Kapcon 2025 (NZ) report

TrippyHippy

Emperor Mongoose
Quick report from NZ’s RPG Conference held in Wellington this last weekend (Kapcon) where several Traveller games were played.
  • Biggest attendance ever, apparently, over the Saturday and Sunday according to organisers. Attendance had dropped off badly during the COVID years but seems to have built up again - participants travelling from all over NZ.
  • Notable drop off in D&D 5E games - it felt like literally half the games being run were just D&D 5E a few years ago. I barely saw any scheduled at all this year, although there were some Pathfinder and other D&Dish fantasy games.
  • I ran multiple games of Traveller (picture below was last one I ran - in a hastily located kitchen area after the previous booked room ran into logistical problems….). But I wasn’t the only person running Traveller. In fact, Traveller seemed more popular than D&D in NZ this year! Sci-fi games of other sorts (eg Shadowrun, Alien, Mothership, Twilight: 2000, Cyberpunk, Wrath & Glory (Warhammer), and Apocalypse World) as well as Call of Cthulhu (as always) were also popular.
  • Good mix of participants - experienced and new; male and female. All games had at least five or six players sign up for them.
  • Several gamers play over Discord at the moment but there a few clubs in more urban areas. A few contacts were made which may lead to further gaming meet ups.
  • There seems to be a lot of Traveller ‘legacy’ gamers in NZ that played some edition or another in previous times but who haven’t necessarily experienced it recently.
  • Traveller RPG isn’t readily available in NZ retail outlets so the people who buy it seem to be using Amazon. Personally, I buy direct from Mongoose (which I think gets a much better deal) and did recommend this. Personally, I wish Traveller had more presence in game shops though.
Kapcon 2025.jpeg
 
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