UK Games Expo 2026
Waited a long time for this one...
Anticipation is a large part of the fun with gaming weekends, knowing there will be great games, good food and booze and the best company across the weekend. This year was no exception as we built upon the successful formula of UK Games Expo 2025 with an even better off-site fringe event. Comparisons had been made to our cheap and cheerful accommodation resembling a prison camp and so this clever t-shirt design was created by @orlanth.bsky.social as a twist on the Escape from Colditz board game.
A few of us had a pre-Expo meet up on the Thursday, stopping over in an AirBnB which gave a chance to avoid the queues and collect our Expo tickets in advance, and get out for a bit of grub and a few beers. Food and drink were a significant feature of the weekend and we certainly ate well.
As in previous years we visited the trade hall at the NEC (more on that in a bit) and rocked up at the Hilton bar for a few drinks on the Saturday evening. This year we did just that, but only stayed for a short while - the Hilton bar was very noisy and very expensive, so after a bite to eat at Chow St and a pint it was back to our accommodation. The great thing about the space is that there’s plenty of room to sit around talking and drinking and the furniture upgrades since last year made it a bit more comfortable.
This year the trade hall was the biggest yet, occupying halls 2-4, but with a bit of planning I was able to visit all the stands I wanted to and quite a few others. I spent the Friday and Sunday mornings pottering around with friends and picked up a good few bits (mostly games I probably don’t need, but such is the foolishness Expo brings out in us).
But really we were all here for the gaming…
Pulpen Heroes
Friday afternoon
This is @willoughbywrite.bsky.social’s Golden Heroes variation, set in the 1920s with pulp hero (rather than super hero) characters, and where WWI never happened, although its absence is felt by both men and women in some strangely undiscussed psychic phenomenon. Character generation with Golden Heroes is a good bit of fun with stats and powers randomly generated which you then need to tie together into a coherent hero. As there were just two of us playing @davepaters.bsky.social and I came up with the unlikely duo of The Known Soldier and The Banshee.
Golden Heroes is quite a fighty RPG and we started off bopping some thugs about which lead us into an investigation. Uncovering clues and clever use of hypnotic powers pointed us to the finale and confrontation with much more powerful opponents, and while it it was touch and go for a while we were ultimately triumphant.
While Golden Heroes shows its age, @willoughbywrite.bsky.social wrangled it into a really enjoyable session very much fitting with pulp heroes and adventures. Highly recommended.
Conan: The Hyborian Age
Saturday morning
I’ve had my eye on this game since it was Kickstarted, being a bit of a Conan fan and a fan of Swords & Sorcery in general. I wondered how it would compare to previous Conan games I’ve played such as GURPS Conan (which I ran back in the 80s) and 2D20 Conan. Preferring lighter, less crunchy systems I was pleased to see it get this treatment.
When @asako-soh.bsky.social popped this new Monolith Conan: The Hyborian Age game on to the roster for the weekend I quickly signed up. The system was even simpler than I had expected and flowed really well in play while still capturing the flavour of the genre. We played the adventure from the quick start The Seal of Acheron which had many of the gaming tropes I enjoy including a bit of a dungeon crawl. @asako-soh.bsky.social did a great job making it feel like a Conan adventure, and the game system definitely had some teeth with my character being killed.
It’s definitely a game I’ll be keeping an eye on and would strongly recommend if you want a S&S game with a low level of crunch.
Shadowdark
Saturday afternoon
For the final game of the afternoon I was running the Raiders of the Hidden Temple adventure for the Shadowdark system. On the surface the adventure looks like a simple dungeon crawl but with a couple of factions to contend with and a challenging end boss we had a lot of fun as the players tried to figure out what was going on and how to deal with the big bad. It’s an adventure I’d recommend to Shadowdark GMs and one I’ll definitely run again (plus it’s free if you sign up to the Arcane Library mailing list).
Topic of the weekend
@orlanth.bsky.social picked up the Tales of the Krytin Age RPG on the Friday morning and we all spent some time in awe of the 4 page character sheet and crunch level of the system. Much of the weekend’s conversation turned to this game as the event went on and it has now taken on a life of it’s own - I don’t think @orlanth.bsky.social will struggle to find players for this game!
And so as such weekends inevitably do, it drew to a close all too quickly. I was tired and utterly spent with an aching back and an empty wallet when we started heading our separate ways on the Sunday morning.
I’d like to give a shout out to the wonderful people who took part in the fringe event, all great friends and top gamers. We had some fantastic laughs and I would say have learned just a little bit more about each other. In particular thanks to @orlanth.bsky.social for organising it all and starting on plans for next year.
Envious as hell.
Thanks for sharing, Neil.