Zubby Newsletter #89: Dice Days in the UK
It’s hard to summarize D&D in a Castle as an experience because it encompasses a lot around this moment of nerd culture as mainstream culture, but also things about myself and why I do what I do.
When I was in high school, tabletop RPGs were both a hobby and a coping mechanism. I didn’t feel comfortable with myself and was unsure of where I fit in socially, but at the gaming table I could be fearless and funny. It was pure escapism and also a way for me to better understand social dynamics and creativity…or, at least, that’s the romanticized version that’s stuck around in my head. I know other people in my gaming group looked at it as just a way to kill some time, have a few laughs and nothing more, and that’s 100% valid too.
In any case, when we’d get the chance to marathon gaming sessions over multiple days, it was extra special. We’d meet up at my friend Chris’ house on a Friday night after school, play through the evening until we literally couldn’t keep our eyes open any more, crash on sleeping bags, wake up the next morning, scarf down breakfast, and then keep gaming as long as we could. It was obsessive, all-encompassing escapism that built incredible memories and deep bonds of camaraderie.
And that, in a nutshell, is kind of what D&D in a Castle felt like, only on a grander scale.
I had a surprisingly intense gaming marathon with a group of strangers and all of us came out the other side with stories and memories that will stick with us. It was engaging, exhausting, and amazing. Utterly ridiculous, but also unexpectedly pure.
D&D in a Castle is a retreat-style vacation with a structure and environment built to push away outside distractions so each group can game up a storm with a Dungeon Master who exemplifies a playstyle they enjoy. The ‘standard’ schedule over four days includes a 2-hour ‘Prelude’ session and six 4-hour play sessions, totaling 26 hours worth of game time with the same group, plus the option for additional one-shot adventures with others, meal-time party games, archery, design panels and discussions, opening and closing ceremonies, and general socializing.
It is a lot.
It’s immersive, indulgent, and expensive, but also a unique opportunity to interact with a focused group of gamers from around the world and experienced DMs who are constantly striving to engage and entertain. The distance you’ve traveled and evocative location you find yourself in seems to unlock an unexpected ‘permission to play’ that can be hard to achieve at home with familiar trappings and distractions galore.
The event had elements of convention gaming, bits of community theater and improv, aspects of summer camp, and the trappings of a Ren Faire on overdrive, but it was also far more than the sum of those parts.
Lumley Castle is a 14th-century castle in northern England that’s been converted into a hotel. During the event our crew had practically full run of the entire place, with multiple meeting spaces converted into dedicated gaming rooms alongside banquet halls, social lounges, and bars for shared time between sessions. When people weren’t playing in their dedicated games, they were chatting about how their sessions were going, or ramping up for their next series of encounters. On site there was also event support staff working to keep everything organized, make sure people knew where they were supposed to be, and provide resources (handouts, miniatures, terrain, lighting, speakers, snacks, and even playing key NPCs if we wanted).
When Stacy and I arrived, we were taken aback by how quiet everything was. Almost every group was ‘in-session’ at that point, tackling their last day of play for the first half of the larger event – The late October groups were wrapping up and we had a few days before the early November games began, giving us a chance to prepare for what was to come. As each group finished their campaign, I met the DMs and they were happy to see me (or meet me for the first time) but also clearly quite tired. Right off the bat I could tell that this was going to require a lot more energy and focus than a 3–4-hour tournament-style game at a convention.
On my first day I was quite nervous but hoped to make a strong first impression with my group to reassure them (and myself) that this was going to be a damn good time. Two of the players were ‘Forever DMs’, the people who almost always ran games for their friends, and with that came an added level of expectation. A married couple in my group had been to D&D in a Castle before, so they were more experienced than me in terms of the overall format and could compare my game to the one they’d previously done (and clearly enjoyed, since they came back for more). A big part of the first day was getting past my anxiety about it all, picking up on what each player seemed to enjoy, finding that table rhythm, and then leaning into it to see where it would go.
Four of the players sent me relatively detailed back stories for their characters, while two of them had very little for me to go on at the start. Thankfully, we had that 2-hour Prelude session to talk about expectations and brainstorm additional links between character back stories.
