As the event grows bigger, so does what we have to say about it...
Over 72,000 people joined us at UKGE this year compared to last years attendance of 65,000.
In keeping with this years theme of space, we blast off with this article straight to the vibes, uniqueness and overall summary of the experience. We’ll cut all the boring bits out (there were none).
From niche old school sci-fi miniatures to a new D&D Adventurer’s League EPIC game, we’ll explore what we found to be true for UK Games Expo 2025.
So buckle up, remain seated, grab a cup of tea (or coffee) and enjoy the ride as we take to the Stars with our wrap for this years UK Games Expo.
Handmade dice (that were actually really lovely!) and gaming accessories from DarkSkyDice, I picked up one of their cool tiny D20 dice potions for a friend as it was such a cute gift!
This immersive leaflet I received from Gametee who had a variety of amazing accessories for gamers and Game Masters alike
Upon arrival...
Arriving at the expo was easy as normal, no major queues, we just simply walked in and picked up our passes. One does not simply walk into UKGE, but you literally do if you buy your pass in advance! So do it!
We picked up the arena map and the programme this year featuring their iconic dragon mascot wearing an astronaught’s helmet and, well, we got straight to it! I won’t bore you with the details so I will get straight to the first sensory revelation that I experienced: the sight.
This year, there were definitely much more people than last. The numbers for the weekend were 72,000, and every year the expo brings in more and more people, which makes it the largest in the UK and currently third largest in the world. It was incredible to see so many more people enjoying this event and experiencing everything from the VR games such as The Human Controller to a wider variety of stalls selling everything from dice to geeky themed accessories. But, as opposed to a lot of events, I didn’t see any AI slop at all, a lot more hand-crafted beautiful vendors were here and I explored some really unique ones which I genuinely can’t wait to showcase to you!
As I wondered around the large halls of the Birmingham NEC, I headed towards Tritex Games who have been there since day 1 (I believe 2007) when the UKGE was first hosted at the Hilton, right beside the NEC. I’d pre-ordered a bunch of WizKids miniatures they sell and a couple of my friends also needed to grab minis for an Adventurer’s League game which we’d booked in for the Friday night.
For those of you who don’t know, D&D Adventurer’s League is the official organised play for Dungeons & Dragons – that is, you can create a character under certain rules and play anywhere at any time, so long as it’s logged. Characters are organised into 4 Tiers, with Tier 1 being levels 1-4, Tier 2 being levels 5-10, Tier 3 being 11-16 and Tier 4 being level 17-20, adventures are quick, to the point and you usually play with randoms which makes for some fun stories.
So back to the expo – I had a lot to explore as I kept a very robust itinerary this year, the press release list was very active and there were a lot of people with grand ideas and I just had to check them out, were they as fantastic as they said they were?
I spoke to the ever-humble Jason who is the owner of Tritex Games and the convo was so incredibly wholesome. Like most of the the vendors there, he puts in a lot of effort at the event and as mentioned, has been there since the first ever expo. I asked him how he was finding the expo as he always has a prime spot, is always busy and is non-stop! He told me he does it for the love of the community and every person who pops by his stall is another person to engage with.
Jason’s knowledge of the gaming community goes far and wide, and I highly recommend you check his shop out. My friends picked up their minis, and we headed off to look at the stalls and wonder around for a bit. My friend Simon had come to this expo for the first time and was absolutely addicted to the Magic: The Gathering tournaments which were being held, he got a bunch of free stuff such as a gaming mat and event exclusive booster pack just for participating. So that’s where we left Simon – at the MtG crèche; he absolutely loved the event from a card tournament gaming point of view and he wants to join us again next year.
Our first stop at the expo...
Navigating to stall 3A-660 I found what I was looking for – a lovely card game that I had been keeping track of since I read about it, Driving Me Crazy by indie developers Simplexity Games. The chief mastermind, Dixon Block (what a cool name ay!) and his pals at Simplexity were choc-a-bloc as people had flocked to this stall but he still found time to immediately usher us over to play test the game.
Firstly, the game comes in a very sweet, robust and creatively designed campervan style box with magnetic flip lid. The cards are good quality and the artwork is very unique, it reminded me of the artwork you’d see on old-school SNES game covers with a modern enhancement.
We sat down and play tested the game, the goal is to pick up a hand (minimum 4 cards, with an unlimited hand count) and either place a piece of road (with a goal to reach a certain KM) or play one of three other card types: something to aid you, something to completely f**k over your friends, or one card that completely swaps everyone’s hand, changing the game pace. WARNING: THIS GAME WILL CREATE GRUDGES. You also can’t overshoot your destination, so the cards come in increments to help with this.
