Victrix - Chester - 21st & 22nd March 2026

1. Why I Went

Having been off the tabletop roleplaying and convention scene for years, and being recently retired, I’ve decided to push the boat out in 2026 and try to attend as many conventions as possible. Every weekend if I can.

I may rein back in 2027 for economic (likely) and health (I hope not) reasons.

I attended Grogmeet in January. That convention has grown from a one day event to a full weekend, the Sunday being “out-sourced” to an excellent Friendly Local Game Store - Fanboy 3 in Manchester. Whilst there, I picked up a couple of fliers.

One was for a convention I hadn’t heard of - Victrix. The flyer and website weren’t tremendously informative, to be honest. It seemed to be a new board game convention in Chester. I tend to avoid board game conventions - it’s not my hobby. But Victrix was on a weekend where I had zero tabletop roleplaying activities booked, so I contacted the organiser - a great bloke - to ask if there were likely to be any tabletop roleplaying games offered and was told I could run some if I wanted.

So I decided to go.

2. The Shape of the Convention

As I noted above, this is a new convention. I commend and admire people who set up conventions for us all to enjoy. They are a rare treasure and should be nurtured.

It takes place at a Youth Hostel Association venue in the countryside outside Chester. The organiser had hired out an entire building on the site which came with a kitchen, rooms with bunks, etc. His idea was that it would be a friendly event where people could stay over and bunk in together, making the event extremely cost effective.

That was not to my taste, but I found it easy to book into a room of my own at the adjacent main building.

Exchanging emails with the organiser, I had the feeling that this was going to be very much like another primarily board game event I attend twice per year - Stabcon in Stockport. This is mainly a board game event, but tabletop roleplaying players have a noticeboard where they pin up games they are offering to run. This seems to work quite well, so I suggested doing something like that.

Communication prior to the event was mainly the organiser doing all the work and emailing information out to attendees. Attendees didn’t seem able to, or interested in, taking part in pre-convention chatter. I posted about the tabletop roleplaying games I could offer to run in the event’s Facebook Event page but received few comments.

So I prepared the Dinosaur and Starfleet Academy games which had been so successful recently and also brought my Horror, Superhero and Dr Who scenarios. I had no idea of the demographic and thought those would have wide appeal.

I travelled to Chester on the train. The event was due to start late afternoon on Friday, so, for once, there wasn’t an early start for me.

The YHA is well outside town. There is one bus route, but it runs hourly and is a significant walk away from the station at one end and a long ten to fifteen minute walk at the other end. Since I was taking my small wheely suitcase packed with heavy books, laminates and papers, this was not an easy task. I should probably have taken a taxi, but I had my free travel pass and wanted to use that.

As it turned out, the journey was a bit of a mission, but the weather and surroundings were nice.

Upon arrival, I was given a lanyard and welcome pouch containing some small branded items.

I found the noticeboard was a whiteboard, not the pin board I’d expected. I should have brought some blu-tac. However, I laid out the explanatory sheet and some sign-up sheets I’d made, including the one for the Dinosaur game I was offering that evening.

Another tabletop roleplaying designer was offering to run his game and he’d beaten me to it, putting up a sign-up sheet covering the entire weekend. I signed up for his first game Saturday morning.

The entire wall of one room was a solid rack of shelving the organiser had bought and assembled, stacked with an immense array of board games. Immense. You could come to this convention empty-handed and find more than enough high-quality board games to fill your weekend.

I then walked over to the main building to check in, go to my room and eat an evening meal. My room had 4 bunks and limited facilities, but I’d brought my own towel and travel kettle, so I was fine.

After my hamburger and pint, I wandered over to the convention again.

3. Games Played and Games Run

Slot 1 - Friday night

People were beginning to arrive with their big bags of board games. They were renewing old acquaintances and settling in. There were some games, but the evening seemed to be more about socialising.

Needless to say, there were no sign-ups for my game. So I got an early night and went back to my room to plan.

Slot 2 - Saturday - 9am onwards

I’d booked breakfast at the YHA. This was good value, with the usual continental and full English options, but it was in a communal room and felt like school dinners. Not to my taste.

Overnight, I’d decided to restructure my offerings. Rather than set slots in which I offered full scenarios, I decided to revert to my “Choose Your Adventure” set-up, offering short games with pregenerated characters.

I hadn’t printed out anything explaining that and was limited to the pre-gens in the games I’d brought, but I managed to put a decent spread out on a table. I commandeered a coffee table with some sofas, reasoning that was a perfect set-up for tabletop roleplaying, whereas the large tables were more suitable for board games.

Amazingly, I got some interest almost straight away. A group of young people just arriving chose to play a Superhero game. Luckily, my usual Superhero demonstration game - “Superheroes vs. Dinosaurs” - was in my pack along with the longer scenario I’d intended to run.

I hadn’t run this for over five years, but everything was there and it all came flooding back. Everybody enjoyed themselves. Unfortunately, in the climactic battle where the Heroes were teaming up to stop the Kaiju-sized Stegosaurus destroying Birmingham, they rolled a critical failure and all got flattened.

What can I say? My games are very “swingy”. There has to be some jeopardy. The rules provide several “get out of jail” cards. None of these were available. This was one of those extremely rare cases where there was nothing the players could do to change the outcome.

I designed the game, so I decided to die by the sword I usually live by.

Slot 3 - Saturday - 11am

I’d signed up to play a game offered by another designer.

