Paradice is an annual tabletop games convention which takes place in Worthing each February. I’ve attended it a few times and while it’s been a nice experience, it often felt fairly small. This means that while I’ve gone there with my games journalism hat on, I’ve generally stuck to mentioning it on social media.

It’s run by Mill & David Valentine and Atomic Force Productions. They have partnered with charity Andy’s Angels and Comics, Games & Coffee who not only named themselves are three of my favourite things but have been a mainstay in Worthing for the last few years. They have also partnered with a number of other local groups such as Worthing Boardgamers and Worthing Blood on the Clocktower.

One piece of due diligence to mention is that CGC employs my comic-writing mentor Matt Hardy, but he was not involved in any of this business. And with that out of the way, let’s crack on.

Arrival

Paradice does a good amount of advertising itself on social media, but my partner was the person who pointed out that the weekend of Paradice had crept up on us. Then she fell ill with a cold and couldn’t join me, which was probably for the best given the amount of rain on the Sunday I was attending.

Armed with the memory of where it was held, I went to CGC proper to see Matt (who was in hospital at the time) and then walked to the Worthing Assembly Hall, not having realised that it had changed venue. A quick Google and a 40 minute walk through the rain later, I arrived at Worthing Leisure Centre, which was far closer to Darrington Station than any of the Worthings. I’ll know this for next year.

The Venue

The convention took place in a large hall with stalls taking up one end, then free play, playtesting, RPGs and the bring & buy on the other side. There was a cafeteria area through some doors which was good, but packed when I tried to get a coffee.

The Playtest Zone

There was a selection of tables with designers trying to summon players for unfinished games or to demo complete ones. It was here where I met an old friend, Jacob Collins. He was testing out a game he co-designed with his son, called, “Mount Olympus”.

Mount Olympus was a card game where each player was trying to curry favour with different gods, but also control a god each. The deities all have special abilities which change things up, and with multiple paths to victory, there was a lot to think about. Fortunately Jacob had evidently played enough card games to ignore pitfalls this could fall into. Turns were fairly fast and the game felt mostly complete. It needs some actual art and some more plays to figure out some of the trickier powers, but I enjoyed my time with it.

Jacob said that there had been eight or nine groups playing on the Saturday, which is a good turnout for a playtest. He’s still unsure of what to do as far as publication and hopefully he’ll figure out a good way to get it to the public.

There was also an adorable-sounding game called Twittens, which I saw but didn’t manage to get a game of due to time constraints.

Bring & Buy

I love a good bring & buy. Not only have I offloaded so many board games over the years, but there are always some interesting bargains to be had. Conventions like UK Games Expo have a ludicrously large bring & buy which has become too large for me to engage with. Paradice’s was exactly my preferred size, covering several shelves and some tables, but not a constant push against a crowd.

I just about managed to resist a couple of games including the complete Room 25 (a game I like, but the basic version is still on my ‘to sell’ stack).

Stalls

As much as I enjoy large conventions like UK Games Expo, I really love seeing what the stalls in smaller conventions have to offer. Here are some examples:

CGC had their own stall, of course, one of the largest there and with very helpful staff. They had some comics, a ton of games and sadly no coffee (yes, I have a problem and I’m fine with it).

Tabletop Toad offered engraved mirrors and cardboard flowers made from Pokémon and Magic: The Gathering cards. I’m sure some people would find them sacrilegious, especially as it sounded like they were up for making flowers from proxy Black Lotus cards. That just made me love them even more.

Layla Pitts had a selection of bottled curiosities. There were small plants and skulls, each of which looked gorgeous. Admittedly their largest work for the con had already sold, but these items still looked very nice.

Andy’s Angels had a massive raffle with several different bundles of gaming goods which had been donated to them. Jacob bought a few tickets for one bundle (and won! Well done, Jacob!) and I bought a few for one of the bundles of RPGs which didn’t sound like many folks had bought it. I wasn’t successful, but it’s all for a good cause.

Malus Horus was a game being demoed at a stall, having originally been crowdfunded. The concept was an odd one… What if flowers, but evil?

Players are dryads trapped in a dimension filled with hostile plantlife chasing them as they try to flee. There are four tracks for the different dryads and abilities to select from their player boards. You can also get animal helped which includes the designer’s cat (and admittedly an owl, a creature I irrationally hate). There are story cards to advance things which is good, as the designer felt overflowing with ideas about this weird world.

Conclusion

I had a lot of fun in the short time I spent at the convention, and feel like I saw all there was to see in a couple of hours. I browsed the bring and buy, took part in a playtest and wandered the stalls, chatting with folks and buying a few things. I don’t mean any of that in a disparaging way, as I saw a lot of what was there, but I also knew I was on a clock. I acknowledged the RPG area but didn’t partake this year. Next time I’d love to see what there was to offer. I’d feel like I could be a bit more casual and maybe chat with some more creators.

Sunday was the quieter of the days from everything I heard, but it still drew a bit of a crowd while I was there. It felt like a family event, with people bringing their kids along. I don’t know how many were people not in the hobby already, but with a placement like Worthing Leisure Centre, I’d hope that it can draw new people in.

I think Paradice is a convention which still feels on the rise, like the early years of conventions like Dragonmeet. I’ll be really interested in seeing how it develops over time.