Archived Design Notes

CYSERO'S GUIDE TO SURVIVING DRAGONCON 2014 EDITION

Posted by Cysero on

What Is DragonCon?

Quite a few people don't know what DRAGONCON is so we should probably cover that first. 

DCLogo2013

Since 1987 people have been coming to Atlanta, Georgia (roughly 8 hours drive from The Secret Underground Lab) for DragonCon which has become one of the largest Sci-Fi, Fantasy conventions in the world. They say that they get about 40,000-45,000 people every year but it's closer to 65,000 or 70,000 and every year, it keeps growing. 

There is so much to see that it can actually short out your brain. it happened to my on my first year.When I got back my friends asked me how it was and I actually needed a few days to process all that I had seen and done, heard and tasted, battled and escaped from before I could talk to them about it.

There are panels about everything from making your own functional steampunk R2-D2, to meet-and-greets with some of the biggest names in TVs, Movies, Gaming and Books. There are thousands of people dressed up as their favorite characters, movie marathons, a sea of tables for table top games like Dungeons and Dragons, card games like Pokémon, Magic and Yu-Gi-Oh, board games like Risk, Settlers of Catan and King of Tokyo. There are several WAREHOUSE sized rooms stocked to the gills with Naruto headbands, Lightsabers (like mine and Yorumi's), Steampunk Goggles, Nerdy T-shirts, Comic Books, Video Games, Card Games, Board Games and other types of games, Art and anything else you can imagine for sale. There are nightly raves, Firefly themed shindigs, vampire masquerade balls and a constant stream of Concerts featuring people like I Fight Dragons, One-Eyed Doll and Voltaire... and, of course, our own Artix Entertainment Fan Panel.

We are a small company with a small but loyal fan base who keep showing up no matter how awful the panel was the year before. In fact, they keep giving us bigger rooms and better time-slots every single year. 

At the panel we get to meet and hang out with some of our biggest fans, we talk about what is coming up, have a question and answer session, and Artix usually shows some movies that he's made over the past year. In 2012 our panel was AMAZING complete with a fight between Artix, Chairman Platinum and Sepulchure himself fighting surrounded by screaming AE fans cheering Artix on. A few people even stepped in front of our friendly paladin to protect him from the DoomKnight. 2013 was even bigger and louder than the year before and the people running the room were AMAZED by how excited our players got compared to the other panels on the Gaming and MMO tracks. 

AE 2014 Panel Exclusives

This year, those who have chosen to come and meet us will ALSO get the first crack at the 13 Lords of Chaos Poster before it is even released on HeroMart. They will get it before anyone else and they will get it signed by us. 

ChaosLordPoster

Those attending the panel will also get the inside scoop and first real look at our new game projects including AQ Dragons...

AQDRAGONS

 ... and the other new secret mobile project that I have been tweeting about recently. 

SecretProjectPalis

There has also been talk about people coming to the panel getting the first crack at this shirt which took me all of 10 minutes to throw together. 

ArtixPanelShirt

Every year we make a special item for those who have come from all over the globe just to hang out with us. Usually there is also an Artix Entertainment Flyer that we hand out that has a code for another DragonCon item for everyone. If you can't make it, just talk to one of your friends who goes to get the code.

This year the Artix Entertainment Panel:

The time will be Saturday at 2:30PM. (2.5 hour panel? What have we gotten ourselves into?)

The hotel will be the Hilton Atlanta

The room will be the "Grand Salon D"

Sadly, there due to the above mentioned cutbacks we have no fan table this year. Sorry, guys. 

A LOT of the famous people at con will sign something for you if you pay them, but lucky for YOU we're NOT FAMOUS AT ALL! All you have to do is give us a marker. We will sign ANYTHING. I mean that. Artix and I signed a dude's neck back in 2011.

NOTE: WE DO NOT RUN DRAGONCON! AE has nothing to do with the set-up or funding of the convention. We just attend like everyone else. It's an institution in Atlanta and has been held there for the last quarter century so asking us to have it in YOUR hometown next year is impossible on every level.

This is also the closest, biggest convention that we can get to. We would LOVE to come to the convention in your town or in your country but we simply can't afford to travel that far. 

If this is your first Con, then you should carefully read...

Cysero's Con Survival Guide! (revised 2014 edition)

DragonCon starts THIS WEEKEND and as has become tradition I am imparting my knowledge and experience to you all. This is Cysero's Con Survival Guide '14!

WHAT TO BRING

  • A Large Bag. You're going to to be carrying a LOT of stuff around with you and picking up a lot of stuff as you con so a large bag is necessary. And when I say bag I DO NOT mean a large plastic grocery bag. I mean a sturdy courrier bag or backpack. I will be bringing my N7 Canvas courrier bag, hardered for con survival.
  • A Towel. Your hotel room will probably come equipped with these but I always prefer to bring a large, beach-sized towel with me wherever I go. Hitchikers listed most of the uses, but for a more practical example: I have fallen asleep in the hallways of more than one convention hotel and it's always nice to have a towel for a blanket or pillow.  
  • Energy Bars. Meals come unpredictably during con and staying alive can be hard. You never know when you'll be stuck at a table-top gaming session that lasts 14 hours straight... and if you leave the brutal GM will just kill you.
  • Bottle Of Water. See above. Also good for waking up wierdos who are sleeping in the hallways of your hotel under beach towels. Trust me.
  • Extra Strength Energy Shots (Optional). You know, those little bottles of energy booster that they sell everywhere. These things are not great for you, but caffeine and sugar have no effect on MY metabolism unless delivered in MASSIVE doses and you might be built the same way. Con goes day and night, all weekend long. And it's a holiday weekend. I consider them a necessity during Con.

