tends to be more on just the playing of games. U-Con fits somewhere in the middle of the smallish side (we anticipate around 1,100 attendees this year). This is great news for you, because it allows us enough clout to pull in some interesting guests, but it can still be small enough that you can actually play a game with those guests.

What do you need to do to get ready?

How much preparation you do will depend on your personal preference, but even a little bit goes a long way to making your time more enjoyable. A few terms you’ll want to know:

Badge – This gets you into the convention. You can either buy each day separately, or a whole weekend pass. The weekend pass is a better deal, but if you know you have to work all day Saturday and you have to be at a family reunion all day Friday, then just getting a Sunday pass totally works too.
Ticket – This gets you into a game. There are two types of tickets, generic and game-specific. A game-specific ticket holds your spot at the table until the game starts, and makes sure you can play what you want to play. In many cases, you can give a generic ticket or two to play any game (each ticket is worth about 2 hours of gaming so a 4 hour game will take 2 tickets) with an open seat, unless all the spots have already been reserved by folks with specific tickets. Both types of tickets are totally exchangeable during the convention, so if you have generics and want to play something specific coming up later, you can bring them up to the registration desk and make sure your spot is held. Conversely, if you have a ticket for a specific game in the afternoon but bonded with the folks you met in your morning game and want to play with them all day, you can trade that specific ticket in to do something else and free up that seat for another player. If you just want to get in as many hours of gaming as possible and don’t really care what (or won’t know what you want until you see it), we recommend the “Play games all weekend” ribbon, which acts as unlimited generic badges, for the cost of 10 regular generics.

Sign up:

For minimalists: Register for your badge and get three or four generic tickets. When you get here, you’ll be ready to hit the ground running with just a quick look at the con book.
For enthusiasts: If you have a couple of games you really like and just want to play with some new people, register for your badge, then search for those specific games and pick up tickets for those.
For explorers: If you’ve got a bunch of games you like and are looking to expand your horizons, you may want to do some research. I recommend BoardGameGeek, but there are plenty of people on the internet with opinions about games. Look for games with similar mechanisms or the same designer, for starters. Don’t be ashamed of looking at pictures to see games look like fun. Get tickets for those specific games.
For adventurers: Register for your badge, get a play games all weekend ribbon, then let the winds of fate blow you to a random table. Have fun, make new friends. Repeat all weekend.

Don’t over-plan:
I generally recommend new folks try to plan for 3 games / day. This will give you extra time for some fun activities. You might want to check out the vendors, play something from the Games Library, go out for lunch with some new friends, or my personal favorite, taking the mid-con nap or shower. You can always swing by the registration table and find another game to jump in if you get bored, but it’s a bummer trying to decide between playing a new game with your friends and sitting through a game that you already have a ticket for but maybe can’t remember in the moment why you scheduled it.

Mentally prepare:
Games will sell out. Every year, a few events end up being more popular than we predict (sometimes not enough GMs, sometimes not enough copies of a game!) but that’s ok. Pretty much everybody ends up not playing something they wanted to, but there are enough other fun things to do that the heartache quickly fades.

Find a place to stay:
If you’re coming from out of town, don’t feel limited to having to stay at the convention hotel. Check AirBnB, find another hotel in the area, crash with friends. There are plenty of options, but the closest ones will sell out. Don’t wait until Friday night to think about where you’re staying.

Pack:
You’ll need the basics of any trip (clothes, toiletries, etc) but a few things you’ll want to keep an eye on-

Snacks – you’ll get caught up with what you’re doing, or you might end up playing through a meal. Having a snack will keep you going until you can grab something with more substance.
Hand sanitizer – games are hands-on activity. Whether or not you want to go back to school or work on Monday, you definitely don’t want to do it with a cold.
Battery pack – Outlets on the floor are in short supply. If you want to charge your devices, bringing a battery pack is the way to go.
Water – Water will be provided, but you won’t want to be getting up to refill a cup in the middle of a tense game. Bring a water bottle and stay in the moment.
Games – Have a favorite game you want to introduce your new friends to? Bring it! Have something quick to play to kill some time between sessions? Bring it! But don’t feel the need to bring your whole collection, we’ll have plenty to play here.

What do you need to do once you’re here?

Have a good attitude:
Not everything is going to go the way you planned. Nothing to do but roll with the punches.Smile, adapt, and overcome.

Follow the 5-2-1 Rule:
Your brain and your body will be going through more and for longer than you’re probably used to. If you don’t take care of yourself, you’re more susceptible to getting sick or crashing.
5 Hours of Sleep
2 Meals
1 Shower

Drink Water:
Remember that bottle of water I told you to bring? Don’t forget to drink it. Fill it with juice or Gatorade if you want, but try to stay hydrated. Your body will not thank you for drinking exclusively coffee and Mountain Dew all weekend.

Check out the prizes:
Every year, our sponsors help us provide you with prizes. You can win them either through our raffle or by trading in prize tokens. If nothing is catching your eye, you can always hang on to your tokens and bring them back next year. Check with the registration desk for details.

Watch for green cones:
If a table has a green cone on it, it means the game is looking for more players. If it looks fun, you can give the GM one of your generic tickets and jump right it.

I hope these tips help, but if I’ve forgotten anything important, I’m sure some of our veterans will help remind me.