[generic] UKGamesExpo 2021 - no roleplaying events?

AndyE

Rune Priest
Just been reading this: https://www.ukgamesexpo.co.uk/content/news/uk-games-expo-2021-whats-happening/

It doesn't say explicitly that there'll be no roleplaying events, but with no Hilton and limited events in general, it pretty much sounds like no roleplaying this year.

Which for me, defeats the object in going. The Trade show was great, but it was something I did for a couple of hours in the breaks.

On the plus side I only just realised the holiday I've booked clashes, so I won't feel bad about it.
 
It explicitly says that roleplaying info will be included in updates coming later in spring.

I would guess that details won't become concrete till a few weeks before the event. Including whether it goes ahead live or online. If it's live, given the reduced space and greater spacing required inside, expect it to be a much more basic event holding the space till next year.
 
Yes. It says there’ll be a reduction in roleplaying but doesn’t say there won’t be any.

However, even a reduction is enough to give me an excuse to skip it. It’s just too tight for me.
I’m looking at 2022 with some possible specials in autumn ‘21.
 
It makes sense since role playing games would have at least four to five people in close proximity for four hours.
On the otherhand for shopping around the halls, the time spent in close proximity is less, if the stalls are not packed close.
The biggest challenge would be the queues, but again with good ventilation, vaccines and masks, the risk is less than sitting round a table for hours.
 
It makes sense since role playing games would have at least four to five people in close proximity for four hours.
On the otherhand for shopping around the halls, the time spent in close proximity is less, if the stalls are not packed close.
The biggest challenge would be the queues, but again with good ventilation, vaccines and masks, the risk is less than sitting round a table for hours.

But they're having open gaming which is the same thing, but worse as you'll be probably be crowding round a board, touching the same game pieces. I'd argue the shopping round the halls is a bigger risk, thousands of people going round the halls pawing at stuff they might want to buy.

They haven't said there won't be roleplaying events, but with no Hilton, and from my recollection they've often given off a 'we're doing you a favour by having roleplaying events' vibe I've got a feeling they'll ditch them or at least gut them.

It feels a bit like a damage limitation exercise this year for the Expo, limp along and then look forward to 2022
 
I've made no formal decision about Expo yet, but I think it's fair to say that mentally I've written it off.

A few weeks ago Tabletop Scotland sent out a survey asking 'Under what conditions would you come to the show', and that made me think seriously about what I thought were going to be acceptable precautions.

My baseline requirement is 'I've been vaccinated'. That's non-negotiable, and should have been achieved by the end of July. But for table play I'm also looking for masks, increased ventilation and some sort of distancing, or possibly those perspex screens the TV shows are using (pipe dream, I know). I have no basis for these requirements other than gut feel and existential terror, you understand.

I just don't think it's affordable to put those sorts of measures in place for the number of people who are likely to attend Expo, so unless I'm proven wrong I'll be staying away.

Maybe by autumn the case numbers will have dropped low enough for long enough that I'm not feeling paranoid. I certainly hope so, as I have a booking at ConDensed in November that was held over from last year. But the experts say we'll be seeing the next winter surge by then, so it sounds like I'll be hiding at home until summer 2022.
 
It's a tough call. I'm almost certainly not going, or I will mask up, vaccinated, and attend as an extended treat shopping day.

We will have similar thoughts for Furnace, at the Garrison Hotel in October.
 
It is tough. I want to go to Expo, not least because I usually do it as a networking thing to make face-to-face contact with potential clients, as well as catching up with friends. But I suspect my mental gymnastics might revolve around most of the usual visitors being made to stay away...

Regardless, for me there's not much point thinking about it or taking a position this far out. I haven't been booking hotels, and although it'd be nice to change that, this is not the year.

Furnace in October is the first con that I have confidence might be possible. I'd love to be proved over-pessimistic!
 
They haven't said there won't be roleplaying events, but with no Hilton, and from my recollection they've often given off a 'we're doing you a favour by having roleplaying events' vibe I've got a feeling they'll ditch them or at least gut them.

I doubt they’ll be ditched completely. There are some very pro-RPG voices in their camp.
 
I haven't been to the last couple of live Expo's mostly because the returns for running games are not really worth it any more and the crush in the trade hall isn't fun (even worse than Dragonmeet). Might do a one day next time it's at the NEC, purely for social reasons but that's going to be 2022 at least.
 
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