I don’t want to spoil the game because, as simple as it was, it did actually have so many combos you could play, we had 4 people almost win the game but each time, someone had a card that could cancel the winning card for that person and we ended up having a proper laugh (sorry Ben but you started it).
Dixon was hands down one of the nicest people we’d met at the convention, he holds down a day job and, echoing the words of Jason from Tritex Games, was doing this for the love of the community. You could tell from the entire team’s passion that this was the case, they wanted you to actually have fun and not just sell a product. This was their creation and Simplexity Games wanted you to experience it, whether you crashed out or crossed the finish line, fun was the main aim of the game.
You can back the project on Kickstarter by visiting their website. As our friend Ben said, it’s like Uno but with a Highways twist. 10/10 card game, 10/10 attitude, 10/10 liquorice sweets that they provided whilst we played. Thanks Dixon and co. we hope to see you again in the future!
FYI we all ended up backing it after we played it.
Dixon, the mind behind Driving Me Crazy, a fast-paced fun card game about arriving to your destination before your ‘friends’ do!
Röknauts - miniatures from the far future of 1994...
As I was walking around, tucked away in the corner, a stand stood out to me; the bright greens and glowing reds attracted my attention like a moth to light, stopping me from turning that corner. This stand unearthed something withing me – my inner child – and it brought me back to the 1990’s.
Wet Wet Wet’s Love Is All Around is playing from every radio in all the high street shops, Tony Blair had just been elected as the new leader of the British Labour Party (and would go on to win the 1997 election) and, in keeping with the grimdark theme, every news channel was showing the horrors of 25 Cromwell Street in Gloucester all over the chunky TVs of 1994. You walk past a shop that sells Hi-Fi stereos, TV’s and media electronics, Blockbuster is just next door (conveniently allowing you to rent out tapes of your favourite movies) and you hear one of the TV’s announcing the opening of the new Channel Tunnel, a big achievement for engineering which now connected the UK to mainland Europe.
Next door to this, a teenage boy walks out of the door to a black framed shop sporting a yellow and red logo, the boy though – he’s no older than 20 and he’s sporting classic curtains, whilst wearing baggy, ripped jeans, probably a thick striped jumper and most definitely listening to a CD Walkman which hangs by his side – listening to Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana. Despite the tragic passing of Kurt Cobain, he has a smile on his face and carries a black plastic bag bearing the same logo as the store front. You look up at the sign, it reads Games Workshop.
Inside, the walls are lined with pewter miniatures in little greyish coloured packets, boxes of plastic soldiers, both sci-fi and fantasy themed, you glance around and see maybe three or four tables filled with tiny trees and hills with just as equally sized painted miniatures scattered across the tables, there’s bright green grass flock everywhere and a couple of people rolling dice. This is the scene most hobbyists are familiar with – the beginning of the hobby.
Flash-forward to 2025, only a few seconds pass by as I shake my head and realise that I’m standing in front of Ontos Games, another indie creator who makes Space Dwarves reminiscent of the old times, back to the days when miniatures had this vintage charm to them and the industry was just truly starting to gain momentum. Chris, the chap who is behind it all, showcased the miniatures and I decided to have a chat about the origins of his creation – the Röknaut’s.
A collection of Squats Röknaut’s painted and displayed by Ontos Games
Firstly, look how beautiful these models are! Creator Chris had deliberately designed these so that they can be easily painted, in the same vein that The Makers Cult make models that aren’t filled with greebles, but enough detail to add character. However, Ontos Games have kept that charm from 1994 within these miniatures with the small, squat stature of these Dwarves mixed with the old school green goblin painted bases and chunky armour.
“I was inspired by the Bucky O’Hare and Transformers Generation 2 comics” Chris tells me as people perused his stall, Chris even brought some copies of the comics he had and showed me them. I was pretty amazed at how well these miniatures actually captured the oldschool feel of the early days of tabletop gaming. “People use them for all sorts of games, Kill Team with the return of Votann, one guy recently bought a squad for Stargrave, some people just like the way they look.” Chris does have a OnePageRules game floating about (you can find out more by subscribing to the mail list) and displayed it at the event but it’s currently pending approval – so there is a design in place to use these miniatures solely in a quick-paced tabletop game outside of the ones you already love and know.
