UK Games Expo 2023

This is my 6th UKGE and I would say the best yet (although I say that every year!), a feast of gaming, friendship, boozing, eating and walking – so much walking!

You develop strategies for Expo over the years, based on what has and hasn’t worked in the past. My plan this year was to catch up with some friends in the trade hall early on the Friday, run games Friday and Saturday afternoon and play games Saturday and Sunday morning, with food and booze grabbed in between. That’s pretty much how it panned out and it was awesome.

The Trade Hall

A maze of stalls, an Aladdin’s cave of gaming goodness, the first place I always head to. I arrived early Friday morning and met up with @OrlanthR and @filmfan68, and we set off on the epic quest to buy games. There is a logical approach to exploring the trade hall, systematically walking along each isle, but rarely does that work out as expected as you are drawn to stalls that catch your eye in the next isle, or you get distracted catching up with one of the many friends bumped into. But we did our best and walked away pleased with our hauls; my list of games to buy was quite short and I came away with perhaps the smallest haul yet.

Over the weekend I visited the trade hall a few times, catching up with @Lintillaz on the Sunday afternoon for a final sweep before heading home. The last stall I visited was @AllRolledUpUK, and I was pleased to grab Out of the Ashes from there.

Trade Hall highlights

• The DCC stand with its bargain of the weekend, the DCC softcover rulebook for £10, plus a trio of DCC judges from the USA.
• Being gifted a copy of The Spawn of Fashan by @RlyehReviews.
• Grabbing Harnmaster (a game I had back in the day and had no intention of GMing ever again) for £30, just because it was on sale.
• Getting my copy of Dice Men signed by @ian_livingstone and grabbing the Judge Dredd board game for a huge nostalgia blast.

Trade Hall purchases

• The aforementioned Harnmaster, Dice Men and Judge Dredd boardgames.
• A late buy of Out of the Ashes from @AllRolledUpUK, last stand I visited.
• Ruins of the Lost Realm for The One Ring, because it’s for The One Ring and looks amazing.
• A brilliant poster of The Dwarven Stronghold from Aaron Howdle.

The Frankenstein’s Repair Shop panel

An event squeezed in between morning and afternoon games on the Saturday. Pre-event I was able to catch up with some mates for a pint – I’m lucky to mix with such celebrities!

The panel itself was at the high end of entertaining with one or two keen insights into older games. I’m sure one of the panel (@FrankensteinRPG, @OrlanthR, @theGROGNARDfile, @PaulFricker) will play it on their podcast.

The Hilton

The beating and stupidly expensive heart of RPG events at Expo, this is where I spent most of the event. Between games there are visits to the kiosk for tea and coffee and then it’s to Chow Street for some tasty grub and the bar in the evening. It’s not for me to say that the hotel prices are extortionate, criminal even, but they are unreasonably expensive – still we’re all here to have a good time so drinks must be consumed, whatever the cost!

The best part of being in the Hilton at Expo is bumping into friends, frequently people only seen at gaming events. Heading into the corridors always carries the risk of having an enjoyable social encounter as you spot someone you’ve not seen for a while and have a good catch up.

Hilton highlights

• Grognarding out in Grognards corner with the many friends I’ve made over the last few years. Fantastic people.
• Catching up with Bruce Cunnington who I’ve not seen in a while but was my first Expo GM back in 2017.

Games GMd

I have become somewhat enamoured with Index Card RPG and wanted to give it a good go at Expo, so I put it forward for both of my games.

Friday afternoon: The Curse of Ravenhold Castle (ICRPG)

AI was the genesis for the adventure; I asked ChatGPT to “write a D&D adventure” until I was found one I liked, but I wasn’t too keen on many aspects of the original and changed it significantly. It’s the third time I’ve run this is a combat and action focussed adventure that saw the party climb the shadowy hill, The Raven, to reach the castle and fight the big bad and its minions. This was the only time I’ve had a TPK (although the other two times only one character survived by running away), but I think a really tough boss fight is fine for a one shot – and this one was tough with lots of minions spawning video game style. Plus my dice were hot and the players’ dice cold. Did they enjoy it? I think they did (I’m friends with a few of them so maybe they were just being polite), whatever we certainly had a lot of laughs at the table.

Saturday afternoon: The Last Voyage of Finigan’s Pride (ICRPG)

The Last Voyage of Finigan’s Pride is an official module for ICRPG. I don’t want to give any spoilers here as I’m sure I’ll run it again, but I could tell the module was designed to highlight the unique features of ICRPG and as a result I feel I managed the game better. That may also be because it was my second time running ICRPG face to face – it’s a game that benefits from face to face play.

The adventure has a great build up of tension towards a challenging finale, and this time the party pulled it off and survived.

Games Played

Saturday morning: The Trading Post at Five Points (Weird Frontiers)

GM: @Son_of_Albion

Starting early I grabbed a bite to eat and headed to the Hilton to join @Son_of_Albion for this Weird Frontiers adventure. I’ve known @Son_of_Albion for a good few years but never played in one of his games, so I was keen to take that opportunity at Expo. I’d also heard the tales told in hushed tones in gaming rooms that Weird Frontiers was a physically big game, but I wasn’t prepared for just how huge it is – it should come with a harness to carry it, it’s flippin’ huge!

Weird Frontiers is DCC wild west style with a layer of magic and the supernatural, and like DCC the character classes are all flavourful with lots of abilities and features that make them stand apart from each other. The experience was what I expected, some nice set pieces, great opportunities to use our abilities and kill stuff, and it had all the usual DCC flair – a whole barrel of fun! Best was the opportunity to take down Mean Machine and Fink Angel, a nice touch from @Son_of_Albion. It was only later in the game I realised I’d played The Inn at Five Points with @BrendanJLaSalle as the adventure seemed familiar, but that didn’t affect the outcome at all.

Sunday morning: The Beggar Knights of Nadsokor (Elric!)

GM: @theGROGNARDfile

Joining @theGROGNARDfile‘s Sunday morning games has become something of a tradition for me at Expo. It’s always a slightly later start and because I know @theGROGNARDfile will have drank at least as much as me at the Hilton bar on the Saturday night it will be at an easy pace with plenty of breaks. @theGROGNARDfile had simplified the character sheets to feature only the info that was relevant to our characters, all dirty and diseased beggar knights on the payroll of the King of Nadsokor. The game itself was a cracker that featured a couple of the key figures from the Elric stories and gave some interesting choices; unfortunately we made suboptimal decisions that lead to a near TPK. Lesson of the weekend: Elric is a bastard!

Wrap up

And that was it, over in a flash, but a wonderful experience. I’m already looking forward to Expo ’24 but there are a good few gaming events between now and then. On to Owlbear and Wizard’s Staff!