TOPIC: Gen Con Wish List best practice

I'm prepping my wish list for Gen Con. I remember someone offering advice (I think it was Fiddy or Matthew H) on the best way to add events to your Wish List to maximize your odds.

Is the best practice to add ALL run times within a window? For example - for N1, would it be best to add all of these even though they overlap?

Thu 8:24 am - 10:24 am (TDA18137126) 10/10
Thu 8:36 am - 10:36 am (TDA18137127) 10/10
Thu 8:48 am - 10:48 am (TDA18137128) 10/10
Thu 9:00 am - 11:00 am (TDA18137129) 10/10
Thu 9:12 am - 11:12 am (TDA18137130) 10/10
Thu 9:24 am - 11:24 am (TDA18137131) 10/10
Thu 9:36 am - 11:36 am (TDA18137132) 10/10
Thu 9:48 am - 11:48 am (TDA18137133) 10/10


They wouldn't ALL cancel one another out, would they?

Arnold wrote: I'm prepping my wish list for Gen Con. I remember someone offering advice (I think it was Fiddy or Matthew H) on the best way to add events to your Wish List to maximize your odds.

Is the best practice to add ALL run times within a window? For example - for N1, would it be best to add all of these even though they overlap?

Thu 8:24 am - 10:24 am (TDA18137126) 10/10
Thu 8:36 am - 10:36 am (TDA18137127) 10/10
Thu 8:48 am - 10:48 am (TDA18137128) 10/10
Thu 9:00 am - 11:00 am (TDA18137129) 10/10
Thu 9:12 am - 11:12 am (TDA18137130) 10/10
Thu 9:24 am - 11:24 am (TDA18137131) 10/10
Thu 9:36 am - 11:36 am (TDA18137132) 10/10
Thu 9:48 am - 11:48 am (TDA18137133) 10/10


They wouldn't ALL cancel one another out, would they?

Yes if you get one of them the others won't be put in your cart. But that is fine because it maximizes your chances to get 1 yet in that time. You don't want to get 2 (or more) events in your cart because you cannot play 2 or more of them at the same time anyway.

However if you want to mazimize the number of times you play you should spread them out more so you have less chances for any given time, but don't use your X number of wishlist spots to get one ticket.

So it really depends on what you are wanting to do exactly. Play in a certain time range or play as many times as possible.

As Jedi said, it really depends on what you want to do.

Another thing to up your odds is aim for N2 and N3 earlier in the convention and N1 later in the convention, as many people will try to get N1 first and N3 last. So for your particular example, aiming to get N2 or N3 at those times may be easier than trying to get N1. But that depends on if you care about playing them in order.

Fiddy wrote: As Jedi said, it really depends on what you want to do.

Another thing to up your odds is aim for N2 and N3 earlier in the convention and N1 later in the convention, as many people will try to get N1 first and N3 last. So for your particular example, aiming to get N2 or N3 at those times may be easier than trying to get N1. But that depends on if you care about playing them in order.

That is a good point. Getting N3 on Thursday is likely the easiest especially if it is early on Thursday. N2 being next with N1 probably being the hardest to get on Thursday especially if it is early on Thursday. Saturday will be the hardest day overall to get tickets as more people come Saturday than Friday and Thursday.

So again it depends on your priorities.

This is all very helpful. Thanks.

How many total tickets can you have in your wishlist? I think you are allowed to request tickets for a max of 50 events. In TD terms, does that mean we can put max 50 runs in our wish lists or max 50 tickets?

And if I’m looking for 5 tickets on a run, would I be more likely to get the tickets if I check the box to buy out the run (and invite others via the forum) or if I just go for the 5 I need? Trying to determine whether there is any ticket system benefit to buying out full runs or if seeking full runs just limits odds of success.

Also - another question.

I know that "friending" is helpful for wish list purposes.

If me and two other friends are trying to get into the same runs together, we should all add the exact same runs to our lists, right?

Friend A queues first and hopefully scores the tickets.
If they don't...hopefully Friend B (second in line) lucks out as individuals queued in front of Friend A release tickets.
Friend C scoops up anything new that releases that slipped by A & B.

I guess I'm looking for confirmation. If Friend A buys an event for all 3 individuals, that chunk of time will now be blocked out for all three of them - and no events will be purchasable if they overlap - regardless of whose wish list.


Assuming that all is correct - do you guys find more success having identical wish lists, or having different events on each list? Do you buy specifically for people on your friends list, or do you perhaps buy for "Other" and try to all get tickets and sort out which ones to keep later?

