Emptying the Gen Con notebook

A day of trolling (so to speak), the aisles of Gen Con yielded the following news and notes:

— If you doubt that GenCon means big bucks, consider this: The new Pathfinder Adventure Card Game was timed specifically to drop at Gen Con. In under four hours, 800 to 1,000 copies of the $59.99 game sold. According to the publisher, that represents about one-sixth of the expected sales from all sources for the game.

— Gen Con itself is actually older than the game Dungeons & Dragons. And it was created by the same person as that iconic role-playing game.

— This year's exhibit space sold out in January.

— While the center of activity is the Indiana Convention Center, events are being held in nine hotels. The initial block of hotel rooms sold out 17 minutes after they went on sale.

— On Friday, Mayfair Games will attempt to set the official Guinness record for most people playing the same game with 1,000 gamers playing a version of Settlers of Catan.

— By midday Thursday, more than 650 tickets had been sold to Glitter Guild's nerd-focused show at the convention center.

— The name of this year's official Gen Con beer, crafted by Sun King Bewing Co., was selected through a contest, of course. The winner, chosen from the 6,000 submissions: Flagon Slayer.

— Yes, there's now a monster-fighting drinking game. Yes, I've tried it. I'll tell you more about it after this headache goes away.

Look for my annual rundown of the best games of Gen Con in the Aug. 26 IBJ.