Been having a great time following Gen Con from home and office, thought I’d point out a couple additional resources:

Blogs

Here I’m mentioning some specific posts I’ve read and enjoyed, but these sites may make additional posts before the weekend is over. 

Geek’s Dream Girl :  She and some other bloggers got to play the upcoming Castle Ravenloft board game on Wednesday before Gen Con and she’s already posted a review.  

Blog of Holding : Posted some highlights from the WOTC Design and Development Panel which was held on Thursday.

Video

YouTube : There are already some videos from this year’s Gen Con showing up on YouTube.  The link should show up with the most recent uploads first. 

NeonCon : I’m mentioning them again here because their live stream has been a blast so far.  Here’s a link to their YouTube as well, because I believe they intend on posting their videos there, though probably not until after the convention.

Beasts of War: Is posting some great looks at products on the Gen Con Dealer hall. 

Podcasts

The Tome Show : Has the WOTC Design and Development seminar released as a 2 part podcast (only first part up as I write this, but keep your eyes open for Pt. 2).

Photos

Flickr : How did I forget that one?  Lots of users posting Gen Con pics.  Link takes you to the Gen Con search, sorted to show most recent first.

It’s time for Gen Con, and once again I’ll be far from Indianapolis so I’ll be using the Internet to keep up with the activity from the comfort of my home, and once again I’m going to try to share a few links so you can do the same. 

Twitter

Probably the best way to keep up with GenCon over Twitter is to search for the #GenCon tag.  I expect I’ll keep a tab open in my browser for this almost constantly.  In addition to brief updates from the convention, there will probably be tons of links to online coverage as it appears.  You can also try the unhashed version for those who forget to tag their tweets.

In addition, here are a couple of folks I’ll be following who plan on Tweeting from Gen Con. 

WilW : Wil Wheaton…um…don’t think I need to explain who Wil is though perhaps a mention of Star Trek: The Next Generation, or w00tstock will refresh a few memories.

ChattyDM : blogger for Critical Hits.

excitesme : Mike Bohlmann of byswarm.com

KoboldQuarterly : Wolfgang Baur, aka monkeyking of Kobold Quarterly and Open Design. 

PurplePawn : Game news sight PurplePawn.

SagesofRPG : Gaming group from Portsmouth, NH 

Podcasts

This Just in From Gencon will be offering podcasts from Gen Con again this year, and have already posted a pre-GenCon podcast. 

Pixels and Grids did a couple podcasts and had some posts from Indianapolis last year and it looks like they’ll be there again this year.

Wandering Geek Podcast plans on posting daily episodes of Gen Con RAW in their podcast feed. 

GameSalute.com will be running a number of panels and posting some of these and possibly some interviews, and will be recording ‘shoutouts’ from Gen Con attendees at their booth.

Blogs

Sages of RPG: a new blog dedicated to promoting face to face gaming. 

Critical Hits: ChattyDM above says he’ll be blogging, and several other writers for the site will be there also, so hopefully we’ll get some additional posters as well. 

KoboldQuarterly: Expect to see a couple posts here over the weekend, and take a few minutes to read all the great ‘My First Gen Con’ articles posted there over the past few weeks.   

Livestream

NeonCon is providing a live stream from the floor at Gen Con!  Announcement here.  View the stream here, here, here, or here.  Coverage starts 10 AM on Thursday August 5th (date changed due to error in original announcement).  I’m very excited about this, and hope it works well so we’ll see similar coverage in the future.  I wish I could watch every moment, but I do have a job and a family, so I’ll be watching as much as I can.

More…

Yes, there’s bound to be more, and that means there will probably be a part 2, so keep an eye on my Twitter feed to find out when I get it posted.   And if you’ve got a site you’d like included in part 2, take a moment to leave a comment!

Inspired by my desire to be at GenCon, and my own attempts at creating a Virtual GenCon experience for myself I’m planning on doing a home based onvention for my family, and perhaps a few additional close friends.

For time time being I’m calling it ‘HomeCon’, with the motto, ‘There’s no place like HomeCon’. Basically a weekend of gaming and related activities. Here is a rough schedule for the weekend, though it is certainly subject to change between now and whenever I actually hold the convention (probably early November).

Friday 7:00 Party Mix: get in the kitchen and make a big batch of some version of trail/party mix that we can keep near the gaming table over the course of the weekend. Or provide a wide selection of ingredients and let everyone make they’re own custom mix.

Friday 8:00 PM Movie time. Family friendly fantasy themed movies each night. Current plan is to show “Willow” and the Bass/Rankins animated “Hobbit”. Not sure if it matters which is the Friday movie and which is for Saturday night.

Saturday: 8:00 AM Breakfast. All meals to be basic, perhaps casserols that I can make in advance and bake at the appropriate mealtime. I’ll try to come up with gaming related names for everyday foods. May also look to some Halloween party ideas for suitable ideas. Also, with the exception of breakfast I’m allowing 2 hours for meals so these periods will act as a bit of free time for my kids. While I want them to have a weekend of gaming, I recognize they’ll need some time that isn’t scheduled or planned in advance.

