Hi everyone!
I went to Roll Initiative con (or RINcon) 2024 in Ewijk last Sunday, and as usual I want to write about it. This time, I am keeping it to one post! (Gasp!) I’m not participating in competitions that require a lot of preparation, nor am I part of the crew. So I can do this in one post! 🙂
At first, I wasn’t sure about if I should cosplay at a TTRPG-related convention, but I saw there were cosplay related activities, so I decided to wear Fern. Fern is a mage-like character, so I suppose that was fitting enough. And well, Frieren is a DND-anime in my headcanon. (Actually, I was very nervous about cosplaying from an anime instead of a TTRPG or related media. I have my own DND character Taliah, but she is in need of a better wig and new horns, so I couldn’t bring her. 🙁 Else I would have.)
So, about the convention: I went there with Fhant, who loves DND more than I do. We had to look for the parking, cause it was not well-marked, but the shuttle-bus was really convienent and the prices were not too high. From there, it was a few minutes till we arrived at the con, got our wristbands and I took my time changing into the last bits of Fern. We then went straight into the dealer room and artist alley, because we LOVE dice and art! And the blend of sellers there was amazing. It was nice seeing some familiar faces, talking with new people and also sharing the sad feeling that Frieren is over for now. Fhant and I got ourselves a stamp rally card and put in some effort to complete it. A really fun side-quest to do on a convention!
I also met up with Elianzi to be the Stark/Fern duo again. Which was fun, even though we both wandered places instead of sticking together. We did participate in the cosplay competition, which was a weird kind of cosplay competition. Normally, a cosplay competition is based on judging craftsmanship or acting skills.This competition had no interaction between the judges and the participants, so they couldn’t see the smart techniques the participants used and discuss the costumes.
This was more of a dress-up picture competition? Don’t get me wrong, I loved the people involved. (The photography crew was really nice!) But a competition where on the website it is stated that you don’t have to make anything and will just be judged on the pictures, feels a bit weird to be done in a photostudio. I’d imagine a photography competition, which this reminded me more of, as entering selected pictures beforehand by different photographers and have some written stuff about the source, why this picture and what equipment was used? And then presented in an art-gallery style or something.
Anyhow, this competition did not make sense and feels like too much is based on criteria the participants weren’t made aware of. (This is my opinion, and I am willing to discuss this with the organisation, naturally.)
The vibe of the convention was great. The weather was nice and that made the outside area lovely. I did miss the birds of prey that sadly cancelled their appearance last-minute. (I think those are really cool and I would have loved some pictured with an owl :). ) The fishing game was cool too and I won two prices. One of the prices was a DM screen, which I gave to Fhant. All the people were nice, loved being recognised as Fern and people being positive about the cosplay, it was not too busy, so I could rest my feet in these terrible heels. It was cozy and even though I did miss out on workshops, it was noticeable that most people had a good time.
TLDR: if there is a RINcon next year, I am definetly looking into attending again!
Keep on crafting!
Amirine