Airecon 12th–16th March 2026

1. Why I Went

About a decade ago a couple of guys in Harrogate decided to start running an annual game convention. They named it after a local river—the River Aire—which gave them a nice pun for a name.

Slowly the event began to grow and the organisers seemed to want to emulate the highly successful UK Games Expo. They seem to be well on their way to achieving this. Unlike UKGE, a number of different conventions have arisen under this name. I visited Airecon North-West in Manchester in August of last year- a report on this is on the earlier version of this blog.

But the main Airecon has always been in Harrogate. I’d visited it a couple of times over the past decade. Like many gaming cons, they seemed to make space for TTRPGs but didn’t seem to know exactly what to do with them.

When I restarted my convention visits, however, I took another look at Airecon and I was impressed with how the TTRPGs were now organised. It looked a lot like UKGE especially with the rewards they offered to people offering to referee games.

I offered to referee five games and my rewards were a food voucher for each of the days of the convention, and either accommodation at the convention hotel - if you shared a room with another referee - or a significant contribution to your expenses if you sorted out your own digs. (I don’t like to share a room, so I made my own arrangements.) You also get a commemorative mug.

What has happened is what seems to happen so often at these general gaming - “expo” type - conventions, someone who really cares about TTRPGs has stepped up to organise these games and has done a good job.

With it being so well organised and with such excellent rewards there was no way I could resist going.

2. The Shape of the Convention

Airecon runs from Thursday to Sunday. The main event takes place in a large convention centre in Harrogate. Apparently the role-playing games were based in the convention centre alongside all the other games, trade stands and the like in previous years. This year, however, the TTRPGs were moved to the hotel next door.

This is an extremely grand, opulent building. A perfect setting to film an Agatha Christie drama. The TTRPGs run from Friday to Sunday. Three slots each day with two on Sunday. They were sited in two rooms in the hotel, a total of about 20 tables with up to six players, plus referee, at each table.

Referees submit their games several months in advance. Tickets are sold through the convention website.

As I said, extremely well organised.

I offered to run five games—two each on Friday and Saturday and one on Sunday.

At the event the games are played at large circular tables. Outside the rooms is an administration desk displaying a master plan of which game is played on which table in which room. The rooms were busy but the acoustics were not overwhelming. Not every table was filled to capacity and some games failed to run in each slot which may have helped keep the noise to a reasonable level.

I am only interested in refereeing and playing TTRPGs. I did not visit the main - massive - trade hall and so cannot comment on that. I suspect it was impressive and heard that it tended more toward “Indie” games than mainstream ones.

3. Games Played and Games Run

Accommodation in Harrogate proved to be expensive so, despite the distance from Birmingham, I chose to travel up Friday morning rather than pay to stay Thursday night. This meant getting up in the wee small hours.

Upon arrival I went straight to the hotel to set up to run my first game.

Slot 1 – Friday 10:15–13:15

I refereed my steampunk scenario – “One of our Dinosaurs is Missing”. According to the website six tickets had been sold but, as it happened, only five people turned up to play.

This is a popular scenario and always goes well. This time, however, several of the players seemed to want to play more tactically and combine the abilities on their characters’ sheets in specific ways. This game was slightly too narrative and “loose” for their tastes.

That’s just me being hyper-critical, though, and they all enjoyed themselves.

Three hours is too tight for this game, but in play they managed to combine two scenes together. At one point it looked like they were going to split the characters into two groups to tackle two separate issues. But eventually they settled on tackling just one and I was able to sideline the other threat. (So the Prussian airship escaped).

One of my players was a fellow game designer who was following me on the same table. I was already booked for the afternoon slot but I immediately booked into his game for Saturday afternoon.

I also made some notes to possibly try to design that more tactical steampunk game they wanted at some point in the future.

Slot 2 – Friday 14:00–18:00

Outside the hotel was “Chow Street” an array of artisan street food wagons. Priced in the £10–£15 range the quality of the food delivered was simply excellent. I had a katsu chicken bowl.

I hadn’t offered a game in this slot and had offered to sit at the administration desk guiding people to games to allow the organiser to concentrate on running the game he was refereeing in this slot.

He explained that he wanted to experience running a game in the venue himself to allow him to assess it from the perspective of a referee. Extremely wise.

Once the initial rush died down, I nipped over to the main convention to collect my ticket and lanyard. I then went to my bed and breakfast to sign in.

I got back to the hotel in good time for the evening games. This time I bought an artisan pizza and fries for my evening meal but this proved to be far more substantial than I’d anticipated and I was unable to finish it before the games were due to start.