When I spoke to B. Dave Walters, a very experienced DM who has done this castle stuff at least a dozen times, I asked him about motivation – Was it hard to keep players focused for 8 hours of gaming per day? He laughed and told me these players would be some of the most motivated gamers I’d ever meet. They pay a premium to be at the castle playing D&D. It was at the core of their entire trip and they’d want as much playtime as I could handle. I was a bit skeptical at the time, but he was 100% correct. My players were incredibly focused. Out of 26 hours playing together I can barely remember any time that they checked their phones or were distracted beyond quickly grabbing a drink or snack.
(When one of the players let us know he’d be 15 minutes late for the start of one of the sessions, we assumed it was something family or work related and, instead, we discovered that he’d jumped on a Zoom call to NPC a character with his regular gaming group back home – That’s dedication!)
On the first day, the group felt a bit reserved, but it made perfect sense given that we were strangers thrust together. We needed time to warm up to each other. During those first few hours of play I was ‘presenting’ more, laying out the world and setting up expectations in terms of atmosphere, character, and story but, once everyone got comfortable, they really came out of their shells, playing their characters deeply and riffing on each other quite naturally.
By day two of the campaign, there was a surprising shift. Even though we’d only been gaming together for a day, the amount of time at the table super charged our familiarity. We all knew exactly where we’d left off and it was incredibly easy to dive right back in with even more gusto. The in-jokes flew fast and furious and character quirks became a natural part of table talk in a way I’d normally associate with a group that had been playing together for dozens of sessions. We were a team all pushing in the same direction and it felt amazing.
Have you ever been traveling and realized you weren’t tethered to previous expectations? You’re at a coffee shop or bar somewhere far away and suddenly you can talk to a stranger about incredibly personal things with unexpected clarity because you’ve stepped outside your normal life? There were aspects of that at the castle. Conversations out of game were reflective. Conversations in game were dedicated and rich. It really took me aback.
By the end of day two, we’d covered a surprising amount of story and hit a few really dramatic moments. Again, I was surprised at how free we all felt to just go for it. The focused gaming environment, the setting, and a lack of distractions unlocked the kind of theatrical payoffs I rarely get to experience at any gaming table, let alone one with strangers.
On day three, all the pieces we’d built and difficult decisions I’d seeded drove things to a wild climax. Tensions ran high and somehow, right when I was convinced that one character was going to betray the others and bring it all to a tragic finish, things somehow swerved in a direction none of us could have anticipated and the end became impressively poignant.
I could try to explain the twisting plot and triumphant payoffs, combat strategies and in-jokes, but this ramble is already longer than I expected and if you’ve played TTRPGs and bonded with an adventuring party you know that so much of it only makes sense to your group. You literally had to be there. That’s what makes it special.
I’ve thought about “emergent storytelling” a lot – taking a bunch of disparate ideas and dramatic elements and, with focus, flexibility, and a deep dash of luck watching it stitch itself together into something both unexpected and satisfying. Maybe you thought you were spinning a heroic tale and instead it became a tragedy, but when you look at the winding path of moments along the way the hints of the destination were there all along. With this group I cast a bunch of symbols and ideas out into play and the players naturally gravitated toward them, finding ways to weave them into their stories and using them to motivate big decisions. At points it was wild how well it worked and it’s definitely something I need to experiment with more in future games.
Outside of game, I got to know a bunch of the other DMs and support staff as well. We chatted game technique and storytelling, and a lot of personal stuff too. At the start I felt like an outsider, the sword & sorcery comic guy amongst hardcore gamers and professional streamers, but by the end we were all the same – gamers who’d run the gauntlet and survived. 26 hours of game time absolutely buries you in terms of energy spent. Over those four days you are completely ‘on’ – trying to be the most charismatic version of yourself, moving the adventure forward, setting scenes, adjudicating combat and other rolls, picking up on social cues, playing NPCs and doing voices. You’re also checking your game notes, realizing most of your plan no longer applies, throwing it out, and just winging it. Until you’ve done it, it’s hard to explain the odd mix of satisfaction and exhaustion involved.
For players at D&D in a Castle, is it worth the expense?
