Dahn Sarf - The First Flourishes of Spring

28th March - London 2026

1. Why I Went

Dahn Sarf is not a convention. It is an occasional games day held in London. But it is organised like a mini-convention. 1 day, 2 game sessions. Games submitted in advance. Organised and booked via Warhorn.

It is very well organised. I’ve been to 1 before. Getting to and from London from Birmingham is easy and can be cost efficient if you know your stuff. So if I have a weekend where there’s nothing else on - I’m trying to do something every weekend in 2026 remember - I’ll happily attend a Dahn Sarf.

And I didn’t have anything else to do on the Weekend of 28th March.

2. The Shape of the Convention

The organiser seems to be one-man band. Apparently someone once said to him that “the North” seemed to get all the good conventions so he decided to set one up himself.

He publishes and promotes events long time in advance - each with its own sub-title. Dahn Sarf V is in May. I’ll miss this one as I’m at Northstar - in “the North”. Dahn Sarf - Hot in the City is in July. I haven’t planned that far ahead yet. I should have done.

He asks people to submit games and posts them on WarHorn. I think he does some slight vetting of games versus expected player numbers. People sign up to the games using the usual Warhorn system.

A wide range of game systems is submitted. The demographic trends toward the Grog and away from the latest iteration of the most popular Dragon game. Games fill up quickly. People LIKE this event.

The venue is a bar in London. Not a pub, I’d say. A bar. One of a chain of modern trendy shabby chic industrial looking bars promoting their own range of beers. Because of recent issues with the brand, the bar used previously for Dahn Sarf, the one I was familiar with, was unavailable but the event had been offered space at another.

It made no difference to me. Once you get to London, you use the Underground. Sorted!

Apparently the bars are busy during the week but welcome the extra trade brought in by a Dahn Sarf event at the weekend.

There is no charge for attending this event. I presume the extra trade the event brings in means the venue doesn’t charge for the use of the premises.

I submitted 2 games and bought the cheapest train ticket I could.

My cheap ticket got me into London far too early. One of the features of using these bars is that doors don’t open until 11am, so I’d researched a nice place to eat breakfast and work on my iPad near the venue.

As it turned out the escalators from Euston down into the Underground station were out of action and rather than look into what was happening - and having been warned about disruption on the buses that day - I decided to walk to the event.

Chilly but sunny. It was a lovely walk through the nice parts of our capital. I passed a shop which apparently sold classic umbrellas and sword-sticks. Alas its beautiful antique windows were full of cheap Chinese plastic.

The bar I was looking for was right in the middle of London’s theatre district. The place I’d researched for my breakfast wasn’t nearby and, when I finally found it, it turned out to be a bit too trendy for my tastes so I ended up waiting in a McDonald’s opposite the convention venue.

As it turned out the convention has been given a small room beneath the main bar. Most of the tables weren’t perfect for tabletop roleplaying games but most of the attendees were middle-aged men who, I suspect, haven’t yet grown out of their student days and everyone seemed happy to rough it. There were a couple of booths which were a bit cosy for a full group but which worked well.

There was no bar in the room but you could order drinks and food using a QR code on the tables, which is what most people seemed to do.

3. Games Played and Games Run

Because I was focussing on other events, by the time I submitted my 2 games, a load of other games had already been submitted and these were full. There were very few people left to sign up for my games. For a while it looked like one might run but then people started dropping out of other games and my players decamped.

If I was a worrier I would have fussed that I might be left with no games to run and no games to play in. But I trusted the organiser would sort things out at the event.

The communications before the event were excellent with general and personal emails from the organiser keeping everyone up to date. If I hadn’t been monitoring Warhorn, I would still have known what was happening with sign-ups because he went out of his way to keep me up to date.

Despite everything, I still fully prepared both my games. Even though I knew they probably weren’t going to run, I feel it’s professional to be ready, just in case. And, anyway, that just means I’m prepared for the next event.

As it happened, one of the other Referees dropped out at the last minute and it looked for a short while that one of my games might run after all. That didn’t work out.

The bar opened at 11am. The organiser did an introductory announcement. Most attendees knew each other, knew their Referees and settled right down to game. The Referee called me and 2 other people together and explained that we were 3 people without games. 2 of us were Referees. The choices were we could make a game between us or he could “try to” distribute us amongst the other games. The other 2 people seemed to be together. I checked that both of us Referees were happy to run with 2 players and asked the third person if she would be happy to play in a 2 player game - which she was. Rather than get in a bidding war, I deferred to let the other referee run his game.

Slot 1 - Saturday 11:15 - 14:30

This was a Robin Hood style game using a game system called “Troika”. It was the first time this Referee was using this system and this setting. Set a few years after the usual Robin Hood - King John was actually King now - it didn’t feature Robin Hood and wasn’t set in Nottingham but everything else was the same. A Sheriff, a Forest, Taxes etc.

I made a defrocked monk, thrown out of his order for daring to say that the Church shouldn’t support the oppression of the people. The other player - who it turned out was quite new to roleplaying - made a charming peasant girl who conned her way through life. We’d both turned “wolfs-head” and along with 2 NPC rascals were doing good deeds by robbing evil merchants to give the money to the poor.

The system meant the character I made had a less than 1 in 3 chance of succeeding in anything he attempted. 1/3 of all characters created will be in this position. So I had to role-play as much as possible and try to avoid direct confrontations.

It was a bit frustrating but the Referee and other player were excellent and I had great fun.

We ordered food to our table and at lunch during the game, so the late start didn’t affect us much.

Slot 2 - Saturday 15:00 - 19:00

The organiser personally sought me out to offer me options for the afternoon game. I elected to join a game of Feng Shui for some classic Hong Kong chop-socky action.

This was another game I’d never played before. There were some excellent pregens and I chose to play The Bounty Hunter - who seemed a bit like John Wick to me.

The other 2 players chose to play a Martial Artist and an out-of-time Samurai.

The Referee was extremely well organised with maps, standees, initiative tracker, tokens and all the dice we needed. The 2 small tables we were using were unsuited for all this gear but we managed.

Again I bumped up against the system a bit. If you’ve ever watched a Hong Kong action film you’ll know the action is fast but each fight goes on for a long time with combatants hitting and being hit many many times before finally going down. This scenario was basically 3 long fights which didn’t suit me.

Also a lot of the cover stuff in the rules was obviously visible to the Referee but not overtly clear to the players. I’m glad the Referee didn’t explain it all to us because that would have made the fights drag even more.

But, again, the other 2 players and Referee were fun and made this a far more enjoyable session than it had any right to be.

During this session, clearly the bar upstairs was filling up and small groups of young - bemused looking - people started filing down from upstairs, drinks in hand, to find tables in amongst all the gaming. It was all a bit odd but not problematic in the least.

Because there were only 3 players that under-ran and finished at 6pm, which was perfect for me.

When I emerged into the sunlight, however, I was overwhelmed. London had been so quiet when I arrived in the morning. Now I was in London’s theatre district during its rush hour. I loved the London Underground but my journey back to Euston was as crammed with humanity as I’ve ever seen.

Still, I’m glad I decided not to walk back. The streets were just as packed.

4. Play Reflections

There were just over 30 people present at this Dahn Sarf. In the small room this was noisy but not unpleasantly so. It had a really nice feel. And excited buzz. In fact, about 12 confused punters were able to come down from upstairs towards the end to find tables and have their own conversations with no issues.

The venue is in a good location - right in the middle of London’s West End.

There is no such thing as a perfect sign-up system. For most attendees this is a regular event. People look forward to it, know each other, know the games they want to play and who with. This can seem a bit insular. And there is no way to account for this using the Warhorn system. Games are published, games book out.

This is all right and good. This is a regular London event and it has regular attendees. I would recommend anyone in or near the capital get their feet under the table with Dahn Sarf. They are fun, well organised events. I’d just worry it doesn’t become too popular and get over-crowded. At the moment I’d estimate there’s room for 25% growth.

Visitors who are not regulars should not expect everything to be laid on for them. Why should I expect people to want to play in my games when there are so many other great games on offer refereed by people they know?

But this is all mitigated by the simply brilliant and hard-working organiser who ensures that everyone gets a good game and enjoys themselves.

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 - this is simply brilliant!

Travel cost: £27.69 - this seems rather high. I’ll need to research why Trainline isn’t offering me cheap tickets from Birmingham Moor Street to London Marylebone any more.

Accommodation cost: £0

Total convention-specific cost: £27.69

Total hours of gaming (played and run): 7

Approximate cost per hour of gaming: £3.96

Cost of a pint of Lager: £7.95 - but a burger, just a burger no chips, and half a pint of lager to the table was almost £20. These London prices are the only drawback to the event.

6. What I Took Away

Dahn Sarf is a simply brilliant day out organised by a dedicated guy who knows what he is doing. Any weekend when I don’t have a convention to go to, I’ll check to see if there’s a Dahn Sarf on and I’ll go.

Highly recommended. If you’re in or near London you really should be going.