A Call to Adventure - Kensington Town Hall Saturday 18th April 2026

1 Why I Went

As you know, on weekends where there aren’t any dedicated TTRPG conventions, I’ll try to find other events to go to. I like to offer to referee TTRPG sessions for people who haven’t played them before. It’s a great hobby and I want more people to know about it.

Along with that I’ve become quite adept at running short TTRPG games. A while ago I set the arbitrary limit of one hour for a game. But in that time the players have to experience a full story with a beginning and middle and end. No unfinished adventures and no sprawling battles.

So when I heard that one of the premier convention organisers in the country was setting up a completely FREE TTRPG convention with the specific intent of introducing new players to these wonderful games - especially families - of course I was interested and felt I would be able to contribute.

I say “families”, deliberately. Many people say they’re aiming to introduce children to the hobby but children always come with at least one of their parents.

(I have heard stories of parents bringing their children to events, leaving them at a table with a referee and going to browse elsewhere. No parent should ever do that and no reputable convention or referee would allow it.)

I thoroughly enjoy introducing families to TTRPGs. One of my favourite experiences is when parents bring their children to events hoping, I think, to find something to interest them that doesn’t involve a screen. They ask if their son or daughter can play in a game and say they’ll just watch.

I always say “no”. I ask them to sit at the table with their child. I say I’ll put a character sheet in front of them. They don’t have to play if they don’t want to but they need to sit with a character sheet.

Of course they soon get involved and start to enjoy themselves.

I have two main reasons for doing this. Firstly, I find that if a parent is watching their child play, they can fret or encourage or advise. They don’t mean to. They’re just trying to support but it’s like they’re auditing their child’s play. 

Secondly, when they do get sucked into the game it becomes a rare situation where parent and offspring are on equal footing. Dad or mum might be playing a cunning Wizard but their daughter is the stout warrior everyone is depending on.

I’m not interested in playing with children, but I am very interested in playing with families.

2 The Shape of the Convention

A Call to Adventure is a one day convention at Kensington Town Hall. Entry is completely free to attendees. It has been arranged as a community event, leveraging the ability of TTRPGs to bring disparate people together to create a real sense of togetherness.

I don’t know how it is organised behind the scenes. I think there is some official council support. It’s probably listed in one of their documents and an official community event. I don’t know if or how much traders who have stands at the event pay to have those stands.

I just know they were looking for TTRPG referees who could referee games for new players of all ages, and I consider that one of my specialities.

I didn’t do any research into how it is actually organised. I had a vision of a large hall full of people browsing and dropping into games and thought my own “Choose Your Adventure” set up would slot in easily.

When asked how I wanted to contribute I replied that I had everything ready to go. All I needed was a table and some chairs and I’d handle the rest.

I now realise this was arrogant. Of course the organisers knew what they were doing and had their own plans for the event. I should have asked how I could support what they were already organising.

The event was in four rooms over three floors. What I’ll call the “main” event took place on the ground floor. There was a room full of trade stands and another room packed with gaming activities for all ages.

As far as I can tell, the only TTRPGs on this floor were organised by a wonderful group who specialise in setting up and supporting inclusive local TTRPG clubs.

TTRPGs were split between a large room in the basement and a smaller one upstairs. There was some guidance that the basement room was for younger players and the top floor would be restricted to fourteen years and older. As it happened, none of the referees in the room felt they needed the restriction and younger people did come in to play later.

Yes, I’d been allocated a table in the upstairs room. I’d assumed I’d be in a busy hall with hundreds of people browsing and looking for games. Instead I was in a quiet room which felt like a typical TTRPG room at a convention.

Most of the referees at the nine tables in the room had submitted their games to the main desk, whose job it was to sign attendees up to games and send them upstairs. This was extremely slow to take off and, of course, there were no passersby for me to latch onto. I did get one, but when we couldn’t find a second player I suggested he move to an adjacent table where there was a Star Trek game in need of players.

One extremely experienced referee got no players at all and there was a young games designer in the room demonstrating a game she was developing. She didn’t seem to get any interest at all.

After a couple of hours, I took out a sandwich I’d brought with me and started eating it for lunch. Of course, this was the point at which a mother and her son came in - I think having exhausted activities downstairs and looking to see what was upstairs. I explained to them what I was offering, told them I could run a game for two players and that other people would probably join in as soon as we started.

3 Games Played and Games Run

Game 1: Offered the overwhelming choice of Fantasy, Superheroes, Science Fiction and Steampunk confused my prospective players, so I recommended my Steampunk scenario about a missing dinosaur - always a winner especially with children.

Though we didn’t actually attract any more players we still had an enjoyable game. I was struck - as I often am - how the mother’s player character was sensible and cautious whilst her son’s was more carefree and inventive. They complemented each other really well - co-operating as equals.

