Arriving and getting a ticket on the door was easy - I threw in a neat sticker for myself. It was already pretty active when I got there in the morning and got busier as time went on, never getting overcrowded, just nicely busy.
First Impressions
I think the venue is a dedicated exhibition space - there was a main atrium with a bar, a hall with a stage to one side that had all the artists and authors, and two rooms to the other side that had the various games groups - the usual suspects of Paradice and Athenaes Siegel and some others I had not seen before - the striking new one for me was PopCircle Austria - who are running "D & Dinner" evenings at a restaurant.
The poster itself speaks to the priorities - Books & Authors first, Collecting and Culture second and then Boardgames, Roleplaying Games & LARPs - which broadly maps to the space assigned - the big hall for the artists and authors, the entry atrium for the 'people' clubs and the two side rooms for the gaming groups who need space to spread out. Noone was cramped, everyone had plenty of table space. This was not a con with scheduled game sessions - you found those out from the individual booths and groups and pieced together your own schedule.
There were also a good few streamers and podcasters - both talking shops and actual plays - and a schedule of talks and workshops, including a kids corner with magic shows and the like.
For me, after cruising the whole location to see what was going on, I had a good chat with the Paradice gang, poked about the artists alley, noted all the books, bought some stickers. I was a little surprised again at the lack of anyone to sell me some RPG books - plenty of opportunity to commission character art or get various player-side merch but noone (I saw) selling books. A copy of Imperium Maledictum appearing in front of me would have been a very easy sell but never mind.
I ended up spending a good chunk of my time over coffee and cupcakes with another of the DM Supergroup, mostly talking video games in this instance and turn-based ones suitable for frequently interrupted play sessions. Come to think of it the catering was a little microcosm of the whole - one kind of really good cupcake.
Closing Thoughts
What I find interesting about Fantasy-Con is the cross-section of people pulled together by it - what the priorities of the local community are, I guess. I come from a TTRPG convention culture (back in Ireland) built around university games societies with many smaller ones which are focussed on the trinity of CCGs, Wargames and TTRPG/LARP. Those were specialised and the audience was niche. Here in Austria, the organisations that hold cons seem to be a much broader church with TTRPGs appearing at the side of more mainstream events - books and artists having a much greater presence.
Apparently all this was sponsored by Chaosium which was neat but also odd that there did not seem to be stuff on sale.
I was pretty time constrained this year but for next I might try to get more organised and try and get in on some of the games Paradice or others might be running. Certainly the whole place was buzzy, lots of folk, costumes, people in good cheer, things going on. I might not travel to Vienna for it if I was not nearby but I would certainly say it is worth stopping by if you were in town the weekend it is on.
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