If you have ever spent four hours optimising an Antiquity grave count, Splotter Con is the convention for you. The community-run heavy-euro show has confirmed a fourth outing at the Wyndham Grand Downtown Pittsburgh from 4 to 7 September 2026, sticking with its Labour Day weekend slot after two consecutive sell-outs.
Run game nights? Backseat Gamer handles RSVPs, waitlists, date polling, and game voting so you can focus on playing.
Start organising for freeSplotter Con is the kind of event where people sit down to play Roads & Boats at 9am and get up after dinner. The library carries every title from Dutch designers Jeroen Doumen and Joris Wiersinga, from the early stuff like Bus and Roads & Boats through to the cult classics Antiquity (BGG 7.8), Food Chain Magnate (BGG 8.0) and last decade's surprise hit The Great Zimbabwe. Tournaments include the long-running Devil's Egg, the Dr af Tourney and a TGZ bracket, and the schedule deliberately leaves room for slow, talky play rather than a packed timetable of demos.
The convention is small by design. Organiser Dean Brandt runs it for a few hundred attendees and has said the goal is "more games played, more meaningful conversation, and a friendlier pace" rather than chasing the size of Gen Con or Essen. This year's event is dedicated to early volunteer Adam Kramer, who died last year and whose game collection helped shape the convention's library in its first two years.
Got a regular group? Create a private community, poll for the best date, vote on games, and let your friends RSVP in one place.
Set up your group for freeRegistration opened in January and rooms are usually the bottleneck rather than badges. If you have a heavy euro group at home and fancy a transatlantic trip, Splotter Con is one of the few US conventions where you can be sure of finding three other people who actually want to teach you Indonesia. And if you cannot get to Pittsburgh, you could always round up your own group for a heavy euro weekend closer to home.
Sources: Splotter Con | BGG Splotter Con 2026 thread
