Wellington Anniversary Weekend January 17th - 18th 2026

KapCon 2026

KapCon 2025 is on Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th of January. Monday 19th is a statutory holiday for Wellington workers and can be used for recovery.

The pandemic is still with us. Please check our Covid-19 policy before attending.

What is KapCon?

KapCon is a not-for-profit role-playing game convention run annually in Wellington, New Zealand, every January. Over a hundred people get together for a weekend of role-playing, in a diverse range of styles and systems. Over the weekend, more than 30 individual games are run, with volunteer GMs (or storytellers, narrators or facilitators) running games between one and six times over the course of the convention.

Band of Blades

Facilitator: 
Mel Duncan

The Legion is in retreat following a failed battle against the armies of the undead. You are a member of the Legion, your bonds to one another forged in the dark by bone and blood.

Now you have have reached Talgon Forest, which grows more mystical by the day. The Panyar brought a cutting from their Heart Tree a few hundred years ago and now the paths and trees are becoming prone to shifting. A sacred site to the Horned One is hidden here too, and she has great power to offer you. Talgon Forest is one of the most pristine places left in Aldermark, but that does not make it safe. The forest does not care for intruders, and the Legion are only marginally better than their undead counterparts in the eyes of those things that call the forest home.

When the Chosen of the Moon Goddess Nyx faced the undead Cinder King, he Broke her, as he has Broken so many of the Chosen. The moon shattered and fell from the sky. A huge fragment of it lies in the Talgon Forest, and such a powerful and holy relic would be invaluable in the war.

Put a team together, choose your unit, and go and fetch it.

System: 
Forged in the Dark

70s Horror Movie Descendants go to College!

Facilitator: 
Jamie Sands

A reboot of the wildly popular* game from several years ago.

It's the first day of college and you're moving into a shared apartment in a dormitory with people you don't even know!
Sure, you have your secrets, but you can absolutely start afresh and no one has to know you're not a normal kid raised in a normal suburban house. Maybe you're the antichrist, maybe you have psychic powers, maybe you have weird abilities others would freak out about, but not to fear! You're in university now, it'll be totally fine.

You're the Gen Z progeny of some people who had wild adventures in the 1970s. Fans of films like The Wicker Man, The Omen, Carrie, Halloween, Rosemary's Baby and so on will have a blast.

Using the Monster of the Week system, this motley crew of misfits will face a bizarre mystery that blends modern horror with something a little more camp and classic.

(*Wildness of popularity may be exaggerated)

System: 
Monster of the Week

The Scouring of Hydraxus IV

Facilitator: 
Tim Crow

Space Marines. Adeptus Astartes. 8 foot tall, genetically engineered, cybernetically augmented. In great armour shall I clad them and with the mightiest guns will they be armed. And They Shall Know No Fear.

The Deathwatch has been requsitioned to intervene after a series of lightning strikes with uncommon co-ordination on the supply planet of Hydraxus IV. Acting as material and munitions center for ongoing war against the Orks in this sector, it is far enough from the front lines to have minimal armed presence. The Planetary Defence Force has failed to respond adequately to what should be easily tracked Ork forces, and ongoing losses are becoming unmaintainable.

Your Deathwatch squad is en route to prelimiary reports of another raid, and have orders to eliminate the Xenos.

Oath of Moment is a game designed to give humanity and character to Space Marines, by presenting them with humanising flaws and personality. Space Marines have Demands, from Duty, Honour, Blood and Conscience. And they can and will conflict. How you resolve these, how you navigate these emotional perils will speak who who you are.

System: 
Oath of Moment

The Dain Wedding

Facilitator: 
Alasdair Sinclair

This is a pulp-horror game set in the 1920s. It starts at a wedding, where the player characters are members of the Continental Detective Agency tasked with ensuring that the proceedings aren't disrupted by thieves after the gifts, or bootleggers upset that they weren't tapped to provide the necessaries, or that kind of thing. Cards on the table - obviously something occurs which needs a heroic bunch to wade in and solve problems. This game won't be in a Cthulhu-adjacent horror space, but there will be some combination of cultists, demons, zombies, and gangsters between the happy couple and their happy ending.

