Mech Warriors and Mega Shopping at Dragon*Con 2010; Atlanta, Georgia

Because Saturday's Dragon*Con events bled over into the wee hours of the morning Sunday, our group had a very slow start to the day. Unfortunately for events like Belly Dance 101 and The Science of Steampunk, sleep took precedence over everything until close to noon when I finally rolled out of bed and cursed Father Time for that "Not-as-young-as-I-used-to-be" feeling.

After a lengthy lunch and a farewell to half of our traveling party, we headed out to Dragon*Con without looking at the schedule. Sure that the Con would bless us with ample experiences and opportunities we threw caution to the wind and let Cthulhu land us where he may.

Sunday unfolded in a day of people-watching, another round through the vendor booths (and the parting of many George Washingtons in exchange for t-shirts, specialty candies, magnets, shot glasses and other commemorative swag). Sunday's shopping was a bit less claustrophobic than it had been the day before, as Dragon*Con attendees began slowly making their way back home. The panels, shopping and general gathering areas weren't empty by any means though as most of the participants and visitors stayed on due to the holiday weekend.

Mr. Kawaii and I also made it down to the gaming center in the Hilton where the 2010 Dragon*Con Tournament Gaming took place. Hundreds of board, card and pen-and-paper games were played all weekend by men and women who have mastered the dice roll and know to keep a few hit points at the ready; and we spent a few hours hanging out and watching the tabletop magic unfold.

Also down in the gaming center were the MechCorps game pods, and Mr. Kawaii took full advantage of the opportunity to fight his peers with rockets and ammo packed into eight MechCorps pods. Set up to allow you to play against one another in real-time over a local area network (LAN), the Mech Warrior games are not only fun, but are also a great measure of skill. At the end of each round participants are given a print out with their overall score, number of kills and overall ranking.

Although Sunday moved at an undeniably slower pace than Saturday, it was still an amazing time. Not only were we more familiar with our surroundings (and hence less likely to be found by staff roaming areas marked as "Off Limits"), but we also had gotten over the initial shock of the mass a of Dragon*Con and settled into a routine of complimenting other Con-goers on their costumes and striking up conversations with people in lines we didn't know we were in, at the sinks in bathrooms and over the din of thousands of people getting to know one another.

To learn more about the events and people that I mention here, simply click the links below:

Belly Dancing

Steampunk

Cthulhu

MechCorps

To read part 1, 2 and 4 of this series on Dragon*Con, go here!