I didn’t really know what to expect when Cuddli was asked to be a vendor at WyrdCon. I’d heard of the con, and that it was fun. Some people said it was a larping convention. Their website talks a whole lot about storytelling. Based on who else I knew was going, I was expecting a bit of the regular ComiCon type crowd that you see at every event here. I was wrong.

First off – here’s some photos that I took at the con that just got published at OC Weekly: http://www.ocweekly.com/slideshow/wyrdcon-2017-at-the-hilton-costa-mesa-8113007

Thursday night, there was a small Harry Potter party. Cuddli brought out our potion-making setup from Comikaze, and let people make love potions. There was wizard karaoke, and quidditch pong. In the hallway I noticed a lot of materials where people could build random stuff, and a nerf war broke out. Some old friends found me randomly, including Riverside (from defcon).

Friday, the con really started, though vendors didn’t need to be there until 3. We stocked up on awesome snacks at Mitsuwa next door (by Saturday they were totally out of riceballs at lunch).

Everyone we met at the con was super super duper friendly and chatty, in a way that was different than most cons. I guess it really was 95% larpers; we were a little bit out of place with our Geeks in Tech panel on Saturday. But since you have to improv and chat a bunch with larping and tabletopping, the attendees were a pretty social, creative, and curious bunch.

There was an escape room that was pretty interesting- you were given a D&D role and a weapon, and got to explore an Edgar Allen Poe world. Unfortunately, my team wasn’t physically able to make it through the first challenge. I got a press photo walkthrough instead.

There was also a really cool game called Zombie Tag, which had badges that turned you into a zombie if you got too close (there were ways to heal, too). It sounded like a super fun party game, especially for outdoor events.

There was more nerf guns around than at ToorCon, which I was sort of amazed at. People could hit you from anywhere in the two floors of the Hilton that we had, and people sniped you from the upper floor. Most of the nerf stuff was pretty high end- crazy machine guns. I even saw a homemade propane fueled potato gun designed for nerf. It was like 4 days of nonstop play, and a really interesting con experience.

The party Saturday night was Star Wars themed, and we learned that Hip Hop Trooper (famous cosplayer) really actually does DJ. The Devil’s Playground (which I shot at their first show) was doing Star Wars burlesque. I have a ton more pics that I can run later from that. Here’s a vid: https://www.instagram.com/p/BUEK9ZcDwju/?taken-by=pinguinokolb