A Weekend at UK Games Expo
Last weekend I spent in and around Birmingham for UK Games Expo! The last time I attended was three years ago and the convention has grown significantly since then. There were over 50.000 unique attendees over three days and more than 800 exhibitors. I got to tell dozens of my favourite creators how awesome their games were, spent a bunch of money on books, got some of them signed, watched some seminars, played some games, ran a session of Pirate Borg at an event and overall had a great time there.
My personal highlight was unexpectedly getting to run a game at the Pirate Borg event. There were six tables all running “Into the Maelstrom” from their new “Down Among the Dead” book (see my review here!) with a bunch of real time events affecting all tables and tracked points to determine a winning table.
Image Gallery
Below are a handful of impressions from the Expo!
 The “Into the Maelstrom” crew! |
 Show fight at the living history village |
 Free gaming area |
 Many great artists like Will Kirkby |
 Boardgame playtests like the new Horrified |
 The Salvage Union booth |
 Chris McDowall signed some books |
 Rowan, Rook & Decard booth |
 Pirate Borg had a ship in their booth! |
 Soulmuppet booth! |
What else to do in Birmingham
And if you find yourself with some free time, there’s some other things you can do in Birmingham, too!
Tolkien grew up in Birmingham so we walked to a few Tolkien trail locations, like the Moseley Bog, Chamberlain Clock Tower and the Waterworks Tower. Sadly the Sarehole Mill museum was only open at the same days as the expo!
We also had a truly amazing dinner as well as breakfast at the Indian restaurant “Dishoom” and some great neapolitan pizza at “Rudy’s Pizza”. You might also want to treat yourself with some scones (with clotted cream and jam) if you haven’t tried that before.
You can have a nice little stroll along the canals and I can also recommend a visit at the Botanical Gardens, if you have an hour or three to kill.
Conclusion
If you’re on the fence if you should visit UKGE in the future I can warmly recommend it. It was extremely wholesome to chat with those who made the games that bring us so much joy. There was even an RPG meetup on Saturday!
There were so many different creators there, from amazing indie designers like Sam Armstrong to bigger names like Grant Howitt and booths by the big players like Darrington Press, Free League, Modiphius or Paizo. And if you also happen to be into board games or war gaming, there’s even more to see.
Just be mindful of duty-free amounts you’re allowed to bring back home, when your luggage is filled to the brim with games...
Can't wait to bring those to my table! Especially since I made a deal with my husband that we'll visit UKGE again as soon as I've run all of them...
Cheers!
