TantrumCon 2026 took place on February 5-8 in Charlotte, North Carolina. The event was held at a downtown Marriott hotel, making use of its cavernous main hall and many side rooms. Two of our contributors, Tom Franklin and Will Hare, attended and have this report for you.
Tom Franklin
Having done craft shows for 16 years, the first night, Thursday evening, felt less like the end of a rousing first day and more like a pre-setup time. It reminded me of weekend shows that allowed vendors to set up their booths the night before the show starts so they’ll be fully ready when the doors open to the public the next day.
A few groups of 3-4 people played games in the Learn to Play room. Through body language and positioning, I got the impression these people came to the convention already knowing one another.
By Friday, vendors had set up and were teaching their games to an interested public. The biggest and best display I saw was from AllPlay Games. There, I spoke with Danique from AllPlay, learning about some of their latest games. Later, I returned to their booth where Damian played several of their small card games with me, including Slambo!, 3 Witches, and French Toast. For a volunteer, he did a great job of teaching and talking up their new and popular games.
I also spent a few minutes talking with Chad from 25th Century Games. Chad displayed stacks of his games on his tables. Although his display was small by comparison, the titles—including Botswana, Wine Cellar, Conservas, and Ra—were making lots of people stop. For such a small company, they have published an impressive list of games.
Mid-afternoon, I stopped at a table where Grant, a fellow TantrumCon attendee, was setting up a copy of Last Light. He asked if I wanted to learn how to play and I said, “Sure.” (I mean, how does someone pass up a game that looks that cool?) A third person soon joined us and had a great time working through the first five or six rounds of the game.
There was a side hallway dubbed Crokinole Alley put on by Queen City Crokinole. They had a dozen round tables set up, each with its own Crokinole board. When I stopped by, I learned how to play in under a minute, then spent the next 20 minutes playing game after game. Crokinole is a seriously addictive game. I grew up playing Carom in my parents’ basement, meaning I had to re-learn to flick pieces (gently, gently) on the super-slick Crokinole board. Now, if I only had an extra $350 to spend.
TantrumCon used the Aftergame app (free on iOS and Android) to keep track of which game was being taught where and when, and for how long. It also served as a platform for people to ask questions of everyone else using the app at the Con. With Aftergame, I could plan out my Thursday and Friday before leaving my house outside Raleigh (2.5 hours away).
I’m already looking forward to TantrumCon 2027—their 10th year. I’ll be keeping note of the games I play this year for possible games to teach in the Learn to Play room.
Will Hare
I made the somewhat foolish decision to volunteer to run demo games of Marvel: Crisis Protocol all weekend at the convention. It was a blast getting to share my favorite game with new faces, and everyone left the table smiling and buzzing. No, it was a mistake to sign up to run these demos for four hours each day, plus about an hour of setup and another hour of breakdown afterwards. We had a lovely time with about thirty different people coming in for demos, and the lovely folks at Atomic Mass Games were able to supply us with promo items and stickers to give away to each participant, so that was nice! But… MAN was I tired and brain-dead at the end of each of those days. As a bonus, we did have many people stop by the table who didn’t participate in a demo, but said they were thrilled to see tabletop miniature games being represented at the convention.
With what little free time we had available, we did whirlwind tours of the demo hall and vendor area to see what was on display. The buzz of the con was all about Slam Throne, from the team that brought us Dice Throne. This new game is all about nostalgia, as it resurrects the ’90s classic Pogs for use in a collectible game. The gameplay is exactly what you remember: take your “slammer” and chuck it down on top of a stack of discs to try to flip them over. Here, in Slam Throne, each slammer represents a different character, who each have different hit point pools (represented by your stack of pogs) and unique abilities to try to do extra damage or heal after being attacked. I was remarkably bad at the game, but the kitschyness and nostalgia factor alone had me grabbing a couple of bags of product just to have at home.
I also got to do a full demo playthrough of Cozy Stickerville, a game that I thought I’d be out on just from the name, but it’s actually quite charming! For any fans of games like Stardew Valley, there’s a lot to love here. It’s a mostly narrative game where you’re making choices every turn, and from these choices, you’ll peel stickers and put them on an ever-changing game board to represent your area. There’s no failure/loss condition, so the game is literally just what you make of it. I played with my husband and a stranger, and we were all quite charmed by its simplicity and the evolving narrative. We only played through one “year” of the game, and the box comes with enough stickers to play two full “ten-year” playthroughs—–more than enough value for a legacy game.
We also got to demo some smaller games from a few different independent publishers. Good Idea Games showed off Dragon Tricks, a cute, simple little trick-taking game where you cash out your hands to collect sets of dragon eggs. They were also very excited for the upcoming Footy Dice, a head-to-head game meant to emulate a full game of soccer. The developers behind Super Lucha showed off their brand new professional wrestling-inspired card game, featuring outstanding art by Eddie Mort, the artist and animator who brought us ¡Mucha Lucha!, the children’s animated TV series.
The highlight of the con, for me at least, was sitting down with Ashwin Kamath, the brain behind Chicken Fried Dice. I first demoed the game with Ashwin way back at PAX Unplugged 2024 where it was coming to crowdfunding “soon”. Thanks to the industry’s struggles with logistics and tariffs, it has been a long journey, but I got to play a mostly final version ahead of the game’s arrival on Kickstarter next month! It is truly a delightfully chaotic dice-chucking experience, one that I’m excited to preview for Meeple Mountain ahead of its release.
There was so much I didn’t get to do at TantrumCon 2026 – like, for instance, say hey to Tom, or really play any of the games I brought. I sat down after dinner one night to teach Barrage, and by the end of the teach, it was almost 11 PM, and we decided not to play that evening. To its credit, TantrumCon is built for nite owl gamers, with the gaming areas staying open until at least 2 AM to accommodate any late nights. I was just worn down. I really appreciated that TantrumCon has begun to cater to more of an industry-friendly crowd. There was an industry mixer on Thursday evening, as well as a “state of the industry” panel on Friday morning going into the difficulties and challenges everyone is facing right now. With each passing year, TantrumCon is offering more things to do from a wider variety of options—just lament not having enough time to do everything!
