This weekend, I got the chance to attend Terminal City Tabletop Con, Canada’s largest tabletop and board game convention. Held in Vancouver, BC, the event is dedicated to all things board and tabletop gaming, featuring loads of talks, game demos, and tournaments. During the convention, I had the opportunity to try out many unique and interesting games covering many genres and styles.
Here are a few of my favourite discoveries from Terminal City Tabletop Con 2026!
Blockoff
I’m always a sucker for territory-claiming games and portable board games that can be packed into a backpack with minimal fuss. Blockoff fits both of these categories. The game itself is very simple; each turn, the player must move their piece across the board, either by moving three spaces in a straight line or by moving like a chess knight.
Once the player has moved, they may place a tile on any space touching the one they are currently on. These tiles are impossible to move through, and the aim is to trap your opponent so they can’t complete their move. Because of this, Blockoff is one of those games that is easy to pick up and play, but very tricky to master, meaning it is something you can return to over and over again.
Additionally, a nice touch is that all the game’s pieces fit within the game board, and the board comes with a lid, allowing Blockoff to be easily carried in a purse or backpack, making it a perfect travel or camping game.
Cat Earth
Sometimes a game’s premise alone is enough to sell you on it. Cat Earth is a great example of this, because the second I heard that the game was about “cats pushing houses off a flat Earth,” I was totally invested.
Each player starts the game with a few houses. The aim is simple: use cards to move the cat around the board and have it push all your foes’ houses off, before they do the same to you. What makes Cat Earth especially cool is the fact that, once the deck of cards has been exhausted, the deck is shuffled and an extra cat is added to the board, meaning this game quickly becomes a chaotic romp that’s sure to delight players of all ages.
Unscrewed
In this battle royal board game, players step into the shoes of Saturday Morning cartoon characters. However, these characters are currently in crisis as the network has announced that, due to budget issues, it plans to cancel all but one show from its lineup. Alas, as they can’t make a decision, they plan to have all of the characters fight until only one is left standing.
During each round of the game, players play three action cards from their hand and put them face down. When all players are ready, these actions are put into play simultaneously. This means that players must think on their feet and adapt quickly, as the situation is constantly changing, meaning there is never a perfect and foolproof strategy. This chaos is compounded by the fact that each playable character has unique abilities, and the board shrinks after each turn, meaning the game remains frantic and unpredictable right to the end. Because of this, Unscrewed is a great game for fans of battle royal games and players with fond memories of shows like Ren & Stimpy.
The Cursed Deck
The Cursed Deck is a card game for three to six players. The players step into the shoes of a group of urban explorers who are exploring an abandoned and decaying medical facility. However, while doing this, your group gets split up, and one of your friends vanishes, forcing you all to search the building to find them and then find a way out. Alas, this isn’t going to be easy, as your walkie-talkies are running out of battery, meaning it is easy to get lost.
The players explore this strange location by drawing cards from a deck. What deck of cards tells players both the locations they discover as they wander around and the supernatural events they encounter as they do.
The Cursed Deck really nails the YouTube urban exploration video and found footage atmosphere (in fact, the cards I saw gave me strong Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum vibes), meaning this is going to be a must-play game for horror fans.
Rejig
I’ve always been a fan of word games, especially if those games have a gimmick that helps them sidestep the common Scrabble problem (where the person who knows the most obscure, rarely-used Q and X words wins the game by default).
Rejig is a great example of this genre. In this tile-based word game, players race against the clock to make their own crossword-like grid. What makes the game fun is that there are numerous ways to score. For example, each round has a theme and a bonus word, and players get bonus points if they make either the bonus word or words fitting the theme. Plus, players also get bonus points for making enclosed squares within their grid (called doughnuts in the rules). Thus, every round of Rejig is fast and furious as players can still win even if they get a terrible hand of tiles, meaning everyone keeps fighting until the very end.
Sock Puppets
Sock Puppets is a storytelling TTRPG where players step into the shoes of a group of puppeteers making the seemingly final episode of a public-access children’s show. However, making this episode is going to be much easier said than done, as each player gets two prompts. One prompt defines their puppeteer’s character, while the other prompt is a relationship they have with one of the other puppeteers.
The writing of these prompts is the highlight of the game. Each one is delightfully chaotic while remaining open enough to allow players to put their own spin on them, meaning that each game of Sock Puppets is unique. Plus, I’m also a massive fan of the game’s structure, as each session is broken up into a series of “on-camera” scenes, which have short “commercial breaks” in between them. Not only does this structure keep the game flowing by encouraging players to keep the plot moving, but it also means that games of Sock Puppets have a fixed length, making this game perfect for one-shots.
Ringmaster
Ringmaster is a GM-less storytelling TTRPG built on the Descended from the Queen system. The game drops players into the shoes of a group of performers who work within a mysterious circus. What makes Ringmaster so fascinating is its format. At the start of the game, players draw three picture cards from a special deck. The players then use these pictures to come up with the basic facts about their circus and the main theme of the game.
After this, players draw prompt cards from the deck and then answer the prompt they’ve gotten, with the other players being allowed to ask follow-up questions as they see fit. Because of this, players don’t start Ringmaster with defined characters; instead, they build their characters as they go. The prompts do a great job of supporting this emergent narrative, as they fantastically encourage players to tie their characters and stories together, meaning that every Ringmaster story ends up feeling cohesive, even if the session is chaotic.
