Whether you love Chutes and Ladders or Dungeons and Dragons, you can join hundreds of other board gamers at FallCon in Calgary this weekend.
Hundreds of visitors are expected to attend the 37th edition of FallCon, the longest running board game convention in Western Canada.
FallCon Society President Amy Hills says you can come with a group, as a couple or alone.
There are plenty of board games and a wide selection of games.
“We have a selection of board games in our open game library with about 1,000 games, and people come in and borrow a game from the library. They go to our open game tables and play the game,” Hills explained.
Children can also join in, as the range extends from games for beginners to more complex games.
“The types of games people enjoy playing range from titles they can play with their young children … to complex games that take many hours to solve,” she said.
But besides board games, it’s also about making contacts, say a father and his son from the area.
“On the surface it seems like it’s all about the games, but in reality it’s about the people,” said David Minken.
“It’s a bond that not only connects us every year here at FallCon, but also every day when we just play games after school or whenever we have time.”
“It’s just a great experience to get out and do something different instead of being stuck in the house,” said his son Finley.
The pair started playing board games when Finley was in gym class at age three. David always had a board game in his backpack and during recess they would compete against each other.
“Even though we’ve stopped doing gymnastics or that activity, we continue with board games. It transcends all of these different phases that the kids go through. It’s a constant,” David said.
Paul Saxberg is community manager at Roxley, a Calgary-based board game development and publishing company. He says the board game industry is booming and younger generations are a big part of that.
“If you go to your local gaming convention, you’ll see kids, you’ll see Generation Z playing Magic the Gathering and role-playing games. This stuff is still on the rise, it’s not slowing down,” he said.
And that’s exactly why Fall Con exists, and it gets bigger every year.
“We are here to build communities and create connections for people of all ages, at all stages of life and at all places in life.”
If you don’t know how to play one of the games there, volunteers are there to help you.
FallCon runs all weekend, you can watch their Ticket website.
Admission is free for children under 12 years.
