[July Update] UK RPG Convention Listing

This is the July update for the UK RPG conventions for 2019 and far beyond. 

Each has a website (though a few have Facebook pages) for information and details. 

If you know of any that have been missed please mention them in the comments below. 

Please note, a few conventions have asked to be removed from this list. 

Summer StabCon 2019, Britannia Hotel Stockport, Dialstone Ln, Stockport, SK2 6AG

Friday 5th - Sunday 7th July 2019

https://m.facebook.com/groups/21195645768

LongCon 2019, Garrison Hotel, 635 Penistone Road, Sheffield, S6 2GB
Saturday 6th - Sunday 7th July 2019

https://www.thedodd.com/longcon-home

Roll Dice Gaming 2019, Ashton Gate Stadium, Ashton Road, Bristol BS3 2EJ

Saturday 6th - Sunday 7th July 2019

www.rolldicegaming.com

GBCon Summer 2019 Tabletop Gaming Day, Lopping Hall, 189 High Road, Loughton IG10 4LF

Saturday 20th July 2019. 10:00am - 10:00pm

https://www.facebook.com/gbconuk

Field of Games 2019, Silverstone Farm Campsite New Rookery Farm, Little London, Silverstone, Northants. NN12 8UP

Friday 2nd - Monday 5th August 2019

http://fieldofgames.co.uk

PaizoCon UK2019

,Bournville College, 1 Longbridge Lane, Birmingham B31 2TW 

Friday 2nd - Sunday 4th August 2019

http://www.paizocon.co.uk

HandyCon 6, Holiday Inn, Maidenhead, Manor Lane, Berkshire, Maidenhead, SL6 2RA

Friday 9th - Sunday 11th August 2019

http://handycon.co.uk/

Grand Tribunal 2019, Gas Green Community Centre, Baker Street, Cheltenham GL51 9HQ

Friday 16th - Sunday 18th August 2019

http://www.grandtribunal.org/wiki/Main_Page

FeatherCon 2019, Featherstone Castle, Hall Bank, Northumberland NE49 0JG

Friday 23rd - Sunday 25th August 2019

https://www.facebook.com/groups/485003805271383/

ShadowCon XIII,Northfields Community Centre, 71A Northcroft Road, West Wali g, London, W13 9SS

Saturday 24th - Sunday 25th August 2019

http://www.shadowwarriors.co.uk

Tabletop Scotland 2019, Dewars Centre, Glover Street, Perth, Scotland PH2 0TH

Saturday 24th - Sunday 25th August 2019

http://tabletopscotland.co.uk/

Q-Con XXVI, Queen’s University, University Road, Belfast. BT7 1NN

Friday 30th August - Sunday 1st September 2019

http://www.q-con.org.uk/

GamesCon 2019, Emsworth Community Centre, PO10 7DD

Saturday 31st August 2019, 09:00am - 10:00pm

https://gamescon.co.uk/visitor-info/

Concrete Cow 19 1/2, The Old Bath House, 205 Stratford Road, Wolverton, Milton Keynes MK12 5RL

Saturday 14th September 2019, 9:00am - 11:00pm

https://www.mk-rpg.org.uk/Concrete_Cow

Mug & Game Games Day IV, St. John’s Community Centre, Buxton Old Road, Congleton, CW12 2ES

Saturday 14th September 2019, 10.00am - 6:00pm

https://mugandgameblog.wordpress.com

The Owlbear and the Wizard’s Staff II: Warwickshire RPG Mini-Con 2019, The Band Factory, Unit 13, Althorpe Street, Leamington Spa, CV31 2AU

Saturday 21st September 2019, 9:00am - 10:00pm

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-owlbear-and-the-wizards-staff-ii-warwickshire-rpg-mini-con-tickets-55534516233

TringCon Autumn 2019, Marsworth Millennium Hall, 1 Vicarage Road, Marsworth, Herts, HP23 4LR.

