D&D in London

Everyone knows what D&D is, they may not play it, but you might be surprised how many people do play. Just bring it up on a coffee break and see who admits to getting lost in a fantasy realm of Goblins, Orcs and even Zombies, or who wants to play, but has never found a group to join. With that last part in mind, Ash recently discovered just how easy it is to find fellow gamers in the Capital and found a new hobby.

Have you always wanted to be a Demon Warlock or fancied being a Tabaxi (Feline humanoid) Burglar, maybe you watched Lord of the Rings and dreamt of being an Elf like Legolas or a Ranger like Aragon, but you work in an office in the City and can’t even tell the difference between a Great Sword and a Halberd let alone own one, you can still dream and fantasise and there are ways of acting out those imaginations.

As we said, mention the idea in the pub next time you are with your friends, or on an office lunch and say… ‘I’m thinking of starting a D&D game after work, anyone want in?’ And you will be surprised how many hands get raised and how many are secretly interested or have dreamt of joining in.

You could head off to North Wales, don a cloak and a wooden sword and run up and down the hills like a crazed child, or just join a LARPing Society and run around playing make believe with a group of like-minded accountants and Data Scientists on a Saturday afternoon! Alternately, you could just go down the pub after work and play a game of D&D with a bunch of random people for a few hours.

The latter is what Ash dragged Bob along to a few months back and though she had no clue what she was letting herself in for, we found it to be a new and somewhat rewarding adventure. The group was formed of a group of guys all wanting to play, but were all new to the location. The group of Four (now six) random strangers joined us and started to play a mini adventure, to get the feel.

The others were all experienced some having played for a couple of years, some having played for over 20 years and then there were us two not knowing which dice to throw, what a Saving Throw was or why we were even doing this! But the group were welcoming and encouraging, helpful and patient with the pair of newbs. We played out a the night learning and trying to get into characters made up on the D&D Beyond App. Mistakes were made – like adding a mass of magic spells to Ash’s Asimar Monk, despite him only having the ability to have learnt two and trying to play a Human hating Ashari in a group of all humans (Bob). But we survived the night and the game and agreed to try again as soon as we were able.

But how did we find this random bunch? Well unsurprisingly on the Internet. Ash happened to find a Discord Group a month or so before that helped like minded individuals wanting to play D&D in London, The London D&D LFG (Looking For Games) is an obviously named Server, where users join the chats and threads and list their knowledge, history, likes, DM Styles and even what bugs them in games (or Triggers).

The biggest problem is not finding people but finding the right sort of people and in the right environment, you could probably find a random group online, but going to a stranger’s house in the back end of Streatham on a Tuesday night is not our idea of fun or even healthy. The rules of the Discord Group suggest finding people nearby your location, meeting for a drink or a coffee and sussing them out, before committing to joining their group. But still this seems uncomfortable and for a pair like us with Social Anxiety and trust issues, this did not seem too appealing.

Ash joined the LFG group and stated a wish to play – having wanted to play for years, but never actually finding anyone to sit down and join him in getting lost in a Fantasy Realm, he had no experience. With the group joined and his history (or lack of) and knowledge admitted, somehow Ash found a group who had space for a new table to be formed in a pub in Bloomsbury.

A few weeks of back and forth on the server, finding a guy who had some experience of DM’ing with his family and then a couple of people wanting a new group and suddenly there were enough of us to start. So on a Wednesday night in October (2024) we set off for a pub right opposite The British Museum, upstairs in the Snug (private room) with walls lined with Suffragette Reform Posters and an array of little tables and chairs we found Dragons on the Hill.

DotH is a group of Fantasy Role-play enthusiasts – note we didn’t say D&D, because though one group are playing a campaign, that they have been playing for nearly 2 years now, the 2nd table is deep in a Cyberpunk reality using a different gaming system and since starting we have played D&D, Monster of the Week and Cogent and have even played Risk and other board games one night when there weren’t enough player to carry on our mission!

Our little group is made up of ourselves, plus two Data Scientists (or coders), a PhD Student, a University Teacher, a Waiter and a Social Media Manager. We started on the tester mini campaign and since just before Christmas have been playing a full campaign – an ongoing, weekly adventure, played from an official Wizards of the Coast book, set in the Icy Realms of Ten Towns, called Icewind Dale, playing for about 3-4 hours each Wednesday. We have created characters and each is a different class, in our gang there is a Fighter, a Artificer, a Paladin, Ash’s character is a female Drow Dancer (Bard) and the last is a man dressed in a Chicken Suit that he never removes!! – Bob is not playing at the moment, but may join in time and could join as a Bard, Druid, Cleric, Monk, Ranger, Barbarian, Rogue, Thief, Wizard, Warlock, Mage, Witch or Sorcerer and be any one of a dozen or more species, from Human to Elf, Dragonfolk to Teifling (demon) and more. What would she be?

There are a number of other locations and group around London and we found this appropriately named blog post with a few, Thedndgeek . We also have heard of groups at The Big Red in Holloway and there is a pub in Elephant and Castle that run games nearly every night called RPGTaverns and of course there are tons of private games going on, just ask your colleagues during the next coffee break!

Many of these groups charge a fee to play, some charge per player and to pay for the table and still require you to buy food/drinks, so it can get expensive, the beauty of DotH is it’s free to play, the venue encourage you to buy a drink, even if it’s a coke and there is decent food too!

So there we go, so if you fancy playing out your wildest fantasies and they aren’t best reserved for Torture Garden, then maybe you should get on Discord, join the London D&D LFG or come along to DotH and find yourself a table and new group to join (they are currently looking for new groups) and maybe you will be off on an adventure real soon!