Saturday: 9-10 AM Board games. I would like to find something fantasy related, but perhaps just something like Clue Jr., or Blockus. I also need to check the Circus Maximus rules and see if kids could handle it, or perhaps a modified version of the rules.

Saturday: 10-11 AM Nintendo DS multi-player. We have several games which allow 4 or more players to be playing the same game at the same time using only 1 cartridge and the built in wi-fi. Mario Kart Racing, Diddy Kong Racing, Mario Party DS, StarFox, and probably a couple I’m forgetting about, or don’t realize can handle 4 or more players.

Saturday 11 AM – 1 PM: Lunch.

Saturday 1 PM – 4 PM D&D 4E Dungeon Delve – Low level, 3 encounters, opponents either giant bugs or kobolds (are those both the same??).

Saturday 4 PM – 6 PM Dinner.

Saturday 6 PM – 8 PM – Pokemon card game – need to reset them, but we own 3 or 4 ‘preconstructed decks’ that we can play at least one game of this.

Saturday 8 PM Movie Time

Sunday 8:00 AM Breakfast

Sunday 9 – 11 AM: Board Games/CardGames/or more Nintendo time. Basically a duplication of Saturday’s schedule, though possibly with different games.

Sunday 11 AM – 1 PM Lunch

Sunday 1 PM – 4 PM: D&D 4E: Kill the Dragon. Battle a gargantuan dragon.

Sunday 4 PM – Dinner/Closing ceremonies. I’ll probably spend between $20 and $40 for some Pokemon cards, D&D minis, or other similar items and pass them out as prizes for the weekend. The awards will likely not be too serious, probably just categories made up based on the events of the weekend. Something like “Rolled the Most 1s against the Dragon”, “Silliest Gamer”, “First to Fall Asleep During the Movies”, etc.

I want to design a logo for the even, perhaps to put on some buttons, or t-shirts depending on cost, but also to use on some banners and fliers to post around the house to add to the convention feel.

Maybe I’ll even pass out some poker chips and make them pay me outrageous prices for meals, and send everyone to the bathroom at the same time so everyone must wait in line.

And just so I give credit where credit is due, part of my inspiration for this is Gwendolyn Kestrel and Andy Collins ‘GwenCons‘. Not sure if they’re still hosting them, but you can see some summaries of these events at his web page. According to one page, they had 80 people over the course of one of their GwenCons, but my aim is to server somewhere between 4 and 10 people. It’s primarily aimed at my wife and kids, but I’ll probably invite my niece and nephew, and others who I think might be interested.

Please leave comments!

With the whole Internet to search, I’ll probably never find all the GenCon coverage, but here are a couple more people and places to keep an eye on (You can see Pt. 1 of Virtual GenCon here):

Twitter:

@Gen_ConCan’t believe I forgot this one yesterday, the official GenCon twitter feed.

@davethegame Should have been on the initial post, hope he can forgive me for missing him. Based on a test I saw in his Twitter feed it looks like he may even try out some ‘AudioTweets’ from the convention!

@CriticalHits is the Twitter feed for DaveTheGame’s Web site.

@Bartoneus is the Twitter feed for Danny Rupp, another writer for the Critical Hits site.

@gnomestew is another multi-author gaming blog/Twitter feed with a presence in Indianapolis.

@DNAphil is one of the Gnome Stew writers and expects to be Tweeting from GenCon.

@ChattyDM is another Tweeting blogger. Also responsible for the #aboutmypc Twitter contest which you can participate in without going to GenCon! See details here.

Blogs:

The Hopeless Gamer: As of Wed. night this blogger already had posted some pictures from the Ram, a very gamer friendly bar/restaurant in Indianapolis.

RPG Bloggers Network: Not sure exactly how many of their bloggers will be at the convention, but keep an eye on their page and you’ll certainly see some news from Indianapolis. There’s already at least one GenCon article live there tonight.

Critical Hits. While they recommend following their Twitter accounts mentioned above, they hope to do get at least a couple blog posts up from GenCon.

Living Dice writer Trask will be going to GenCon for the first time and plans on updating from the convention with “extensive coverage in the following week”.

Podcasts:

Pixels and Grids gaming website plans on doing some podcasts from the convention. I’m linking to their main page and hope to add direct links in a post a bit further into the convention. Here’s a post with a schedule of their intended recording schedule, and based on an email I received from James Jones they intend to post the podcasts “either the night they record them or early the next morning.” They’re also going to be “two live 15 minute recording sessions each day and immediately uploading them”.

Fear The Boot: I don’t have confirmation that they’ll be podcasting from the show, but they definitely plan on releasing some audio commentary they recorded on their way there, and their blog already has a link to some pictures from a pre-GenCon gathering.

Pictures:

Google’s Picasa photo albums will certainly see some GenCon photos posted. Here’s a link to a search for GenCon sorted by date so the most recent photos should show at the top. At this time the first photos are those from the Fear The Boot gathering mentioned above.

Expect another post or two with more links to GenCon coverage. And I hope you’re enjoying your Virtual GenCon experience.