Saturday 21st September 2019, 9:00am - 9:00pm

http://tringcon.org

Wyntercon VI, Eastbourne Sports Park, Ecat House, Cross Levels WY, Eastbourne, BN21 2UF

Saturday 28th - Sunday 29th September 2019

https://www.wyntercon.org

DragonDaze 2019, Newport Centre, 1 Kingsway, Newport NP20 1UH

Saturday 5th October 2018, 10:00am - 5:00pm

http://www.dragondaze.com

Furnace 2019, Garrison Hotel, 635 Penistone Road, Sheffield, S6 2GB

Saturday 12th - Sunday 13th October 2019

http://furnace.org.uk

Spaghetti ConJunction 3b, Geek Retreat, 38 The Priory Queensway, Birmingham. B4 7LA
Saturday 19th October 2019, 10.00am - 7.30pm

https://spaghetticonjunction.wordpress.com/

GamesFest 2019, Victoria Hall, Akeman Street, Tring, HP23 6AN

Saturday 19th October 2018, 10:00am - 5:00pm

https://www.facebook.com/Gamesfest-13335893233/

StabCon South Autumn 2019, DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Southampton, Bracken Pl, Chilworth, Southampton SO16 3RB

Friday 1st - Sunday 3rd November 2019

https://m.facebook.com/StabconSouth/

GrogMeet 2019, Fan Boy Three, 25 Hilton St, Manchester. M1 1EL

Friday 8th - Sunday 10th November 2019

https://thegrognardfiles.com/grogmeet-2019/

GBCon Winter 2019 Tabletop Gaming Day, Lopping Hall, 189 High Road, Loughton IG10 4LF

Saturday 9th November 2019. 10:00am - 10:00pm

https://www.facebook.com/gbconuk

Dragonmeet 2019, Novotel London West, Hammersmith, London, UK

​Saturday 30th November 2019, 9.00am - Midnight

https://www.dragonmeet.co.uk

+

Winter StabCon 2020, Britannia Hotel Stockport, Dialstone Ln, Stockport, SK2 6AG

Friday 3rd - Sunday 5th January 2020

https://m.facebook.com/groups/21195645768

HandyCon 7, Holiday Inn, Maidenhead, Manor Lane, Berkshire, Maidenhead, SL6 2RA

Friday 17th - Sunday 19th January 2020

http://handycon.co.uk/

ConTingency 2020, Searles Leisure Resort, South Beach, Hunstanton, Norfolk. PE36 5BB
Wednesday 22nd - Monday 27th January 2020.

http://www.con-tingency.uk/

Dudley Bug Ball 2020, Station Hotel, Castle Hill, Dudley, DY1 4RA

Saturday 22nd - Sunday 23rd February 2020

https://b-m.facebook.com/Dudley-Bug-Ball-Games-Convention-328010347608331/

Revelation 2020, Garrison Hotel, 635 Penistone Road, Sheffield, S6 2GB
Saturday 22nd - Sunday 23rd February 2020

http://revelationgames.org.uk/

AireCon 2020, Harrogate International Centre, King's Rd, Harrogate HG1 5LA

Friday 13th - Sunday 15th March 2020

https://airecon.uk

Concrete Cow 20, The Old Bath House, 205 Stratford Road, Wolverton, Milton Keynes MK12 5RL

Saturday 14th March 2020, 9:00am - 11:00pm

https://www.mk-rpg.org.uk/Concrete_Cow

NormCon 2020, Entoyment Wargaming and Hobby Centre, Unit 2 Fleetsbridge Business Centre, Upton Road, Poole, Dorset BH17 7AF

Friday 27th - Sunday 29th March 2020

https://www.facebook.com/normcon20xx/

Seven Hills 2020, Garrison Hotel, 635 Penistone Road, Sheffield, S6 2GB

Saturday 4th - Sunday 5th April 2020

http://7hills.org.uk/

North Star 2020, Garrison Hotel, 635 Penistone Road, Sheffield, S6 2GB

Saturday 9th - Sunday 10th May 2020

http://www.northstarcon.org.uk/

UK Games Expo 2020, NEC, North Ave, Marston Green, Birmingham B40 1NT& Hilton, Pendigo Way, Marston Green, Birmingham B40 1PP

