It's an annual festival of geeks designed for fighters — and yes, lovers.

The ConBravo! festival was likely the only place in Hamilton you could find a "weapons check" booth on the weekend.

Event staff eyeballed countless simulated firearms and stabbing implements — only one was confiscated — wielded by fantastically costumed fans of indie media, gaming, role playing and anime at the convention centre Sunday.

More than 2,000 people attended the annual event, which was held in Hamilton for the first time this year.

Every so often, one of those beweaponed fans wandered over to whack Jay Bilow about the head or chest. The 27-year-old Hamiltonian and warrior dwarf wasn't fazed.

"It doesn't hurt," said the live action role player (LARPer), showing off a foam-tipped dagger and rubbery sword. "If you're role playing in a battle, basically you're spending a lot of time beating each other up."

Role playing doesn't have to be about fighting — unless you want it to be, said Elise Vinter, a 25-year-old roving warrior and call centre worker.

"I really like immersing myself in the warrior role — so I really want to hit things," laughed Vinter, who makes her own daggers and chain-mail and tries to attend camping role-playing events once a month in summer.

"I find the whole experience liberating. I go from a boring office worker trying to keep a smile on my face to a courageous warrior — it's the next generation of entertainment."

There was more to the self-styled "festival of all things geek" than fantasy-fuelled violence, however.

For the romantically inclined, a crowdsourced sampling of "erotic paranormal romance novels" was on display, including 50 Shades of Green and the yet-to-be published Awoken.

The latter, previewed for the first time in Hamilton, is described as Twilight meets Cthulhu, the tentacled godlike monster created by 1930s cult-horror hero H.P. Lovecraft.

"We wrote about 80,000 words in the span of about two weeks, with a team of eight people," said Lindsay Ellis of the indie writing group Chez Apocalypse, who estimated hundreds of people contributed content suggestions for the project. "We wanted to do a more interactive project … and this is what people wanted us to do."