Similar to my interaction with Dixon, there was a profound sense of pride I also sensed in Chris which you could tell from the genuine smile and a passion for the art in every interaction he had with customers – especially in a market that’s saturated with poor quality, overpriced 3D printed minis. There was again, a genuine love for the hobby here. I highly rate these miniatures and the effort that Chris has put into both the design and production. I bought one box of 5 Röknauts so I could use them in Stargrave myself, but after returning to the Airbnb I found myself unpacking them and understanding how Gollum felt when he was in the presence of the One Ring. They were just so, so incredibly beautiful, these resin cast minis were clean, to the point and absolutely fantastic in every way; the more I looked at them, the more I fell in love with them and on top of that, they were beautifully packaged too.
I went back the next day and bought another box. I wanted to do these justice so I sent them off to Soton Miniatures who does amazing paint work on minis. In keeping with the vibe of Deep Rock Galactic, I gave Jonny free reign over these with some inspo art. Check out the minis below! You can contact Soton Minis either on the artist platform formerly known as Twitter, Instagram or on Fiverr.
A quick pit stop at RollMIGHTYLeather
Amidst the hustle and bustle of the expo was an indie leatherworks, one which sold some beautifully handcrafted innovative accessories for your tabletop needs. At stand 3A-155 we found a long stall occupied by husband and wife duo Steffan and Laura, aptly named RollMIGHTYLeather.
The stall boasted some very unique items such as dice holders, belts and other bespoke leather items, catered towards the nerdy community.
One of the focal points is The Adventure Rolling Tray or TART as they called it. This is a handmade tray that folds into a compact and unique dice holder – not like the ones you can buy online from a lot of the crafting shops – but one that is both practical and quite good looking in all honesty. I have too many dice bags myself to justify purchasing one, however there was something which caught my eye for both it’s uniqueness and beauty. That was the charm this stall seemed to imbue, there seemed to be something both useful and unique enough for you to at least give it thought.
See, I have a Cleric I play in Adventurer’s League which I had brought to the event and one of their themes is autumnal; I have an orange miniature, orange dice with maple leaves and flowers inside of them and even an orange folder for their sheets – but not an orange dice holder. The item that caught my eye was not a bag, it was something RollMIGHTYLeather had made with such skill that it cemented the truth of the words Steffan would later tell me. It was a dice tray that folded into a compartment, they sold them in green and autumnal colours so it was a tough choice to pick as both were equally as beautiful. It reminded me of the Lembas bread scene from The Lord of the Rings where the Hobbits take a break, opening up a leafy pouch containing the delicious Elven delicacy.
“What got you into leatherworking at this level?” I asked Steffan. Well, this adventure begins whilst he was in uni…
“It all started in a gloomy poorly lit computer lab… in the middle of winter…” he explains.
“I was searching for a craft to pick up, and just so happened to receive a newsletter from Instructables that was running a competition for leatherworking at the time.
…I only sought to look at pictures of a knife made from an old file which had an antler handle they were making a sheath for.
Much to my dismay there were few pictures of the knife itself, but as I was scrolling through, I saw a poorly executed attempt at what you could do with leather.”
After getting hands-on with leatherwork, he had now finished uni and was still dabbling in the hobby – but this time, he had an itch for wanting to explore it further. By chance, a famous leatherworks had opened up a store in the UK and Steffan begun working for them.
He goes on to explain “A few years of gainful employment later, I was learning every day… teaching the craft all around the UK and even in America. However, the time had come. I needed to decide where Laura and I were going to purchase a home, and start a family. Either in Manchester where we currently were, or back home in Sheffield where the free babysitting is.
As you can imagine, the free babysitting outweighed their current situation, so off Sheffield they went.
“During this time, I had taken on outsourcing work, some more generic work for wallets, bags and belts, and even things for Black Raven Armoury,”
Steffan goes on to explain that the move back to Sheffield was not a smooth one, and he had to stop the leatherwork.
“During this time me and my partner Laura got married, and whilst putting our life and future together, we began embracing our nerdy side more and more.”
As friendships bloomed, the dust settled for both Laura and Steffan and they formed a D&D group with some friends.
“I had during this time started to tinker with leather once more. Making small things for the group as the concept of RollMIGHTYLeather started to percolate in the back of my mind.
Playing from a small collapsible table, dice FLEW EVERYWHERE with space being limited, especially as a DM behind the screen with books and notes stacked around.”
