Bosses of Dungeons & Dragons club in £150k court fight sparked by alleged ‘dungeonmaster cuddle’

The bosses of a Dungeons & Dragons club catering for London's "geeky" gamers are caught in a £150,000 feud in court, after allegations one of them inappropriately cuddled a female dungeon master during a session.

Located in a plush 20-room venue just off The Strand, Arcadia Games opened its doors in May after being set up by company boss Raonaid Adrianna Ryn, 36, with help from her ex-husband Alexander Forsyth, 41, and his actress wife Madeleine Wilson, 35.

But since then, the former fantasy comrades have fallen out, following claims by Ms Ryn that her ex Mr Forsyth drew complaints from a member of bar staff and from a female Dungeon Master about "inappropriate" behaviour and unsolicited "cuddling".

Mr Forsyth denies the allegations and claims the complaint from "was confected" by Ms Ryn and her new partner Keiran Farr in order to exclude him from the company by way of a "hostile takeover".

He and his new wife say they have been wrongfully kicked out of the company and locked out of the Arcadia Games HQ by Ms Ryn and Mr Farr, despite having invested over £46,000 in launching the club and providing £10,000 worth of their own furnishings and equipment to kit it out.

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After the police were called due to a confrontation between the two couples at Arcadia, the company which owns the fantasy games club, Arcadia Games Ltd - of which Ms Ryn is now the sole director - launched a £100,000 claim against Mr Forsyth and Ms Wilson, whilst they hit back with a £56,000 counterclaim of their own.

Arcadia Games was launched in January this year and opened to the public in May, boasting "a full-time space for London’s tabletop gaming community" with regular events, a "tavern" serving cocktails plus "geeky co working" during office hours for "tabletop roleplaying geeks, roleplay artists, board game obsessives, and creatives of all stripes".

The club specialises in providing hosted games of Dungeons and Dragons, a tabletop role-playing game during which each player creates their own character and embarks upon group adventures within a fantasy setting, with a Dungeon Master serving as referee and storyteller for the game.

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D&D, whilst over 50 years old, having been created by Gary Gygax ad Dave Arneson in 1974, has enjoyed a recent surge in popularity after featuring centrally in the Netflix show Stranger Things.

Members at Arcadia can pay up to £300-a-month for workspace plus unlimited games of D&D, some of which are hosted by Ms Ryn, a former publishing executive and children's literature specialist, with other sessions hosted by guest dungeonmasters.

The company's website states that the club was "created as a safe and inclusive haven for people of every gender, sexual orientation, race, religion, and neurotype, to build a meaningful and sustainable community. We believe that everyone should get to work and play in an environment where they can feel completely relaxed, and completely welcome."

To this end, the website states the club operates a code of conduct, banning amongst other things "nonconsensually sexualising or sexually objectifying another person" or "nonconsensually touching a person in an intimate or sexual way".

"You must not make other people into an audience for overt sexual activity whether in-character or out-of-character at an Arcadia Games venue. Everyone has different levels of comfort and we must respect each other's boundaries," it adds.

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In papers lodged with Central London County Court, the company's lawyers claim that two incidents occurred in May this year involving Mr Forsyth breaching those rules.

"On 14 May, Ms Ryn received a message from a member of the Arcadia community making various allegations against Alexander Forsyth," they say.

"The person alleged that he had commented on their outfit and career in a way that made them feel uncomfortable and had followed that with a message to them about his and Ms Wilson's involvement in kink clubs.

"The affected party had just completed a trial shift on the bar and felt that this conversation was highly inappropriate, given the power imbalance.

"On 23 May 2025, Ms Ryn received a further report of alleged wrongdoing by Alexander Forsyth.

"He was alleged to have burst into one of the private games rooms, sat on the arm of the games master's chair so that he was partly in her lap and cuddled her in front of a table of customers."

In their defence to the claim, lawyers for consultant Mr Forsyth and 6'4" actress and stuntwoman Ms Wilson paint a different picture.

They claim that the cuddling complaint by the female DM "was confected by Mr Farr and Ms Ryn, working together in order to exclude Alexander Forsyth from the company," in a bid to mount a "hostile takeover".

The bar staff incident is also denied, with Mr Forsyth claiming Ms Ryn had previously told him the complaint "had no substance".

Mr Forsyth and Ms Wilson's lawyers say that they were physically barred from the club premises after fractious meetings over the allegations and that when they "sought to return to their duties" they "were unlawfully prevented from doing so. "

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The couple's lawyers say that on May 28, Ms Ryn "made a false 999 call reporting the risk of a disturbance at the venue. Ms Ryn and Keiran Farr were acutely hostile...when they arrived at the venue. Keiran Farr hired a locksmith who changed the locks".

Ms Ryn says that subsequently Mr Forsyth locked her out from control of the business admin accounts and finances, leading to losses to the company of around £100,000, including about £32,000 that Mr Forsyth took out of the business.

"Mr Forsyth deliberately acted in a manner to sabotage Arcadia's financial position by allowing debts to accumulate and failing to discharge them despite funds being available...Arcadia's reputation and credit score has been adversely impacted by the defendants' actions," say the company's lawyers.

Mr Forsyth and Ms Wilson for their part say that they own 46% of the shares in the company, having put in £46,000 as seed capital, as well as "devoting substantial labour and expertise to its business".

They also say that around £10,000 worth of furnishings and equipment at the club are their property, which Ms Ryn and Mr Farr "wrongfully took possession of...by changing the locks".

Their lawyers say that any money they took from the business "was a director's loan...to safeguard a portion of this sum and protect the company account".

"Any losses to the business have been cause by Ms Ryn and Mr Farr's unlawful actions," their lawyers state.

Ms Ryn's position is that she owns and has always owned all the shares in the company.

The warring couples were set to face off in court for the first time in a hearing earlier this month at Mayors and City County Court, with Ms Ryn through the company seeking to force her ex and his new wife to give up access and control of company financial information and records.

But after a tense morning spent negotiating at the door of the court, the two sides agreed a settlement of that issue and to meet over the next two months in a bid to work out the rest of the row in mediation.

Should they fail to do so, they will face each other in court next year.