This year’s UK Games Expo has been the most well attended in its 17th year of running, with 65,281 attendance from Friday 31st May to Sunday 2nd June. As the largest tabletop games show in the UK, and third largest in the world, this growth in attendance mirrors the growth of the industry in the UK and globally. For those of you who were not able to attend this year, or who were but weren’t able to see and do everything they wanted, here is a run down of my UK Games Expo highlights.
The UKGE Awards
The UK Games Expo Awards celebrated the incredible talent in the tabletop gaming industry, recognizing outstanding achievements in game creation.
The awards had two categories; the Judges Choice Awards and the People’s Choice Awards. The Judges Choice Awards took place at a preview event on Thursday 30th May. The awards were presented by Luke Gygax, game designer and son of Dungeons & Dragons founder, Gary Gygax, and Steve Jackson, creator of the Munchkin games. Here is the full list of winners of each category.
The winners of the UKGE Judges Choice Awards 2024.
The People’s Choice Awards were voted on by attendees of the expo over the weekend. You can find the full list of winners right here.
The Best Shows
As the tabletop industry grows so does the tabletop performance industry. Throughout the weekend, there were a variety of shows featuring wildly entertaining performers and experts on the ins and outs of gaming. Here are some of the standout events.
A Game of One’s Own: What Possessed You?
A Game of One’s Own is a podcast about solo and two-player TTRPGs run by Maddy Searle. Maddy was joined by TTRPG designer, streamer and voice actor; Nathan Blades and writer, podcaster and creator; Naomi Clarke.
Together, they played What Possessed You?, a chaotic RPG about channeling the dead. The game has the player characters performing an amateur séance and getting possessed by various spirits. The game lends itself so well to experienced performers, making this show an absolute joy to behold. Maddy, Nathan and Naomi all took on their multiple roles masterfully. They switched from haggard old maid to enterprising pirate to Victorian influencer with dramatic flair, enacting zany scenarios that had us rolling around with laughter!
Maddy, Naomi and Nathan prepare to get possessed in A Game of One’s Own.
If you missed this or what to experience it again, the show will be available on A Game of One’s Own podcast in the near future.
Game Therapy UK
Game Therapy UK are a therapeutic gaming charity who use evidence-based research to promote best practice in the field. Whilst at the Expo, they ran a seminar featuring professionals who use games in therapeutic environments. These included Dr. Gary Coleman, Finbar Westall, Lucas Maxwell, David Coulter, Joe Stier and Dr. Ian Baker.
Together, they discussed the various ways they apply games in their therapeutic practices. These included opening up through play, normalizing failure, celebrating success, offering creative outlets and developing the ability to think positively about the future.
Gary and the team at their stall.
They made it known that they welcome outreach from people interested in their work in furthering the research and applications of games in therapy. To that end, they recommended checking out their website and keeping an eye on their news page for upcoming events.
Jollyboat: Why Do Nerds Suddenly Appear?
Jollyboat are a comedy-pirate geek-rock bard duo and a regular sight at the UK Games Expo! Brothers Tommy and Ed have a whole host of catchy songs and lyrics packed with popular culture and geeky references that are always a joy to behold.
Jollyboat’s Saturday night performance was as joyful and lively as ever!
Whether you are a new fan or have been enjoying their show for years, you know you’re always in for a good time. Their genuine joy of performing and meeting other enthusiastic nerds is a big part of what makes their performances so special.
Realms of Peril & Glory: Paranoia
Realms of Peril & Glory are an Actual Play podcast that specialize in insanely well produced shows with big heart and big laughs! For more on them, check out this previous article about them and their 2024 plans.
At the UK Games Expo, they were playing Paranoia, an improvisation heavy, dystopian TTRPG. Regular Realms player, Naomi Clarke ran this game, taking on the role of FriendComputer, putting the other players through a deadly gauntlet.
Joining Naomi were Realms regulars: Zack Fortais-Gomm, James Barbarossa, Maddy Searle, Liz Campbell and Pip Gladwin, along with guests; Rachel Williams and Lou Fryer. This fast paced show had the players taking on roles of various clones generated by FriendComputer whenever a character comes to an untimely end. Seeing such seasoned performers constantly diving into new roles and coming up with ridiculous plans was pure comedy gold!
