Dragonmeet 2024: A Full Weekend of Tabletop Gaming Goodness in Review

Dragonmeet’s one day tabletop gaming extravaganza has returned for another year. However, this time, it was accompanied by events on the Friday and Sunday, treating attendees to a full weekend of festivities!

Things kicked off on Friday 29th November with Draonmeet’s PodcastZone and UK Tabletop Industry Networking (UK TIN). On Saturday 30th November, we had the full day Dragonmeet convention. Then on Sunday 1st December we had Soul Muppet Publishing‘s first industry event, supported by Dragonmeet. With all of these being hosted in the Novotel in Hammersmith, London, I was able get involved with all three events. Over the weekend, I was treated to live shows, seminars, exhibitors and their treasure trove of goodies. I also got meet a veritable who’s who of the UK tabletop gaming scene.

Read on to catch up on some of the highlights of the weekend. You can also find out how to get involved in next year’s Dragonmeet and get some insights on Dragonmeet’s future.

Exhibitor Highlights

With Christmas just around the corner, Dragonmeet was well timed for people to get tabletop gaming gifts for their loved ones or to treat themselves. Here’s a few of the vendors that really stood out to me, and I’d highly recommend looking into yourself: 

Honey Badger Games

Honey Badger Games specialize in TTRPG themed treats, snacks and drinks. Whether it’s edible gummy dice or fruity drinkable potions you’re after, they’ve got you covered! I spent some time browsing their loose tea selection, all of which were based on classic Dungeons and Dragons classes. I ended up settling on the Sorcerer brew made with fiery chilly and mysterious chai. On top of that, you can check out their KitTea Party page where they do tea for cats!

Tabletop Tinkering

Tabletop Tinkering have been creating TTRPG trinkets since 2012 and have been going from strength to strength since then. They now have an incredible range of products from dazzling dice and jewelry to dice trays, clothing and cosplay. Even as they’ve grown, they’ve maintained a beautiful homemade aesthetic with all of the products loving made by Frankie. It’s well worth keeping an eye out for their stall at future conventions. With the amount of colors and crochets, they’ll be hard to miss!

Black Armada Games

Black Armada Games are the creators behind the eldritch horror cooperative storytelling game, Lovecraftesque. I was already making a point of visiting them and checking out their second edition physical copy. It was very cool getting to shine a light on the box and see all the incredible hidden artwork in invisible ink. However, I was also pleasantly surprised at the smaller games they had. I picked up their Advent of Abomination, advent calendar complete with daily prompts that I’m currently working my way through. And, in a complete tonal shift, I also picked up The Great British Snake Off for more light hearted playing! Be sure to check out their store for a wealth of games big and small!

UK TIN

As well as co-hosting the Friday evening networking event, UK TIN also had a stall on the exhibitors hall. As champions of small indie creators, they had lots of TTRPGs designed by their members for sale. They also had a wealth of supplementary resources, accessories and zines for event goers. As a long time supporter, it’s been heartening to see their stalls grow and grow with each convention.

If you are interested in enjoying some of the great content from TIN’s members, you can join their Patreon. The £5 a month tier will get you access to the many games produced by their members. This includes LadyBeaste by Michael Duxbury, Drama Llamas by Yvris Burke, Biome by Black Armada Games, and Slasher by Sam Armstrong. If you are a budding game designer you can also get involved with UK TIN yourself. Joining their Facebook page is a great way to introduce yourself and keep up to date with news and events.

Mythic Minds

Mythic Minds is a group that support young peoples’ development through the use of TTRPGs. Their Young Dragons project, partnered with Role Play Haven and the City of Westminster, has set up school clubs across London. The storytellers delivering these adventures are vetted professionals who have been trained to deliver sessions that have so much to offer those who take part. Check out their website for more on the organization and what they offer. If you are interested in training to become a Mythic Minds storyteller yourself, check out their application page.

Mythic Minds are a CIC dedicated to using tabletop gaming to help children’s development, education and wellbeing.

PodcastZone Highlights

Like last year’s Dragonmeet, there was an incredible choice of live shows from across the UK tabletop gaming scene. Fiona Howat, the PodcastZone’s organizer was full of praise for the quality of all this year’s live shows. Unfortunately, timings only allowed me to attend two of the shows in person, which you can read about below. Also, thanks to the great tech support available on the day, they are all now available to watch on demand on the show’s respective channels.

The PodcastZone had an incredible spread of live shows which are all now available on the shows’ channels!

