TabletopScot Tabletop Scotland: Gaming Beyond The Wall

[Neil Gow]

I haven't been to Tabletop Scotland before, but the move to Edinburgh puts it firmly in my commuter range at a price that doesn't hurt, so for £23 day return on the train I toddled off to Scotland in search of gaming fun!

The journey was easy, with a quiet train and a simple jump on the 100 Airlink bus from Waverley Station, and then a short walk to the venue. I think it might have been a different case if it was pissing with rain, but it wasn't!

The venue itself - the Royal Highland Centre - was good. A foyer for milling and customer service, a large hall split between traders and open play, and then a first floor suite with dozens of RPG tables, and side rooms with more RPG tables. Food vans were outside, and a bar inside. I did hear that there was food inside, but I never found it. Oh, there was a seminar room too.

So I did my standard convention routine of skimming the trade hall and then going back around and actually buying stuff. I picked up something I had never seen before - a print copy of Dream Askew/Dream Apart and also The Paragon Blade, the new fantasy Gumshoe one-on-one game from Pelgrane.

I grabbed food and then hit my first Game on Demand, which was Scum and Villainy. It was a lot of fund for a standard S&V starter adventure. I've run the Aleph 'box' a couple of times and this was different again. Great stuff and a really enthusiastic GM, which helped loads.

I have a natter with a random Tom, and then got some more food, and headed for my second GoD, which was a brilliant game of Brindlewood Bay, using one of the scenarios from Nephews in Turmoil. Again, another really talented GM who brought energy and character to the game despite it being late in the day.

A quick natter and then I was off home and on the train back to the Toon, and tucked up in bed by 11.30. Nice.

Pros

• Good venue and great staff made it very easy to access the convention
• Great set up for Games on Demand. You got a ticket an hour beforehand with a table and a time, and the GM pitched four games to the table. Very neat.
• Awesome to see so many of my Scottish gaming friends (and some from further afield) after such a long time. It was lovely to do the 'walk ten steps, meet someone, walk ten steps, meet someone' thing.
• Some excellent Games on Demand GMs. Very well done.
• While it was busy, it never felt too crowded due to a good broad layout.

Cons

• The lift was out between the two floors so my poor knees were shattered
• At least Dick Turpin wore a mask, but the food trucks were over-priced and under-portioned. £12.00 for a 'chicken gyros' that could barely have fed a child was taking the piss. £2.90 for a can of diet coke? Piss off.
• The seats everywhere were not quite as bad as the arse-grinders from Furnace, but they were getting there. I think it might be me...
• I was a little disappointed with the stock on some of the stalls - Chaosium, for example, didn't appear to have any of the quickstarts for Time without Tide, which seems like an error as its being kickstarted. And no The Boy King either, which makes me a sadder panda.

The Silly

• So giddy was I at the prospect of a convention that I managed to leave the house with no pens, paper or dice. Foolish man. Luckily my shoulder bag is also my Pendragon bag, so I had d20s and d6s.
• I was shocked by the lack of games exposure from the other players in my GoD groups. No PBTA, FITD or Carved from Brindlewood experiences at all. It reminded me that we (I) am an outlier in the long tail of games experience, not the norm.

Overall, an exceptionally pleasant day out. I'll be back.

 

[Stronty Girl]

The journey was easy, with a quiet train and a simple jump on the 100 Airlink bus from Waverley Station, and then a short walk to the venue. I think it might have been a different case if it was pissing with rain, but it wasn't!

If it is pissing with rain, walk past the airport tram stop to bus stance 10 and get the (free) shuttle bus to the Holiday Inn Express. Which is right by the entrance to the Highland Centre.
Getting back is trickier - you have to buy a £3 ticket from the Holiday Inn reception desk, because the hotel is a request stop on the shuttle bus's return route, so they have to log the request.

