The UK’s largest tabletop conventions apologise after refusing queer-themed RPGs

This blogger is just back from UK Games Expo, the biggest in the UK, and 2023 was the largest ever with 52,000 total attendees.

If you doubt gamers are a healthy mix of genders, diversity and orientations, I’m confident UK Games Expo 2023 would have resolved any uncertainty for you. I saw various people in dresses, kilts, battle armour and trousers, couples, groups and friends.

However, a tweet from UKGE reveals the problem. Some RPG sessions were officially blocked for having references to queer content.

If it feels strange for UK Games Expo to be worried about sexuality, that might be because not only is it a weird thing to worry about, it contradicts the conventions on policy (PDF link) which says;

“…intolerance due to gender, race, religion and sexual orientation” is “unacceptable and would not be tolerated at UK Games Expo”.

The strange issue came to public attention when W.H. Arthur tweeted

For UKGE, I offered to run RPGs by queer creators; Dream Askew by Avery Alder and Sleepaway by Jay Dragon. Dream Askew was rejected because the organiser didn’t want “themes of sexuality or orientation”, and reference to queerness was removed from Sleepaway’s event description.

Dream Askew / Dream Apart is a gold bestseller on DriveThruRPG, which uses the No Dice, No Masters system.

It does have queer themes; the blurb says;

This book contains two games of belonging outside belonging. Dream Askew explores the story of a queer enclave amid the collapse of civilization. Dream Apart explores the story of a Jewish shtetl in a fantastical version of nineteenth-century Eastern Europe.

Both games are about a marginalized group of people living together in precarious community.

However, there’s no mention of orientation in Jay Dragon’s Sleepaway, which is available on Itch.

A key section addresses marginalisation,

In Sleepaway, you play as a camp counselor at a not-so-ordinary summer camp besieged by a Strange and ominous cryptid. In the outside world, people grow increasingly alienated from their own identities, trapped in a miasma of advertising and corporate branding. Isolated from civilization, this summer camp is a beacon of safety, a refuge for misfit kids defined by their marginalization.

Arthur, however, noted their pitch for the game added orientation.

Sleepaway by @jdragsky is a queer horror RPG on summer camp shenanigans and exploration of identity.

Warning: The final section of this article references sexual violence.

In 2019, UK Games Expo hit the news for the wrong news. A volunteer GM was thrown out after distressing players with a scene of gang rape.

UK Games Expo took quick action and apologised to those distressed.

UKGE isn’t the only convention wrestling with appropriate content, tackling gatekeeping and striving for inclusion. Events worldwide coordinate when possible; many now have policies and guidelines to govern and guide attendees and staff.

Geek Native understands that conventions assist one another in routing out known problem players. If there is a national or international ‘blacklist’, this blog does not know about it.

In the States, the Washington Court of Appeals has allowed former Wizards of the Coast consultant Zak S to attempt to sue Gen Con after that convention publically blocked them.

UK Games Expo implicitly references, I believe, their 2019 problem in their tweet thread on the 2023 issue.

On the first matter, we have reviewed the email chain between the RPG Manager and the individual submitting the game and have found that this is true. UKGE does not accept scenarios containing “sexual content” due to the past experience of this type of content causing distress –

and upset to players. However, this does not extend to sexual orientation. The volunteer made an error of judgement in conflating the two and UKGE offers our unreserved apologies to the GM.