Outgunned is a pretty fast-paced game engine with a minimum of fussy rules to get in the way of the story. In the story design I've aimed to keep the options open for the players once the story kicks off, but there is a kind of logical end-point aka victory condition that means it's not a truly free-form experience.

System: 
Outgunned

Paranoia: Tau Complex

Facilitator: 
Haz

You awaken strapped to a metal guerney raised upright in a rectangular pod. You feel cold, and disorientated. The straps go across your body at chest, hips and thighs.

"Welcome to Tau Complex, the latest expansion phase of Friend Computer's five century plan. Foxtrot crew please assemble in command dome."

As a Trouble Shooter and good citizen you are eager to help Friend Computer maintain your utopian society. There are no mutant commie traitors in this zone, everything is as it seems, you are all happy clones who don't belong to secret societies and you would never frame or betray any of your team members ... unless they were mutant commie traitors, but they aren't and neither are you because that would be treason and you love Friend Computer.

Note: Paranoia is not a typical scifi game and contains elements of good-natured PvP

System: 
Paranoia RCE/Perfect Edition-ish

A Quest Within - a leadership role playing game

Facilitator: 
Tamara Buckland and William Bennett

Someone has died in a village where nothing exciting ever happens.
This has made everyone deeply uncomfortable.

You’ve been summoned by the mayor of this small village after one of the town is found dead under suspicious circumstances. The gates are shut, the villagers are acting strange, and the mayor would very much like you to sort this out before accusations, panic, or pitchforks become involved.

You'll be playing A Quest Within, a leadership role-playing game where you'll use your leadership skills, teamwork and the luck of the dice to solve this murder mystery.

We'll provide characters for players so you can step right into the game.

The game consists of story focused game time, led by our game facilitator William Bennett followed by a leadership reflection period, led by our leadership facilitator Tamara Buckland (we'll keep this bit more of a light taster so that it doesn't feel too work-heavy).

System: 
A Quest Within

Apocalypse World: Five Pine Hill

Facilitator: 
Cameron

Old Man Gloam hid something in or around Five Pine Hill. Something worth getting into all sorts of trouble over, folks want it, some folks need it. There's even some rumors floating around that you know where his stash might be...

At the table, we're going to figure out what Gloam hid, why people want it so bad, and what you're prepared to do about it. Come for the drama.

Apocalypse World is a game about cool, competent survivors of the post-apocalypse fighting for a place in a world that's been burned and burned again. This new edition has toned down a bit of the horror and adult themes, and has sharpened and modernized other parts of the design. Some potentially sensitive subject matter, so we'll have a chat and use lines and veils before we get started to make sure we're all happy.

System: 
Apocalypse World: Burned Over

D&D musical chairs

Facilitator: 
Sam Malcolm

Welcome to the Academy of Magic, Science, and Adventure! Founded 50 years ago by Lord Carter, a seasoned adventurer and soldier, this neutral sanctuary trains young students in the art of exploration and survival. Surrounded by forest and accessible via a main road, the academy offers on-site boarding in its historic castle basement, while many students travel from nearby villages.
The main hall serves as a bustling event center for trials, tournaments, and gatherings.
players are all gathering in history class to start their different presentations of different relics that have found in their groups
During gameplay, players will swap tables to experience the adventure from different angle

System: 
DND 5th edition

Mothership: The Guerrero

Facilitator: 
Ciarán

You are the crew of the civilian research vessel Guerrero, which recently set up orbit around the planet Altjira IV. Only recently out of your stasis pods, you have already set to work analysing the local life. However, samples of alien flora and fauna you have been brought by the away team keep behaving unpredictably, and even the crew around you seem a little... off.

Your eyes feel heavy and gritty. Your limbs twitch when you lose focus for a moment. Your luck has never been worse.

And why didn't you realise today was your birthday?

System: 
Mothership
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