Friday 29th - Sunday 31st May 2020

http://www.ukgamesexpo.co.uk

Continuum 2020, John Foster Hall, Manor Road, Leicester, LE2 2LG
Friday 7th - Monday 10th August 2020

http://continuumconvention.co.uk/

Continuum 2021, John Foster Hall, Manor Road, Leicester, LE2 2LG
Friday 6th - Monday 9th August 2021

http://continuumconvention.co.uk/

Continuum 2022, John Foster Hall, Manor Road, Leicester, LE2 2LG
Friday 5th - Monday 8th August 2022

http://continuumconvention.co.uk/

My Gaming Table Set Up for RPG Conventions

My Gaming Table Set Up for RPG Conventions

I do quite a bit of gaming at RPG Conventions and gaming meets. I have run games of Firefly Cortex+, Supernatural Cortex+, Star Wars: Edge of the Empire, Tales from the Loop, and Things from the Flood.  The games that I am running require some set up, a few props and handouts, player guides, cheat sheets, character sheets, character archetype sheets, dice, pencils, and Audio Visual displays.
That is a lot to carry around, set up, then breakdown, and put away after the game too.

I don’t use a GM Screen as I do not like putting a barrier between me and my players. I like the conversation to flow and to be open with all the people at the table. As a player I am always wary and distrustful about GMs who shield themselves behind a GM Screen, conduct their dice rolls hidden from view, as it seems to set up a confrontational game; GM vs players.
Dice rolls are done in front of everyone and they fall where they fall.

Here is a table image of my game set up ready to receive the players that I took at a recent convention, UK Games Expo 2019.



As you can see the most important item is the X-Card. I have that out at every game I run to ensure that no players has to suffer a psychological trigger or even just feel uncomfortable about a subject during the game. As the content of the games I run are teenage issues, I run games from ‘Tales from the Loop’, they may potentially touch on someone’s bad experiences. The players have characters that are kids and we often have content about bullies, bullying, children interaction, teachers, school, broken families, and homework.
Any of those subjects *could* trigger any flashback or other uncomfortable feeling or sensation.
Fortunately there has been no need for an X-Card to be used during my 28 times of running it for the public.



Of course the table is laden with character sheets for the players, crucial for their interaction with the game itself.
The Character Archetypes are next, laminated for reuse, are taken out of the Tales from the Loop book but edited for the UK setting. They are a good guide for generating characters though only a few players actually come up with their own ideas.
I have the Principles of the Loop displayed in a stand as a constant reminder. It is useful to draw attention to it if the player characters are tempted to call the police during the mystery or try and avoid the adventure completely. On the back I have the basic list guide of character generation to display and reference when we do char-gen together.
The other stand has the Pushing the Roll rules on display, including the use of Luck Points and the PC’s Pride, along with the table of dice roll probabilities as percentages.
The Cheat Sheets have the details on the skills and their use during play, a good resource to check during play as some of the skills have a few neat little tricks.



I have been using my new display technique for a lot of my images and maps, reducing the number of physical handouts. I put them into a KeyNote PowerPoint presentation on my iPad and display them to my players at the table.
You can now remotely control a Keynote presentation on an iPad or MacBook via your iPhone. I don’t have to move the iPad to interact with it so it can stay in place displaying towards the group. I can not only pull up the next slide or go back but I can select any slide in the presentation to play next.
Not only can I control the slides but also interact with them too, drawing on the slides as they are displayed. So I had my iPad displaying the presentation to the players, I controlled it from my iPhone, and I also used my iPad Pro to record and keep detailed notes.




