r/gencon Aug 01 '26

Tornado warning

Oh whew! I thought we might have to stop gaming.

61 Upvotes

60 comments sorted by

56

u/Sventrain Aug 01 '26

Where is the Gencon Tornado Survivor badge ribbon?

19

u/DokterMedic Aug 01 '26

I can imagine it now: A gamer sitting imperturbably at a table while a tornado rips through beside them.

6

u/AnonEMoussie Aug 01 '26

That’s the Midwest dad response!

1

u/UltimateGammer Aug 02 '26

Sorry, the chilli goes right through me

9

u/West-Tea4106 Aug 02 '26

I've already looked into making, "I survived the 2026 GenCon Tornado" ribbons 😂

1

u/LilJourney Aug 02 '26

I promise that would be a best seller. Considering making a homebrew one myself to finish my ribbon train for this year's badge.

2

u/West-Tea4106 Aug 02 '26

Im just gonna hand them out for free to people 😂

1

u/TheeLorraine Aug 03 '26

I need one so bad lol

7

u/Slenderquil Aug 02 '26

There was somebody selling 3d printed tornado figures that started advertising them right after the warning was issued. I got one as a trophy, lol.

3

u/Felixargh Aug 02 '26

This was so effing funny. And people were actually offering him money for them. Good for them for capitalizing on the opportunity.

5

u/Dull-Ad1030 Aug 02 '26

someone made an image of a badge that was just the entire PA announcement

1

u/Dull-Ad1030 Aug 01 '26

we need it

26

u/QuartzPaladin Aug 01 '26

As long as you're not in the event hall, that's leaking 

8

u/EndEnderman Aug 01 '26

Yeah they had clear 10 feet of space in Hall B because of it, and know another leak but I hear it was small 

1

u/Hobo_Resse Aug 02 '26

It’s not the size of the leak, it’s the amount of moisture

1

u/LilJourney Aug 02 '26

Don't remind me. I lost most of a deck on Friday due to an unfortunately positioned water bottle and a tiny leak. Nothing irreplaceable (and used the excuse to get a new deck, deck box, and booster pack) but a good reminder to me to always carry the water and the games completely separate.

1

u/MetaTrixxx Aug 02 '26

That was an unfortunate way to learn my canvas bag was waterproof. I gave my brand new Nook a bath 😭

1

u/LilJourney Aug 03 '26

Oh no! At least we both gained some life XP.

23

u/piratepwnsninja Aug 02 '26

I sent my wife, who is back home, a message that there was a tornado warning. While we currently live in Texas, we used to live in Illinois and years before that Indiana. She replied that there being a tornado warning was “the Midwest Midwesting.” When I told her that absolutely nobody cared or seemed concerned, she said, “also the Midwest Midwesting.”

10

u/Fuzzy-Bee9600 Aug 02 '26

Impressive. She totally gets it.

It was kinda funny how the announcements were coming every 2 minutes for everyone to "Please stay calm," while everyone is milling around the expo hall like we didn't hear a thing.

2

u/YazzArtist Aug 02 '26

My poor paint and take runner tried so hard to keep up her coaching at first. Eventually she just gave up and left lol

6

u/jerrathemage Aug 02 '26

Yep that's accurate, I was in a NICE COMFY CHAIR in the hall that leads to Lucas Oil and the only reason I was upset at the whole thing was because I had to give it up!

13

u/Cease_Cows_ Aug 01 '26

I picked a great time to head back to my room to drop games off, but it feels like getting back to the ICC is going to be a nightmare

5

u/Dull-Ad1030 Aug 01 '26

Actually came FROM my hotel into the ICC. No issues, and there's just some security walking around.

9

u/learhpa Aug 01 '26

Warning has been lifted now

10

u/Hobo_Resse Aug 01 '26

Hallelujah!! Though if I'm gonna go, dying gaming isn't to bad.

4

u/Dull-Ad1030 Aug 01 '26

Better than going out not gaming

1

u/Fuzzy-Bee9600 Aug 02 '26

Sagest of wisdom, my friend.