  • Multi-Vitamins. There are thousands of people from all over the world at con and many of them have brought strange, exotic diseases with them. All these diseases mingle together and become some sort of super-flu affectionately called "Con Rot" that WILL infect you. Keeping your body's defenses up during con severely reduces the time and number of limbs you will lose to the Con Rot after you leave the convention.

  • Hand Sanitizer. See above.
  • Cash (Well Hidden). As you explore the convention you WILL encounter some stuff you NEED to own. Swords, pithy shirts, novels, William Shattner selling autographs... and there is a 50% chance that the thing you want to buy, you can't buy with plastic. If you plan on falling asleep in a hall somewhere, be sure that your cash is in your sock or in the secret pocket in your boxers, or cloak... you don't want to wake up broke.
  • A Mobile Computing Device. Most modern cell phones will do, but you might not get a signal in the underground mazes that connect the convention hotels. Having a wireless card in a small laptop is priceless. A smartphone attached to a 3G, 4G or LTE network will do (con-tested my iPhone in 2009, worked like a dream). You might or might not Tweet or Vine. You might or might not need to check your Facebook and Twitter but your FRIENDS will NEED to contact you about something that you HAVE TO SEE RIGHT NOW! 

    A VERY large bonus to a smartphone is the DragonCon App. it has schedules, maps and gets updated on the fly unlike your paper schedule.  

    DragonCon 2104 App

    You will eventually lose your paper one but so does everyone else so there are an endless supply of them in every corner BUT this way you don't have to get your hands sticky and wonder why the last person ditched it. 

    It has maps, schedules for panels and speakers, concert times... everything you need to plan your Con experience. If you don't have an iOS device you can still access the event app through their web page

Panel Info

  • Phone Charger. Everyone has something to charge now so finding an open power outlet can be a real challenge but just like you never know when you will get to eat, the same goes for your phone. If you have an emergency battery boost for your phone, bring that but at the very least make sure that your phone charger is close at hand.
     
  • A Camera. Fully charged. Memory card empty. NEEDS a flash. Too many dark corners with Halo Spartans hiding in them. If you have newer generation smartphone with a decent flash, that will do fine.

  • Glow Sticks or a Dance Party App. in 2010 Alces and I accidentally found ourselves in a mobile rave. One guy was wearing the sound system and power supply on his back and his two friends were each wearing giant speakers converted into backpacks. The party never stopped moving. Alces and I took a chance, caught a cab, went to an all night market and bought $44 worth of glowsticks to give to share with our fellow mobile partiers. We were gone about 4 minutes, but when we returned to the street corner, they had moved on. We spent the next hour following the sound of those booming speakers until we caught up. If on'y we'd had the glow sticks on us!

  • Portable Gaming Device. Long lines. Really long lines. After last year this one was moved to the MUST catagory. Again, one of the newer generation smartphones will do. 

  • A Good Friend. The buddy system is always a good idea. That's why I bring usually Alces. He's part Dr. Gonzo, part Chief Medical Officer and part Tech Support. He is all best friend and has been for more than half of my life. If you have a friend who has been before and can show you around the ever changing paths of the convention, bonus. Sadly he can't make it this year so I will be auditioning people to fill the role while at con this year.
  • A Zorbak Plushy (Optional). It's the ultimate ice-breaker. "Can I get a picture of you holding this guy, please?" "Sure... what is he?". 
  • Good Walking Shoes. Trust me. 

  • An Umbrella or Poncho (Optional). in 2011 the Venture Brothers panel line was long enough that it went outside the hotel and Alces and I found ourselves in the middle of a rain storm. With all of the weather coming from Tropical Storm Isaac headed toward Atlanta just in time for con. I suggest packing weather protection. A poncho will fit in your bag but an unmbrella makes you look swanky if you rock it right.
  • Duct Tape. This is just something you should have all the time anyway, BUT there are a LOT of people in a LOT of costumes and things start falling apart on day one. A well timed piece of duct tape can make you a lot of friends very quickly. 

That should be, more or less, everything that you need to pack. Other options include: clean clothes, costumes, things you want autographed, video camera, your Battleon Battle Card deck (teach a stranger how to play!), a map of the con (some of us like getting lost), a pair of scissors (for a lock of Kevin Sorbo's hair while he's passed out in a fountain somewhere), a sketchbook (for ideas), a steampunk R2 unit, 8 channel progrmable remote control, Sonic Screwdriver, or grappling hook... just cause.

You Guys Are Coming With Me! 

It always seems that we have a TON of fans at our panel but they represent a tiny fraction of you guys and we really do wich you could ALL be there. This year Im going to try really hard to keep a contact stream of Twitter and Vine spam coming your way so you can come with me and live DragonCon through my eyes (camera). 

Here is a link to my Twitter.

I will be hopping in the car late on Thursday night, so be packed and ready to ride to Atlanta with me!