Dealing with Post-Con Let-Down

So last weekend was North Texas RPG Con and this weekend was Origins. GenCon is still a couple months away, but odds are unless you are in the industry you attend maybe one of these cons. If you're lucky (which I was for a few years) maybe you get to go to two. My experience is even those that attend a lot of cons, often only go to one "big" con......and to those, if they have to travel far any con is a "big" con!

Regardless of how many cons you are lucky enough to attend, a common after-affect of the con is...well often some Con-Crud (for NTRPG 2022 it seems like it's Covid), but that's not my point today. Instead, what I'm talking about is post-con letdown. For many it's the simple result of days of fun with friends slinging dice, having fun, and generally being "on" possibly for days at a time.

I'm sure there are distinct differences based on how introverted or extroverted a gamer is, but every year I hear about, and personally experience post-con letdown.

What can you/we do about this?

The best thing I've figured out, at least for me, is a three-fold approach:

1. I do a quick AAR (After-Action Review....I am a vet, so this is a learned thing)
2. I figure out what I want to do at next year's con
3. I start making my plans for next year (start implementing crap from #2)

The biggest thing for me is that AAR. I do a rather quick assessment of the con. Taking inventory of the new crap, er "collectibles" I picked up comes first. Then I look at everything I actually brought to the con, including my packing list, and evaluate what I could do without the next year. I'm kind of bad about over-packing, so any good chance to see what I can pare-down really should be taken. I also like to go over the games I played or ran, and make notes about what I could've changed or done better. For example I should've brought my external battery and a different notepad. Also, more disposable shot glasses.

Looking ahead to next year's con is pretty easy, and I'll admit that I come up with too many ideas/plans for the next con. This is not necessarily a bad thing, because I come up with many things and not everything is feasible. Honestly, I'm still trying to do shit I thought up years ago.

Lastly I start making the appropriate plans for next year, and by plans I mean I actually start doing stuff. I put in my vacation request for next year as soon as I can. If needed I figure up what my budget is going to be and the saving plan needed to get the $$$ for the next con. If you are thinking of running an event the next year, are there any embellishments you'd like to use. Might sound dumb, but if you want to use some cool minis in your game (for example) do you already have the minis you need....are they even painted? What about terrain?

Post-con letdown is a thing and it doesn't have to last for long. This approach has helped me and maybe it can work for you as well......