I think the 'indoors food' was that coffee & cake van, and the salad van in the dealers hall. That was probably the "cafe area" the programme mentioned. The venue defintely needed somewhere to buy snacks (crisps, chocolate, fruit, drinks cans) where you didn't have to queue with a squillion people waiting to order hot food.

I had lots of fun, and my luggage was much much heavier on the way home due to all the loot I bought. Even though I only bought one RPG (Biosphere Guardians 2025). I may have to pick what I run at future TTS based on the weight of the rulebook and dice, given that I have to travel a loooooong distance by train.

I thoroughly enjoyed Dirtbags, Dr Who and Savage Worlds. Also played Rivers of London (it ended 2 hours into a 3.5 hour session) and Twilight 2000 (my character was largely 'Mr Second or Third Best at Everything' - a detective with no Command or Recon skill), and I ran 2000AD Grey Area (using Blade Runner system). There were no-shows for my game so I ran for 2 players, both of whom were a hoot to play with.

 

[sanjurotokage]

I was there for the three days. I am starting to think I may skip Friday’s going forward. I only went in on a half day but could have easily come over after work and done a bit of shopping before going back home.

Saturday was my business day as ran Call of Cthulhu: Watchers of Walberswick scenario in the morning

Then went to the Rob and Ken talk about stuff and the Dracula

Both were good.

Then the evening was supporting the Alien: All Hand on Deck event which the players enjoyed themselves though the only gripe I had was I had to get the bus back and didn’t get home until before midnight.

Forced myself up early as was running Ghostbusters on Sunday. Ended up skipping breakfast at home trying to find stuff for the game. Then wandered the halls.

Though I enjoyed the event, personally I don’t like travelling to the venue as I have to get the bus back and forth and my bag was heavy. Especially when you travel at night.

Did spend money:

Picked up the Darkest Wood expanded and Innsmouth along with a couple for adventures for Centurion plus some minis (Pawnees for my western games)

Also took three used sci fi books from the cymera stand

I also picked this up as it was a tenner on the GMS stand. No idea about it

Capharnaum - The Tales Of The Dragon-marked - Typhon Games - A British Tabletop RPG (TTRPG) publisher

www.typhon-games.com

 

[Guvnor]

 

[Guvnor]

 

[Guvnor]

I came, I ran Pendragon and T&T A New Age. I played Swords of the Serpentine. I played Matrons of Mystery. I did other things. I loved the games. I really liked the con — I didn't like the logistics or the food. Longer blog post tomorrow.

 

[sanjurotokage]

View attachment 6362

Way too much effort than what I put in for my my games; my players should be grateful I turn up, clothed!…oh I found my Ghostbusters equipment cards yesterday so there was some swearing in my flat when I found them two days after the game

 

[First Age]

I came, I ran Pendragon and T&T A New Age. I played Swords of the Serpentine. I played Matrons of Mystery. I did other things. I loved the games. I really liked the con — I didn't like the logistics or the food. Longer blog post tomorrow.

I really hope to be there next year.

 

[A2ndChapter]

Thanks for these snippets of feedback. Everything helps us look at refinements as we plan the next phase.

Pros

• Good venue and great staff made it very easy to access the convention
• Great set up for Games on Demand. You got a ticket an hour beforehand with a table and a time, and the GM pitched four games to the table. Very neat.
• Awesome to see so many of my Scottish gaming friends (and some from further afield) after such a long time. It was lovely to do the 'walk ten steps, meet someone, walk ten steps, meet someone' thing.
• Some excellent Games on Demand GMs. Very well done.
• While it was busy, it never felt too crowded due to a good broad layout.

The layout has been a design principle since we started back in 2018. Space between things is more important than squeezing more people in.
The Games on Demand 'sign up' process was something I came up with when chatting to Martin and Ian ahead of the 2025 event. Having a physical 'boarding pass' seems to help in general for something that is adhoc. Naturally I've essentially stolen this from Gen Con's approach.

