I do reserve the right not to include events that appear to be only very marginally relevant to RPG'ing, and I admit to some bias in favour of 'tabletop' RPGs. No offence or judgement is intended; it's just that I've only got so much space and time for this thing, and I feel entitled to my prejudices. I may mention some live-action events, but my coverage of those is probably all too patchy; LARP fans should search out specialist 'Web sites or magazines for more complete information.
I sometimes list some board game, wargame, and CCG cons and similar, lower down this page, for completeness. Anyone looking for a really complete events listing site should look elsewhere - say, upcoming.org, although that doesn't seem to have any games-related content at the time of writing this.
Calendar File Form: Roger Burton West has set up a site which converts this page to standard calendar file format, and updates that file periodically. See http://firedrake.org/infobot/ics/conventions.ics for this. Or - I'm told that by using webcal://firedrake.org/infobot/ics/conventions.ics instead, you should be able to "subscribe" to this calendar.
If you want your convention mentioned here, or you wish to correct my description of your event, PLEASE e-mail me with one or two paragraphs of information. Please mention events planned, whether or not there'll be space for trade stands, and expected numbers attending. HTML format codes in the text will be preserved, within reason.
31st May-1st June: UK Games Expo, at the Clarendon Suites, Hagley Road, Birmingham. A follow-up to the successful 2007 event, with "a much expanded Roleplaying Games Section", including a first chance to play the new 4th Edition of Dungeons and Dragons, a pre-release demo of the new Dr Who game, new indie games via Cubicle 7, appearances by British Isles Traveller Support and the Steve Jackson Games Men in Black, and also a "Living Dungeon -- an interactive living action roleplay experience". Companies set to appear include Pinnacle, Collective Endeavour, Mongoose, Cubicle 7, and WotC.
The online booking system for the con should have come on line on the 1st of March. See http://www.ukgamesexpo.co.uk/ for further details of the whole event.
4th-6th July: Summer Stabcon 2008, at the Britannia Hotel, Stockport. Another in a very long-running series of friendly, small-scale general games conventions, always featuring a good number of RPGs. Weekend membership is £15 at present, rising at some point in the future; one-day membership is also available. The con has a minimum age limit of 18 in general, but enquire about babes-in-arms, accompanied 16-year-olds, etc.
Accommodation is of course available in the hotel; check with the organisers for con rates. All such questions can be addressed to bookings@stabcon.org.uk, STABCON, 17 Davenport Park Road, Stockport, Cheshire, SK2 6JU, or 0161 483 9131.
1st-4th August: Continuum 2008, at John Foster Hall ("also known as New Hall"), Leicester University. It's still early days for the latest in this series, but prices have been set; registration will open "very early December 2007". Early-Bird membership is £20.00 before 1st April 2008; standard membership is £35.00 after that date. Kids with an adult are free. En suite Accommodation for all three nights is £35.00 per night; for one or two nights it's £40.00 per night.
For more information, including booking arrangements, watch http://www.continuum.uk.net.
15th-16th August: Grand Tribunal, in Cheltenham. (Precise location not yet specified.) An event dedicated to the Ars Magica RPG, with Guest of Honour David Chart, the game's Line Editor, and confirmed Special Guests Neil Taylor, Sheila Thomas, Mark Shirley and Mark Lawford. "More to follow!" The cost at present for an advance ticket for the whole convention is £8 - "this is the early bargain rate, as we need to raise money to book venues now". See http://gt08.ekkaia.org/page/About for additional details, or e-mail chris.romer@blueyonder.co.uk.
22nd-25th August: Discworld Convention 2008, at the Hilton Metropole Hotel, Birmingham. Gets a mention here because past cons in the series have featured some gaming. See http://www.dwcon.org.
28th-31st August: Gen Con UK 2008, at Reading University. So far, the organisers have only announced the intention to run this, which would presumably still be the UK's biggest hobby games convention - but at least we have a date. Watch http://www.genconuk.com/ for updates.
27th September: Concrete Cow '08½, at The Old Bath House, 205 Stratford Road, Wolverton, Milton Keynes, MK12 5RL. If this follows the pattern of previous events, it'll run from 9:00am-11:00pm, first games starting at 10am. Organised by Milton Keynes RPG Club; to quote the announcements of previous events in this series: "Any roleplaying or board game. You want to play it, bring it along and run it". Watch http://wiki.mk-rpg.org.uk/index.php/ConcreteCow for more details, or e-mail concrete-cow-owner@yahoogroups.com.
