UK Games Expo was fun, and it took a while to go through my notes, so let’s have a look at what I encountered and who I spoke to.

I’ve tried to be more organised this year, so I’ve recorded my initial thoughts on my YouTube channel while I was at (or recovering from the event). I’ve already posted my piece on preparing for the con, so let’s see how the event itself was.

Day Zero: Thursday

Due to life and my own lack of organisational skills, I didn’t get a press pass in time, so I made my own, as well as some business cards to hand out.

I got up early, then travelled by train and coach to Birmingham. There were a few moments of downtime while waiting for connections, but I eventually made it to the NEC where I met up with my friends Graham and Split (aka Out of Print GM on TikTok) in my usual hiding place of outside the Starbucks. We were too early to collect our passes and the queue was tiny, so I decided to be civilised and catch up with Graham and Split over coffee. Then I turned around and the queue was gargantuan. Luckily Expo’s got really good at processing people, so it didn’t take long to get our passes. I also caused some confusion when I asked to pick up my RPG tickets after forgetting them last year. Apparently they’re not a thing anymore and it’s all linked to my Expo profile on the app. Handy!

We were staying in the Tamworth Travelodge which was certainly a building that exists. Tamworth had some nice bits, especially The Arnold, where we had a nice meal and a drink in the evening, but mostly seemed to be roundabouts and directions mostly involved navigating via a Wetherspoons. We got back to the Travelodge and I faced the reality of not having any air conditioning, instead having a table fan and an open window facing freight trains which would regularly pass by. Graham asked whether any of the fancier rooms had aircon and apparently not, just behind the counter, and we couldn’t relocate to crash there. Luckily for me I’m living in a building site at home and the flat I’m sleeping in has curtains which let all of the light in, so even with all the noise I had more sleep than I’ve been getting.

Day One: Friday

We went for breakfast in Tamworth and again, there were nice places despite the general roundabouts & Wetherspoons aesthetic. We went to a place called Cosy which was really nice, with large breakfasts, typewriters on the wall and friendly staff. Then it was time to go off to the con.

We were late enough that we needed to park pretty far out, and luckily didn’t have any appointments or sessions first thing. We went through a section of the NEC which I’d not seen before and felt abandoned, until we reached the halls. 

It was dizzyingly large last year and even bigger this time. Halls 1-5 were occupied by UK Games Expo in some fashion, with Hall 1 having tournaments, 5 having tickets and the bring & buy, then everything else in between. Where 2026 felt like it was strained through three halls at weird angles to each other, this time is felt almost like one mega-hall. You could walk between some halls and only realise you’d entered a different one when you looked up at the signage. The openness was nice, and I think allowed a little more air, even though it was still stiflingly warm at times. I’d forgotten my battery so the USB fan was a write-off, but my blue hand fan would still work as long as I had hands!

Split and I arrived in Hall Four and weaved around trying to go row by row but getting distracted constantly. Split pointed out Sailors of the Spectral Sea which looked like a lot of fun. I booked in a demo on Sunday which sadly I’d ended up having to bail on, but I’ll have to check out the game in my own time. It’s a PbtA game where playbooks are made up of two halves. It also sold itself as, “Dead Gay Pirates” which feels like it’d fit well with Paint the Town Red’s “Sad Gay Vampires”. 

I grabbed a Stamp Quest sheet as I figured I was seeing most of the stalls at some point to buy things, interview them or both. I then proceeded to forget I had it for most of the show.

I’d found out on Thursday that the Star Trek Adventures game I’d signed up for had been cancelled; I assume due to the GM being unable to make it or something similar. I didn’t see any replacement games that I’d like so I signed up for Indie Games on the Hour (IGotH) which I always enjoy. I played a game of Desperation, which I love, but a scenario I’ve not played before about a doomed sea voyage. I was the only person who’d played Desperation before and it was interesting seeing people engaging with the tarot-style card-drawing and storytelling. There were a trio of players who felt new to this sort of thing, but immediately went hard with someone making a homunculous out of fish parts. It definitely set the tone.

We drew cards for the locations on the Isabel, then the cast and we put some interiority into them as well. Hence the fish homunculus. Then we played through three phases covering the storm-battered ship, a journey on lifeboats and finally survival on an island. We had one person left at the end; the zealously religious woman who gave up her husband, god and removed her own arm out of desperation. 

The game ended a little early and my ride was playing until midnight, so I wandered around looking for a decaf coffee while talking to my beloved. There was no coffee, but at least I had good company.

Day Two: Saturday

My first experience of big board game conventions involved playing CCG tournaments to the level where I’d leave and feel like I’d missed a lot of other things for the sake of a couple of full days of a card game. I’m relatively clean from them, only sticking to the Arkham Horror Living Card Game.

My friend Graham is also a fan of Arkham Horror and doesn’t often get it to the table, so when he asked me to join him in an Arkham Horror game, I agreed. I’ve been experimenting with the new edition of Arkham Horror (actual review coming soon, hopefully). I brought a couple of decks, I spent the night sleeving cards and showed up to the surprisingly chilly Hall One.

We played The Blob That Ate Everything… Else!, a print & play scenario which I’d only just been given the printed version of by Graham the day before. It expands the already fun and pulpy scenario with a few extra things. I’ve played the regular version once and this felt quite different as we had a new mission to carry out.

This was an ‘epic multiplayer’ game, so we had expanded health for the blob. All seven groups would contribute their clues and damage towards eliminating the blob. Our scenario involved pushing an armoured car across the blasted wasteland of the invaded town. Things took time and unfortunately for my character, they kicked the bucket. The rest of the group were going to follow shortly after, but there was a shout and the collective tables had done enough damage to stop the blob. The others at the table breathed a sigh of relief, and I was pleased my sacrifice wasn’t in vain.

