It’s currently the 5th of January 2026. It’s cold, dark and I’ve had a rough day at work. My brain is fried and yet the one thing that makes me get up and go to my computer is the idea of working on SPRU.
SPRU, to me, is a missing piece of a very obvious puzzle. The creative space of tabletop wargaming, roleplaying and board games is full of some beautiful events and I’m happy to have attended some of them in the last couple of years. Yet they all share one thing: They’re massive, and dominated by massive companies.
Small conventions do exist, small gaming events are very common! But there’s not enough big events for the small events. As silly as that sentence sounds it was this slapdash statement that started the conversation and led to the early planning of SPRU.
Why attend SPRU?
Because I’m not charging vendors any money for their table space. The people at SPRU want to be there, want to see you and want to engage with the wider community.
Because all traders and vendors get the same space. There’s no big company buying out all the floorspace. They can’t steal your attention from the little guy.
Because Nottingham is the “capital” of tabletop gaming in the UK. If you attend, you can also spend time checking out all the other cool things in the region.
There’s so many gamers who play games with their friends, but are exhausted at expensive models and the pressure to build massive armies. This hobby does not have to be expensive or demanding. Yet the public face of it is. At SPRU you can lift the rock in the garden of gaming and see all the little bugs and beetles scurrying around doing cool stuff.
AT SPRU you will encounter a game, a model, an idea or a person that you never had before, and your life will be positively changed by it.
In summary
SPRU won’t end world hunger, it can’t fix global warming, and as much as I would love to, it certainly can’t throw another milkshake at Nigel Farage. But it’ll be a place to cultivate social positivity. A place you can meet small creators and hopefully inspire you to do something creative. That’s all I want, you to be creative. And the people at SPRU can help you do that.