Rachel and Lou joined Realms of Peril & Glory in a high fatality game of Paranoia.
You should be able find this show on Realms of Peril & Glory in the not too distant future!
The Best Creators and Games
It’s rare to leave the UK Games Expo empty handed or without wanting to order something online as soon as you get home. These are the best stalls I visited over the weekend and the best creators to keep an eye out for:
Modiphius Entertainment
Modiphius Entertainment are one of the big names when it comes to up and coming tabletop games and for good reason! With a track record of producing excellent games and the licenses to popular IPs such as Star Trek and Fallout, they have an amazing array of games available right now and coming soon.
I am very excited about the upcoming Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition and new Fallout: Factions content. However, I was especially excited about trying out an only recently announced new venture, their Mass Effect board game.
Mass Effect: Priority Haglaz has been described as downloadable content for the original trilogy, in board game form. Set during the events of Mass Effect 3, you and your fellow players take control of series protagonist, Commander Shepherd, and their squad. Your task is to investigate a crashed Cerberus ship on the planet of Haglaz. This turn based grid combat game has you working together to complete missions. Meanwhile, the narrative progression aims to be as fluid and multi-branching as the video game series its based on.
Eric M. Lang, one of the lead designers of Mass Effect: The Board Game, at the Modiphius stand.
Keep an eye out for a more detailed review in an upcoming article.
Tettix Games
Described as ‘An Unfortunate Fishing Game’, Deep Regrets is a 1-5 player board game that tasks you with fishing for underwater abominations whilst keeping your sanity.
The game has a brilliant layout and striking artwork. Your character’s goal is to find the greatest catches and I got a taste of the various mechanics to maximize your points. One of the biggest considerations is that the more sanity you lose, the greater points you get for certain catches. However, lose too much sanity and you could stand to lose everything.
Deep Regrets: what lengths will you go to for the greatest catch?
If this has piqued your interest, make sure to follow Deep Regrets on their socials and look out for their kickstarter in July!
Three Sails Studios
Regrettably, I didn’t have time to try out Three Sails Studios‘ Mappa Mundi. However, I did get to chat to the team about this beautiful and intriguing game.
Mappa Mundi is an exploration and ecology RPG that tasks players to explore and chronicle a vibrant world. This will involve discovering and recording numerous creature, environments and cultures. Unlike many other games of this nature, there is no combat as the emphasis is on discovery and interpreting the world as academics rather than conquerors.
Mappa Mundi presents an absolutely gorgeous world to explore!
Mappa Mundi is still in development on Backerkit, but you can download pre-release materials on itch.io and DriveThruRPG.
Heckin Nerd DnD
For those of you who already have your game of choice and want to enhance your experience, vendors like Heckin’ Nerd DnD, have plenty to offer!
Beth’s got DnD trinkets aplenty at her online store!
Beth Crane is well known in the UK Actual Play community and is the talent behind Heckin’ Nerd DnD. Using laser cutting, she has created a plethora of TTRPG accessories. These include dice towers, DM screens, mimic chests, jewelry and even dice jails for dice that keep rolling ones!
If you fancy getting hold of some of these yourself, check out the Heckin’ Nerd DnD website!
DanD Made Easy
Let’s face it, DnD can get pretty complicated sometimes. Even veterans will appreciate support tools that help make information accessible and sessions flow better.
DanD Made Easy have resources galore to improve your game or set up clubs in your local area.
That is where DanD Made Easy comes in. They have a wealth of YouTube tutorials that go over the basics and improve your game. At the expo, they also shared their customizable journals that you can be print and bind at home. These journals present a wide variety of styles and support for the 12 core DnD classes and multiclassing. They also include detailed trackers, rule reminders and support text.
As well as all that, they offer free resources and support setting up games for schools, clubs and charities. If any of this is of interest, I’d definitely recommend checking out their website and subscribing to their newsletter.
And that’s it for my highlights of the UK Games Expo 2024! What were your highlights and what are you looking forward to in 2025’s expo? Let us know in the comments and keep an eye out for more from KeenGamer!
