I attended Zappcon last weekend. For
those unfamiliar with Zappcon, it is a sort of mixed media convention
that welcomed more than 2K people over the course of both Saturday
and Sunday. Attendance might have been higher if both of the primary
means of driving between Central and Southern California were not
impacted by serious mudslides. It's a bit hard to figure out what I
should write about. This year's Zappcon was my first convention so I
don't really have anything to compare it to.
I would like to start off by stating I
had a blast. My roommate also had a great time even though she went
mostly to keep me company and ensure I did not embarrass myself too
much. Her grandkids and unofficial-not-adopted-but-sort-of-adopted
grandkid loved it when they went on Sunday.
I'm not sure why, but I went into
Zappcon thinking it was going to be primarily a gaming convention.
There were many games. There were board games, roleplaying games, and
a wargaming room with events for both Infinity and Warmachine. There
was also an Artemis bridge simulator room with working bridge
lighting and a window for outsiders to watch as well as a room where
people could compete against tournament gamers in fighting video
games. Aside from Artemis, the game rooms were fairly sparse and
roomy much of the time.
The main floor featured a lot of
artists and craftsmen. These were not artist that had to be there
because they were local or had to slum it either. I heard that word
spread after last year that Zappcon was a decent place for comic and
related artists to pick up some fans if their work is good. The
entirety of Artist's Alley was amazing.
For Saturday however, Cosplay dominated
the convention if you were not holed away in one of the gaming rooms.
Cosplay was still in the gaming rooms some, but nowhere near to the
same extent. I was simply blown away by the creativity and skill
involved. Cosplay slowed down Sunday, but that was partly because
there was a convention in another city within driving distance. Their
cosplay contest was Sunday while Zappcon's contest for adults was
Saturday. There was a kid's cosplay contest on Sunday with some
participants that practically force one to smile upon seeing the kids
dressed up.
Saturday was my busy day. I had
preregistered for a roleplaying game in the morning and a seminar on
designing board games in the afternoon with a couple hours in-between
for lunch. The morning game was the Ennie award winning game Atomic
Robo. Our GM was the writer of the game, Mike Olson. As I alluded to
earlier, there were not many people in the roleplaying room on
Saturday morning. In fact, I was the only person that signed up for
the game and showed up. This is the type of game that would have
filled up almost immediately after being put on the schedule in most
venues. There were two games that folded due to lack of attendance at
those tables, and my roommate got dragged into the game so we were
able to play a little over an hour after the scheduled start time. I
enjoyed the conversation with Mike Olson while we sat there before
the game. The game itself was better than I expected it to be, and I
went in with high hopes.
My roommate and I went to lunch late.
We came back with food just in time for the afternoon seminar I
signed up for, but it was being held in a location where we could not
take food and I am too much of a tightwad to throw away food so we
skipped that seminar. We perused the main floor after eating then
went to watch the cosplay contest.
The cosplay contest was absolutely
packed. We got in fairly early so I managed to get in with my chair,
but I might not have been able to if we showed up closer to the start
of the contest. This was a stark contrast to what I had seen in the
gaming areas of the convention. People were polite and fun which made
for a good experience. The competitors all had amazing costumes. Even
the ones that were furthest from the mark were still instantly
recognizable and had put in a commendable effort.
We stayed after the room had cleared
out as we had nothing else planned before the next event which was
the Doubleclicks concert. If you have not heard them before then I
suggest you go do so now. The blog will wait. They are one of those
groups that is actually better live, but that might also just be the
fact the con magic had wormed its way into my heart long before they
took the stage.
The after party was at a local brewery
where I tried a half dozen or so local beers. I know nothing about
beer, but they blew Pabst Blue Ribbon out of the water. We were not
there long when we were approached by one of the local Press Gangers
to see if we wanted to play Werewolf. It was my first time playing.
It was also my sixth time playing. I got to meet some friendly folks
including Paige Halsey Warren and Friends from the Artist Alley and
the man who was giving the seminar I missed earlier in the day, David
"DC" Carl of Privateer Press and Clockwork Phoenix Games.
I was glad for the chance to apologize directly for not being present after I signed
up for his seminar. While this was going on we got to watch young
people having some safe, clean fun and somebody teach others how to do the
Thriller dance. My roommate and I were the last people to leave the
after party on Saturday.
Zappcon 2015
Part 1 - You're reading it
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