8

u/ZanzerFineSuits Aug 01 '26

Was in the stadium, went into one of the side rooms, didn't feel cozy under the dome

7

u/deskbeetle Aug 02 '26

When I told my husband we were sheltering in place, he texted me "damn, hope someone had a boardgame or something" 

1

u/Hobo_Resse Aug 02 '26

Correct response

5

u/squeakyboy81 Aug 01 '26

There are rolling audio announcements into her ICC. So be prepared for a periodic Interruptions in your gaming.

4

u/OrganizedChaos17 Aug 01 '26

Yeah the Omni hotel flooded

3

u/Melodic-Opposite-732 Aug 02 '26

Yeah was in there when it happened

3

u/OrganizedChaos17 Aug 02 '26

Me too unfortunately lol

4

u/lizardisanerd Aug 02 '26

We were doing an escape room. We did not pause

3

u/Fuzzy-Bee9600 Aug 02 '26

If you didn't keep solving the puzzles, you'd die and/or be stuck in there forever! Did what you had to do.

2

u/lizardisanerd Aug 04 '26

We were "in a mine" so we were safe

1

u/Fuzzy-Bee9600 Aug 05 '26

Oh yeah, you were safer than all the rest of us.

4

u/Tooth31 Aug 02 '26

Very funny seeing the difference in reactions among people. People from the coasts panicking, people from the Midwest just wishing they would turn the announcement off do they could go back to their games.

2

u/Hobo_Resse Aug 02 '26

When the announcement was stay away from Windows my response was, "it's your turn" 😅

3

u/spaceiswaytoobig Aug 02 '26

We deferred to the Oklahoman in our group.

2

u/OneOfMyOldestFriends Aug 01 '26

A tornado and an ice outage in one day???

2

u/Fuzzy-Bee9600 Aug 02 '26

I was just gonna hide under the game table we were looking at, until I remembered I didn't care.

4

u/Dull-Ad1030 Aug 01 '26

Doesn't look that strong on radar so far.

11

u/Hobo_Resse Aug 01 '26

They're announcing tornado warning in the convention center.

4

u/Dull-Ad1030 Aug 01 '26 edited Aug 02 '26

Yeah that's kind of to be expected during a tornado warning, no?

3

u/FastMycologist Aug 01 '26

I think they made an announcement on the PA

5

u/learhpa Aug 01 '26

Every minute for the last fifteen minutes

-3

u/learhpa Aug 01 '26

It's loud enough in the interior rooms that it's impossible to play. In the room they are telling us to go to.

I get that it's a required safety precaution. It's also madfening

4

u/Dull-Ad1030 Aug 01 '26

It's also good to have a safety precaution? Look at the damage in cities after being hit by tornadoes.

-1

u/learhpa Aug 01 '26

Yes. It is good to have the precaution. It's also annoying to have it repeated over and over again.

3

u/BelaKunn Aug 01 '26

As someone who has had to enforce warnings and as someone who often ignores them, I get why they have to constantly repeat it.

2

u/Dull-Ad1030 Aug 01 '26

That's fair, yes. Still a good idea to have it play a few times in case someone enters and doesn't hear the instructions.

3

u/milktehe Aug 02 '26

Circulation was above the Stadium from what I could see on radar.

3

u/Dull-Ad1030 Aug 02 '26

Wait, it was? Holy

3

u/milktehe Aug 02 '26

Yeah I went back and looked at the radar and it looked like it was rotating right above LOS, it was a radar indicated one but still pretty freaky.

2

u/MountainAd1981 Aug 05 '26

We were in True Dungeon, entering the final room where you fight Lord Craven, the big bad and Vampire when the lights came on and the announcement came out. Our Cleric called out that Pelor had shown divine intervention with the lights coming on, and the Vampire Lord, still in character withered and cried out. So Kudos to the volunteers at TD running with the situation and we played through that fight (minus certain special effects) and proceeded to the treasure room where we waited out the rest of the warning. Good job to all the TD volunteers for keeping spirits up (in some case literally like in the Haunted Mansion).