He has put so much thought and so much work into this, and one small box is packed with cards, rules, dice, miniatures and player hit-point cum movement trackers. All lovingly illustrated by the designer himself.

It is a truly impressive piece of work.

Tarogan.com is the web-site for this independent tabletop roleplaying game system and setting.

The game was fun, but there were just two of us playing a couple of goblins trying to delay a dwarf drill burrowing into our caves to give our brethren time to escape. Not only were we outnumbered two to one, but the Dwarves had guns capable of multiple shots per round. Gravity guns, at that, plus spring-heeled boots and more. We felt completely overwhelmed but somehow managed to sabotage the drill and escape.

Slot 4 - Saturday afternoon

Lunch was a meal deal I’d bought on the way up to the event. I was eating that and having a chat with the designer of Tarogan when a player at a table next to us asked us about our games. When he finished playing, we rustled up a group of four players and I ran the original one-hour version of “One of our Dinosaurs is Missing”. Great fun as always.

Another critical failure meant the entire party were wiped out in the climactic battle by the giant spider. But, unlike the Superhero game in the morning, this was a spider and I was able to narrate how they’d been captured and trussed up in its webbing. Escape duly followed.

Slot 5 - Saturday night

I went across to the main building for my evening meal. This was served in the bar and was far more to my tastes than the breakfast.

I got no interest in my games. The gaming rooms were full, with people playing board games and having a great time.

My fellow designer found me. He had one person who was interested in his game and he asked me to make up the numbers. Eventually, I agreed.

This time we were pirates.

I’d assumed the Dwarves vs. Goblins was the default setting for his game. Nope. That little box is stuffed with myriad worlds alongside everything else.

I enjoyed this more than the earlier game, even though we again were placed in an almost unwinnable situation. By dint of stubbornness and clever play, we somehow managed to drive off the Kraken and gain our reward.

Slot 6 & 7 - Sunday

Breakfast, again, brought back memories of my schooldays, but at least I was prepared for it.

The event was a lot quieter on the Sunday. I spent the morning chatting with my fellow designer, neither of us getting interest.

A gentleman started running a Delta Green tabletop roleplaying scenario on the table next to me for two of his acquaintances, but there was no room for a third.

Then, as I was eating lunch - another meal deal I’d brought with me (I’d checked the dates) - a young lady enquired about my games and again chose to play Superheroes. She brought a friend to play and my new friend joined in but, as things got going, the table filled out to five people playing.

This is meant to be a simple game - defeat the villain, stop the dinosaur and return it to its own time. But these players took my rules and ran with them in a way I could never have predicted.

As soon as we finished, we both pitched a game of Tarogan to the table.

This time, post-apocalyptic witches seeking a healing plant on a world filled with beasts that can feed off their mystic energy.

The organiser came by to remind us that the event was closing. We did a speed run through the game in under 50 minutes. We were the last table playing and finished pretty much on the dot of 3 o’clock.

Rather than call a taxi, I elected to wheel my bag all the way back up to the main road, where I had to wait 50 minutes for a bus. But the weather was good, it was in the countryside, and I got home in good time, so 

everything worked out.

4. Play Reflections

This event is not StabCon. StabCon is established, has about 300 attendees, with enough interest to sustain several full-length tabletop roleplaying scenarios being run at once. Victrix is new, has only 100 or so visitors, and these seem to be mainly people who already know each other, just looking for a time and a place to play all those board games they’ve bought.

Switching from longer scenarios to short one-hour offerings worked. I just wish I’d realised and prepared for this prior to the event.

The event could also do with a more dynamic use of communications technology before it opens its doors. Maybe a Discord or something.

I know nothing about this, but will look into it before next year.

Overall, for an event that looked like it could have been a complete bust, I ended up running 3 and playing 3 games, all of which I enjoyed. I also met a fascinating new figure on the UK tabletop roleplaying scene. It was a success in my humble opinion.

I’ll return for 2027 - this time bringing my proper “Choose Your Adventure” set-up, which I’ll promote aggressively both before and at the event. If we can grow the tabletop roleplaying side next year, this could become a permanent fixture on my calendar.

5. Cost, Time, and Value

How I calculate this:

This section looks at what the convention cost me, as a participant, and what that worked out as per hour of actual gaming. 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.

I do report on the cost of a pint of lager as this is an important metric for 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): £31
Travel cost: £17.29
Accommodation cost: £190 - if booked to share a room with bunks in the main event it would have been much cheaper.

Total convention-specific cost: £238.29

Cost of a pint of lager: £unknown. I had my pints of lager as part of a special offer in the bar - burger, chips and pint £13.95. I forgot to ask for the cost of an individual pint.

6. What I Took Away

If you’re a board gamer and live locally to Chester, I would 100% completely and totally recommend Victrix. It’s a great event.

If you’re a board gamer who’s happy to “bunk in” with others at an intimate and friendly event, you’d also be happy here.

If you fit into either of the above categories and you also like a bit of tabletop roleplaying, I’ll be there next year. Hopefully other tabletop roleplaying referees will be as well. Please come and play in our games.

If you’re primarily a tabletop roleplaying gamer, Victrix is not ready for you yet.

I’ll be back next year. I know what to bring now and will try to work with the organiser to arrange more up-front promotion of what tabletop roleplaying games will be on offer and more pre-convention communication between prospective referees and interested attendees.

I’m glad I went, if only for meeting a fellow games designer travelling the convention offering games just like I do.

I’ll be back next year. As for the future beyond that - watch this space.