A huge inflatable decoration of Luce, the new mascotte of the Catholic church which became a meme.
Listening to: Ratatata - Babymetal & Electric Callboy
This past weekend I took a long trip with a friend to attend Lucca Comics and Games, the biggest convention of its kind in Italy!
Lucca comics is quite different from your average convention, as it takes place spread out throughout the historical city center instead of a typical convention venue. This has a lot of benefits: for once, it's easy to find food since the numerous bars offer sandwiches and focaccia to-go. And it makes moving through the convention less suffocating, as you can avoid the main, crowded roads and travel through the many small alleys typical of old Italian towns. Also, you get to admire old historical buildings while you are taking a break from the convention activities. Lucca is a beautiful town, at least from the little I managed to see while staying there, and I would love to visit it outside of the Comics someday. The friend that came to the convention with me isn't particularly interested in comics, or anime, or videogames for the matter. However her family is from Lucca, and the Comics is an important event for the town, so she had been there several times before.
The trip started on Thursday afternoon with me heading to the train station after having packed my things in a spacious backpack, the kind meant for trips several-days long. There I met with my friend, and had lunch with her and my parents before getting on the first train and starting the actual journey. After several hours and five different trains, we finally arrived in Lucca at around 9PM and made our way to her apartment, settled down, and then headed to bed. I was really tired after all that travelling, so I fell asleep quickly, and I woke up the next morning well-rested and ready for a full day of convention activities.
The first thing we did Friday morning was going to one of the welcom desks to retrive our entry wristbands. It might be because I associate them with events I've been to, or because I like how they look, but I've always loved wearing paper wristbands. I made sure to have mine loose enough that I would be able to take them off and keep them as a souvenir, and then me and my friend got mochi dango to kick the day off.
We spent the first day going around the main stands in the city center. We went to the official Pokemon Store and Nintendo booths as early in the morning as we could since they attract a lot of people, but we still had to queue for around an our for each of them. The Pokemon booth was placed in what I assume was once a monestary or a religious building of sorts, because it had a beautiful cloister you had to go through to get to the booth. Unfortunately the booth itself was a bit underwhelming, especially taking into account the long queue, so I'm not sure if I'd visit it again another year. The Nintendo store, however, had lots of interesting merch, and although a bit expensive it was definetly worth it. I got a Tears of the Kingdom shirt and a Splatoon keychain themed after the Salmon Run game mode.
After the long queues, we made our way back to the apartment and had a quick lunch with spaghetti al pesto,
before heading back to the convention. There we visited the Dungeons & Dragons art exposition,
which showcased various official artworks to commemorate the game's 50th year anniverary. I know
it might sound silly, but I never realized just how much of DnD art was actual paintings.
I'm so used to working with digital art, and seeing most of the assets for tabletop games being made digitally,
that I had not realized that a good chunk of the artworks for DnD had been made in a time where digital art
wasn't really a thing. The exposition had many of the original paintings, but also several prints, manuals, old
magazines, and even the original models used to make the 3.5 edition premium manual covers.
The exposition was probably one of my favorite moments from the convention, especially since DnD
and MtG art are one of the main influences on my own artstyle.
We spent the rest of the first day visiting various stands. Then we checked out the Steampunk parade, got some food, and quickly visited another art exposition, which was showcasing mostly comic panels.
On Saturday, we could attend the convention only during the morning, as our first train to get back was at 14:30. We spent it in the pavilion dedicated to tabletob games. Most booths there were offering a combination of trading cards, RPG manuals and board games, with some of them letting you try out the games for free. My friend and I played the demo for Flesh and Blood and the one for Altered, both trading card games. I have to say that I enjoyed them, altough both had flaws that are hard to ignore when compared to my beloved Magic: the Gathering. But I would be down to playing them again, and I received a free Flesh and Blood trial deck for playing the demo which I'm looking foward to using.
I also took the opportunity to browse for a tabletop game to buy, possibly one that can work with just two
players so I can play it with my cousin after dinner. I ended up settling on Nobi Nobi RPG,
specfically on the horror box.
Nobi Nobi is a japaneese-style Tabletop RPG, a genre I haven't really tried before. It works with a turn-based
DMing system, which means the DM isn't the same person for the whole adventure, but rather changes after every "scene".
I'm unsure if my cousin will like it, as it's advertised as great for RPG beginners and we are both veterans,
but if he doesn't I can still try to play it with my friends, who aren't really familiar with board games and the likes.
After the tabletop pavillion, I bought a focaccia with porchetta on our way to the apartment and then gulped down yet another plate of pasta before going to the train station. The train rides were long, and I honestly was too tired to study, even though I had brought my tablet on the trip for that very reason. So my friend and I tried out a game she had bought that morning, which was really simple but still a steal for the 5€ she had gotten it for. Then I played Professor Layton and the Spectre's Call on a Nintendo DS emulator on my phone, finally 100%'ing it. And eventually started reading a novel as well. By the time we arrived in our hometown, it was well past 9PM and we were both drained. No wonder I had no trouble falling asleep despite all the excitment from the trip.
It was really fun, and I'd love to go next year as well if given the chance.