4th October: GamesFest 3, at the Victoria Hall, Akeman Street, Tring, Herts., from 10am to 7pm. The organisers are using substantially more of the venue than they did for the 2007 version (three halls rather than one), and aiming to charge less on the door. There was only a little RPG play last time, but we can hope that, with more space, there might be more of everything; in announcements so far, they're promising "WH40K RPG, Warhammer Role Play, D&D, Call of Cthulhu, Deadlands, Savage Worlds". Guests are Stan Nicholls, Graham McNeil, Mark Chadbourn, and David J Rodger. See http://www.gamesfest.co.uk/ for more details, or e-mail austin@gamesfest.co.uk.
18th-19th October: Furnace, at The Garrison Hotel, Sheffield. The organisers say that they guarantee "five sessions of table top roleplaying goodness and the usual warm and friendly atmosphere", and that there'll be space for 70+ delegates. Membership is £10/day or £20 for the weekend. See http://rpgfurnace.com/ for more details, or write to Furnace, c/o 4 Fields End, Sheffield, S36 8WH.
1st-2nd November: Game 08, at the Sheridan Suite, Manchester. "(www.sheridan1838.co.uk). RPG, LARP and Freeform Roleplaying will be run in a comfortable setting with open bar, traders, special guests and 25000 sq ft of gaming in a single hall and two side rooms." See http://gamecon.game-host.org for more information.
7th-9th November: IndieCon 08, at the Holbourne Naish Holiday Village, Christchurch. Accommmodation is available from Thursday the 6th onwards, at a range of prices, including con membership; day passes cost £10 for one day or £20 for two or three days. "The Independent Publishers' RPG Convention ... Indiecon 08's mission is to provide a friendly, relaxed and flexible gaming atmosphere where players can play new games, their favourite classic games and playtest the games of tomorrow. Gamers will be encouraged and incentivised to try a lot of games and really go away from the event with some great memories and new gaming ideas." See http://www.indiecon.net/ for full details. (Incidentally, that says 7th-10th November, but games only seem to be taking place on the 7th-9th.)
29th November: Dragonmeet 2008, at the Kensington Town Hall, London. More details to follow, but this is one of the big events in the UK RPG calendar.
23rd-25th January: Warpcon 19, at University College Cork, Ireland. Guest of Honor is John Kovalic. Watch http://www.warpcon.com/ for more details.
??-?? February: Conflagration, at the Queen Margaret Union, Glasgow. I don't even have a specific date for this one yet, but it's described as "Glasgow's annual gaming convention"... Watch http://www.conflagration.org.uk.
14th March: Concrete Cow '09, at The Old Bath House, 205 Stratford Road, Wolverton, Milton Keynes, MK12 5RL, probably (from past experience) from 9:00am-11:00pm, with first games starting at around 10am. Organised by Milton Keynes RPG Club; to quote the announcements of previous events in this series: "Any roleplaying or board game. You want to play it, bring it along and run it". This has only just been announced; watch http://wiki.mk-rpg.org.uk/index.php/ConcreteCow for more details, or e-mail concrete-cow-owner@yahoogroups.com.
28-29th March: TravCon 09. Dates still provisional, and may be subject to change! Probably at a location near Sawtry, just off the A1M. A Traveller convention, a follow-up to a successful 2008 event, run by British Isles Traveller Support. "It is mainly a residential con, limited to 25-30 people, though some day passes may be available..."
31st July-2nd August: Constitution, at at New Hall, Castle Hill, Cambridge. A "roleplaying, science fiction and fantasy convention run by the fans responsible for Recombination [in 2007]" - in fact, the next British Roleplaying Society convention, following Baroquon, Rocococon, Conjuration, and Consternation. Not many details announced yet, but the roleplaying side of this event has a long history. Membership is currently £20 "but prices will rise closer to the convention"; under-18s get reduced rates - see the 'Web site. Accommodation will be available in the college; single en-suite £52.50 per night, twin en-suite £75.00 per night. For more details, see http://www.constitution-con.org.uk/, or e-mail info@constitution-con.org.uk.
There are also numerous clubs and regular public games group meets, some of which come and go, some of which last a while. One regular meeting that may be of interest is that organised by Gameforce, who also run the annual Dragonmeet; they hold club meets in The Black Horse, 6 Rathbone Place, London, W1T 1HH, on the third Sunday of each month, running 2pm-9pm. For details, contact Angus Abranson on info@gameforcehq.org, phone 020 8346 2327 (9.30am to 6pm) or join the Gameforce Community on Livejournal - http://community.livejournal.com/gameforce/.
For board games conventions, one place to look is the UK Boardgame Convention News mailing list; see http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/uk-con-news/.
