Paradice - 28th February and 1st March 2026

1. Why I Went

Paradice is a board game convention in Worthing. I think this is its third year. It is what I define as an “Expo” type event, with a central trade hall bolstered by other events.

When there aren’t dedicated Table-Top Role-Playing events on a weekend, I like to attend more general events offering to run TTRPGs. I used to have a set-up called “Choose Your Adventure” which I took to conventions - sometimes not even gaming conventions - offering to run one hour demonstration games to try and bring more people into the hobby. I hoped I’d be able to offer this at Paradice.

I was quite late in writing to the convention and they were well into their planning and organisation by the time I made contact. They were welcoming, however, and initially made room in their TTRPG zone timetable for me to run two 2-hour games. An email mix-up meant I missed the publication of the finalised TTRPG timetable, so I was moved to the Demo zone instead.

Four hours of gaming might not seem like much for a weekend, but I had hopes of playing in other games and maybe running a longer game in the evening in the open gaming area.

2. The Shape of the Convention

Paradice takes place at the Worthing Leisure Centre. This is not in central Worthing but is just a five minute walk from the Durrington-on-Sea railway station, two stops away from Worthing.

I arrived early and there was already a queue. Many people had large bags - including those ubiquitous IKEA bags - which they should really rebrand as gaming bags - bulging with board games. Whether these were to play or to “bring and buy” I don’t know.

The main part of the convention is in the Sports Hall. There are lots of trade tables, but over half of the hall was turned over to a general gaming area.

Tables along one wall were dedicated to the RPG zone and Demo zone, clearly labelled with pull-up banners and easy to find. 

Outside the main hall were areas devoted to the Board Game Library and Social Gaming (Blood of the Clocktower etc.). There was also the Leisure Centre Cafe which, whilst very good and perfectly fine for a leisure centre, was completely overwhelmed by a convention of this size.

Venues are never quite ready for how much gamers can eat and drink.

There were intermittent Tannoy announcements which were helpful but suffered from the usual issue of being difficult to hear at times.

3. Games Played and Games Run

At conventions like this, ideally passersby casually drop in as they walk past to join demonstration games. TTRPGs, taking a bit longer, benefit from a little more structure. Paradice has imported the G.A.M.E. booking system created for the AireCon conventions (Glorious AireCon Management Engine). This is an online system for putting games on sale at the Bring and Buy, taking games out of the Board Game Library, and so on. Paradise also made it available to book into TTRPGs and demonstration games, so I posted my games on there.

Game 1

Since my first slot at my Demo zone table wasn’t until 3pm, I used the GAME system to book into a Monster of the Week game in the morning. This only had two players but was run by a very competent convention Referee. It was a Men in Black type story which I enjoyed immensely.

I then queued at the cafe and eventually bought a very serviceable meal deal for lunch.

The RPG zone and Demo zone were very well organised, with each table allocated specific times for specific activities and changeover time in between. I was given time to set up the table for my first game.

Game 2

This was my usual Steampunk demonstration about the missing dinosaur. There were three players - all passersby, none from the booking system - and it was a romp as always.

Sometimes I create things which are really good and I’m proud of them.

I had decided to split my two hours of demonstration into two 1-hour games. Resetting the table for the second game was a rush, but I found time to dash over to the organisers and ask them to put out a call on the tannoy.

(Game 3)

My second refereed game was to be a Star Wars style romp, but I only managed to attract one player. He’d enjoyed my first game so much that he decided to stay on.

Unfortunately, I was unable to run the game with one player, so I cancelled it.

(Game 4)

As I said above, I had hoped to set up a longer game for the evening. I’d posted it on the G.A.M.E. system but there had been no interest there. I hadn’t met many players during the day to promote it to.

By now the general gaming tables were absolutely heaving with people playing board games. I would have found it difficult to find a place to play.

So I decided not to stay for the evening slot. This was a good decision. Rather than travelling on a strange bus route in the dark, I was able to do it in daylight. It turned out to be a rather wonderful jaunt along the Worthing seafront. My hotel had been inexpensive because it was one of the many hotels near the seafront that still had capacity during a cold February.

The other benefit was that I had time to find a much more reasonable evening meal.

Game 5

I arrived at the convention early on Sunday morning. I was informed that I couldn’t go into the trade hall, so I sat in the coffee bar and posted on my social media. After a while, I sneaked into the trade hall anyway. My first demonstration wasn’t until 11am but, as I suspected, my table wasn’t booked during the first hour of the day, so again I was able to set up.

I typed up two announcements for the tannoy on my iPad. The Demo zone organiser took photographs of these on her phone and forwarded them to the front desk.

