DragonCon

In about a month, I'll be traveling to Atlanta for DragonCon and I'm super excited. Earlier this year, I attended my first con, MegaCon in Orlando, Florida. I had such a great experience between the panels, the exhibitor's hall and the special guests, I couldn't imagine a better time. Well I could, I could be going with a bunch of my closest and geekiest and nerdiest friends. Previously, I had made half-hearted plans to attend PAX or PAX East with a few friends. But one of them moved to Atlanta just before summer and it all clicked. We'd go to DragonCon!

It didn't take long to convince my friends to join me. The stories and pictures I had from MegaCon were more than enough to prove that it was a worthwhile venture. But there was something else that I felt could make the experience even better, a group cosplay. For the unfamiliar, at these fan cons, people dress up in costumes from their favorite games, books, movies and genres. Some go as individuals, others as couples and some as groups. The detail and effort people put into their costumes is amazing. But the group cosplays are the best. The effort and detail of the individual cosplays and then you mix in the coordination for five or more people!

So, with about ten of my close friends, we're traveling to DragonCon as characters from Red Dragon Inn. The coordination and selection was difficult. With a diverse group of friends, finding something that appealed to everyone proved harder than expected. We've got D&D players, video game lovers, Whovians, Trekkies and others. We were voting and a couple of us suggested "generic band of adventurers" and then the light came on, Red Dragon Inn! They're generic enough where we'll be a merry band of adventurers to most people in small groups or alone. But when we're together, and the right people are around, it'll be easy to pick us out as RDI.

I've got most of the materials for my costume at this point, I just need to start putting it all together. A subset of my local friends went out to Goodwill, JoAnn's Fabrics and Play It Again Sports to gather our materials. I've decided to be Remy from the upcoming expansion. I have pants, a shirt, a jacket, a sword and material for a cape. I'm unsure about how to stud the jacket and at this point I won't be wearing blue paint or a wig, though elf ears are a likely addition. So next weekend I'll be working on making a bunch of progress in putting it together. Then I'll have about three weeks to put on the finishing touches. I'm excited and I'll write a follow-up post after next weekend.