I use Notability on my iPad Pro, a nice little app that helps with note taking. It allows you to hand write you notes in quickly, drawing diagrams, table layout, relationship maps, doodles, as well as adding photos and images to the notes too. You can edit the notes, moving, changing colour, or re-sizing diagrams or the notes themselves. I can transfer the the handwritten notes to typed form as well. It also records the session as an audio recording so I can refer back and check on how I deliver the session.

My scenario notes used to be just a few scribbled ideas and six names in a list. Now I do a little bit more prep as I have notes on the weather, news, TV shows, music, cinema, and current local occurrences at different times of the year in Derby, UK in 1984. I also have each scenario location written out and plotted as well as the motivations of the major NPCs too. In some cases I have the scenario completely written up and laid out.



The only things I handed out other than the character archetype sheets and the character sheets were the NPC cards. I like to use them as they are very tactile and the players can hand them around and indicate which NPC they are talking about.



I have also made some cards for the kids’ bicycles so that they can choose which one they want to reflect their character. I have made over forty of them so there is plenty of choice and as the game is set in Derby and Nottingham they all have to be Raleigh bikes too.

I also use casino chips to represent the game resources the players have. Blue casino chips for the Luck Points and each player gets a black casino chip each to represent the use of their Pride during the game. I like using casino chips as the players get a physical indicator of how many Game resources they have and it is always a nice moment when they are handed back to me. They are also very tactile so the players can play and fiddle with them as they consider their options.



My dice tray is yellow so it matches the table cloth unfortunately but it is a cool Star Trek one.
I have a set of Tales from the Loop dice as well as a set from Things from the Flood too. They just add to the feel of the game as the have a very touchable feel, like a waxy coating. I have found that ten dice work okay with Tales from the Loop but having more dice available for the players is good especially if they don’t have their own.

I always provide pencils for the players as they often don’t have their own at the table. A pencil sharpener is also necessary.

So this is my usual table layout and it works very well for me.
All that is required are the players!

What’s yours?

[June Update] UK RPG Convention Listing

This is the June update for the UK RPG conventions for 2019 and far beyond. 

Each has a website (though a few have Facebook pages) for information and details. 

If you know of any that have been missed please mention them in the comments below. 

Please note, a few conventions have asked to be removed from this list. 

UK Games Expo 2019, NEC, North Ave, Marston Green, Birmingham B40 1NT& Hilton, Pendigo Way, Marston Green, Birmingham B40 1PP

Friday 31st May - Sunday 2nd June 2019

http://www.ukgamesexpo.co.uk

Summer StabCon 2019, Britannia Hotel Stockport, Dialstone Ln, Stockport, SK2 6AG

Friday 5th - Sunday 7th July 2019

https://m.facebook.com/groups/21195645768

LongCon 2019, Garrison Hotel, 635 Penistone Road, Sheffield, S6 2GB
Saturday 6th - Sunday 7th July 2019

https://www.thedodd.com/longcon-home

PaizoCon UK2019

,Bournville College, 1 Longbridge Lane, Birmingham B31 2TW 

Friday 2nd - Sunday 4th August 2019

http://www.paizocon.co.uk

Grand Tribunal 2019, Gas Green Community Centre, Baker Street, Cheltenham GL51 9HQ

Friday 16th - Sunday 18th August 2019

http://www.grandtribunal.org/wiki/Main_Page

ShadowCon XIII,Northfields Community Centre, 71A Northcroft Road, West Wali g, London, W13 9SS

Saturday 24th - Sunday 25th August 2019

http://www.shadowwarriors.co.uk

Tabletop Scotland 2019, Dewars Centre, Glover Street, Perth, Scotland PH2 0TH

Saturday 24th - Sunday 25th August 2019

http://tabletopscotland.co.uk/

GamesCon 2019, Emsworth Community Centre, PO10 7DD

Saturday 31st August 2019, 09:00am - 10:00pm

https://gamescon.co.uk/visitor-info/

Concrete Cow 19 1/2, The Old Bath House, 205 Stratford Road, Wolverton, Milton Keynes MK12 5RL