I laid a curse upon myself by saying that Hall One had left me a little cold and warmed up almost instantly. I still wasn’t able to find a copy of Magical Athlete, but did find a discounted Final Girl Season Two box. It was a sod to carry around and I wasn’t sure how I’d get it home, but it was something which would help store my collection.

I found out about Pin Quest and started hunting them down, although I didn’t get far through the quest as it was late in the day and many stalls had already given away their day’s budget of them.

Generally the halls were a bit quieter for some of the day compared to Friday. It was still pretty busy. When I was done with the halls and looking for an iced coffee before heading to the Hilton, most places were out of ice. A terrible fate.

I met the Storybrewers, over from Australia for the con and did my best not to squee too much. I had a bit of a chat with them and then tried out a demo of Kryptothera. My comic writing mentor, Matt Hardy and genius letterer Rob Jones both wrote stories in an anthology comic currently on Kickstarter and suggested I check it out. The game has players wandering America looking for cryptids to contain. We were only able to play a few rounds, but it had some robust mechanics for travel and capture. My only criticism is that it felt pretty basic, like someone had filed down Eldritch Horror. I was advised that this was the most basic version of it, missing out on player powers, events and more. It’s understandable they’d be kept out of a demo, but it needed a little more pep. I’d be pleased to try it again with a bit more to it.

Graham heard me talking about my love of Flip 7 and bought the fancy version of it. When we were hiding from the heat, we decided to try it out but needed a third player.

And that’s how I lost a game to a foam block, pictured below.

The evening game was one which I played with Graham and Split, as we try to have one game where we’re playing together. This time it was City of Mist, a game I’ve written a middling review about. I figured it was something which could be interesting for all of us and you never know, maybe a different GM would win me over. It didn’t. The pre-made mystery was not the one I’d run before, which was a near miss, but the GM didn’t really engage with the moves, just calling for us to roll and often ignoring the partial successes or GM moves. We got stuck on the mystery multiple times and I could see my friends despairing as it often felt like we’d tried everything we could. Eventually we timed out and the GM explained what the solution to the mystery was. I have some further thoughts, we’ll see if I put them into anything coherent.

We got back to the Travelodge and I decided to turn the fan off, so I only had the freight train noises. While I was hot, it definitely helped.

Day Three: Sunday

There’s always a sense of a rush with Sundays at Expo, given the amount of travel I had to do. As I spent most of Saturday around the stands with Graham, I felt like I’d not accomplished as much games journalism as I’d wanted, so I checked out a couple of things and then ran about trying to interview RPG creators. I’ll cover those interviews separately, so here are my thoughts on board games I saw.

Play For Keeps were showing off a gorgeous collected version of String Railway. I saw a review of the original on Shut Up & Sit Down a long time ago and picked a copy up at the UK Games Expo Bring & Buy the first time I went. It’s been a good game, although playing it with a cat in the house added a tense timer as the game would end when she noticed all the string. The re-issue is great as it’s a game which was out of print when I picked it up and very much in need to a sprucing up. It’s pretty cheap, but I’d resolved not to buy anything, so I avoided it.

There was also a Star Trek edition of Captain Sonar, called “Star Trek Space Hunt”. It features a Federation ship fighting an enemy ship in several different scenarios. I imagined something like classic Captain Sonar, where people would take on different duty stations. This version was actually two characters on each side, normally a captain and first officer. I was a little disappointed at that, but it looked nicely made and if I had more time, I’d like to try a demo.

With that, I finished my interviews with Pelgrane Press. I decided not to bother them at an earlier, busier time as they’ve already got a customer in me and should be selling to other people. I got to speak to both Cat Tobin and Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, who are delightful people. It was my first time talking to Gar, who’s a giant of a man and a constant source of enthusiasm. Just like last year with Hurricane Howitt, I realised I was about to miss my coach and had to excuse myself. I raced over to the coach stop and back to Brighton.

Conclusion

It’s always nice seeing the evolution of a convention over the years. I loved the use of space and while the jarringly weird connections between halls meant no suddenly realising you were at a different angle, it was nice feeling like most of it was one gigantic hall.

The air conditioning was terrible. One vendor said that she’d lucked out by being under a vent and would refuse to leave her spot. Other people were theorising that they blasted the air conditioning in small doses occasionally to cool things down, but they couldn’t keep it on as it would break things.

I missed the wider walkways of Dragonmeet and virtually danced across the expanses when there was a rare moment of space. 

As far as actual negatives, some more seating would have been nice, as a person with a terrible spine, and reception was terrible. 

The convention’s stance (or lack thereof) on AI art is abysmal and it was good to see vendors taking it into their own hands and even sharing signs for their displays which said they didn’t use AI. Stalls which didn’t have this were under a bit of scrutiny from me, however in the RPG field, it tends to be 5E type materials which tend to use it, and I avoid those already.

I only played two RPGs and neither mentioned safety tools. I hadn’t met either GM before and felt in good hands with them, but it’s a good courtesy and not necessarily the case for everyone there to be able to trust them with people’s time. I still remember years ago having a game of a post apocalyptic RPG which really needed safety tools, and talking to the GM afterwards even he needed safety tools.

There are better people who have posted videos about this, and by the sounds of it they played more RPGs than I did.

In short, it was good, busy and still has some work to do which feels like its contingent on the logistics of the place (air conditioning, seating) and culture from the higher-ups (safety tools, AI stance).

Next up from me are some of the interviews I did with creators, so check that out soon.