After Gen Con: Turn Four Days Into a Year of Game Nights

The week after Gen Con has a shape. Sunday night you are tired and happy. Monday you are tired. By Wednesday there is a stack of shrink-wrapped boxes on the dining table, a phone full of photos of people whose names you half remember, and a flat feeling that the fun is over for another year.

It does not have to be. The convention is a concentrated dose of something you can have in smaller amounts all year. This is a plan for the first week, the first month, and the long stretch until badges go on sale again in February.

Why does the post-convention crash happen?

Four days of novelty, late nights, strangers, and constant decisions is a lot for anyone. Then it stops, all at once, and ordinary life resumes on a Monday. Convention-goers have called the slump “post-con depression” for years; it is not a clinical term, just a recognizable pattern of fatigue and letdown after an intense, social, sleep-deprived event.

The fix is partly physical and partly structural. Sleep and eat normally for a few days. Then give the next few weeks some of what the convention had: scheduled time at a table with people.

If low mood lasts beyond a couple of weeks or feels heavier than tiredness, that is worth talking to a doctor about, convention or not.

The first week: unpack on purpose

Do these in the first seven days, while the memories are fresh.

1. Write the list before you forget. Every game you played and liked, every person you met, every booth you meant to go back to. Ten minutes on Sunday night saves the whole weekend from fading.
2. Message the people. The three or four you actually clicked with. “Great playing Wingspan with you Saturday. I’m in Indianapolis; if you’re ever in town, let’s play.” Most will reply. Some will become regulars.
3. Open every box. Not to play yet. Punch the tokens, sort the bags, read the setup page. A game that is punched and bagged gets played. A game in shrink-wrap becomes shelf decoration.
4. Return the generics. If you have unused generic tickets, Gen Con converts them to system credit only if you return them to Customer Service before the show closes Sunday, so this one is a lesson for next year rather than a task.
5. Post the photos somewhere you will find them. With names in the captions.

The first month: play what you bought

The purchases are the easy part of the year. A reasonable Gen Con haul is five to ten games. That is a month of game nights if you schedule it.

A method that works:

• Pick one night a week for the next four weeks. Same night, same place, same start time. Put it in the calendar now.
• Assign one new game per night, plus a backup you already know. Learn the new one yourself beforehand, including a solo run-through of two turns. Teaching a game you half-know is the fastest way to kill it.
• Invite the same core and one new person each week. A game night needs about four people to survive a cancellation. Each new face is a possible fifth.
• Order the games light to heavy. Week one, the party game or the small card game. Week four, the big box. People who had fun in week one come back for week four.

If you bought a campaign game like Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion, it needs its own group and its own night. Recruit for it specifically. Our guide to running a board game league that lasts a season covers how to keep a fixed group showing up.

If this is useful, the newsletter sends more like it.

The first season: keep the people

The games are a reason. The people are the point of the whole exercise, and keeping them takes a little structure.

For the long-distance friends, a monthly online session of something like Codenames or a digital board game app keeps the thread alive until you can share a table again. We wrote about keeping a game group alive when everyone moved away.

For the off-season convention, the Midwest has a show nearly every month. Origins in June, Gamehole Con in October, Geekway in May. Any of them will feel like a smaller, calmer Gen Con, and a February or March convention breaks the long winter between shows.

The whole year: a calendar

Here is how a Gen Con year can run, for someone who wants to play more than four days out of 365.

• August: Gen Con. The week after: unpack, message, schedule.
• September: Four weekly nights, one new game each. GrandCon in Grand Rapids if you want a road trip.
• October: Gamehole Con in Madison. Halloween-themed game night at home.
• November: Shorter nights, heavier games. Start a campaign.
• December: Holiday game night with family games. Give the games you did not click with to people who will.
• January: The quiet month. Geekway Mini in St. Louis if you need a fix. Solo games.
• February: Gen Con badges go on sale, usually early in the month; housing opens about two weeks later. Book both. CincyCon or Con of the North for a weekend away.
• March: Gary Con, Buckeye Game Fest, or Midwest GameFest.
• April: Teach the campaign group a new system. Playtest for a local designer.
• May: Geekway. The Gen Con event catalog drops; build the wish list.
• June: Origins in Columbus. Finish the campaign.
• July: Rest. Pack. Read the survival guide one more time.

Nobody does all of that. Pick three things from it and you have a better gaming year than most.

What about the games you did not like?

Some Gen Con purchases were mistakes. The demo was great; the full game is not. That is fine.

Give them away or sell them within a few months, while they are still current. A game that someone else plays weekly is worth more than a game on your shelf. Local game stores, convention flea markets, and community trade boards all move used games quickly. The box you let go frees the shelf and the guilt.

Keep the ones you play. Play the ones you keep.

The game is the reason. The people are the point. Gen Con proves it for four days every August. The rest of the year is for proving it at your own table.

FAQ

What is post-con depression?

An informal name for the tired, flat feeling many people have in the week after an intense convention. Rest, regular meals, and scheduling the next game night usually help; see a doctor if low mood lasts.

How do I keep in touch with people I met at Gen Con?

Message them within a week while the memory is fresh, suggest a specific game or date, and plan to meet at a regional convention or online session before next August.

How many games should I buy at Gen Con?

Enough for a month of weekly game nights is a good ceiling, usually five to ten. Buy what you demoed and liked, and plan a night for each one before you buy the next.

When do Gen Con badges go on sale for next year?

Badge sales typically open in early February, with housing about two weeks later and event registration in mid-May. Check gencon.com for the exact 2027 dates.

One game night a week, for a year

The Ludarium newsletter sends new ideas for the table: a game to try, a night to plan, a convention to book. Subscribe after Gen Con and by next August you will have had fifty game nights, not four days. We are building a game lounge in Indianapolis so that, for locals at least, the convention never quite ends.