[Con Report] Fastaval 2026

I just returned from Fastaval, a Danish roleplay and board game convention that happens each easter. This was the 40th anniversary, and I have been a part of it since 1998.
There are usually around 800-1000 people visiting the college, and there is a million things going on.

Here are some of my highlights:

Designer Roleplay games
The core of Fastaval is the roleplay games. Usually they are more or less free form or with very light rules. There are no subjects that are taboo as we can explore every aspect of life and fantasy in our scenarios. A GM takes 4-6 players into a classroom, and take the players through the scenario.

Designer boardgames
Those who have an idea for a board game present it at Fastaval, where people play it and provide a ton of feedback. The games are judged even before appearing on Fastaval, and if they have some potential, then they are allowed (No rip-off games or tidiously simple games will be allowed)

All the games can be played, and there guided introduction, usually by the designer themselves. The production quality varies from cardboard cutout, with added metal disk for weight and covered with colour-printed paper, to 3D printed material and high gloss inserts

And this one even has a guide to how to pack your game afterwards because of all of the content

Fog of Love
Fog of Love is such a designer board game that started its journey on Fastaval and has later been published and garnered much acclaim.

The Otto
The Pengiun is the mascot of Fastaval. The designer roleplay games and designer board games are judged in multiple categories, and just like the more famous Oscar, the winner of a category will go home with a golden pengion, the Otto


Robo Wars
This year, we had a continuous live event, called Robo Wars. A game my friend had arranged. Each team had a robot, a person in a cardboard robot that they directed from the sidelines, and they sent in their robot to battle the others. The person inside the robot can not see anything, but they have a headset through which they can get instructions.
As they do battle with foam rollers, cardboard claws and nerfguns.... well... a lovely chaos erupted to everyone's great entertainment. I have uploaded a small video on youtube here.
Youtube link


Reallocation
Everybody has a board game on their shelf that they are not playing anymore. This is handed into Fastaval Reallocation. Here we will have several tables with board games, RPG related literature, live action roleplay equipment and similar as seen in the images below.
Each item gets a sticker saying that this may never be sold, but may be given away or used for parts in another board game. No one can make money of these donations.
When its time, I pick a number between 1-10, and tell the person next to me, and they tell me. Then the organisers draw a card, call out the number, and those with the given number may take one item. Everything is on the honour system.
This year, I had my heart set on 7th Continent, and Wonder Book, and I had picked number 4. Unfortunately, after 5 call outs, my number was still not called, and my first, second and third picks were gone - so no games for me this year.

Awesome report! Love going to cons!

Very nice summary! I've never been to a game convention that had a game trophy before, though nearly all do have competitions. There was a lot of interesting stuff in your write-up; thank you.

"7th Continent" is fun, but very, very difficult. My group and I played it and lost a few times about ten years ago. Like a lot of Choose Your Own Adventure books, the correct decisions seem fairly arbitrary at times, so you have to expect to lose, but also plan to remember what did/didn't work for the next playthrough in order to make any progress. This is a good reminder; we should dust it off and try it again.
I've never seen "Wonder Book;" that looks pretty interesting.

The whole concept of a raffle for game giveaways is a really interesting innovation (from my perspective); game conventions here have "freebie" tables, where people drop off the games that they don't want anymore, and anyone is welcome to take as many of them as they like. There's always games left over after the convention ends, which get added to the convention's free games library. It could be that because it is so easy to get a free game, many people don't bother because it is TOO easy? I wonder if the time commitment of participating in the raffle makes it so a person who "wins" will always pick a game, so that there's no unclaimed games remaining. It bears consideration.

Thanks for this Rune - we need more of this definitely!

Thanks for the report, always enjoy hearing about the various conventions around the world. The robo fight is hilarious! And I personally like the penguin trophy!!

I enjoy going to those. Lots of interesting games to pick up.

I'm a bit late in replying, but thanks for taking the time to share your experience at the con, Rune.

No worries - your reply made me re-read my post and enjoy the memory.
And as a fun coincidence, yesterday my 8yo daughter had her show-and-tell in school, where she showed off one of the green robot claws from the video and told her story from Fastaval.