Gary Con 2023: Day 0

I had another fun trip to Gary Con this year. This was my fourth time in person, the earlier years being 2017, 2019 and 2022 (links go to con reports). So this marked my first consecutive in-person attendance, and like last year, I ran two D&D games, one new and one old, with one additional twist: I ran the two sessions as a mini-campaign, using the same pre-gens and leveling them up between.

Day 0: Wed Mar 22

My trip started with a flight to Milwaukee along with my friend Scott, who has been to Gary Con a few more times than myself and runs a new pair of creative games each year. As we flew in I noted scattered piles of snow, a foreshadowing of the winter weather we'd experience later in the weekend. At the airport, we were joined by Matthew, a former member of our local group who was attending his first Gary Con. We collected a rental car and drove down to Lake Geneva, arriving in the mid-afternoon, the earliest that I've ever gotten there. 

We made a pit stop at a Piggily-Wiggily (my first time) for rations, which for myself included snackable cheese curds (also a first), and then had lunch at Claw's, a sandwich shop in the same complex, where I had an unusual egg and fried sweet pepper sandwich. Recommended.

We still had some time before check-in, so I took them on a short tour of some notable locations downtown Lake Geneva that I remembered seeing on my first Gary Con in 2017, when I used the map in Michael Witwer's Empire of Imagination book to navigate around.

330 Center Street in 2023

These sights included 330 Center Street (the house where Gygax lived in 1974 when D&D was first published), 723 Williams Street (TSR headquarters ~1975-1978), Horticultural Hall (the original home of Gen Con) and the Hotel Clair building (TSR's headquarters during the heady years of 1978-1982). (Dates confirmed with Game Wizards by Jon Peterson)

Matthew, myself and Scott at the Gygax memorial tile

We eventually ended up down at the waterfront, home to the Gary Gygax memorial tile, where we had another gamer take the photo of us. 

I also rolled my d20s on the tile for luck, but they each came up with a natural 1...! 

The Lake of Unknown Depths

We also took a short walk over to the beach on the lake.

After that we drove up to the Grand Geneva hotel, passing TSR's final headquarters at 201 Sheridan Springs road, and checked in to our room, which turned out to be at the extreme southern end of the gigantic building, which I didn't mind because it forces a bit of walking exercise, a rarity at a packed con weekend.

We then braved the lengthy badge pick up line, where we ran into Rich, another member of our local game group, who ran 9 games (!) over the course of the weekend. After that we went to the upstairs hall to have some Spotted Cow beer and pizza at the "Pre-Con Welcome Party", courtesy Luke Gygax, and where I talked to Demos, who blogs over the OSR Grimoire.

Back in our room, Matthew led us through an fun impromptu session of Postcard from the Expedition, a collaborative story game. I think this was the first time I've ever managed to squeeze in any pickup gaming at Gary Con!

Next Up: Day 1 (unfortunately, never completed...)