Clearly a lot of people there think so. I met a bunch of repeat gamers, people who have made this an annual pilgrimage, sometimes booking the exact same DM over and over again because they relished the experience and escape of it all. While we were there a couple got married on the castle grounds and Jason Carl, their DM, officiated the wedding.
If you think about it as paying for a game of D&D with your friends it seems ludicrously expensive, but if you compare it to other deluxe retreats in far off places with a specialized tour guide or bespoke performance from an entertainer, the cost-vs-value proposition starts to make more sense.
Some people assume that since the price tag is so high the Dungeon Masters are making a ton of money by doing this event. We’re paid pretty well, but the vast majority of that cost actually goes to renting the castle, staff at the hotel, the event crew on hand, equipment, meals and lodgings. There are a lot of moving parts to make this kind of event run properly.
From the outside it’s easy to look at D&D in a Castle and assume it’s a nerdy style-over-substance experience done for social media clout or just rich people blowing money on a game, but that’s not what I saw when I was there. What everyone there seemed to want, and in most cases received, was a feeling of belonging and a dedicated chance to unabashedly do something they enjoy without any intrusion from the outside world. That’s what a good vacation should be.
Would I do it again?
At this moment, I’m honestly not sure.
It was a really special experience, but also all-encompassing in a way that eats up everything around it. After the campaign wrapped up, I spent two days recovering. No joke, I had over 9 hours of sleep on the first night after and 10 hours on the second. If I hadn’t, I would’ve been a zombie walking around Edinburgh for the final leg of our trip. This kind of intensely focused ‘performance’ took a LOT out of me, way more than almost any convention or gaming session I can remember…but I also foolishly scheduled it right after going to Gamehole Con and MCM London back-to-back, so that was on me.
In terms of creative energy and rewards – financial and personal – I’m always trying to figure out the right balance and it’s a constant moving target. Any writing project I take on or event I go to has to be balanced against hours and energy spent. The same goes with research, prep, writing, or promotion – How much is needed and how can I balance it out with my personal time?
Would D&D in a Castle be just as special if I did it 3-4 times per year? Would it be just as exhausting now that I know how it works? I don’t know. By the end of the event, I certainly felt like I belonged and brought something worthy to the experience, but it’s also a lot to dedicate in terms of time and focus, both with prep beforehand and effort spent on location.
Some trips you take, they change you and yet you never go back. Other trips become important because you return again and again. I don’t know which one this is yet.
I’m still wrestling with what shape 2025 is going to take and how things might change in and around the end of my teaching sabbatical next August. Personal desires and pragmatic decisions are swirling around each other and they’re not just mine to make. Stacy and I are constantly talking about the future and what we both need.
Huge thanks to the Castle team for all their support, especially Tara, Justin, and Hopper. You helped me tackle this wild and wonderful event and were always quick to offer a kind word with boundless enthusiasm.
If you have any questions about D&D in a Castle, feel free to ask me in the comments and I’ll answer as best I can.
Current + Upcoming Releases
Conan the Barbarian #16 – released October 23rd.
Savage Sword of Conan #5 – released October 30th.
Conan: Battle of the Black Stone #3 (of 4) – released November 6th.
Conan the Barbarian Vol. 3: The Age Unconquered TPB – released Nov 19th.
Conan: Battle of the Black Stone #4 (of 4) – releases December 4th.
Conan the Barbarian #17 – releases December 11th.
Upcoming Appearances
For the first time in ages, my appearance calendar is clear. My adventures in the UK were the last of my commitments for 2024. Negotiations are already underway for next year, but I don’t have anything to announce just yet.
Links and Other Things
• The GDC Game Audio Archive is 150 gigs worth of royalty free sound effects you can use for your creative projects.
• My friend Brenda Hickey, artist on My Little Pony and Aggretsuko, has a new graphic novel she’s crowdfunding called Don’t Call Me Sidekick.
• My friend Henry Barajas, writer on Helm Greycastle, has a new noir mini-series he’s crowdfunding called Death to Pachuco.
Jim
Thanks for all the information about D&D in a Castle. I've been asked to take part in the past, but I balked at what seemed like a massive time commitment. Once you're home and settled in, I'll be interested to know if you're going back.