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Whats the oddest thing that ever happened to you at gencon.

Me, I almost had a security guard pull a gun on me, while I was at my hotel, for being in a resticted zone.

About a week before leaving for Indy, a colleague mentioned being ecstatic that he'd gotten the week off to go to Indianapolis. I, of course, assumed he was going to GenCon, and gave him a nudge nudge wink sort of look.

During Gencon, I ran into him at the mall food court. Turns out HE was in town for his brother's wedding, and had had NO idea what the heck I was winking about. Sadly, that is the oddest thing, for me. I don't count scheduled oddities, like the KFG TD run, or the like.

That would have to be getting my ankle smashed in the taxi van's door--by the taxi driver!!

Are these odd or just unfortunate?

I found it odd that a guest speaker who was promoting her book for Wizards of the Coast decided that when she couldn't find the room she was supposed to be speaking in, she just went and did something else. Leaving your fans high and dry seems like a pretty odd and unfortunate turn of events.

The oddest thing that ever happend to me was while sitting in the lobby of a nearby hotel, a cresent wrench fell from the sky and came within inches of my head. One of my friend s saw it and we both looked up bewildered. A few minuets later a worker came down looking for it and I gave it to him, he waked off without an apology or anything.

Odd as in unexpected, but definitely good.  Sprinted to buy the new heroscape stuff last year as supplies were very limited.  Was 5th in line or so and we were told that only 75 Mastersets would be sold that day.  So I counted down the quickly forming line until I got to 80 and started telling folks about the limited supply.  I sold my game to a guy in line with his kid for almost $80, 2x the price I paid.

His kid looked at him with a big smile and I made enough money to buy all of wave 7!

justmark1:

Odd as in unexpected, but definitely good.  Sprinted to buy the new heroscape stuff last year as supplies were very limited.  Was 5th in line or so and we were told that only 75 Mastersets would be sold that day.  So I counted down the quickly forming line until I got to 80 and started telling folks about the limited supply.  I sold my game to a guy in line with his kid for almost $80, 2x the price I paid.

His kid looked at him with a big smile and I made enough money to buy all of wave 7!

Not to be judgemental, but this kind of stuff always bums me out.    It would have been great (and memorable) if you could have just given it to him for your cost.

David229:

Not to be judgemental, but this kind of stuff always bums me out.    It would have been great (and memorable) if you could have just given it to him for your cost.

I have to agree with David on this one. Obviously we don't know the details and I'll give you the benefit of doubt in saying you probably didn't buy it with the intention of re-selling for a profit. Still, it would be really unpleasant for me to find out I was #76 in line and someone else just lined up to make a quick buck.

Just my 2 cents on this.

Back on topic, an odd thing that happened to me:

I bought my D&D 3.5 books one week before Gen Con 07 and the D&D 4th Edition announcement. I don't want to get another 3.5 vs 4E fight here, so don't go there guys, but once I started learning on 4E I decided I'd switch over, so the 3.5 books are now officially on the collection bookcase... Now that I think about it was just annoying, not odd !

OK, really odd thing that happened at Gen Con: I kept finding lost dice on the floor. I must have found 5 or 6 throughout the con, all on the floor.

David229:

justmark1:

Odd as in unexpected, but definitely good.  Sprinted to buy the new heroscape stuff last year as supplies were very limited.  Was 5th in line or so and we were told that only 75 Mastersets would be sold that day.  So I counted down the quickly forming line until I got to 80 and started telling folks about the limited supply.  I sold my game to a guy in line with his kid for almost $80, 2x the price I paid.

His kid looked at him with a big smile and I made enough money to buy all of wave 7!

Not to be judgemental, but this kind of stuff always bums me out.    It would have been great (and memorable) if you could have just given it to him for your cost.

It sounds like everybody came out ahead in that deal. Maybe #76 was a real scumbag and it's for the better that Tiny Tim got his game.

I think it was in '03 when I went with a bigger group of friends...it got to be a running joke that so many strangers kept talking to me.  Like, "What time is it?" "Have you seen the BLANK booth?" etc etc.  This is NOT normal - I don't come off as approachable, lol.  By Sunday, it had gotten to such a laughable state that I had a lady actually ask me if she could use my badge to get in, cause she only needed to buy her son a Dragonball Z shirt before the Con closed.

