UK Dungeons & Dragons Tweetup 4 will take place in Leeds

The 4th annual UK D&D Tweetup, a D&D 4e mini event will be taking place in Leeds this spring. The event, which is organized mainly by D&D players on Twitter, will give some of the UK's best dungeon masters and players the chance to get together and play D&D in the historic surroundings of Leeds City Museum. Organizer Adam Page explained how the UK D&D Tweetups got started:

When I first suggested a UK D&D meetup on Twitter in late 2010, I had no idea that people from each end of the country would be willing to travel for hours just to come and meet the people they interacted with daily and to play the game they love. I never expected that there would be the demand in the UK for an annual event, and I certainly never expected the outpouring of industry support.

I always joke that organizing the Tweetups is as simple as suggesting a date and a venue and the roleplayers just make it happen, but as we've grown in size, and outgrown the gaming spaces available in FLGS, getting them organized has become a major job. From researching venues, attempting to get a list of availabilities from venues used to dealing with hundreds or thousands of delegates at an event, to liaising with dice manufactures and raffle prize donors, it's a lot of hard work.

The event will be held on Saturday 16th March, between 11am and 4pm at Leeds City Museum and will cost £5 to enter which includes a free gift and a strip of raffle tickets which will give you the chance to win some amazing prizes, donated by some well-known and some less well-known companies in the RPG world.

Started in 2010, the UK D&D Tweetups are a not-for-profit set of events run annually, and organized and promoted via Twitter. They are designed to allow the best of the UK D&D scene to meetup, chat about the game they love, and play in games that push the boundaries of what is expected from D&D 4th Edition. In the past, the homebrew games have seen the characters shrunk to the size of mouse and face off against huge cats, had the players attempt to board a flying ship, and fight a blue dragon in his lair surrounded by smoke and flashes of lightning:

In the first year, both DM's had unintentionally selected the same premise, that the players were shrunk in size. We've had mapless games, we've had full 3D dungeons, we've had flying ships, we've had dark caverns.

The Tweetup events attract a lot of industry support, with raffle prizes donated from household names in the RPG scene like Wizards of the Coast, Paizo, Kobold Press, and this year is no different, with big name companies like TSR Inc donating several copies of their new Gygax Magazine to the prize fund, but also support from the unrecognized heroes of the genre that make kick ass products, such as Unknown Tome's Trial of the Underkeep, Dias Ex Machina Games' Ultramodern4, and Enhanced4e. Page explained how WOTC's endorsement came about:

I was in a middle of a Dark Sun encounters session when my phone buzzed and I had to do a double take at the name that showed up on the email. Sure, I'd fired off an email to WotC asking them if there was any convention adventures we could use, but to get an email from the head of their organized play offering me an exclusive adventure that hadn't been seen outside of America was mind blowing. And then, minutes later my phone buzzed again. I was expecting a confirmation or an NDA to sign, but this time it was Mike Mearls, offering to write a foreword for the events booklet.

There has always been a mix of homebrew games, and official material from Wizards of the Coast at the Tweetups, with the Tweetup's being privileged to run the first international session of Shawn Merwins' excellent Karalels Revenge and also the first international public playtest of the earliest iteration of the D&D Next rules. For Page, getting the chance to playtest the first iteration of D&D Next at the 3rd annual Tweetup was a dream come true:

I could only run it for 6 players out of the 30 or so who were attending, and some of these players had decades of experience, were people I'd introduced to D&D or were close friends. I chose a mixture of people, with backgrounds ranging from 1st edition, to players who had only just started with 4th edition. And we had a blast. I'd always known that D&D was in capable hands with Mike Mearls, he's always come across as incredibly passionate about the game in my contact with him, and the experience of playing a new edition of D&D specifically crafted to be D&D in its purest was brilliant.

This year's games see two freelancers for Kobold Press, Rich Green and Paul Baalham take up the mantle of Dungeon Master, with Rich showing of his political and story driven Parsantium campaign setting, and Paul demonstrating Kobold Press' detailed and unique Midgard campaign setting, using the recently released Midgard Bestiary and Defenders of Midgard player supplement. Tweetup veteran, Symatt returns as a DM for the 4th year running, while organizer Adam Page steps up to run a murder mystery game set on a massive 3'x5' map.

This year, the tweetups move from their previous location of Mondo Comico in Nottingham, and travel north to Leeds. The events will take place in the conference rooms of the Leeds City Museum, a beautifully restored Grade II listed building located in Leeds city centre on the edge of Millennium Square, a short walk from the train station. A £5 entry fee covers the room hire and insurance, a free gift, and a strip of raffle tickets for the prizes. Additional strips will be £1, with all proceeds going to Yorkshire Air Ambulance.

Additional Information

What: The 4th annual D&D mini event, organized by twitter, giving some of the UK's best DMs and players a chance to meetup and play.
When: Sat 16th March, 11:00-16:00
Where: Leeds City Museum, Millennium Square, Leeds, LS2 8BH
How Much: £5 entry fee, with free gift, and strip of raffle tickets.
Contact: Adam Page, adam@leedsdnd.co.uk, @adampageuk
Signup: http://www.facebook.com/events/477185702319052/
Systems Supported: D&D 4e