There are many quirky rules in my games. One which many people struggle with is that - if your character is going to lose a key encounter - they always choose to cheat. The player needs to narrate exactly how their character cheated and this has a serious effect on that character’s reputation - an important thing in a Steampunk world.

This young man had no issues with that. His explanation of how his gas technician character won his fight with the giant spider revealed him to be an absolute monster - in physical form as well as in his actions. He turned a throwaway character I created years ago into a hideous aberration worthy of an H G Wells novel. By the end of the game he was the first player ever to have reduced this character’s reputation to a level where he was actively wanted by the police for his actions.

This was not a precocious child showing off. This was an imaginative and inventive mind playing well within the rules of the game.

Game 2: As we were finishing off, a couple of teenage boys showed an interest. As soon as the previous game finished, I issued them characters and we started the exact same scenario again.

An older couple came into the room and I explained what we were doing and invited them to sit down and play. They all seemed to get along very well and we were having a good game before I slowly realised that they were the boys’ parents! I had an entire family at my table.

Halfway through, the experienced referee I mentioned earlier on, having no players of his own, joined in for the second half of the adventure.

Because they didn’t charge straight in, this group managed to split the usually unbeatable final encounter into two much more manageable fights and overcame the challenges of the scenario with relative ease. Another fun game.

I was finally able to finish my lunch.

Game 3: After a short while a young couple showed interest in a game. I’ll give you one guess which genre they chose.

I told you my Steampunk Missing Dinosaur game is popular. 

Luckily players are always so inventive that I never have the same game twice. I’m far from getting bored of running it.

Shortly after starting a couple with a young son joined in. I don’t know his age but he was clearly younger than my player of earlier on and was - shall we say - extremely enthusiastic. Despite his mother’s suggestion that he use the dice I offered, he insisted on going into his mother’s bag and getting out his own personal dice. A real gamer in the making.

The original young couple were incredibly welcoming. We had another great game. I think we all supported the enthusiastic and inventive younger player without pandering to him. I know I didn’t. I did let him roll his dice first in every round but that was about it.

After that game it was time to clear up and I had time to go for a quick pint with some friends before heading home.

4 Play Reflections

Three games just about made the day a success. I had diverse and interesting players who made every game unique and enjoyable.

It reinforced my opinions about TTRPGs being good for families to play together. None of the parents’ characters tried to wield parental influence over their offspring’s alter egos. All player characters had equal agency and spotlight. And the children in both games understood the need to act within the rules. It was great.

I haven’t had any direct feedback, but I think I’m a good referee for families. I neither patronise nor pander to younger players and treat them pretty much the same as more grown up ones.

At my table, everyone’s just their player character.

5 Cost, Time, and Value

How I calculate this:

This section looks at what the convention cost me, as a participant, and what that worked out as per hour of actual gaming. It is intended as an illustrative case study rather than a universal guide.

I do not include routine food costs, as I would incur these whether or not I attended.

I do report on the cost of a pint of lager as this is an important metric for some of my readers.

My travel costs reflect my own circumstances (travelling from Birmingham and making use of available rail discounts), so readers should treat the numbers as indicative rather than directly transferable.

Headline figures

Convention cost (ticket): £0
Travel cost: £28.84
Accommodation cost: £0 - 1 day event

Total convention-specific cost: £24.84

Total hours of gaming (played and run): 3

Approximate cost per hour of gaming: £8.28

Cost of a pint of lager: £7.60 - not in the venue but at a nearby pub.

6 What I Took Away

A Call to Adventure is an amazing event with its heart in the right place. I wish more official bodies would recognise the power and potential of TTRPGs to do good in the world.

My first experience of the event was skewed by the fact that I thought I knew what it was. I expected it to align exactly with what I do to promote the hobby. Instead I should have asked how the convention was organised and what I could do to help.

The support for TTRPGs in the planning for the event had its heart in the right place. Half of the available space was allocated to TTRPG games in rooms where they could be played easily. A large number of great TTRPG referees were recruited. But in the attempt to create calm gaming space for the TTRPGs, I found the rooms a bit underwhelming.

There were disruptions on the Tube, apparently, and Kensington is out of central London and requires good transport links to get to, but I can’t help wondering if there was some way to drive more punters to the TTRPG rooms.

I could never organise an event as ambitious as this and it’s not my place to criticise those that do. I will make suggestions as part of my feedback. I have one good idea which is to give young people who arrive a Treasure Hunt to complete - one of which should be “played a TTRPG”.

I thoroughly enjoyed this event despite the slow start. I enjoyed gaming with families. I will be back next year but I’ll either integrate with the wider convention organisation or try to find some way to be myself placed right in the middle of the action.