We never did figure out why I seemed to radiate "Hoosier Hospitality" that week...it was pretty hilarious, though.

For me, it was 2 years ago when I saw a guy going from booth to booth just flat out asking if they had any free stuff.  He was not interested in anything (product pitch, small talk), just the free stuff.  If asked if he wanted to hear about their items, he said no, and moved on.  If they had some free stuff, he grabbed it and moved on.

I don't know - maybe I am being too harsh, but it seemed kinda surprising to me that someone would do that.

Not so much odd as unexpected. Many years ago placed third, and won the team name competition, in the NASCRAG event. At the last minute, on a generic ticket, with a complete pickup team, that had never met each other before the event.

I find it oddly amusing that when I'm dressed up, I get the most compliments on my ears(ear tips).  

Three, maybe four years ago, I had entered a fan-run fiction contest for Legend of the Five Rings.  I was playing in the qualifiers and all these people I had never met kept coming up and congratulating me.   I was pretty confused since I was doing pretty badly (I usualy go 1-X in any given tournament).  Fortunately, a friend took pity on my (several hours later) and told me that I had won the fiction contest.

I may have scrubbed out of the qualifiers, but it was my best GenCon ever!

jerrytel:

For me, it was 2 years ago when I saw a guy going from booth to booth just flat out asking if they had any free stuff.  He was not interested in anything (product pitch, small talk), just the free stuff.  If asked if he wanted to hear about their items, he said no, and moved on.  If they had some free stuff, he grabbed it and moved on.

I don't know - maybe I am being too harsh, but it seemed kinda surprising to me that someone would do that.

It doesn't surprise me at all.  I worked an event one year called "Seniorama," aimed at senior citzens.  Well this pack of Blue Hairs comes in on their Rascals and, like a swarm of locusts, begins moving from booth to booth entering the drawings for free stuff.  All of these seasoned citizens had a rubber stamp made with their name and address so they didn't have to take the time to actually fill out the slip--it was just *thud*, move to next booth, *thud*, move to next booth.   

My favorite odd thing was the year the Harry Potter CCG was released (still love that game!)

I was playing it in the hall late at night with my husband and someone was watching us from across the hall.  It sounds normal for the con, but he was really into watching us.    He spent 10 minutes coming slowly closer, then hovered over us and just started asking detailed questions about our game play.  It was downright stalker-esque.

Eventually, he told us he was one of the people who created the game and wanted feedback on it.  He then showed us a bunch of pre-release cards he had with him and told me about meeting with JKRowling about the game.  Awesome!  IT was a fabulous conversation.

So it started out creepy and ended up fantastic, but it was odd the whole time. 

Oddest thing for me...first time at Gencon in 2006.  Celebrities...well, gaming famous folks..EVERYWHERE.

I turned around and there was Ms Margaret Weis.  I was talking to Jolly Blackburn from Kenzer and Kevin Siembieda of Palladium Games walks up and starts to chat with us.  It was very cool.  I was like a little kid all star struck.

(As an aside, Mr. Siembieda, contrary to some things I've read and heard from our community, was a very cordial and generous guy.  He never tired of talking with fans and put up with my "I grew up on Palladium games" blathering with patience...yeah...I'm kind of a nerd sometimes.  He gave me a signed copy of a book as well.  He was just swell.  Moral: Don't judge a game designer/company runner solely on what you hear/read from others)

jerrytel:

For me, it was 2 years ago when I saw a guy going from booth to booth just flat out asking if they had any free stuff.  He was not interested in anything (product pitch, small talk), just the free stuff.  If asked if he wanted to hear about their items, he said no, and moved on.  If they had some free stuff, he grabbed it and moved on.

I don't know - maybe I am being too harsh, but it seemed kinda surprising to me that someone would do that.

LOL sounds like something I would do. Swag is awesome!!!

 the oddest thing for me was last year when me and my two friends were using the urinals and my friend said "crap i p!ssed on my badge!"this caused me to break out into hysterical  laughter which in turn caused me to do the same and in turn caused my other friend to do the same! lol. Good thing it was sunday and we were on our way out!

It was the first year of Indy GenCon. My kids and I were at the hotel swimming pool when another family came and joined us...the family of young Boba Fett, Daniel Logan!!  My teenage daughter got this absolutely dazed look on her face but then composed herself. All of the kids had a great time together and my kids still talk about swimming with celebrities.