This Tabletop Game Convention Blew Our Minds (and Emptied Our Dice Funds)

What happens when you toss hundreds of cube-pushers and meeple-movers into Charlotte, NC for four days with more cardboard than an Amazon warehouse? Pure analog gaming nirvana. Here’s our countdown of the ten best moments from TantrumCon 2025 (January 23-26) that left our AP-prone brains melted and our Kallax shelves begging for mercy.

10. The Origin Story

TantrumCon began when the Tantrum House team’s tabletop gaming meetups outgrew their venue. They secured a library space, arranged for a food truck, borrowed a game library from their local game store, and before anyone could object, printed a banner declaring it “TantrumCon.” What started as a space solution has evolved into the Southeast’s premier board gaming event, growing more impressive with each passing year.

9. The Exhibit Hall: Quality Over Quantity

The TantrumCon Exhibit Hall achieved that mythical beast of convention planning: curated without feeling sparse. Unlike larger conventions where publishers blend together in a sensory overload, TantrumCon’s approach showcased talented artists and specialized publishers who had time for meaningful conversations. We spent hours demo-ing games without developing the thousand-yard stare that comes from eight straight hours of booth crawling. Our credit card may have taken more damage than a first-level character in a TPK scenario, but at least we could remember what we bought the next morning.

8. Flea Market: The Secondary Market Motherlode

The flea markets at TantrumCon turn budget-conscious gamers into strategic bargain hunters. We “accidentally” acquired “My Father’s Work” after observing others playing it (not game-stalking, we swear). The previous owner had already upgraded the components, saving us that inevitable enhancement rabbit hole. Through the virtual marketplace, we scored “Too Many Bones Riffle” with all pieces intact—a secondhand miracle. We also grabbed Mythic Mischief expansions that, predictably, were missing crucial components, leading to a dozen increasingly desperate publisher emails. Persistence eventually paid off, proving that determination in the board game world rivals a good shuffling technique.

7. Playtest/Demo Area: Alpha Gaming Paradise

The lobby showcased prototypes hovering between “brilliant idea” and “shut up and take my money” status. Here we discovered “Evoke,” where amnesiac guild members determine hidden allegiances while escaping a dungeon. Armed with just three memory cards indicating faction loyalty, players navigate incomplete information as the stakes rise with each passing round. Factions formed quickly, creating an electric atmosphere as we balanced sharing accurate information against strategic deception. This delicious tension perfectly demonstrated why playtesting areas remain essential to the convention experience.

6. Play-to-Win Tables: Loot Box Mechanics IRL

The concept is genius: play a game from the designated table, log your play, and potentially win it in a drawing—it’s like demo copies with a gacha mechanic. We took chances on games we might have normally “wishlisted and waited for the holiday sale,” including several that wouldn’t have initially caught our eyes on FLGS shelves. The system encourages exploration beyond typical game preferences—something increasingly valuable in an era where online reviews often dictate purchasing decisions. Next year, we’re blocking off more dedicated time for this brilliant convention innovation.

5. Open Gaming Tables and Game Library: No More Table Hogs

The heart of any good convention is its open gaming area, and TantrumCon delivered with more neoprene-covered tables than a competitive Magic: The Gathering circuit. The game library offered an impressive selection that saved us from lugging our entire collection across state lines. The collection ranged from recent releases to beloved classics, all categorized for easy browsing. We spent hours exploring “Vast: Mysterious Manor,” an asymmetric dungeon game where each player follows different rules and objectives—except this one cost $85 and requires regular sleeving.

4. “Two Rooms and a Boom” at Midnight: Sleep is for the Weak

Nothing forges convention friendships quite like accusing complete strangers of being secret agents until the early morning hours. When reasonable people were sleeping, we found ourselves in a massive “Two Rooms and a Boom” session where bluffing skills improved as cognitive function declined. We entered as awkward gamers and left as co-conspirators who had shared in something both ridiculous and intense—like a very specific form of Stockholm syndrome that only develops around the 14th hour of continuous gaming.

3. The Revolutionary TournaMeal: Solving the Hunger-Gaming Paradox

Whoever conceived TournaMeals deserves recognition for solving the eternal convention dilemma: sustenance versus gaming time. These sponsored learn-to-play experiences solve the age-old convention dilemma (sustenance vs. gaming time) by combining catered meals with tournaments. During “The Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking Game” TournaMeal, we simultaneously maintained our blood sugar levels and our hand management skills. When the prize drawing came around, I was shocked to hear my ticket number called—scoring me a complete set of foil cards without requiring any actual skill whatsoever. Sometimes conventional luck beats gaming skill! The format creates a captive audience for game demonstrations while ensuring no one passes out from convention malnutrition—truly the action selection mechanic of food service.

2. Gaming Side Quests: Extended Campaign Mode

We bookended our tabletop gaming adventure with visits to regional gaming destinations that transformed our weekend into a comprehensive Carolina board gaming tour. Pre-convention, we visited Luck Factory Games in Concord, NC, whose proximity to TantrumCon made it the perfect warmup. Post-convention, we unwound at Well-Played Asheville, processing our experiences over craft beers and one last gaming session. These extensions demonstrated that North Carolina’s board gaming scene thrives beyond the convention itself. We’re anticipating when GVL Board Game Café joins this emerging network—another destination in what’s becoming an impressive regional gaming circuit throughout the Carolinas.

1. The Table Flipping Tournament: Chaotic Good in Action

In what will surely go down as our biggest convention regret, we somehow managed to miss TantrumCon’s signature event. From fellow attendees’ animated descriptions, this brilliance transforms gaming’s most notorious faux pas into organized entertainment. Each night, audience members compete in trivia for the chance to partner with special guests, culminating in tables being flipped in glorious slow motion while spectators cheer.

The videos we watched afterward (while nursing our FOMO) revealed an event that’s simultaneously cathartic, ridiculous, and perfectly encapsulates the convention’s philosophy—taking the joy of gaming seriously while never taking itself too seriously. Where else can you witness authorized destruction that turns the ultimate gaming taboo into performance art? Missing this spectacle has solidified our determination to attend all four days next year. Consider this number one spot both a recommendation based on universal attendee enthusiasm and our personal pledge to experience it firsthand in 2026.

Looking Ahead to 2026: Campaign Legacy Unlocked

In a hobby increasingly dominated by app-assisted gameplay, scannable QR codes, and digital implementations, TantrumCon reminds us why tabletop gaming endures: the shared experience of face-to-face interaction, the collective triumph of defeating a challenging game, and occasionally, the sanctioned opportunity to flip a table in spectacular fashion without facing permanent banishment from the tabletop gaming community.