Slot 3 – Friday 19:00–23:00

I was offering my Starfleet Academy adventure in this slot. I only had one player booked for this game. A fellow referee, and friend, also only had one player. I suggested combining our tables to create a single one with one referee and three players. However, he chose to use the slot to socialise – something he has little time for at most conventions. We found spaces in other games for each of the players. I could have tried to slot into a game myself, but was feeling a bit tired. I took the unusual decision, for me, to get an early night.

Slot 4 – Saturday 10:15–13:15

Breakfast was instant porridge, coffee and biscuits in my room at my bed and breakfast who – for some reasons – weren’t serving breakfast.

I walked to the convention where I passed the food wagons setting up.

Today, I was offering to run my steampunk dinosaur game again. If you have a large convention and a popular and successful scenario it makes sense to offer it more than once.

This time I had a table of six people. Four of them were new to TTRPGs and one of the role-playing experts was a palaeontologist! This group did not sideline one of the main opponents and despite my cutting several scenes I actually over-ran by almost ten minutes. Given that there was only a 45-minute break between the morning and afternoon games and the referee following me at the table wanted to set up, this was unforgivable.

But the game went well. Two of the new players – who’d been at Airecon last year, seen the TTRPGs then and decided to give it a go, knowing nothing at all about it – were massively enthusiastic. They thought they might suit their children – of eight and eleven years old. We all enthusiastically re-assured them.

I felt honoured a bit nervous about introducing them to the hobby. I’m good but my games a slightly different experience to many games and may not be the best introduction to the hobby.

Slot 5 – Saturday 14:00–18:00

Given that I’d over-run my game, was booked into a game for the afternoon and remembering how long it had taken to eat my pizza the night before, I chose something quick to eat. This was a burger which I paid for with a referee food voucher, (I only had to pay for the chips and drink). As it turned out, it was the most delicious freshly smashed burger I’ve ever eaten.

I got up to the table in time for the game. This was with the game designer who’d played in my game Friday morning. He has a great idea for name stands for his players. You write your name(s) on one of his business cards. This is then slotted into the top of a split section of wood. Everyone sees your name, you see his business card throughout the game.

 

This was a “Powered by the Apocalypse” science fiction game in a setting where ancient space portals had failed separating human systems. After centuries of divergent evolution – my character came from a “Mad Max” style world – these gates were now open again. It was a complex and interesting setting.

We were a rag-tag crew from a variety of these divergent worlds set a task to recover (steal) an ancient alien artefact from a world we weren’t supposed to visit. Being a PbtA game, the plot developed as we went along. Things weren’t straightforward but we coped well.

The rules were impressively detailed and the referee was excellent at failing forward into an interesting story.

Slot 6 – Saturday 19:00–23:00

Because my chicken katsu had been so delicious on Friday I went to the same stand but this time ordering rice and shredded spiced Korean beef. Delicious again but possibly a bit too spicy (as I found out the following day). Paid for with another food voucher.

I was offering my Starfleet Academy again in this slot. Unlike Friday I had three players signed up – two of whom had played in my games at other events, which was flattering. A fourth player joined us at the table.

I have to admit that, though tickets were sold online, there didn’t seem to be any system for checking them at the table. I certainly didn’t! This extra player could have been getting the game for free. But four players is better than three so we were glad to have her.

She claimed to be unfamiliar with Star Trek the original series – though it later transpired she knew all about tribbles.

This scenario is always fun to run and play. This group played more into the tropes on offer than previous groups I’ve had – allowing themselves to be taken prisoner by the space pirates only to escape via the air vents. They then blew up the pirate ship via a cunning ploy and stranded the pirates on a disabled freighter.

The game finished an hour early. It filled three hours, and finished at 10 pm not 11 pm. However, everyone seemed happy with the resolution and I got to bed at a reasonable hour again after an extremely successful day.

I had had a brilliant time!

Slot 7 – Sunday 10:15–13:15

After my instant porridge on Saturday, I decided to treat myself to breakfast at the opulent hotel in which the games were being played. It was worth every penny – the highlight being a machine that produces freshly cooked American pancakes. Needless to say I sampled everything I physically could and felt extremely full up.

Sunday morning I was offering to run an adventure using my fantasy rules. It garnered no sign-ups at all. I suspect the combination of an obscure system with an abstruse-sounding scenario had not attracted people. If I’d used a more popular system or planned a more straightforward adventure it may have appealed to some people.

The game on an adjacent table only had two sign-ups and was being run by a friend of mine who is developing a fun steampunk game based on my systems. So I joined that. This was a referee being re-allocated to make up numbers at another table to allow the game to run, so I didn’t buy a ticket.

As you’ll probably have surmised I’ve played in this guy’s games before and this was the usual hoot. We managed to completely derail a devious American plot to exploit the indigenous Martians and undermine the British monopoly on the travel between Earth and Mars.

