Dudley Bug Ball - 21st-22nd February 2026
1. Why I Went
Dudley Bug Ball has been running for many years. I’d attended and Refereed games many years ago. I still have the 3D-printed 25mm “thank you” figurine to prove it - somewhere.
If I was a figures painter I’d have quite a collection of convention “thank you” figures on display by now.
I’m in Birmingham, it’s in Dudley so it’s really convenient. Its primary purpose has always been to raise money for a charity dear to the organisers’ heart.
My memory was that it was a well-organised event. A small 2 day event, organised as it were a much larger one.
Well it hasn’t changed, much.
As I’ve mentioned before I’m recently retired and now have a pass which allows me to travel on buses for free. A quick bit of research showed I could travel from my home to the convention in about 70 minutes. So I decided to travel in and out each day, missing the evening gaming slot but saving on accommodation costs.
Free bus pass, free entry due to refereeing games and zero accommodation costs. This convention was shaping up to be entirely free!
At the last minute I did decide to stay over, though.
2. The Shape of the Convention
Before the event finding information was not straight forward. Websites created for earlier years haven’t been updated and were giving out of date information. This year’s event seemed to be being promoted entirely through a Facebook Event. There wasn’t even an accompanying Facebook page.I messaged one of the Organisers via the Facebook event asking how to submit games - or if they were being posted on the day. He replied promptly and set me up on the event WarHorn as a Staff member so I could set up and post my own games.
This was a high level of trust. Up to now, if a convention chose to use WarHorn to handle game bookings, I submit the game details to the organisers and either they or one of their associates would post the game. With Staff member privileges, I could set up slots, set up games, allow people to sign up and much more. This was a high level of trust. I think the organiser knows what I do and remembers us meeting all those years ago. I doubt he’d give this level of access to everyone.
So I set up my games on WarHorn - gaining a new-found respect for the individuals doing it for other conventions as I did so. I set up two games for Saturday and one for Sunday.
They began to get sign-ups but it was a slow process. This convention is not as widely promoted as it deserves.
As I say, at the last minute I elected to stay over in Dudley on the Saturday night so I posted a game in the evening slot.
The convention has 4 hour long slots. It finishes at 5pm on Sunday so there is only time for a single 4-hour slot Sunday morning. I took the initiative and used my access to create a 2-hour slot for the Sunday afternoon and submitted a game there.
For many years the Convention was held in a hotel in Dudley but this year it was held in a “Banqueting and Events Hall”. Basically this was a large function room sited behind, and attached to, an Indian Restaurant.
This was a last minute change and had involved a change of date. Apparently this was due to a sudden hike in the costs of the original venue. As it turned out, it was a good change, in my humble opinion.
Having booked a hotel, I looked more closely at the timings. I’d booked a cheap hotel which didn’t do late check-ins. So I couldn’t stay at the event until after the last time-slot and then check in. I’d have to check in during one of my breaks.
The breaks at Dudley Bug Ball are only 30 minutes long. That’s to accommodate three 4 hour game slots in a day. 10am-2pm. 2:30pm-6:30pm. 7pm-11pm.
Things were going to be tight.
The bus ride was smoother than anticipated. I arrived 45 minutes early. If I hadn’t been using the mapping app on my phone I wouldn’t have found the venue. As I said, it’s behind a restaurant.
I was concerned about getting in early but doors were open, traders were setting up. I just walked straight in. A medium sized hall. Bright with the standard 6 ft circular tables in the middle and traders setting up around the outside.
I found one of the organisers, he gave me a wristband and I claimed a table.
The sign up sheets were on one of the tables. I knew I had three players from WarHorn for my first game but two more had signed up at the event, so I was starting with a full table.
3. Games Played and Games Run
Slot 1 - Saturday 10:00 - 14:00
Starfleet Academy 2270.
The cadets stuck together, didn’t try to bluff, fight or seduce the pirates. They were put in a holding cell. Escaped through the air vents, found the pirate’s own ship hidden in the holding cell of the freighter and took control of it.
During the game one of the organisers (the wife) came round to check everyone had checked in, paid and collected their wristband. Later on, the other organiser (the husband) came around to take lunch orders - samosas etc from the attached restaurant. I knew I had to rush to check in during my lunch break and declined. Good organisation, though.
Because of the efficiency of the characters’ actions, the game did not take the full 4 hours and I was able to set out to find my hotel a bit early.
It turned out to be only a 5-10 minute walk down the hill. Reception was in the hotel bar. The hotel bar sold prepackaged sandwiches and pasties. I was able to eat lunch in my room, grab just the materials for my afternoon and evening games and get back to the convention in good time for my afternoon game.
Slot 2 - Saturday 14:30 - 18:30
Steampunk - One of our Dinosaurs is Missing.
I’ve run this many times in different formats at many conventions and it is always a romp.
I used my own The Code of Steam and Steel rules. One of the features of this game is that the dice mechanics are very “swingy”. Unexpected things happen. No two games are the same. It keeps things interesting for me and I’m arrogant enough to think that I can cope with anything.
This particular run-through of the scenario was characterised by more critical successes and plot twists than I have ever seen. It was in danger of finishing very early until….
The player of Voltaire - the Electrical Engineer character - chose to use the Plot Twist “Change the Emotional State of one of the Referee’s characters” to make the villains of the piece - who nobody had seen so far - regretful.