Hand crafted accessories from RollMIGHTYLeather, the TART tray on the left and leafy leather dice tray/pouches on the right
This is the moment Steffan realised he wanted to pursue leatherworks seriously, combining both his passion for the craft with his love of the culture. Even through COVID, both Steffan and Laura worked hard to build up their business, and when Laura fell pregnant in 2022, there was still no stopping for RollMIGHTYLeather.
“Everything is done by hand, every stitch, every rivet, snap or clasp, all of the amazing colours you can see is all done by hand. We go to great lengths to ensure each and every product stands the test of time, by design and also by the way that we finish the leather.”
You could tell that this was high quality, bespoke handmade leather goods. A lot of care and attention to detail goes into the process, and it’s the journey behind both creators that adds to this already unique character which inevitably became RollMIGHTYLeather.
Three years later, here they are at UKGE 2025 showcasing the finest leather accessories ready for people to up their game with and utilise some good quality products. You can check RollMIGHTYLeather out via their Linktree here. Good luck in the future to both Steffan and Laura and we hope you see more innovative products from you in the future!
We finished up at the stall and headed back to the Airbnb before returning to the expo for our late night D&D shenanigans…
It’s now 7pm and we loitered around the Hilton car park; oh, and do you remember Simon who we mentioned earlier? The chap we were with who was addicted to MtG? A puff of smoke appeared and there he stood before us! The gang filled our bellies with mead and food and awaited our adventure…
Our last stop is where our adventure begins...
After fuelling up, we headed to the Hilton adjacent to the NEC to get involved with some serious gaming. This was a D&D Adventurer’s League epic adventure and it also happened to be everyone’s first time attending an epic adventure. All I can say is that it was incredible!
There were 8 tables of 6 players each, and we all played our own game which linked up to the overall storyline. It was, however, a race to the temple first with each group. Jack and I were on the same table with a group of 4 people who were friends with each other, this was their first Adventurer’s League game,
Jack and I were level 3 and the rest of the group picked pre-gen level 1’s.
Based in the Dragon dominated lands of Murghôm, in east Faerûn near Thay, our characters were hired by the Dragon Princes to find a temple in which there would be a magical potion that each prince wanted. The game was thematic, with the hosts having dressed up as the Dragon Princes and acting out scenes as they unfolded. We picked Skalnaedyr, and we headed off into the purple sands of Talos to find this mythical potion…
Out party consisted of my cleric, Tanathil The Fractured, Jack’s bard, Claude Von Lumi, a wizard, a druid, a fighter and a warlock, a very magic inclined party. Luckily, Tanathil’s sublclass is War Priest, making him a tanky healer with a lot of counteractive components.
The hosts explained the storyline to us and our DM got straight to it. We ventured into the sands of Talos, a desert which had magical purple coloured sand; sounds nice right? Wrong. The sand was giving wild outcomes to spellcasters which made it interesting when the time came to dust off some Dust Mephits. Tanathil wears a blindfold as they have in their backstory that they were blinded eons ago – this sight they see is a gift from the ancient God of time, Chronos, it’s sorta magical I guess. It made fighting the dastardly Dust Mephits easier as they tried to kick sand at us!
Anyway, I don’t want to ruin the adventure so I will paraphrase the rest.
How else do you say thank you to a Blue Dragon Prince(ss) who just saved your character from dying?
The wizard really had some bad rolls so I lent them a magic item I had, healed some adventurers and at one point, the wizard’s girlfriend (irl) said “I feel like you [the wizard] are Tanathil’s apprentice” which made me laugh. The group was a good bunch and we had fun. We explored an abandoned ruin, ran towards a storm, failed some saving throws, passed some saving throws, met a Sphinx, solved a riddle, battled some tigers, had an encounter with some brown mold and all the while you would get ‘edges’ which would help you move forward in the adventure and ‘setbacks’ which hindered progression. These would all ultimately add up in the end to determine which adventuring party made it to the temple first.
To our surprise, that adventuring party was us. We reached the temple before 42 other adventurers and the hosts stopped to read out the final part of the adventure. It turns out that one of the black dragon lords was a bit of a dick and tricked us into touching this magical altar, it ended up sticking us to it whilst it drained us of life to make this potion.
We were the magical potion.
But that didn’t sit well with us. We had to make a bunch of saving throws to pull ourselves off the altar and the other adventurers who were free would help pull off the others (so many jokes were made) but for some reason, I kept rolling terribly, like, really terribly to the point I ended up receiving 5 levels of exhaustion. Around us was a giant magical dome which prevented the other adventurers from the other tables from entering the altar area, and we could see ghosts fighting them as they were trying to smash through this magical barrier to help save us.
