I may just be not remembering properly from last year, but is there a way to pre-assign spots in any of the games I run to friends (I mean this both in the literal sense but also in terms of People I Am Friends With on the GenCon site)?

While I certainly don't want to just pre-seat all 6 slots for all of my games ahead of time, in particular, a couple of old friends from college are coming out to GenCon this year who live very far away from me the rest of the year; it'd be really nice to be able to guarantee them a spot at one of my tables.

I seem to recall being able to buy multiple tickets to Events I'm attending from last year (my first GenCon), but don't remember if there was something in place from the event management dashboard.

There is no way to save spots in your game.  Anyone can buy two tickets to your event, however. 

Marian McBrine
Event Coordinator
Gen Con LLC

[This post has been removed]

You could not.  That's not fair to people that might, for instance, want to play a 6 person RPG, which is what they signed up for, but not an 8 person RPG.  Secondly, we will not be planning for those extra seats, so even if the other players agree to the additional players, they might not have seats.

Marian McBrine 
Event Coordinator 
Gen Con LLC 

Downside there is that I then have to do another whole game to hit my 70 player hours :)

Thanks for the official answer, @Marian.

Another option might be to run the games required, for your badge, as is.

Schedule, with your friends, a time between a couple games you're running.

Go to the HQ you're in and ask for an empty table during that time. They slot you a table, you're good to go. You won't get credit for running that game, so there is that, but you do get a place to play with your friends. If the trouble is that the game needs 6 and you have 3, try posting on that game's forums for some players. Or if it's a popular game, see if anyone from your other slots want a second experience, or if someone shows with generics, suggest that other time.

There are lots of gamers at gen con. It's pretty easy to snag folks.

Since this thread is 2 years old, I'll ask: Any change in status on this feature?  "Reserve X seats for generic ticket holders" seems like a very useful thing to add to event info input. It would, for example, allow an org to make sure their DMs also got a chance to play in one of the games they're offering, or to give out those spots to customers who patronize their booth.

For me, I'd like to trade seats with some other DMs, giving them a space at my table in return for a space at theirs, so we both get to play this game.

No, there is no change in this policy and there is currently no intent to encourage folks to reserve spots for generic tickets. We want attendees to have the chance to plan ahead and reserve seats, we permit a limited number of generic-only events because some formats just don't really work with pre-registration.

The ability to reserve a couple seats at a table for a small subset of attendees may be appealing to some folks, but it's not as simple as it sounds, either in policy or technical execution.

-
Derek Guder
Senior Event & Program Manager
Gen Con LLC

Would it be possible to reserve a seat at the table specifically for you, Derek? *Puss-N-Boots pleading.gif*

I am glad to see this issue discussed, actually, as I have definitely heard people talking about this very issue and never remembered to check if that was discouraged (it is, indeed). 

Heh. I appreciate the offer, but I don't usually have much time to play during Gen Con, sadly. I have to head to other conventions to get some gaming in :)

-
Derek Guder
Senior Event & Program Manager
Gen Con LLC