Since you can buy entire runs, it really depends on what you care about most.

If all you want is to be able to play each run once, I would add 50 different runs to each cart, for a total of 150 runs. Try to overlap as little as possible, but make sure that anything you get, you would actually want.

If you care about order of runs, try to do that. If you don't, you may have more success.

If you care about time of day, make sure not to add anything that isn't for you.

When your list processes, see what you get and contact your group about what to actually buy.

Arnold wrote: I guess I'm looking for confirmation. If Friend A buys an event for all 3 individuals, that chunk of time will now be blocked out for all three of them - and no events will be purchasable if they overlap - regardless of whose wish list.

Yes, this is correct. When possible my group always tries to purchase extra tickets using the "Another ticket for me" option as this prevents events purchased via one wishlist from blocking times on your friends wishlist. After the dust settles, we compare the events we got and return the extra tickets.

Technically, you only get system credit for returned tickets but we are ok with it as it gets used.

dsypher wrote:

Arnold wrote: I guess I'm looking for confirmation. If Friend A buys an event for all 3 individuals, that chunk of time will now be blocked out for all three of them - and no events will be purchasable if they overlap - regardless of whose wish list.

Yes, this is correct. When possible my group always tries to purchase extra tickets using the "Another ticket for me" option as this prevents events purchased via one wishlist from blocking times on your friends wishlist. After the dust settles, we compare the events we got and return the extra tickets.

Technically, you only get system credit for returned tickets but we are ok with it as it gets used.

Also unless it has changed buying tickets for a friend also puts the tickets in their packet. So if some reason someone doesn't show up to Gen Con (maybe because they had unexpected heart surgery that week) that ticket never gets used. This happened the first year I bought tickets for my group using the for a friend vs "another for me." I have never done that since.

dsypher wrote:

Arnold wrote: I guess I'm looking for confirmation. If Friend A buys an event for all 3 individuals, that chunk of time will now be blocked out for all three of them - and no events will be purchasable if they overlap - regardless of whose wish list.

Yes, this is correct. When possible my group always tries to purchase extra tickets using the "Another ticket for me" option as this prevents events purchased via one wishlist from blocking times on your friends wishlist. After the dust settles, we compare the events we got and return the extra tickets.

Technically, you only get system credit for returned tickets but we are ok with it as it gets used.

jedibcg wrote: Also unless it has changed buying tickets for a friend also puts the tickets in their packet. So if some reason someone doesn't show up to Gen Con (maybe because they had unexpected heart surgery that week) that ticket never gets used. This happened the first year I bought tickets for my group using the for a friend vs "another for me." I have never done that since.

Awesome! These are exactly the kind of insights I was looking for. I'm definitely going to build out my groups' wish lists accordingly. Thank you, Jedi & Dsypher.

Arnold wrote: Also - another question.

I know that "friending" is helpful for wish list purposes.

If me and two other friends are trying to get into the same runs together, we should all add the exact same runs to our lists, right?

Friend A queues first and hopefully scores the tickets.
If they don't...hopefully Friend B (second in line) lucks out as individuals queued in front of Friend A release tickets.
Friend C scoops up anything new that releases that slipped by A & B.

I guess I'm looking for confirmation. If Friend A buys an event for all 3 individuals, that chunk of time will now be blocked out for all three of them - and no events will be purchasable if they overlap - regardless of whose wish list.


Assuming that all is correct - do you guys find more success having identical wish lists, or having different events on each list? Do you buy specifically for people on your friends list, or do you perhaps buy for "Other" and try to all get tickets and sort out which ones to keep later?

I think this has been adequately covered below, but here's a short and sweet version of what I do:

1. Put in runs like you have above.

2. BUT also select all 10 spots (or however many you want).

3. AND ALSO click the "don't buy any unless I can get all the ones I want" option.

Then you, your friend, etc. all enter in. As long as any one of you gets to a run first, you'll get the whole run (or as many slots as you want).

Unless it’s changed from last year, a full slot counts as 10 of your 50 possible tickets, so plan accordingly. You’re not going to be able to add 10 full slots.

Also, we need to consider the e-ticket issue this year - remember, no paper ticket. That may change the dynamics of buying tickets as “another one for me” vs. one for a specific friend. I am imagining that if you buy it for a specific person, you as the ticket buyer won’t have to be standing there in person waiting for them to check in.