Tanathil The Fractured alongside my purchase from RollMIGHTYLeather
Anyway so I was one roll away from actually having Tanathil killed, I had a bardic inspiration from Claude Von Lumi which at this point meant nothing (thanks anyway Jack) and advantage on the roll from like 5 others trying to pull Tanathil from the evil clutches of the altar.
At this point, the table was full throttle, the entire party discussed how to save Tanathil, even the event organiser came over with a couple of the tournament hosts, it all relied on the roll of the dice. The only way I could be saved is if ONE of those D20’s rolled a natural 20, the chances of which were 9.75%.
I couldn’t do it and I knew it.
The moment that decided Tanathil’s fate
Everyone was tense, I was beyond biting my nails as I clutched my face, the organiser was telling me sorry in advance, the players at my table were all tense and one said “We got this far with Tanathil, surely this can’t be the end!?“
“It’s ok guys” I added “this was all for you, we got you this far and it’s been a pleasure, go on without me” and it TRULY HAD been a pleasure, I loved this session so much. It was busy, everyone was having fun, I had a couple of cans of elderflower mead I remember hearing a woman on a nearby table shout “NATURAL F**CKING TWENTY!” which made us laugh as their game continued.
I actually felt myself feeling a bit sad, I seemed to have formed a connection with Tanathil, and this was because I had made this character at a very interesting time of my life. I had been looking forward to playing Adventurer’s League as downtime to relax from the busy nature of adulthood and we’d had some fun recently playing in a group of friends locally. A dear friend of mine had passed recently and I had only attended his funeral the day before we set off to UKGE, Tanathil sorta distracted me from that. I found that I was not prepared to part ways with my new ethereal-travelling Elven friend – this character had character already.
The DM looked at me and I could tell he was sad, he didn’t want Tanathil to go and he exhausted all of his options to fairly help Tanathil make it up to the point where they were having their life drained at the altar, it was just unlucky dice rolls.
The lady who played Skalnaedyr passed by the table seeing all the ruckus and I told Skalnaedyr that, since she was the source of this quest, it needed to be her who rolled the dice. Something just told me it had to be her.
She agreed. The table all looked at her as I handed her my dice. Staff in one hand, dice rolling in the other she looked me in the eyes and rolled the dice AND SHE’D ONLY GONE AND DONE IT! Natural 20! She rolled a natural 20! Tanathil was saved! Everyone cheered and I jumped out of my seat with utter joy almost immediately.
I ran over to Skalnaedy and as we embraced each other I thanked her for saving Tanathil. I was so relieved, everyone was reeling with sheer happiness as the tension completely broke. The table went from the mindset of bittersweet champions to fate-driven heroes who all experienced a moment together, one we’ll never forget. With that, our DM said “So, would you like to help the adventurers outside of the dome break it down?”
“No, let’s sit this one out for a minute” one of us said. Our adventuring party sat in the middle of the temple as the battle raged on around us, Tanathil exhausted, covered in blood and sweat, kneeling slumped on the floor whilst the rest of the group hunched over him in a moment of clarity amidst the chaos.
This was another story to tell of our adventures, to tell our friends, to add more character to each and every person involved.
It’s these moments which make Dungeons & Dragons memorable.
Happiness, joy, laughter, sadness, teamwork, you name it, this game has it.
And it is also these moments which make our adventures in life memorable too.
This year at UKGE was definitely fun, and definitely much bigger, and as it continues to grow so does the community which it attracts – I implore you to come and explore it and create your own memories here.
We went to Sky Bar as is our tradition where we had a cocktail to send off the day. It was also surprisingly busy there too!
Next year, I am going to focus a lot more on the exhibitions and entertainment that is at the UKGE, there’s tonnes of it and I’d like to explore that side of the event.
With so much to do, everyone can tailor their visit at the event to their own preference, so be sure to check out the official UK Games Expo website and get ready for 2026!
Oh, I almost forgot, I did go and check out Fat Snags who were outside the Hilton again and really wish they did a black card or something, I had their blue cheese hotdog with chives and *chefs kiss* you’ve done it again boys! I’ll trade you a branded hat for a free hotdog in 2026?
Here’s to next year! *clinks hotdog*
– Rabs, The Saucerer
Above: a moment of relief, below: the blue cheese Hotdog from Fat Snags, also a moment of relief