The player of Hal-seven - the Mechanical Man, reporter for the Digital Times, an entirely binary publication for mechanicals only - chose to use the Plot Twist “Ask the Referee for a specific item of information” to discover the address of the Villain’s lair. This cut out all the detective scenes and the players were able to rush straight there for the climax….
…only to find that the remorseful baddie had decided to take the Dinosaur back to the zoo himself.
During the game one of the staff in the hall - which contained a bar - came around to deliver menus from the restaurant and invited us to make a food order at the bar for later.
The game finished early, but not as early as I’d worried. I also rolled so many plot twists that I had to introduce new plot elements myself. (The game made me do it.)
So we had about an hour’s break before the evening game. I’d ordered a kebab-meat wrap and chips (£8.99) which was tasty, big and even contained some healthy salad stuff.
Slot 3 - Saturday 19:00-23:00
Discworld - Up in Smoke.
At Contingency, I’d run the Discworld Starter Set. If you’ve read that report you’ll know it wasn’t fully successful. In short I found the rules a bit too light for my tastes and the scenario laid out in a way that required constant flipping back and forth between pages.
So I decided to produce a summary sheet for the scenario to use as a protocol during play and to try running it using my own Fantasy Rules.
Because the game had been submitted at the last minute, it hadn’t garnered any sign-ups before the convention. I had three people sign up on the day.
Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves but I feel things would have gone better with one or two more players. I also feel my rule-set lacked some of the granularity needed for the investigative nature of the scenario. It was better than the first time I’d run it at Contingency, but still not quite up to the very high standards I hold myself to.
I may come back to offering to Referee a Discworld game at a future convention but I’ll probably write my own scenario.
The game, again, finished early. Though the slots are 4 hours long, everybody seems happy when they run at 3.5 hours.
Slot 4 - Sunday 10:00-14:00
I walked to a nearby McDonald’s for breakfast and brought it back to eat in my hotel room. Then 5 minutes walk up to the event for:
Superheroes - Undercurrents in Atlanteum.
It’s been several years since I’ve offered to run my lightweight superhero game at a convention. I’ve been having so much fun with Science Fiction and Steampunk. I’d also been testing my Horror rules.
But, recently, I’d seen an upswing in other Referees offering games using my rules, so I thought I’d better start offering it again. So I wrote a brand new scenario.
I’d offered this scenario at StabCon and Con-Tingency and it had failed to gain any interest at either event. At The Dudley Bug Ball I had a full table of players.
Again, everybody had fun but I was self-critical. Superhero rules are slightly more complex than other systems and I’d designed a detailed and engaging scenario. This proved to be a little too involved for a convention slot.
Next time I use these rules, I’m going to revert to a straightforward scenario structure with a headlong romp of a storyline. Less investigation and mystery and more slugfests.
During the game a guest announced that his talk on - I think - making non-player characters in games memorable was about to start. I offered to take a break to allow everyone at my table to attend if they wanted - and shorten my game - but everyone wanted to continue.
Today I ordered lunch at the event - four samosas £4. Very nice but very greasy. Make sure you get lots of paper towels with yours.
Slot 5 - Sunday 15:00-17:00
The convention closed at 17:00. I’d created this slot on WarHorn. Only one player signed up before the event and for some reason the sign-up sheet wasn’t printed. Maybe I should have made the creation of the slot clearer to the organisers.
It was no problem. My player wrote out a sign-up sheet for a continuation of a game he’d refereed on Saturday. This gained some traction. There was one other game offered. Neither appealed to me so I finished my samosas and left early.
4. Reflections
When my reports cover game sessions I referee in which I’m self critical, I hope I don’t come across as offering a sub-standard game. I am a Good Referee. People always have a good time at my table.
But all Good Referees are constantly reflecting on their games in order to improve for the next convention. And we’re more critical of ourselves than anyone else is.
Talking to the organisers - a lovely couple - I realise that I got my perspective on the event wrong. It is so well set up with so many traders around the hall, I thought it was a commercial convention which offered Table-Top Role-Playing Games as well. It seems that the purpose of the event is to raise money for charity but its focus is on playing games, not buying them.
There were about 50 people at the event and it could accommodate twice as many. Possibly three times as many. It is so well organised that nothing would have to change - except, possibly, for having a dedicated and staffed ticket desk.
The only issue is with promotion and attracting people to come. I had the same people at my table for multiple games. More players would mean more turnover.
The organisers told me they’ve found someone to sort out the website, so hopefully things will blossom a bit for next year.
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 bus and rail discounts), so readers should treat the numbers as indicative rather than directly transferable.
Headline figures
Convention cost (ticket): £0 - Referee free entryTravel cost: £0 - Senior Bus Pass
Accommodation cost: £42.38
Total convention-specific cost: £42.38
Total hours of gaming (played and run): 18
Approximate cost per hour of gaming: £2.35
Cost of a pint of lager: £5
6. What I Took Away
The Dudley Bug Ball has been run for many years by a capable and personable couple who know what they are doing. The new venue seems perfect for the event. If you don’t want to order food from the attached restaurant you’re in the middle of Dudley with plenty of alternatives on offer.
If I were to give notes I’d suggest shortening the game slots, enlarging the breaks and putting their efforts into promotion - including the creation of an up to date and engaging website.
This event deserves to attract far more attendees. Forget any prejudices you may have against Dudley itself. It’s inexpensive, easy to get to, there’s plenty of cheap accommodation nearby and, if you want to play TTRPGs, you’ll find plenty at The Dudley Bug Ball.
Dates for next year are 27th and 28th February 2027. Hopefully I’ll see you there.
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