Science & Sorcery – You Awaken in a Strange Place

Science & Sorcery are an Actual Play group that bring science communication into their shows, whilst supporting so many worthy causes! This live show featured Science & Sorcery’s Sam Langford, Rachel Williams and Alex Holt. They were also joined by special guest, Taya Campbell Over from regency Actual Play group; Damsels in Dicetress.

This hilarious Science & Sorcery live show had our players wrangling for world peace in a wild west candyland!

You Awaken in a Strange Place is a one shot TTRPG that is so improvisation heavy that not even the Game Master (GM) has a plan before the game starts. Usually, the players would make decisions about the game world during the game’s quick setup. However, since this was a live show, the audience were able to get involved in scene setting. As a result, we ended in a candyland wild west world with our protagonists fighting for world peace.

We had some incredible improvised character performances here. Rachel was Lady Brittle the knife wielding brittle candle society lady. Alex was Crystal Joe, the syrupy prospector. Meanwhile Taya played Squiggly Diddily, the toffee saloon worker. Sam showed off his masterful world-building as a GM throughout. He put us straight into the action from the start by throwing us into a high stakes chase scene on a train. He then introduced a colorful cast of characters and flashback scenes to give the players amble opportunities for character development. 

If you would like to check out the show for yourself, there is a recorded audio version available on Science & Sorcery’s YouTube, along with many great Actual Plays and interviews to check out.

Modified Roll – The D&D Panto Pt. 3: It’s Behind You

For the third year running, Jordan of Modified Roll took us on a madcap fairy tale journey complete with magical hijinks, evil plots and audience participation! As usual, he was joined by an incredible cast of Actual Play performers from various UK content creators. We had Deck of Many Aces‘ Chloe Elliott as the prince looking for his bride to be. We had Tales on Tap‘s Dan as the prince’s humble sidekick. RPGeek‘s Shamini Bundell played just an ordinary common lad – definitely not the princess in disguise! And finally, we had Richard of the D20 Future Show as, checks notes, Jason Statham?!

Modified Roll’s Jordan took us and his players through another festive panto adventure!

As you can imagine it was a wild ride from start to finish. We enjoyed these brilliant performers play out Jordan’s twisted pantomime machinations through the medium of Dungeons and Dragons. Highlights included fighting a bread golem, tracking down magical rats, dealing with a berserk genie and Jason Statham deflecting the Earth with his fists!

I also enjoyed the innovative audience participation that involved cast members calling upon audience members to attempt to roll with advantage. Before the show, Jordan had hidden toy rats under certain sets. If the cast chose an audience member without a rat, they could get advantage, but if they chose someone with a rat, they would have to roll with disadvantage instead.

Seminar/Panel Highlights

As with last year’s Dragonmeet, there were way too many tabletop gaming talks I wanted to attend. With so many schedule conflicts on Saturday, I decided to focus on attending the talks that were happening on Sunday’s MuppetMeet event.

Taylor Navarro – Building Diverse Teams

Taylor Navarro is a TTRPG designer, project manager and founder of Dragonmeet’s PoC Lounge. She is increasingly becoming a well known figure for her work promoting diversity and PoC representation in the tabletop industry.

Taylor is a passionate PoC and diversity advocate. You’re going to want to listen to what she’s got to say!

Her talk was a passionate and authoritative one, highlighting the racial power imbalance in the industry and indeed in the room she was speaking in. She spoke about the many benefits of diverse creative teams. These included increased quality of storytelling and showcasing role models for aspirant PoC creators.

She also highlighted concrete things that individuals and companies to increase the diversity of the industry. These ranged from simple things like sharing PoC content and networking with diverse creatives, to showcasing PoC talent and creating spaces for uplift and education. She finished with an invitation for us to go from being allies to accomplices and to help her pull off this heist together! 

actual play vs. Actual Play panel

Actual Play (or actual play) is an emerging medium that still has somewhat of an identity problem. Whilst there has been a marked increase the popularity of recording and producing tabletop gaming sessions for entertainment, the term is still relatively unknown.

Ed Spence and the panel discuss the identity, values and future of the Actual Play industry.

To discuss the role of Actual Play in the TTRPG industry, Ed Spence chaired a panel of some of the best names in the UK Actual Play scene. Joining him were Liv Kennedy, Drakoniques and JC Darcy. Together, they discussed the various roles of Actual Play including learning about game systems, enjoying a story and pure entertainment. They also talked about relevant skills and backgrounds that fed into Actual Play such as audio editing, education and people management. There was also a lot said about what Actual Play could be doing more of, such as promoting diversity and uplifting small creators.

Networking & Community Highlights

Dragonmeet has a well deserved reputation as the friendliest tabletop gaming convention in the UK. Indeed, one of the great things about this year’s event was getting to interact in the various community events. Here are some of this year’s highlights.

