As with most Januarys, this one is slowly plodding along. It's cold and dark here in Scotland, and as the three of us on team Toad navigate random freelance work, ghost tours, making smoothies, and generally being a bit here, there, and everywhere, we've taken to writing our never-ending RPG (more on that shortly), looking for events, and generally muddling away, mostly in a busy Starbucks that for whatever reason plays party tunes as if we're headed for a night out. Needs must. But our slightly improvised working set-up must be okay for us, as we have enough news to give you a wee update on all things Terror Toad.
The past couple of years we've been to UKGE, Tabletop Scotland, Tabletop Gaming Live (what happened to you? we miss you!), and a few Glasgow Alternative Markets. All of which have been delightful. We never regret selling in person, and we've always had good results. Our biggest challenge has always been online sales, but while we navigate the madness of SEO and Google Merchants Centre, we continue to find and conquer the live events. That's where the fun is anyway. So this year, we will be back at UKGE, Tabletop Scotland, and of course we'll be looking to go see the Glasgow Goths again, but new for 2025 - we're heading to Airecon!
A couple of years ago, while visiting Static Games in Glasgow, a fellow game designer told us that Airecon is the convention where people want to play, so I guess we're going to find out! Do come and say hi if you're going too! Another new addition this year is our first event with our friends at Dungeons and Flagons. We'll be at their MCR Geek Fayre on the 1st of February, so a flying visit to Manchester is in order! Sometimes we feel quite removed from the busier board game/tabletop gaming scenes, as our time is split between small towns in Scotland, so it feels great to take the opportunity to go on adventures when time allows.
Alongside filling up our calendar, we've been working away at an RPG project. We've been handing out little one-page tasters for what feels like far too long, so it's time to get this mammoth task done already. We are adapting the Cypher System by Monte Cook Games to create a spooky and strange seaside town. The text is finally on its way to being complete, so shortly we'll be looking for proof-readers to make sure our efforts have been worthwhile.
Speaking of proof-readers, we're going to be on a fresh hunt for play-testers soon too! Last year we made a prototype of a strategy game, created a print and play, sent it out, and... well, we didn't exactly get the amount of feedback we wanted. Admittedly, its a big file to print, so we were perhaps optimistic. Our last test print and play was for Imposter Pigeon, a much, much, smaller game. So, back to the drawing board. We still really love our new project, and we have now got a quote from our manufacturer, we just need some good folk to tell us if it's worth making it pretty and getting it ordered! I think we're going to delve into Discord channels and experiment with some online play, but none of us have done that before so I have no idea what that will look like. We can only try!
I think that's all I have to ramble about for now, but I'd like to end by giving a couple shout-outs to Luke from The Travelling Tabletop, and Adam from Die Rolling. Both these guys gave GRIM INC and Imposter Pigeon some love right before Christmas, and your content was so appreciated!
Check out Luke's Instagram here -> https://www.instagram.com/thetravellingtabletop/
Watch the Die Rolling guys play GRIM INC here -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpW_Bm4fPwY&t=1316s
Team Toad x
