8th to 10th August 2025
Where Canterbury Gaming Convention fits in
There a many different types of gaming convention.
That’s the whole point of this blog. To show the differences between them.
Two of the major types are dedicated TableTop RolePlaying conventions and more general analogue gaming conventions which have a TableTop RolePlaying element - often called a “Track”. (I use the term analogue to leave out digital or computer gaming conventions.)
I am only interested in TableTop RolePlaying. It is a golden age for Board Games and other types of games but all of those leave me cold. Whether I attend a general convention or not is determined by the size of TabelTop RolePlaying track and how it seems to be organised.
The UK Games Expo, for example, is so massive that the dedicated RolePlaying track is like an event of its own. I’m in!
Next weekend, however, is AireCon NorthWest, in Manchester. The AireCons are general analogue games conventions that have always tried to offer a RolePlaying Track, in my experience, but with varying degrees of success. Looking into the one next weekend it seems to have a very small area devoted to dedicated TableTop RolePlaying games with too many Referees for the space. But it seems to be very well organised by someone I know and trust. So rather than attend the full weekend, I’ve decided to to travel up and down in one day to get a “taster” for the event.
Planning for the event
This is also a general analogue gaming event. They seem to be making an effort to identify and support TableTop RolePlaying and have allocated a reasonably big chunk of floor space to them. Games can be submitted before the event and booked via Warhorn though spaces are available at the event.
I know nothing about the history of the event but it has the feel of something which has only been going for a year or two. Long enough to iron out kinks but not long enough to have really established itself.
Though the event itself is only two days, Saturday and Sunday, there’s a Friday gaming quiz to turn it into a full weekend experience, which I appreciate. However, I only care about playing TableTop RolePlaying so the quiz held no appeal for me.
The event is held on a University Campus with on-site accommodation available. The accommodation is not bundled in with the convention, however, and booking is flexible. Canterbury is a long way from Birmingham and the comfortable was to do things would be to travel down on Friday for the quiz and be on site for the start of the event proper on Saturday.
But that would involve paying for a night’s accommodation Friday evening. So I decided to get up at stupid o’clock Saturday morning to catch the first train from Birmingham to London which should - with perfect connections and a taxi - get me to CGC just before its start at 10am. Much more cost effective.
CGC runs 5 organised slots of TableTop RolePlaying. Saturday morning, afternoon and evening. Sunday morning and afternoon. So I offered to run games in the Saturday afternoon and evening slots and on Sunday morning. This would avoid any issues if the trains meant I arrived late and would allow me to leave in good time to catch my train home on Sunday.
I bad to do this a long time in advance of the actual event itself. When I did this I hadn’t retuned to Refereeing yet following my 5 year hiatus. So I played it same by offering adventures I’d run before several times in “the old days”. Nothing new or innovative.
I booked in to play a game Saturday morning and got permission to offer a short play-test of the quikstart adventure for my upcoming Horror game in the first half of Sunday afternoon.
There were also, of course, loads of open gaming spaces and stalls offering demonstration games.
Saturday morning
The trains ran seamlessly and I got to the event 10 minutes before it officially opened. The local tax I driver knew about the convention, which is a good sign. But their booking app didn’t recognise it. The postcode I had covered loads of different addresses none of which matched the convention details - as far as I could see.
Note to large convention organisers - send a blanket email to your local taxi firms with details of the event.
CGC is in a large University Sports Hall. It filled the Hall. It was rammed with tables and stalls and things to do. The TableTop RolePlaying area had several tables with lots of experienced Referees set up and ready to play. There were loads of sheets on offer to sign up to games in the afternoon - including mine.
What there wasn’t a lot of were punters. Convention attendees. At a quick estimate, the event could have accommodated four times the number of people who came - though three times would probably be the comfortable number.
My game - Daggerheart the new “hot” game, Refereed by one of the first people to play it, a real expert - had two players including me. The table next door had no players. So that Referee scrapped his game to join us. And we had a very amiable game.
There was a moment I felt slightly uncomfortable. A passing punter asked if he could join in. In the game we’d just completed the fist encounter and arrived at a village. We only had three players. We were using pre-generated characters. It would have been so easy to say we’d met a new character at the village and let the guy join in. But the Referee apologised and said he couldn’t join in because we’d already started the game. I really had to bite my lip. If I’d piped up with my opinion it could have soured the mood at the table.
Saturday afternoon
There was a small stand set up with sandwiches, cans in a fridge, a couple of beer pumps and people to run and get pizzas and burgers from the kitchen. Just enough to cater for the event with prices that weren’t exploitative but weren’t exactly cheap. I got some cans and a tuna sandwich for lunch.
The afternoon I’d offered to run my Steampunk game “The Code of Steam and Steel”. I’d recently released a quikstart adventure for the game called “One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing” and this was that adventure with an added T-Rex and airship to extend it to a full convention slot.
