Being a regular member of Queens University Dragonslayers I was able to glimpse some of the weeks of pure preparation that went into making this year's top quality Q-Con. I truly do think that all of the preparation and hard work paid off for all of those involved as Q-Con XII turned out to be a smashing event. As it was my first gaming convention I did not know really what to expect, but I was certainly not disappointed. Altogether Q-Con provided a splendid weekend of events and games to be involved in (or sit back and watch). Also the anime screenings evidently where quite well-liked and I don't think a single soul had a bad word to say about them.

I did have a few concerns before actually going to Q-Con of course but these where soon forgotten. To begin with I wondered how the hall would be set out and how I would join any of the games. Of course this was answered promptly the moment I entered Whitla Hall. Naturally before entering the hall I had to register first. Some people complained about the registration but because I arrived rather early on Friday night I had no problems at all with registration (only that I couldn't fit my name properly onto the ID badge). I received my little goodie bag (which of course was jammed with advertisements but some of them proved rather interesting) and proceeded into the hall. From what I viewed, it was set out rather well. Game stalls based around the edges, buying stalls at the entrance (which was very good advertising, because no matter what, you had to walk past these) and tables for D&D and such games and card games darted all around the middle of the room. Sign-ups for the games I did find rather an annoyance and maybe they could possibly be stationed at a better and bigger bit of Whitla Hall next year, as it was a quite frustrating trying to get someone's attention to put your name on a list at the same time as that person having to deal with new people registering. Plus the entrance hall was not that spacious and was rather crowed at times due to the sign-ups and registrations.

I found Saturday a rather worthy day of note with almost too much going on, which obviously, is not a complaint. I found it somewhat an early start at 10am but still a welcome start as there was so much going on that it had to start early. I managed to test out the computer games which I'd been staring at the night before. I tried to play Halo, but failed. I imagine that it would have been very favourable if someone at the Halo stall had have helped me but sadly not. Maybe next year. Outside on Saturday I found the re-enactment display of sword fighting very amusing and extremely interesting. The people who ran it seemed to be rather well organised and taught a few of the crowd how to use swords basically which was fantastic.

The Dungeons and Dragons competition on the Saturday afternoon was quite well run apart from the changing of location at last minute. Being a regular D&D player I enjoyed the competition and found it considerably fun though the end of the first games where rather rushed as the winners of each table had to progress to the next round due to time not being on our side.

All in all I really did find Q-Con XII a very enjoyable event and I will without a doubt be back next year. I just hope that Q-Con 2006 lives up to this year's very lively and friendly Q-Con. A huge well-done I think is deserved for those who ran Q-Con this year so well and hopefully they do a first-class job on next years anticipated Q-Con 2006.