Valerie Putman:  Prose on Cons—Dragon*Con

Next weekend I will be heading South to Dragon*Con in Atlanta, GA.  I am very excited to be going back to D*C after having to miss the event last year for the first time in almost 10 years.  I still remember my first D*C long ago when I was a graduate student and regular gamer in Athens, GA.  I had been attending Magnum Opus Con (MOC) regularly since it was local and run by the same guy who owned the comic shop where I played Magic every Tuesday night.  But D*C was several orders of magnitude larger and I think I spent the entire weekend with my jaw on the floor.  In fact, I still swear you can spot a D*C virgin (or an unsuspecting tourist or businessman who just happened to book a room in the wrong hotel that weekend) by the scuff marks on their chin where it hit the floor.  So the question I want to answer for you this week is “why do I keep going back?â€?

Pros D*C offers the best people watching I have ever experienced.  I’ve never designed a character costume myself, but I enjoy watching Cosplay.  It’s fun to guess the obscure characters, identify favorite characters, and just marvel at the intricate costumes and body paint.  There is an area set up for boardgaming and there are a few boardgame retailers in the dealer room.  Of course, I’ve heard that the boardgame room was dubbed “the hall of virginsâ€? last year.  Ah well—we boardgame geeks know that it’s really the LARPers that live at the bottom of the geek hierarchy, not us.  Actually, one of my favorite events of the weekend is the dance.  I used to go dancing all the time when I was in college.  But any time I try to go to a club now, I look embarrassingly out of place surrounded by coeds that are at least 10 years younger.  At the D*C dance I am never the person who looks most out of place!  It’s also the one time of the year I can count on getting Tyler onto the dance floor with me.  Perhaps it is because he knows we’ll be sandwiched between a gold bikini Leia and a naughty “school girlâ€? with dragon wings!  Dragon*Con is my adult “spring breakâ€? and my grad school gaming reunion.  I drink, play games, and have a great time at the wildest party I know.

Cons I’ve come to the conclusion that D*C is really a BYOG (bring your own games) event.  While you might find something at the boardgame room library or you might have something new from a dealer, the best way to ensure that you have a chance to play games is to bring your own games…and your own gamers, for that matter!  The weekend is also quite expensive—from the registration badge to the hotel rooms to the downtown parking.  In fact, the only way I was able to attend as a poor graduate student was to pile 8 or 9 of us into a hotel room together to share the expense.  You are likely to drink too much while not sleeping or eating enough.  You will be useless the day you get back to work.  But you will have an experience you will never forget.  And what happens at Dragon*Con, stays at Dragon*Con.

I’d rather be gaming,
Valerie Putman

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