In my experience, you don’t tend to get many people signing up RolePlaying Games in the morning at general conventions. People come in, spend the morning browsing the stalls and demonstration games. Sit down for lunch and then look for something to do in the afternoon. So the RolePlaying area was a bit busier in the afternoon but there were still empty tables. People tend to play it safe so the full tables were for “big name” games. My game attracted three players.
The side effect of this was that these three people had chosen it because they actively wanted to play Steampunk and we had a great time.
It tuned out my padding of the one-hour quikstart adventure to a full session was a bit under-stuffed and with only three players the game plays more quickly anyway. So the game finished early.
Luckily.
My plan had always been to check in to my accomodation in between the afternoon and evening sessions and then grab a bite to eat. It was then that my casual pre-planning let me down. I’d assumed the evening sessions started at around the same time as most conventions - 7pm or 8pm - and that the accomodation would be convenient to the event.
The evening slot started at 6pm and the accomodation was a significant walk from the main convention.
Saturday Evening
After a cardio-workout of a walk to and from my accommodation (good, clean, typical University student accommodation type) I got back just in time for my evening game. So I was ordering and eating a pizza whilst going through the game set-up. No-one seemed to mind but I felt unprofessional.
All the trade stands in the middle of the hall were covered over and the area sealed off with “do not cross” yellow tape.
This time, I only had TWO players. My preferred number of players in a convention game is 3 to 5. I’ve long ago discovered that I can run games for 6 people - if I stand up. And, following much on-line debate and advice, I’ve decided I WILL run for two players if they are okay with it.
Both players wanted to play. I offered them secondary characters but they chose to have me run a single non-player character to fill in the gaps not covered by their characters. (They were the Pilot and Astrogator so I threw in an Engineer).
This was “The Planet of Darkness”, the example scenario from The Code of the Spacelanes rules. I hadn’t run it in years but could run it in my sleep.
During the session, one of the organisers brought a punter to me and asked if I could fit him into the game. In the story the characters had landed on an uncharted planet occupied only by a strange race of blue aliens. But I said “no problem”. And he joined in.
Because of the small number of players - and there efficient play - we finished a bit early so I was able to walk the distance to my lodgings and get to sleep in good time.
Note to self: If you’re wondering whether to bring an iPad to ad event or not - BRING ONE. iPhones are great for the journey but not good your evenings entertainment or catching up.
Sunday morning
Breakfast was good but I couldn’t find a fruit course, pastries or porridge. Very clean but not buffet. Served at a Counter (Student accomodation.)
Another cardio-workout back to the event (this time trailing wheelie case). My morning game had no signups. So I gave it a few minutes. There seemed to be even fewer punters than on Saturday - so I pulled my game and joined in with a game of Space 1889 to take it from 2 players to 3 players.
This was basically Wacky Races. No Space. No Mars. (Though there was a Martian in the Race, briefly.) The first vehicle to cross the line after an extended race across the deserts of Egypt and Sudan would get a contract to be developed for use on Mars. Much skullduggery of course and then the twist of the discovery of an invading Sudanese army with the - surviving - racers have to team up against a common foe and race to get a warning to the authorities.
Again the players had actively chosen to play the setting with at least one chewing the scenery like it was going out of fashion.
Great fun.
The Referee had enjoyed himself so much that - with our permission - he’d extended the game back to its usual full convention length so we finished after lunchtime. I’d had not chance to promote my horror game playtest and there was no official signup sheet. I doubt it would have attracted players here anyway. So decided to leave at this point and find a nice place to eat lunch in Canterbury. I could (possibly should) have tried to find a short game to sign up to. I did find a great place to have a lovely lunch in the City but I still had a long wait for my train back. (I’d bought a specific ticket to save money.)
If I’d had an ipad I could have written this report on the way back but I couldn’t do it on my phone.
Summary and costs
Canterbury Gaming Convention is a great medium-sized analogue gaming convention which is punching well above its weight. It needs - and deserves - many more punters. If you like games, especially board games, it’s a really good event. There are lots of good TableTop RolePlaying Games on offer run by experienced Referees. If you’re a Referee wanting to run games you’ll find slim pickings unless you’re running a popular game. It wasn’t dominated by Dungeons a Dragons though. (Is this because of the event or is it part of the zeitgeist?)
If I were in the area, I’d go again. As it is - for me - the distance - both to the event annd between the event and the accommodation - and lack of punters means I’ll probably won’t return next year. This event certainly won’t miss me as Referee.
Train tickets (including underground transfers): £50.19
Taxi: £25
Accommodation: £52
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Total: £127.19
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Hours of gaming: 15
Cost per hour: £8.50
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Cost of a pint of Lager: £6.30
But…and this was surprisingly important to me:
IN A PLASTIC GLASS.
