A brand-new, publicly funded weekend festival dedicated to interactive storytelling and tabletop roleplaying games is coming to the west of Scotland this summer.
The Glasgow Tales and Tabletop Gathering will take place from Saturday, 18th July to Sunday, 19th July 2026 at the ACVC Hub in Govan, Glasgow. Supported by public investment from Glasgow Life and the Commonwealth Games Festival Fund, the entire two-day convention is free to attend.
Organised by the Critical Chance Collective, a community interest group focused on using creative play to build confidence, the event represents a significant bridge between local public health initiatives and tabletop culture. The gathering aims to introduce the hobby to complete beginners while providing dedicated gaming spaces for veteran players, featuring everything from classic systems like Dungeons & Dragons and Call of Cthulhu to contemporary indie titles.
The choice of venue anchors the event firmly within local community support networks. The ACVC Hub is an accessible arts and crafts facility dedicated to military veterans, located within the Orton Place Industrial Park close to the Ibrox Subway Station. The location underscores the organisers’ core objective, which is to explicitly highlight the practical links between cooperative storytelling and positive mental health outcomes.
The Critical Chance Collective team behind the weekend includes Stephen Howe, Sara Manavian, Paul King, and George Quail, the latter well-known locally as one half of the Glasgow-based roleplaying podcast Till Dice Do Us Part. The group has developed the festival in partnership with local volunteer networks, drawing support from regional industry figures including Jack from West End Games, Andy Lever of Lost Haven Art, and local creator Scott of Venger’s Decks.
The weekend’s scheduling is split into distinct tracks to manage expected footfall. Saturday will feature open day sessions running morning games from 10:00am to 1:00pm, followed by afternoon sessions from 2:00pm to 5:00pm. The venue will remain open late into Saturday evening for specialised social events, including large-scale sessions of the social deduction game Blood on the Clocktower and a formal Vampire Live Action Roleplay (LARP) Ball.
Sunday’s programming pivots sharply toward accessibility and introductory sessions, running from 11:00am to 5:00pm. Attendees on the second day can opt into either a single four-hour narrative adventure block or two separate, standalone two-hour introductory sessions specifically tailored for newcomers. Safety tools, including the X-Card framework and Lines and Veils protocols, will be mandated across all official tables to ensure a regulated, family-friendly PG environment during daylight hours.
The integration of the Commonwealth Games Festival Fund highlights an unusual institutional alignment, treating roleplaying mechanics as a valid alternative to traditional athletic community building. Stephen Howe, organiser at the Critical Chance Collective, explained the logic behind pursuing the sporting fund:
Stephen Howe further emphasised the therapeutic background that informed the event’s structure:
The full itinerary of individual gaming sessions and independent local traders is scheduled to be published on 24th May 2026, opening up specific table bookings to ticket holders. Looking forward, the organizers have exclusively confirmed that this initial gathering is intended to serve as a proof-of-concept, with tentative plans already underway to establish a secondary, larger-scale roleplaying convention within the Glasgow area later in the cycle.
While attendance costs nothing, space inside the veteran hub is limited. Booking will be managed via the non-profit platform Humanitix, which requires attendees to register for individual session tickets to meet the venue’s strict capacity limit. Organisers have noted that, due to the late-night themes and venue regulations, the event enforces a strict 18+ age restriction and prohibits alcohol and recreational drugs on the premises.
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