CONington 2027: Indie Tabletop Gaming Convention

What is CONington?

Origin Story

In the Spring of 2025, Shaun and her husband, Steve, moved from the suburbs to Covington, a city that had steadily grown in significance. Shaun immediately fell in love with the city and wanted to contribute. This crazy idea came to her to combine her love of table-top gaming with her newfound love of Covington and create a local gaming convention. She first charmed several of her friends into helping, then Covington and other nearby communities. She essentially rolled a Nat 20 on that spellcasting check.

Here’s the LEGENDARY video that launched a thousand games: 

And then, 10 months later, CONington 2026 happened, with 302 attendees. That was 302 adventurous and potentially foolhardy people who decided to put down cold, hard cash (mostly digital transactions) to attend a thing that had never existed before in a way that no one had ever done. It was audacious, punk rock, and beautiful.

Now that the first one is done, Shaun decided it might be a good idea to build a proper team to do it again, so she recruited the A-Team (and yes, that is the official title of the ownership group, complete with Shaun “The B.A.”, Steve “The Hannibal”, Scott “The Face”, and Michael “The Murdock”). And now, here is “the plan” for CONington 2027.

What is this CONington 2027 of which you speak?

CONington 2027 will be three days of gaming awesomeness, running October 8-10, 2027, held in Covington’s historic MainStrasse Village. The Village dates back to 1830 and thrived with the influx of German immigrants in the mid-19th century. You will walk by amazing restaurants, bars, oddly specific shops (the record and taxidermy shop is one of our favorites), and countless locals walking the cutest puppies.

It is indie focused, meaning a lot of the games will be from smaller publishers, quirky, and fun. We like the little guys. They often tell the most outrageous stories. We like outrageous stories. CONington may be an outrageous story.

RPGs, board games, card games and cosplay take center stage. New games and demos are welcome. In fact, one of the most popular events this year was a playtest for a game designed by a Covington local.

The cosplay competition was on point with some fantastic costumes worn by passionate and often strange people. Those are our people.

One of our most popular events of 2026 was Lemonade Stand, a play test board game designed by a Covington local. 

Most of the vendors will be set up on the Sixth Street Promenade. It is a beautiful, tree-lined plaza that, back in the 19th century, was a market for local residents.

And while visiting the vendors, you can participate in The Quest Through the Cov, a game developed specifically for CONington that is equal parts scavenger hunt, choose your own adventure, and lore dump of the RPG campaign that all of the organizers of CONington regularly play in. The 2027 edition will pick up right where last year left off: a cast of misfit characters navigating a fictional 14th century Galway that has been occupied by an infernally corrupt Roman empire. You will get to play one of your favorite characters (probably the wildcard wizard, Vilburg) and follow their misadventures to a climactic finale.

Why a Kickstarter & Why Now?

This campaign has a serious reason for happening. Money is needed to secure the venues for the convention. And venues are expensive. Not all numbers are final but considering an extremely generous in-kind sponsorship from Richard at Leapin’ Lizard Lounge we are able to get the cost to secure venues down to $5,000. That does not include all event expenses, but it secures the two primary physical locations.

And Shaun pretty much self-funded CONington last year while not being independently wealthy. We have reprimanded her thoroughly for this, so now we need you to back us on this.

Here are the venues and why they are better than any stuffy convention center:

• The primary location is Leapin’ Lizard on the corner of 8th and Main. Originally a Methodist church constructed in 1888, this historic building has been transformed into a unique and quirky event space. Gaming is held in the large 2nd floor space that features stained glass windows, the remains of large pipe organ, and restrooms decorated as confessionals. Indoor vendors will occupy the main floor and with registration set up on the sidewalk.
• The second venue, Village Theater, sits across the street about a block north. Constructed in 1916 as a neighborhood cinema, it now serves as a small music venue. A professional music stage stretches across the back of the space and vintage guitars and musical equipment cover the walls.
• Sixth Street Promenade will host most of the vendors. It is beautiful, and there are cute, well-behaved puppies on leashes throughout the day. 
• We continue to assess other event options, but nothing else has been finalized.

Stretch Goals

• $8,500: Add an additional location that is more ADA accessible. 
• $12,500: even cooler stuff for the A-Team to determine. 

The Last Word