Disclaimer

This blog contains scenes of mild board-game addiction, unsolicited excitement over cardboard, and casual name-dropping of board-game personalities. Viewer discretion advised, especially if you think Monopoly counts as a modern board game.

It’s that time of year again — the annual migration of the cardboard-obsessed herds toward the sacred halls of the Taunton Holiday Inn. Yes, GridCon is upon us: 72 uninterrupted hours of meeples, minis, cardboard crack, rules explanations, and the aroma of 300 gamers living on caffeine, enthusiasm, and whatever the Holiday Inn kitchen bravely calls “paninis.”

And who do we have to thank for this glorious festival of simultaneous laughter, AP (analysis paralysis), and intermittent personal hygiene?

Paul Grogan — Board Game Evangelist, Rules Explainer, and Professional Herd-Wrangler

For the uninitiated (and the heathens), Paul Grogan is essentially the Attenborough of the board-gaming world — if Attenborough specialised in teaching complex rulebooks rather than narrating slow-motion lizards.

He is the man behind Gaming Rules!, one of the biggest names in board-game tutorials, livestreams, and rulebook consulting. If you’ve watched a fantasy Euro game on Kickstarter and thought, “Blimey, this rulebook actually makes sense!” — chances are Paul has been involved.

Before becoming a full-time cardboard guru, he worked in IT project management, developing the natural patience required to explain Twilight Imperium to people who have never seen a hex map before. He now dedicates his time to making rules accessible, organising events, streaming games, and gently reminding the Internet that yes, you absolutely do need to shuffle your deck properly.

In short:
He’s the reason we understand the games we play.
He’s semi-local (Devon).
And he owns more D20s than is medically recommended.

GridCon: The Taunton Takeover

Taunton Holiday Inn — ordinarily home to business travellers, confused coach parties, and people attending conferences they’d rather not be at — undergoes its annual transformation.

From Friday 9am until Sunday around 6-ish (because packing away 13kg of cardboard takes time), the hotel becomes a living, breathing organism entirely powered by meeples and mutual enthusiasm.

The event sold out within minutes. Minutes! It’s basically Glastonbury, but with more dice trays and fewer people wearing glitter.

What Makes GridCon So Good?

Let’s break it down:

🎲 Bring & Buy

Where everyone sells the games they swore they’d play but didn’t — usually still in shrink.
Where you also buy games you will swear you’ll play, but won’t.
A perfect ecosystem.

🎲 Demo Tables

Run by people with the expression, “Yes, I do want to teach another game, why do you ask?”
It’s amazing.

🎲 Play With Strangers

Sit down with people you’ve never met.
Play a 3-hour game.
Learn more about them than you know about your colleagues.
Never see them again.
Classic convention magic.

🎲 Play With Your Own Group

Start a game.
Argue about rules interpretations.
Become that table.
Also classic convention magic.

🎲 Raffle / Tombola

Where somehow the person with the worst luck in the world walks away with a £70 Kickstarter exclusive while you get a keyring and a packet of meeple-shaped mints.

🎲 Quiz Night

The place where you realise you don’t know nearly enough about mid-weight Euros published between 2012–2017.

🎲 Gameslore Stall

You walk in thinking, “I’ll just browse.”
You walk out thinking, “I should remortgage.”

My Last Visit

A couple of years ago, I managed to go for a whole day, and it was superb. You play a game → finish → stand up → accidentally join another table → play → repeat. It’s basically the board-gamer’s version of speed dating, but with fewer awkward silences and significantly more cardboard.

This Weekend: Let the Games Begin

So, dear readers, prepare yourselves. From Friday morning, the Holiday Inn will be overrun with:

• meeples
• dice towers
• neoprene mats
• rulebooks heavier than GCSE textbooks
• extremely enthusiastic adults wearing backpacks filled with game boxes
• people debating whether a mechanic is “area control” or “area influence”
• and the legendary Paul Grogan himself, circulating like a benevolent cardboard deity

If you’re passing Junction 25 on the M5 this weekend, don’t be alarmed. You’re simply witnessing Taunton’s finest annual transformation into Board Game Central.

I can’t wait.