Dragonmeet 2025 Retrospective with John Dodd

The Dragonmeet 2025 convention was quite an escalation from the previous years. I wrote about my experiences here.

After the event, I emailed John Dodd about it, as he’s an organiser of this and numerous other conventions.. He kindly responded, and then as life got busy with my day job, building work and RPG writing, it ended up getting buried, then late, then way too late. For that I can only apologise to John.

Dragonmeet: Call to Adventure is tomorrow, the 18th of . I thought it would be as close to a timely point to make good and publish this interview as I’d get.

Charlie Etheridge-Nunn: Dragonmeet 2025 felt huge to walk around. What was the difference in amount of floor space, traders and attendees this year? 

John Dodd: We doubled the space available and made sure that there were superwide aisles so that everyone could move around without issues. 

CEN: Were there any logistical issues you faced in getting ready for the con, either expected or unexpected?

JD: Mostly Excel based, last minute notifications, last minute changes, there comes a point when the only thing left to do is throw money at it, and we had a few of those this year.

CEN: It’s always nice to see who the winners of the Dragonmeet Awards are, what considerations go into selecting them?

JD: All considerations, our Judges range from 40 year veterans of games to those who’ve been playing less than a year, we spread the range of experience as wide as we can to get the most complete picture for the awards.  The only restriction we have is if a judge has worked on a product within the categories, it disqualifies them from judging that entire category to avoid accusations of bias. 

CEN: What’s the response from people working at the con been like (traders, etc)?

JD: Most people had a great time, a few had issues, but most of those were logistical in nature rather than to do with the convention itself, not seen anyone seriously complaining. 

CEN: Plans are fine, but as any GM knows, they only go so far. Were there any surprises on the day of Dragonmeet?

JD: Yes, but none that I’m sharing 🙂

CEN: I saw some photos from high up looking over the con. When I’m in a place like that I imagine I’m like Kingpin, observing my domain. Did seeing the convention from such a height give you any moments like that?

JD: No, the bit for me that worked most of all was taking all the new volunteers for lunch, and as we’re sitting there in the concourse, the thought that we were the only show in Excel that day, and so almost everyone around us (and it was packed) was likely a gamer. That was a bright moment.

CEN: I came away with some great RPGs from folks, some of which I’d not heard of before seeing them in Dragonmeet. Did you come away with anything?

JD: Set of Dragonmeet crystal dice, Leaders and Moonshine from Hachette, Totem from Officina Meningi, the original of the Dragonmeet programme cover artwork

CEN: Are there any plans or ideas you’ve got for the next Dragonmeet, now that you’ve had your first one at ExCel? 

JD: Make it better, build on the extra space, ignore the naysayers, do more. 

CEN: If an RPG could be set in Dragonmeet, which one would you do? (personally, I’d be tempted to use Fiasco)

JD A game of small time capers gone disastrously wrong… I’m honestly not sure how I was meant to take that, I know how I have taken it… [As a fan of Fiasco and of Dragonmeet, I feel I should clarify I did mean this with love, and an RPG convention would be a great setting for a weird heist – CEN]

CEN: Finally, do you have anything to plug?

JD: Call to adventure, but that still needs dates confirming…

Handily there are now dates for Dragonmeet: Call to Adventure! It’s on tomorrow in Kensington Town Hall, is free to attend and has a focus on younger gamers and people of all ages who are only just getting into RPGs!

Exhibitors include folks like Chaosium, Game Therapy, the Melsonian Arts Council, All Rolled Up, Leisure Games and more. There are seminars and RPGs to take part in, too.