Silver Branch Games

Events

UK Games Expo 2018

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The hall at Games Expo

I went to Games Expo in Birmingham yesterday. This is the UK’s largest gaming convention – and with attendance now over 20,000 people, in the top tier of gaming events in the world. It covers the whole range from board and card games to RPGs and miniatures.

I caught up with RPG folks, chatted about potential editing work, and wandered the halls looking at what’s going on.

I took this photo on Sunday. Bear in mind that was the quiet day. Apparently on Saturday the aisles were pretty much full. This is NEC Hall 1; Hall 2, behind me, was also in use for stands and a massive play area, and there was also play going on over at the Hilton hotel.

One of the things that someone pointed out in a conversation was that more stalls were dealing in accessories, spinning out from the games themselves. That includes folks like my friends at All Rolled Up. But I also spotted two stands selling colourful USB cables. Weird.

A nice final note was that I ended up floating at the edge of the awards ceremony, while folks I know got awards for Call of Cthulhu – The Two-Headed Serpent, Cthulhu Hack – Wendigo, and the Conan RPG. (Having done some work on the line for the latter, though not the mainbook, I experienced a tiny mote of reflected warm and fuzzy!)

If you’re into the gaming scene, no matter which corner is your favourite, it’s worth a visit if you can. Expo is well run by an incredibly dedicated team whose original goal was to create the convention they wanted to see, and the organisation improves year on year as they learn from experience as well as growing the attendance. The main downside of its successful growth is that nearby hotels can be very expensive and sell out fast, so if you’re going to make it a multi-day trip and play games and socialise in the evenings, it’s good to plan ahead.

 

Games Expo 2013

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This weekend I had a stall at UK Games Expo, the UK’s biggest gaming convention. I chatted to lots of people about my games, and did a decent level of sales. It was a great experience, and I’ll happily go again.

Expo takes place in Birmingham, our second-largest city after London, well placed for visitors from around the country. It covers board games, card games, roleplaying games, miniatures games and pretty much any other sort of game. It’s still quite a young event: this was its seventh year. It’s a sales-focused convention with loads of trade stands, but there’s also a substantial game-playing programme of pre-booked slots and a lot of board game demos.

This year Expo had made the bold and slightly scary step to a new venue: the Hilton hotel near the NEC and airport. I think everyone had liked the old venue, but they needed more space – and game-playing areas not hidden in the basement labyrinth! Fortunately it was a great success, with around 3500 people attending over the three days. 3500! And almost 100 exhibitors.

[Read more…] about Games Expo 2013

Rocket Amoeba launch at UK Games Expo

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I’ll be in Birmingham this weekend, at UK Games Expo – the UK’s biggest trade-focused show covering the breadth of gaming. My stall is P19 in the Palace Suite, sharing with my friends at Wordplay Games.

Rocket Amoeba imageThe main focus for me is the launch of Rocket Amoeba, with the first appearance of the release edition in print. It’s a light, generic RPG ruleset focusing on story rather than tactics, with a flavour of TV and comics action.

I’ll also have copies of Albion, Jaws of the Six Serpents, and the Serpents’ Teeth supplement for Jaws. We should have a little demo space, so if you want to try making a character or running through a quick scene, or just to chat, do drop by.

 

Escape from Dragonmeet mountain

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Hi to everyone I met at the convention on Saturday. Scroll down for a special limited time offer…

The 7am train was an early start for me, but I found some crazy people (hi Dom!) had beat it by several hours. After dashing through frosty landscapes I reached the slightly less picturesque cityscape of London and made my way to Kensington Town Hall, setting for the annual Dragonmeet event.

I had a sales and demo table in the trade hall, and was able to show Albion, Jaws and Serpents’ Teeth to lots of folks. (Only slightly hampered by the voice problems that have lingered from autumn lurgy.) Thanks to Tim P who ran Albion in the afternoon slot. I was also able to do plenty of networking with other designers and publishers. It’s a very cooperative and interlinked industry; perhaps the friendliness is one benefit of being small.

The organisers had done better with advance communications this year, which apparently had resulted in far more advance tickets sold. I thought it was a bit busier in the hall than last year, though not everyone agreed. Historically Dragonmeet is a trade-focused event, but there was an excellent crop of games being run this time. The London Indie RPG folks had a “games on demand” area upstairs with a continual buzz, thanks to improved publicity, great organisation and of course generous and enthusiastic GMs.

I attended one of the seminars, Ken and Robin (and Simon) Talk About Stuff. So if that gets released as a podcast you can hear me adding to the ambience. I believe recordings of all the seminars will appear in due course: watch @dragonmeet for news. They’d moved to the big council chamber this year, and once I clocked the rather wonderful ceiling sculpture made of illuminated optic fibres I’m afraid I spent most of the time looking at that rather than the panellists.

After all was packed away I decamped to the pub with the Indie RPG folks. I may have been a little too focused on filling myself with pie before the train trip back, but hopefully I was reasonable company!

So Dragonmeet 2012 is slain, making a barely noticeable impression on Kensington in its ruin. But no doubt the brave folk of London and dwarves of Ireland and Scotland will build again…

A post-Dragonmeet offer

If you meant to pick up one of my books and missed out, here are some DriveThruRPG links that’ll get you the PDF versions at 20% off till 8th December, one week after the con. You can find further info on the products through the Games section.

 

Dragonmeet calling

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I’ll be at the Dragonmeet convention in London this Saturday, 1st December. Come and say hi!

I’ll have a little stall just inside the main trade hall. There’ll be books to buy, of course, and I may also be able to give you a few-minutes demo of Jaws and Albion in action. (Though my voice still hasn’t entirely recovered from an autumn infection, so I’ll have to be careful how much talking I do.) I may also take some time out to prowl the halls and sit in on a seminar.

Dragonmeet is very much a trade-based convention, running over just the morning and afternoon. That said, it’s great to see the upsurge in games being run this year (including Albion in the afternoon). And you can also meet well-known designers and publishers in what passes for flesh.