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| CantCon 2025 |
What do you do when you want to get together with a bunch of friends from the internet to play indie games but the big gaming convention doesn't have room for you? You book a space yourself, recruit a bunch of people to run the games and start a community event of your own.
That’s exactly what Jackson (@hollowbodies13 on IG and elsewhere) did. As CanCon - Canberra convention, the largest gaming event in Aus - rolled around for 2025, he started planning an event to bring us all together but quickly hit the road block of no free-play area at the event. Embracing the DIY spirit of this little corner of the hobby, Jackson pushed ahead with booking the library conference space in an adjacent suburb and began bringing people in to run games and provide support.
I got involved because I'd written a draft / brain dump for a setting for a potential gaming event and showed it to Jackson for feedback. Then one day I got a message out of the blue saying "mate we're running an event and you HAVE TO run a game". The man doesn't leave a lot of room for saying no and no one wants to disappoint dad.
That setting / idea was "Terror Nullius", a desert prison planet filled with murderous wildlife, colourful local characters and an oppressive environment. Originally I had planned to lean HARD into Aussie stereotypes but due to time constraints for the event a lot of this was briefly addressed in the fluff text and not much in the scenario mechanics. I'd love to revisit this at some point and implement more of it - eveyr objective guarded by a giant venomous spider, post apocalyptic road gangs as hostiles etc. Maybe next time...
I used the 28 Psalms ruleset for these games, a stripped back "community" version of Forbidden Psalm. I'll have a rant elsewhere on this blog eventually about FP but in short I am ALL IN on this game and all its flavours, expansions, 3rd party content etc. This version was still in playtest at the time but it seemed like the most accessible framework to use.
I put together 2 scenarios generated from the rules then fudged and tweaked them to fit the setting. I was a little surprised but very excited when the event went live and we quickly filled our allocation for players.
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| The boards for the "Terror Nullius" 28 Psalms games |
Day 1 was our gaming event. After the load in and set up at the library we jumped straight into our games of 28 Psalms, with players battling it out for loot while being attacked by gangs and ghouls. All the warbands had been lovingly bashed and painted, and everyone played in the spirit of having fun and telling cool stories. The ruleset itself was light enough to give us a framework while also injecting some extra elements into the story. The "witch fight" psychic power was a highlight, the "damage rolled = target's hp" mechanic had us rolling huge handfuls of dice to take down marines and each others witches.
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| 28 Psalms in full swing |
While this was happening, there were also intro games run for Flames of Orion and our very own Pirate Stew's "Untitled Pirate Game". By all accounts these were a lot of fun for the participants.
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| Stew's incredible terrain for Untitled Pirate Game |
The afternoon session was one of the weirdest games I've ever seen - a mashup of W!RCC10k and Skirmosh, hacked together and run by Dan and Jackson. Bounty hunters and pit fighters fought it out over 4 tables pushed together, with a gambling mechanic tying it all together that the guys were most definitely making up as they went along. Players offered bribes to the GMs and were betting against dice rolls (I think). I'm not sure what the results were at the end of the game but it was very entertaining to watch.
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| Gamble Planet Death Match |
We wrapped up with judging the kitbash competition before packing down and cleaning up the space and heading off to the pub. MtG games, plans for future gaming hangs and a dramatic reading of some graphic 40k fiction were all exchanged over dinner and drinks well into the night.
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| Rampaging through the Eureka minis booth |
On day 2 we descended on CanCon proper. We had no plans apart from checking in on Dan's progress in the MESBG tournament, so we spent the first part of the day meandering through the vendor halls. In our matching CantCon shirts we mobbed the Eureka minis booth, scooping up piles of metal minis from their Chaos range, and a few of us grabbed historical minis sprues from the War Library stall for future kitbashes.
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| The queue for the Bring N Buy |
One of the big draws for CanCon aside from the gaming events is the Bring N Buy. A small hall gets taken over with tables selling bags of bits, 2nd hand minis, board games and books. It's so popular that there's an option to buy an early bird ticket that gives you access to the space before any other attendees. We waited for over half an hour to get in and I went FERAL buying bags of bits. Sadly the OG Space Hulk with all expansions was too pricey for me.
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| Gaming hall was overwhelming |
Last stop for the day was the gaming areas. This was a bit of sensory nightmare, a giant hall filled with tables for all the gaming tournaments. The armies and terrain looked great but it was pretty overwhelming.
I originally started this blog entry on the train trip home, but now with a few more months of hindsight it's not the details of the games or specific conversations that feel most important. I just feel lucky to be part of such a fantastic community of great people.
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| My little crew from Eureka minis. Gotta get some paint on these. |
