Hi folx,
UKGE IS HAPPENING!
If you are at UKGE, a valued community member, Daniel | The Copper Compendium, put together a non-exhaustive map of where our members can be found. That can be viewed here.
Cons aside, we had our quarterly on the weekend and discussed increasing the ways in which you can support us and we can support you. The best way, for now, remains our Patreon but watch this space.
A video summary of this newsletter is here:
To support us, join our Patreon or give a one-off donation on Ko-fi.
You can also find us on Discord, on Facebook, on Bluesky, on tumblr, on Twitter, and on Instagram.
Meetups & Events
As this newsletter goes out, TIN are at the UK Games Expo, which is on until Sunday 1st June. Come see us on stall 2-383, and good luck with Stamp Quest (more on this below)!
After UKGE, our upcoming meetups are:
London: Thursday 5th June, 7pm (first Thursday of the month)
@ The Arcanist’s Tavern, 87-91 Hackney Road, Shoreditch, E2 8FEGlasgow: Friday 13th June and Friday 27th June, all at 11am (fortnightly)
@ Beco Building, 62 Kingston StreetManchester: Saturday 7th June, 2:30pm (first Saturday of the month)
@ KRO BAR, 325 Oxford Rd, M13 9PGNorwich: TBC
Virtual Tea and Coffee Mornings: Wednesday 4th June, 10.30am (first Wednesday of the month) and Sunday 15th June, 10am (third Sunday of the month)
@ coffee-morning and tea-morning channels in the UK Tin Discord server.Creatives of Colour virtual hangout: TBC
@ PoC-Lounge channel in the UK TIN Discord server (remember to ask a Discord mod for the “creative of colour” role for access)
Remember to keep an eye on our social media channels for any updates to these expected times or locations.
Our last TIN Talk was “What the heck is GPSR & CE Testing? (aka how do I keep selling my games in the EU)” by Samuel Steele of MisfitHobbies. It covered the EU’s new General Product Safety Regulations (GPSR), what impact they can have on tabletop creators in the UK, and how creators can navigate the new requirements. If you missed it, the recording of this talk—and all our previous TIN Talks—can be found at the TIN Talks Archive.
TIN Talks will resume again next month.
UK TIN was delighted to be part of Norwich Games Festival (NGF) on Tuesday 27th May, with a stall in the Atrium and a talk by two of our local creatives, David F. Chapman and Eleanor Hingley. Tabletop gaming was represented in force this year, with workshops by designer James Wallis and design your own creature activities at the Wayward Adventurers Guild stall. Looking forward to next year, and thanks for having us along!
Stamp Quest, a massive scavenger hunt across the halls of UK Games Expo, is back. If you should accept this quest, collect a Stamp Quest leaflet from any of the participating stalls and seek out the stamps of indie creators across the Expo. You can get clues from our Instagram feed, which will feature photos of every stall on the trail and even bargain with the Copper Compendium for this official map. Our brilliant quest givers have brought their finest wares to catch your eye, so take some time to peruse their stalls. And our incredible sponsors, Leisure Games, Soul Muppet and Three Sails Studios, have marvellous tomes for purchase to open up whole new worlds to you.
Return to the UK TIN stall at 2-383 to enter our prize draws. Fill out half of the quest to enter the Mini Quest prize draw, or the full quest to enter the Main Quest prize draw. We are grateful to all of our sponsors, quest givers, and prize donors for their support, without which this event could not happen, as well as to the tireless volunteers who have worked hard to bring this event to UKGE. Learn more at https://stampquest.carrd.co/
New & Recent Releases
Apawthecaria, by Anna Blackwell (Blackwell Games) and Brian Tyrell (Stout Stoat Press), is a cosy solo rpg that blends together Anna’s Apothaceria and Brian’s Scurry! You play as a small animal with the knowledge to brew healing potions. Wander the woods, find ingredients, help other animals in need, and avoid getting into trouble. The game features a detailed map, an upgrade system for your tools and wagon, and encounters to make each season of your in-game year feel unique.
You can purchase it online or at UKGE this weekend!
Dreamrunners, by Tim Gray of Silver Branch Games, is a modern fantasy game of adventures into the strange, surreal world of Dream. The game acts as a framework, running simply with a d6 dice pool, counting successes.
A Dreamrunner has two things: the Spark, creative energy cultivated through art or craft; and Lucidity, allowing them to participate in Dreams as a conscious actor. The world of dreams and the real world are different but connected, allowing Dreamers like you to make a difference, if you can find the way.
The project is Tim’s entry for Pocketquest 2025, and is purchasable on DriveThruRPG.
By Odin’s Beard presents Midnight of the Century, a pre-apocalyptic serial killer investigation TTRPG, inspired by '90s crime thriller movies and TV shows like Millennium, Silence of the Lambs, Twin Peaks, and Homicide: Life on the Street. As an investigator, mix detective skills and occultism to unravel the mystery.
The 20-page primer contains everything you need to run the game, including rules for creating investigators, a taste of dark secrets under the surface of the enigmatic Pacific Northwest, and an introductory investigation tracking a ritualistic killer through rain-soaked Seattle.
Bundles, Crowdfunding, & Subscriptions
If you’ve been to our London meetups (or if you’re at UKGE at the moment), you’ve probably met Mikhail, aka Ronamis, a talented (and scarily productive) artist and designer of settings, adventures, and maps. Now Mikhail has a new battlemap available on the Ronamis patreon: the corrupted city of Golden Gardens, overtaken by eldritch fungus and a cult of entropy.
New maps, NPC portraits, and tokens are added to the patreon each month, as well as story scenarios and adventures, so it’s fantastic value even if you aren’t using battlemaps for your game. Subscribe if you haven’t already.
From Graham Walmsley, the award-winning designer of Cthulhu Dark, comes a new weird space horror game: Cosmic Dark, set in a universe where life, technology and reality become twisted and wrong.
Cosmic Dark features no character creation or set-up: You start playing right away, making characters and worlds as you go, with the rulebook teaching the rules as the surreal, disturbing story unfolds.
The project is smashing its targets, and runs on Kickstarter until June 17th.
Anna Blackwell (of Apawthecaria, above) also has a new crowdfunding project: The Death and Pottery Collection is a zine collection, crowdfunding on Kickstarter. Built up of four games which are experiments in solo, GMless, Duet, and improv comedy games, it promises something for everyone, no matter what you’re in the mood for.
You can back the kickstarter here, for any or all of the games on offer.
UK Tabletop Industry Network has a Patreon! All contributions help us support up-and-coming creators in the tabletop industry without a paywall or other barrier to entry. Patreon funding is the main way we cover up-front fees for conventions and events. The more funding we get, the more events we can attend, and the more games by aspiring creatives we can put in front of excited gamers that might otherwise miss them.
If you support the Patreon at the £5 tier or above, you’ll get free access to a growing selection of great games contributed by our members, including LadyBeaste by Michael Duxbury, Drama Llamas by Yvris Burke, Biome by Black Armada Games, and Slasher and All Bastard by Sam Armstrong.
Contributors to this month’s edition of the TIN newsletter were Ryan Wheeldon, Jack Terry, Eleanor Hingley, Josh Gane, and Stephen Morffew. If you would like to contribute to the newsletter, drop a message in the #tin-volunteering channel of the UK TIN Discord or contact Stephen Morffew via email at stepintorpgs(at)outlook(dot)com.