Cons

• The lift was out between the two floors so my poor knees were shattered
• At least Dick Turpin wore a mask, but the food trucks were over-priced and under-portioned. £12.00 for a 'chicken gyros' that could barely have fed a child was taking the piss. £2.90 for a can of diet coke? Piss off.
• The seats everywhere were not quite as bad as the arse-grinders from Furnace, but they were getting there. I think it might be me...
• I was a little disappointed with the stock on some of the stalls - Chaosium, for example, didn't appear to have any of the quickstarts for Time without Tide, which seems like an error as its being kickstarted. And no The Boy King either, which makes me a sadder panda.

There are two lifts, and when the main one broke down on the Friday morning (perfect timing...) signs were added to help folks find the other lift. As someone who has crap knees I was thankful for it.
The pricing of the food trucks both from a food and drink perspective are something we have noted and will pick up with them in our debrief meetings with them. Ultimately we have zero control over that, but will influence where we can.

Getting back is trickier - you have to buy a £3 ticket from the Holiday Inn reception desk, because the hotel is a request stop on the shuttle bus's return route, so they have to log the request.

Trickier yes, but still significantly better than the walk!

I think the 'indoors food' was that coffee & cake van, and the salad van in the dealers hall. That was probably the "cafe area" the programme mentioned. The venue defintely needed somewhere to buy snacks (crisps, chocolate, fruit, drinks cans) where you didn't have to queue with a squillion people waiting to order hot food.

The coffee van and in particular the deli van seemed to get lost last year, and this year was the same. We'll factor that into the debrief.
Ultimately though the provision of food and drink, including snacks, is through the venue's suppliers. So we cannot run a "tuck shop".

I came, I ran Pendragon and T&T A New Age. I played Swords of the Serpentine. I played Matrons of Mystery. I did other things. I loved the games. I really liked the con — I didn't like the logistics or the food. Longer blog post tomorrow.

It was a pleasure to have a random encounter chat with you in the foyer area.

 

[Guvnor]

@A2ndChapter I did most of my food buying from the little wrap stall in the main area, and my coffee from the Doughnuts stand since they made very very good coffee.
It was most excellent to chat.

 

[Neil Gow]

@A2ndChapter Thanks for the feedback on the feedback. To give some feedback on the feedback on the feedback, by Saturday I saw no signage to a second lift BUT I am not always that observant! So it might have fallen down or I might have missed it. Who knows. No harm done.

 

[Ceramic Badger]

I was shocked by the lack of games exposure from the other players in my GoD groups. No PBTA, FITD or Carved from Brindlewood experiences at all. It reminded me that we (I) am an outlier in the long tail of games experience, not the norm.

Just a quick note to say that the purpose of Games on Demand has always been to provide a more enticing opportunity for board and card gamers to try out RPGs. So you should expect people who have never played an RPG at those tables.

Having said that, I don't think we've ever managed to get any because we're tucked up out of the way on the 1st floor.

 

[Neil Gow]

That wasn't a criticism of the players or the set up. Quite the opposite. It was a criticism of my own presumptions!

 

[Guvnor]

I think the GoD (a rolling open table of two hour Games at one hour intervals On Demand) was brilliantly run and exactly what would have been what was needed at many cons with boardgamers who walk up and want a demo game of about boardgame length with no previous sign up.
It was excellent. Now whether or not it should have been in the main hall so more boardgame players meandered up.. it's a noise thing, innit?

 

[Ceramic Badger]

It was excellent. Now whether or not it should have been in the main hall so more boardgame players meandered up.. it's a noise thing, innit?

It really is. We would love to be in the main hall, it's the correct place to put us. But until we can work out the noise issue it isn't practical.

 

[Yenmoor]

For next year, I want to take an aggressive approach to GoD advertising ahead of the con itself. It’s well advertised on the website, but I suspect that your average board game attendee doesn’t look at the RPG bit of the site. So I’ll be trying to promote the GoD games well ahead of the con itself, to try to catch the eye of prospective new players.

 

[Guvnor]

Maybe put the GOD ticket table downstairs in the main entrance