UK TIN, PodcastZone & MuppetMeet Networking

Being involved in the UK Tabletop community is a wonderful thing. However, it can be quite isolating with so many working remotely on their own projects. This year, it was a real treat to have dedicated networking events on the Friday and the Sunday. Fiona spoke about how important it is to have a space to network that isn’t on the same day as the convention itself. Whilst she wasn’t able to attend the Friday event herself, TTRPG writer/editor, Lou Fryer, was on hand to make sure the event ran smoothly. Meanwhile, Soul Muppet Publishing ran two networking events on the Sunday, giving folks ample opportunities to meet up with their staff and other industry professionals.

These networking events offer a rare opportunity to meet in person and connect with creators you admire. It is also a great opportunity to meet new faces and encounter exciting new projects. There are some things in the works for 2025 I’m looking forward to sharing with you soon!

Role Play Haven – Role Together

Role Play Haven are are group that run TTRPG clubs all across the UK. At Dragonmeet, they organized many tabletop gaming sessions throughout the day for people to get involved in myself. It was a joy to see so many people enjoying games with friends and strangers. I spoke to some of the volunteers running the games who reveled in the chance to introduce new players to games and all the unpredictability that comes with that!

PoC Lounge

I wasn’t a part of the PoC Lounge for obvious reasons, but it was a pleasure chatting with Taylor afterwards about the Lounge’s success. Throughout the day, the lounge had great attendance, with over twice the amount of unique attendees and people in the lounge at one time. All of the talks and events were recorded and will be available for free in the coming weeks. You can follow Taylor on Bluesky for more details on how to access them.

In the future, Taylor is planning on moving the panels out of the PoC Lounge into the main seminar tracks so that everyone can benefit from them.

Dragonmeet Awards 

This year was the first year for the newly revived Dragonmeet Awards to recognize tabletop gaming excellence. There was a great turn out and a very supportive atmosphere. This year’s winner was Chaosium with their Runequest Starter Set.

The Future of Dragonmeet

This year’s Dragonmeet was a sellout success with tickets running out a week before opening. To paraphrase that Jaws quote, “we’re going to need a bigger venue”.

Dragonmeet Operations Director, John Dodd, is currently in the process of negotiating the use of London’s Excel for Dragonmeet 2025. The space they’re looking at renting will have over three times the capacity of the current space they’re using at the Novotel. It will also allow much more room for shows, gaming spaces and exhibitor spaces. Fiona spoke about the PodcastZone becoming a staple of Dragonmeet. The move to the Excel will allow for more space for exhibitors and a dedicated stage for live shows.

On top of that, he also talked about establishing Dragonmeet 2, a smaller event is looking to take place Spring 2025 in Kensington Town Hall. Whilst things are still up in the air, the event is looking to focus on setting up game spaces and helping introduce people to the hobby. Expect more details early 2025.

Whatever happens, John is very keen to keep Dragonmeet friendly, affordable and accessible for attendees, exhibitors and everyone else taking part in tabletop gaming. He believes that by keeping prices down, especially for indie creators, the people who make Dragonmeet what it is can continue to benefit this supportive, creative space. Part of the idea of extending the weekend with Friday’s networking evening and Sunday’s MuppetMeet was to use funds to help uplift the tabletop gaming community. He says:

It’s not about the money. It’s about bringing people together, having a good time and keeping them safe.

How To Get Involved in Dragonmeet 2025

If you want to get involved in next year’s Dragonmeet, there are several ways you can do so. You can give a talk, become a sponsor or book a space for exhibiting your products by filling out out a general enquiries form. If you would like to run a game session, you can register through the Gaming portal on the website. Maybe you’re interested in taking part in the PodcastZone, if which case you can get in touch to request a stall or apply for a show slot during the day.

Every part of Dragonmeet is dependent on the work of volunteers to make sure things run smoothly. If you are interested in helping bring that Dragonmeet magic, you can fill out this volunteer form. John Dodd has said that he always welcomes new ideas and initiatives for Dragonmeet. That is how we’ve ended up with amazing Dragonmeet features such as the POC Lounge and the PodcastZone.

Fiona was especially keen to bring in volunteers to support the PodcastZone. Having more people to help on the day with organising meet ups, photographers, social media and supporting attendees will go a long way. Anyone who is interested in helping out the PodcastZone in particular can email po***********@***il.com with the title ‘PodcastZone Volunteer @ PodcastZone 2025’.

Remember, whilst it may seem early, the interest in Dragonmeet is growing year on year so if you are interested in getting involved, you might want to get in touch early to avoid disappointment.