Sci-fi, fantasy, comics, games and all that stuff

OH!CON 2025

OH!CON 2025 was held in An Lanntair and Stornoway Town Hall on Saturday 11 October 2025.

What went on

As tradition dictates, we started with The Big OH!CON Quiz on Friday evening. It was another full house and raised over £200 for charity.

On Saturday, we kicked off at 10am. The Town Hall hosted the games part of OH!CON. As well as retro-games, consoles and VR, there were board games, TTRPG, and CTG sessions throughout the day. The balcony area offered soft archery, NERF and soft axe throwing.

An Lanntair hosted the rest of OH!CON including the cosplay masquerades, drop-in creative activities, and the workshops and talks.

Drop-in activities included Lego, plasticine, comics making and badge making. An Lanntair provided tables for face painting, building droids that draw, LED light drawings, and theremin playing.

We'd intended to cut down the number of workshops and talks this year, but that didn't really happen. In all, we had 8 workshops and 10 talks throughout the day, including a panel talk on comedy in sci-fi/fantasy, a Blake's 7 retrospective, plasticine model making, miniature painting, LARP, writing, drawing, game creation, a conversation with the great Jasper Fforde, and more! (See the programme for full details – there was some brilliant stuff going on!)

Thanks to our fabulous photographers, Alena, Gonzo, Lee, Paul, and Ralph for capturing the day!

Talks

This year, for the first time, we streamed some of OH!CON, making it available to a wider audience. You can view a selection below.

Our thanks to James from Kijach Streaming Services for providing the equipment and managing this project for us.

Panel talk: Humour in sci-fi and fantasy

Hereward Proops talks with some of this year's guests, Jim Parkyn, Jasper Fforde, Rik Carranza and Anrew Donkin about what makes them laugh and how they use humour in their work.

Thomas Welsh: Writing cyberpunk without cyborgs, guns, cops, or cyborg gun cops

Games writer and author Thomas Welsh talks about how he wrote the bestselling game Cloudpunk. He reveals how you can write for games or genre fiction without relying on guns. and violence, while still telling engaging, emotional and resonant stories.

The Extraordinary Worlds of Jasper Fforde

Jasper Fforde, one of the UK's best loved and best-selling fantasy and science fiction authors, gives a highly entertaining talk about his life and work. Note: We had some technical issues with sound – we'll remember to use the microphones properly next year! Subtitles are available if you're finding any parts difficult to hear.

Publications

Poster (pdf)
Programme (pdf)
We also published English and Gaelic versions of new TTRPG Sneaksie

Competition winners

OH!CON 2025 had a writing competition (English and Gaelic) and an art competition. Congratulations to the winners!

Art

18 yrs+: ThePaintedArcher
12-17yrs: Ella Mhairi Howat
U11: Isla Chidgey
Peoples choice (voted for by attendees on the day): Cadhla Halbert

Writing

English: 18yrs+: Coinneach Cidsin for Tourist Trap
Gaelic 18yrs+: No prize awarded
English 12-17yrs: Abbie Brown for 2025 - Anne droid
Gaelic 12-17yrs: Iasmine Mac a'Ghobhainn for A’ Tilleadh Dhachaigh
English U11: Jack Woolley for The Adventure of Satugar
Gaelic U11: Fraser Manderson for Sabaid Mòr na Galagsaidh

Guests

Andrew Donkin

Andrew has sold over 10 million children’s books and graphic novels, and has written for Batman, Superman, Doctor Who, and Artemis Fowl. His graphic novel, Illegal (co-written with Eoin Colfer), was an international bestseller and has won multiple awards.

Edward Ross

Edward is an Edinburgh-based comic artist who has been drawing comics since he was a kid. His latest book Graphic Novel Builder: The illustrated guide to making your own comics, helps young and aspiring comic creators bring their ideas to life with helpful advice and activities.

Dr Emily McEwan

Dr. Emily McEwan is a publisher, author, blogger, former academic, and the founder and owner of Bradan Press in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada's only Gaelic publishing company. She has also been a Whovian for 45 years! Her first experience with publishing was editing and producing Blake's 7 zines in the late 1980s.

Frances Hardinge

Frances Hardinge spent her childhood in a sequence of small, sinister villages, then went on to study English at Oxford. Now an award-winning author, she has written twelve dark, mystery-laden fantasy books for children and the YA readership.

GR Jordan

GR Jordan has written over fifty books to his name and his crime fiction has topped the Amazon eBook store. His writing time is divided between thrillers and crime fiction, with his passion for gamebooks providing his “fun” writing.

GR Jordan website

Hereward Proops

A veteran of OH!CON and a passionate advocate for social play, Hereward is currently completing a PhD exploring the development of relationships within tabletop roleplaying game groups.

Jasper Fforde

Jasper debuted on the New York Times Bestseller list with 'The Eyre Affair' in 2001. His writing is an eclectic mix of genres, which might be described as a joyful blend of Comedy-SF-thriller-Crime-Satire. He is currently working on his 18th novel, 'Dark Reading Matter'.

Jasper's website

Jim Parkyn

Jim is a Scotland-based artist with over 25 years in the animation industry. He has been involved in many animations for Aardman Animations, including Wallace and Gromit, Shaun The Sheep, Creature Comforts, and animated feature films and commercials.

July Woodford

July is a member of the OH!CON team and a LARPing enthusiast.

Rik Carranza

Rik is a comedian, and the creator and host of Star Trek vs Star Wars, the hit comedy debate panel show that debuted at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2016 and has gone on to be performed across the country to rave reviews.

RP Davis

R P Davis is a 30+ year veteran RPG player, GM, and freelance game creator who has designed content for Wizards of the Coast, Kobold Press, Onyx Path, Cubicle 7, and Loresmyth Games, as well as his own company, Kabouter Games.

Kabouter Games website

Sean Conaghan

Sean has been playing games for 26 years and is founder of The Gateway Nerds. He is also the creator of TTRPG, Sneaksie, which is being launched at OH!CON 2025.

Thomas Welsh

Thomas Welsh is a games writer and fantasy novelist. He was lead writer and narrative director on the award-winning game Cloudpunk. He is the author of Anna Undreaming and the bestselling Metiks Fade Trilogy, and teaches Interactive Digital Narrative at the Glasgow School of Art.

Charities

The OH!CON quiz and raffle raised over £1000 for three local charities:

Supported by

OH!CON 2025 was made possible though grants from:

With additional sponsorship from:

We are also grateful for assistance, support and donations from: