Dice on the Borderlands - Saturday 25th April 2026

1. Why I Went

This convention takes place in a castle. An actual real castle. Chepstow Castle.

There’s a direct train to and from Birmingham so it’s easy to get to.

But, mainly, it takes place in a castle. Who doesn’t want to play TTRPGs in a castle.

And when I got here, it turns out it's a really impressive castle. We only played in a single hall - that was impressive enough. I didn’t get to explore the whole thing. But as you’ll see from the model it’s real “Game of Thrones” type stuff.

2. The Shape of the Convention

I think the name of the convention plays on the fact that Chepstow is on the border between England and Wales - slightly within Wales I presume from my visit.

It’s a lovely little town and, as I said above, it has a really impressive castle.

The convention takes place in one hall within the castle. The hall closes in the evening so there is only time for two games in the day. It started out as a one-day event but is so popular that it has grown. There is an evening get-together for a drink and a third game session on Sunday morning.

Unfortunately, the costs of staying in or around Chepstow were so high that it made it economically infeasible for me to stay overnight just for the Sunday game. (I have no interest in the evening socialising.) So I elected to attend just for Saturday.

For the wonderful people who organise Dice on the Borderlands, this is the one and only event they arrange each year. So they put a lot of care into planning it and organise things a long time in advance. They ask for people to submit games months in advance. If you do offer to referee there’s always a chance that your interests have moved on by the time the event finally comes around.

When the games are submitted, they’re posted on the WarHorn platform for people to see and sign up to before the event.

The event is free but you do have to pay the standard entry fee to get into the castle. Despite it being free they do supply the means to make tea and coffee and provide free biscuits. There’s even a massive selection of donated TTRPG rulebooks which you can just take away with you for no charge if they take your fancy.

As I said there are two games in the day, morning and afternoon. There are seven tables in the hall so I’d estimate attendance of around three dozen people.

There is no catering inside the castle and I don’t know what food and drink is offered in the establishments at the bottom of the castle hill. I brought my own food which worked well. The weather was wonderful with most people taking a picnic lunch in grassy courtyards of the castle. I didn’t but I could see that this was blissful.

3. Games Played and Games Run

Because this was my first time at this event, I didn’t want to offer to referee in both game slots. I felt this might be a bit cheeky. I also somehow got the impression from social media that there were going to be a lot of high-quality referees present.

Slot 1 - Saturday 10:00 - 13:00

I don’t know exactly what was in my mind when I submitted my game for this convention. I suspect I was in the midst of submitting games for lots of events and didn’t feel like submitting one of my “standard” convention scenarios.

I’d also had an idea about writing a game based on British sitcoms and comedy movies. Clearly I thought that if I promised to run that non-existent game it would force me to write some rules before the event. So I’d said I’d run my in-development game “The Code of Class and Catastrophe” using a scenario called “Carry On Minister.”

Four people actually signed up to play - despite me making it clear in the description that this was a playtest.

As the event neared, I knew I had to prepare the game and did actually manage to produce a scenario. This wasn’t until the week before the event but, once I started writing, things flowed fairly easily. I was ready days in advance.

Sometimes I’ve found myself writing scenarios on the train on my way to a convention.

Instead of taking the source material and constructing game rules around it, I mated the ideas onto my existing “Code” ruleset. This is not the way you’re supposed to write a game but I’ve done it before.

As things turned out the four players were wonderful, coming up with a zero-cost flagship policy for their fledgling department - addressing at least three contemporary political issues in one fell swoop - and steering it successfully through Parliament. Much scenery was eaten and the laughter was pretty much non-stop.

It was the most stressful game I’ve refereed in a long time. I could see all the gaps in the rules. I felt the die-rolling became repetitive and the game lacked balance between the conflict and role-playing elements.

But I learnt a lot and the players seemed really genuine in their effusive thanks at the end when they told me how much they’d enjoyed it.

Slot 2 - Saturday 14:00 - 17:00

As I said, most people took their food outside for a picnic in the sunshine. I remained alone in the hall to eat the meal deal I’d bought and post about the event on social media.

In the afternoon I played a game called “Shiver”. This is a clever little game with bespoke dice and a “countdown clock”. I’ve played it before but that’s always been starter sets that come with different editions of the game. This was the first time I’d played it when the referee had written their own original scenario.

It was a fun adventure. We played ageing residents of a senior citizens community becoming aware that some of our fellow citizens were dying or being taken into palliative care well before their due time. We forced ourselves through a wild and dangerous investigation which our bodies were no longer fit for.

I really enjoyed it and we finished before 5pm.

This was important. The castle closes shortly after 5pm and every trace of the convention has to be gone by then.

Apparently one year, a couple of gamers got locked inside the castle, which caused some serious problems.

4. Play Reflections

Asking people to submit games months in advance allows organisers to ensure they have enough games to make the convention viable. It also builds a sense of anticipation amongst prospective players.

It doesn’t make it easy for a referee, who needs to decide what to offer and has to hope they still feel like running it all those months later. I offered to referee a non-existent game in order to commit myself to designing it. This was very cheeky of me and I only just managed to pull it off. I did not enjoy the stress I suffered in the weeks approaching Dice on the Borderlands - until I actually sat down to write something - and then at the event when I was running the game.

My lifestyle - only refereeing TTRPGs at conventions - doesn’t give me many options for playtesting games. At most conventions, players are essentially customers. They’ve paid to play your game. Should I expect them to pay to take part in a playtest or should I always offer them a tried and tested scenario?

There used to be at least one UK convention specialising in “indie” games where playtesting new systems wasn’t just allowed, it was encouraged. I miss that.

Next year at Dice on the Borderlands I will offer two games, at least. I will leave it to the organisers to decide how many games I actually get to run. However, I will not be using this convention to playtest new systems again.

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
Entry to Castle: £10.40
Travel cost: £9.90
Accommodation cost: £0

Total convention-specific cost: £20.30

Total hours of gaming (played and run): 6

Approximate cost per hour of gaming: £3.38

Cost of a pint of lager: n/a. No lager sold at this event.

6. What I Took Away

Next year, I will investigate accommodation costs in more detail. There are towns just a stop or two along the rail line which might prove sufficiently inexpensive for me to stay in. If this proves to be the case I can stay there and commute to Chepstow, enabling me to stay for the Sunday game.

This is a sweet little event, well organised at an atmospheric venue. Everyone - players, referees, organisers - seems to be really pleasant. It’s a really nice day out.