Saturday 14th September 2019, 9:00am - 11:00pm

https://www.mk-rpg.org.uk/Concrete_Cow

Mug & Game Games Day IV, St. John’s Community Centre, Buxton Old Road, Congleton, CW12 2ES

Saturday 14th September 2019, 10.00am - 6:00pm

https://mugandgameblog.wordpress.com

The Owlbear and the Wizard’s Staff II: Warwickshire RPG Mini-Con 2019, The Band Factory, Unit 13, Althorpe Street, Leamington Spa, CV31 2AU

Saturday 21st September 2019, 9:00am - 10:00pm

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-owlbear-and-the-wizards-staff-ii-warwickshire-rpg-mini-con-tickets-55534516233

Wyntercon VI, Eastbourne Sports Park, Ecat House, Cross Levels WY, Eastbourne, BN21 2UF

Saturday 28th - Sunday 29th September 2019

https://www.wyntercon.org

DragonDaze 2019, Newport Centre, 1 Kingsway, Newport NP20 1UH

Saturday 5th October 2018, 10:00am - 5:00pm

http://www.dragondaze.com

Furnace 2019, Garrison Hotel, 635 Penistone Road, Sheffield, S6 2GB

Saturday 12th - Sunday 13th October 2019

http://furnace.org.uk

Spaghetti ConJunction 3b, Geek Retreat, 38 The Priory Queensway, Birmingham. B4 7LA
Saturday 19th October 2019, 10.00am - 7.30pm

https://spaghetticonjunction.wordpress.com/

GrogMeet 2019, Fan Boy Three, 25 Hilton St, Manchester. M1 1EL

Friday 8th - Sunday 10th November 2019

https://thegrognardfiles.com/grogmeet-2019/

Dragonmeet 2019, Novotel London West, Hammersmith, London, UK

​Saturday 30th November 2019, 9.00am - Midnight

https://www.dragonmeet.co.uk

Winter StabCon 2020, Britannia Hotel Stockport, Dialstone Ln, Stockport, SK2 6AG

Friday 3rd - Sunday 5th January 2020

https://m.facebook.com/groups/21195645768

ConTingency 2020, Searles Leisure Resort, South Beach, Hunstanton, Norfolk. PE36 5BB
Wednesday 22nd - Monday 27th January 2020.

http://www.con-tingency.uk/

Dudley Bug Ball 2020, Station Hotel, Castle Hill, Dudley, DY1 4RA

Saturday 22nd - Sunday 23rd February 2020

https://b-m.facebook.com/Dudley-Bug-Ball-Games-Convention-328010347608331/

Revelation 2020, Garrison Hotel, 635 Penistone Road, Sheffield, S6 2GB
Saturday 22nd - Sunday 23rd February 2020

http://revelationgames.org.uk/

AireCon 2020, Harrogate International Centre, King's Rd, Harrogate HG1 5LA

Friday 13th - Sunday 15th March 2020

https://airecon.uk

Concrete Cow 20, The Old Bath House, 205 Stratford Road, Wolverton, Milton Keynes MK12 5RL

Saturday 14th March 2020, 9:00am - 11:00pm

https://www.mk-rpg.org.uk/Concrete_Cow

Seven Hills 2020, Garrison Hotel, 635 Penistone Road, Sheffield, S6 2GB
Saturday 4th - Sunday 5th April 2020

http://7hills.org.uk/

Continuum 2020, John Foster Hall, Manor Road, Leicester, LE2 2LG
Friday 7th - Monday 10th August 2020

http://continuumconvention.co.uk/

Continuum 2021, John Foster Hall, Manor Road, Leicester, LE2 2LG
Friday 6th - Monday 9th August 2021

http://continuumconvention.co.uk/

Continuum 2022, John Foster Hall, Manor Road, Leicester, LE2 2LG
Friday 5th - Monday 8th August 2022

http://continuumconvention.co.uk/