My first game used my D6 Hack fantasy rules. These are not rules I often use at conventions, being a fairly standard d6-only conversion of D&D type games. I have four pregenerated characters from the rule book for that game. I had one player booked in via the GAME system.

During the set-up hour I had interest from a father and son. I suggested they return at 11 o’clock when the game was due to start. Nearer the time, two men showed interest. Though that would have taken me to five players, I invited them to sit down, took out a proof copy of the rules, gave one of them a pencil, and asked him to start making a character.

Just before 11 o’clock the Demo zone organiser brought me two more potential players. Regretfully, as this would have taken me to seven players, I had to turn them away. They were given a space on another table.

Guess what? Neither the father and son nor the player booked in via the GAME system turned up. So I started the game with two players. Fortunately, the player who’d liked my games the previous day arrived. The game he’d booked into had folded due to lack of players.

This session was a short scenario I’d written and published, showing that you can do epic Game of Thrones style adventure in just one hour with first level characters and goblins. I’ve run it before, including live on stage in front of an audience, but it had been a while since I’d used this rule system at a convention.

I was pleasantly surprised by how well both the system and the scenario went.

Sometimes I create things which are really good and I’m proud of them.

Though experienced board gamers, the two men who had joined me first had little experience of TTRPGs. I gave them links to the site that sells my game and others, and gave them both proof copies of the game - explaining that they probably contained some typing errors but were just clogging up my shelves and I was glad to give them away.

Game 6

This was another run out for my Steampunk Dinosaur game. Why mess with success? The tannoy message didn’t seem to attract any players, but I latched on to a mother and her son as they were leaving an adjacent table. Halfway through the game I inveigled a passing woman. She seemed a bit confused but gamely joined in. (I don’t know her story but I suspect she’d been dragged to the event by the gamers in her family and left to mill around while they enjoyed themselves.)

The son had the inventiveness of youth and took the story in unexpected directions that have never happened in the dozens of times I’ve played this scenario. In addition, the non-gamer I’d corralled would not accept that having a hot strong cup of tea was enough to heal people after an attack by giant wasps and insisted that all the characters go to hospital to be attended to. This allowed the Evil Scientist to escape, but the characters were still able to rescue the dinosaur.

Game 7

My time at the demonstration tables was over. I used the GAME system to book myself as a player into a game of “Honey Heist”. This is a lightweight, amiable TTRPG about bears pretending to be human in order to steal honey.

This was the enjoyable romp I was expecting, with a group of players there simply to have a relaxed, fun time at the end of a convention. A bonus was that the game turned out to be well thought out, with an intriguing design - not quite as simple as it first appeared.

4. Play Reflections

I ran three 1-hour games with three players apiece. I played in two 2-hour games, one of them with only two players. I didn’t manage to arrange a full-length game on the Saturday night.

So was it worth travelling all that way to Worthing for the event?

Surprisingly, yes.

I’ve got a similar but, for me, more important event next weekend. I hadn’t run my 1-hour games for several years, and this was an easy way back into things.

These kinds of general events are where you meet people who are new to Table-Top Role-playing. People who would never consider going to a dedicated TTRPG event. A father and son. A mother and son. I had intended to prepare a handout to give away, but Amazon didn’t deliver my A5 paper on time. I still found myself giving people lots of information about where to go to get free TTRPGs and the like.

I enjoyed all the games I played.

Next time there’s the risk of me having a table of seven players for a 1-hour game, I’m going to take it. I’ll try not to turn anyone away again.

5. Cost, Time, and Value

This section looks at what the convention cost me as a participant.

I usually work out the cost per hour of actual gaming. However, I’ve decided to restrict this to dedicated TTRPG conventions, or similar, with organised slots. I don’t think it is as helpful for these more general events.

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

I usually report on the cost of a pint of lager as this is an important metric for some of my readers. But this was a teetotal convention.

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): £22.50
Travel cost: £52.29
Accommodation cost: £50.76
Total convention-specific cost: £125.55

6. What I Took Away

This was a well organised, friendly, and inclusive board game convention that covered all the expected content, including:

- Traders
- Bring and Buy
- Board Game Library
- Open Gaming Tables
- Social Gaming
 - Table-Top Roleplaying Games
- Demonstration and playtest games with game designers

It is at the stage of the board game convention development cycle where it is keen to offer TTRPGs but they are still growing. They haven’t reached “critical mass” yet and do not have their own thriving, self-sufficient TTRPG track.

They are using the G.A.M.E. system extensively, but it has its limitations and isn’t yet widely promoted or used.

I had a great time and learnt a lot. I would thoroughly recommend this event for any board gamer or casual gamer. Table-Top Roleplayers looking for a weekend dedicated primarily to TTRPGs can find it here, but would need to work a little harder to fill their time and need to be flexible in the kinds of games they are willing to play.