Slot 8 – Sunday 14:00–18:00

The lunch break was only 45 minutes, remember. So I went back to the artisan burger wagon where I discovered their Brekky Burger. A freshly smashed pork patty with hash brown. It was gorgeous.

I hadn’t known the layout of the convention and Harrogate when booking transport. So my train home was at a quarter to seven with the convention due to end at 6 pm. So I hadn’t offered or booked a game for Sunday afternoon.

As it turned out, I could probably walk to the station at 6 pm and get there in time for my train. Just to be sure I looked on the website for a game that needed an extra player and which I could probably dip out of early. I found a game of Cy-Borg which had two players and could probably do with a third. (Borg games are notoriously deadly.)

This was not a referee transfer so I made it a point of honour to buy a ticket. (Nobody checked.)

This game was another absolute hoot. I think the referee had hacked Cy-Borg into another game. Certainly he had lots of handcrafted items – perfectly fitting with the punk aesthetic. The character sheet was a printed A3 sheet cleverly folded into an A6 booklet. Handcrafted headshots with sticky on the back were supplied – as were sticky-backed strips to put over the character stats if one died and you had to make another. Rule boards made out of cereal packets. He’d even hand printed the playmat, one hexagon at a time.

I explained about wanting to leave early which he accepted. I offered him a business card, he showed me the link to his Instagram account on his digital medallion. I don’t think we were just from different times. We were from different dimensions.

The game started at a frenetic pace – just after our initial heist had gone badly wrong – and barely let up for the first hour or so. Luckily, just as I was about to break, it slowed to a steadier pace. It was a simple “deliver the MacGuffin to a rendezvous” scenario set in a dystopian city hell-scape. It was run as “play to find out” and built to a very satisfying resolution.

Of course, despite my intentions, mine was the only character to actually survive. But the game finished at 5 pm and I actually got to the station over an hour early. Luckily their waiting room has raised work-surfaces with sockets and I was able to sit and start writing this report.

4. Play Reflections

My steampunk scenario “One of our Dinosaurs is Missing” is incredibly popular but I’ve now stuffed it to capacity to fill a four-hour slot. I will never offer it again with six players in a three-hour slot.

My fantasy scenario “Claws and Cannons” is too off the wall to attract people to a lesser-known system like “The Code of Warriors and Wizardry.” Maybe I need to mate the game to a simpler scenario or just give it a rest for a while.

My Starfleet Academy scenario is brilliant and I intend to run it many more times in its current form. I suspect it is slow to gain traction because it is based on the original series and movies which - amazingly - some younger people have never seen. Maybe I should switch it up to the time of The Next Generation?

The TTRPG element of Airecon was supremely well run by an absolute hero of the UK TTRPG scene. The hotel it was based in was opulent and elegant. As I say I didn’t visit the main event in the convention centre but from everything I heard it was equally as good.

It was a bit of a trek getting to Harrogate and I was surprised how much I missed having a McDonald’s and Tesco within easy walk.

5. Cost, Time, and Value

How I calculate this

This section looks at what the convention cost me, as a participant. It is intended as an illustrative case study rather than a universal guide.

I do not include routine food costs, as I would incur these whether or not I attended. Referee rewards reduce these, however.

I do report on the cost of a pint of lager as this is an important metric or some of my readers.

My travel costs reflect my own circumstances (travelling from Birmingham and making use of available rail discounts), so readers should treat the numbers as indicative rather than directly transferable.

Headline figures

Convention cost (ticket): £0 - referee reward.
Travel cost: £35.44
Accommodation cost: £198 minus £100 cashback - referee reward.
Total convention-specific cost: £133.44*
Total hours of gaming (played and run): 21

* If I had accepted the offer of free accommodation, this would have been a mere £35.44.

Cost of a pint of lager: £7

6. What I Took Away

I will never stop banging on about the fact that the man that has taken the TTRPGs at Airecon by the scruff of the neck and sorted it all out is an absolute hero. Organisation, venue and games on offer were all top notch. I recommend Airecon to any role-players that can get there. I will definitely be back next year.

You may find local accommodation expensive. For next year I have decided to swallow my pride and have already found a fellow referee who is willing to share a room with me. (Poor fellow.) Also the lack of the standard cheap stores I’ve come to rely upon within a five-minute walk of the venue was a bit limiting.

But the artisan food wagons were amazing - especially if you have referee food vouchers to spend.

Clearly the best way to do Airecon is to offer to referee five or more TTRPG sessions and benefit from the rewards on offer. But I don’t want you to do that. My and my mates are already doing it.

(I joke. If you’re a good convention referee, definitely look into that.)