Montreal’s Ludicon holds successful second edition

The city’s board game convention showcased new, unique games to its enthusiastic attendees

Fringe ArtsChantal Bellefeuille — Published November 11, 2025 5 minutes

Over a thousand board game lovers attended the second edition of Montreal’s board game convention, Ludicon, at the Palais des Congrès from Nov. 7 to Nov. 9. 

The two-exhibition-hall event aimed not only to bring board game enthusiasts an immersive and welcoming experience, but also to create an environment that allowed creators to showcase their new games to the public. 

“It’s important for us to give this space to people,” said Alain Fragman, co-founder of Ludicon. “We’ve been focusing on a lot of Quebec creators, but we’re open to [out-of-province creators]. We even have a prototype section.” 

One of those games, Trigger Warning, drew many attendees to its booth during the convention. 

This Western-themed Russian roulette card game by Quebec creator Hugo Leblanc combines risk, strategy and memory. What made the corner roar with laughter was Trigger Warning’s twist: an optional game add-on bag of candy with two random spicy pieces. When someone loses a life, they eat a piece of candy. 

Leblanc said his inspiration behind Trigger Warning was to invent a game that would appeal enough for his mother and niece to put down their iPads. 

“I wanted to create a simple game that was fun enough to gather people around the table and laugh enough to say, ‘OK, let’s play one more game,’” Leblanc said. “As a designer, I’m really proud of my game and as a publisher, I’m very confident about the future.” 

Attendee Marlen Gil, who won when test-playing Trigger Warning with her friends, was impressed with her playing experience.

“I loved it,” she said. “You can play it no matter the language, even if you don’t speak English or French and with your family and friends.” 

Trigger Warning is available locally at Chez Geeks Montreal Hobby Shop on Jean-Talon St. E. or for pre-order on the G1IDGames website. 

On a table in the leftmost exhibition hall stood the Belgian crowdfunded game Trench Crusade. The miniature WWI wargame and horror game is aimed at adult audiences and set in an alternate reality where hell bleeds into Earth after the First Crusade in the 11th century. 

“It’s easy to play, but hard to master,” said Andre Nantel, a Canadian representative of Trench Crusade. 

First 3D-printed in England and then shipped to Canada, Nantel hand-painted all the playing pieces in his faction sets, which he received last July as part of a Kickstarter project. 

“The game is great, but the reason I got into it was more for the painting than the playing,” Nantel said. “But of course, I love playing the game.” 

“There are conventions that I go to that have 30,000 people there. It’s more relaxing here,” Tracey said. “I have had more genuine conversations with people here where I get to play a game with them because there aren’t another 20 people I have to go teach immediately.”

Francois Nantel, Andre’s twin, was new to the game and felt proud that he won a couple of matches against his brother. 

“It was fun to try all the factions,” he said, “and the fact that I learned fast enough to beat him a couple of times—it was very satisfying.” 

Trench Crusade released its official Version 1.0 to the public on Nov. 4, 2025. 

Many attendees frequented a corner in the rightmost exhibition hall to play Crokinole and the United Kingdom game Carrooka. Carrooka made its North American debut earlier this year when its inventors reached out to Crokinole maker Jeremy Tracey to become its North American distributor. 

This disc finger-flicking game, which fuses snooker, pool and carrom on a spinning board, was so anticipated at its launch that Tracey is just now catching up on his backorders since April. 

Tracey said he enjoys conventions like Ludicon because he can connect with attendees while teaching them how to play. 

“There are conventions that I go to that have 30,000 people there. It’s more relaxing here,” Tracey said. “I have had more genuine conversations with people here where I get to play a game with them because there aren’t another 20 people I have to go teach immediately.” 

Monster in The Box Instagram influencer Mandar Asabe said Carrooka was a bit more complicated than it looked, but that it was still a lot of fun. 

“Honestly, it’s a very unique game. It’s a mixture of everything,” Asabe said. “The fact that it’s on a Lazy Susan makes it really interesting, and it’s very appealing.” 

Even though the convention was small, Ludicon co-founder Mario Haché thought the turnout was successful this year. 

“We had expectations and we met those expectations this year,” Haché said on Saturday night. “A lot of people love playing games, and it showed today because we had 110 [playing] tables and they were all full this afternoon.” 

Fragman added that he thinks Ludicon is so successful, even in its second year, because it brings people together, away from technology. 

“These days people are very much glued to their phones, and I think we have lost a little bit of human connection,” Fragman said. “Board games are one of those things that will never go away because they provide people the ability to connect with others.”