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Last month, my son and I hopped on a plane to visit our local tabletop Gaming convention, Tabletop Scotland in Edinburgh. We’ve been to a lot of tournaments over the years and to a handful of Comic-Cons but have never visited a gaming convention so we didn’t know exactly what to expect. There were a couple of other Zatu bloggers in attendance, so I thought it would be good to get the views of some veterans too who could compare the convention to those they have experienced before.
Tabletop Scotland took place this year at the Royal Highland Centre, close to Edinburgh Airport, for the first time since it moved on from its original venue in Perth. We found that the venue itself was very large with plenty of space and on-site parking for those with a car. However, because we travelled by public transport, we had a bracing walk to the event each morning from a nearby tram station. Thankfully the weather was kind and we remained dry each day.
First things first, the negatives. There’s some kind of factory close to the venue and this was by far the worst part of the weekend. It smelled bad. I mean it really did smell bad - horrendous in fact. Once inside the venue, however, the foul smell became a distant memory. We were delighted to find a multitude of vendors within the large open building. I had signed up to take part in the Marvel Crisis Protocol tournament on the Saturday and Sunday but we had kept Friday free to explore and to do some shopping.
There were local businesses selling a whole manner of toys and games; there were larger and smaller independent companies demonstrating already published games; there were games in various levels of development for testing; and lots of independent retailers selling handmade and bespoke items from RPG-themed cookies to luxury gaming tables. The retailer and exhibition space reminded me a lot of some of the larger comic conventions I have been to over the years. The vendors were friendly and engaging and there were some real treasures to unearth.
My son’s personal favourite find of the weekend was Counter Attack: the football strategy game, developed locally by Longpark Games. The game was initially published through Kickstarter and is currently preparing for a second round of funding to finance the release of an expansion. Counter Attack is actually a phenomenal game to play and is easily the closest I have found a board game to come to football. I mean actual football too. Not simply football management but gameplay where you employ onfield tactics using drafted players in a match lasting a full 90 minutes. If you like football, this is definitely one to look out for - the designer is clearly a big football fan who knows the game well. Zatu are currently out of stock of the original game but I definitely recommend you put this on your wish list if you’re a football fan. You won’t be disappointed.
I enjoyed chatting to the team from Modiphius and playing the new Fallout Factions skirmish game, which is a streamlined version of Wasteland Warfare conceived by the brain that brought us the exceptional Necromunda. In essence the players take a small gang of raiders each and develop them over time through a series of games in a linked campaign. You can add recognisable characters from the franchise and different units from the Wasteland Warfare game to make your gang unique. The simple and streamlined mechanics twin with the strategic downtime options to make fallout factions a very attractive prospect that I will certainly be putting some time into once I can get my hands on a copy.
Whilst I played in the Crisis Protocol tournament, my son played games at the venue and even took a couple of painting classes, which were included in the convention ticket price. He was very proud to produce a couple of finished miniatures and the teachers at the event were very knowledgeable and approachable.
As first time attendees at a tabletop gaming convention, we were very happy with our experience and will certainly be going again. The management team for the event and all the staff on site were friendly and approachable. If you are going to attend a convention next year, why not try Tabletop Scotland and pair your visit with a few days in Edinburgh or else venture further north into the Highlands and maybe beyond to the islands.
The Thoughts Of RogerBW
This year was my third trip to Tabletop Scotland: even at the new site in Edinburgh, it’s eight hours on the road from the soft south. So why do I go, when there are other shows closer to home that I don’t visit?
I go to conventions mostly to play games, and like Airecon and its spinoffs, Tabletop Scotland is about playing games first. There are vendors, some of them very interesting, but mostly I want to meet strangers and play either games I’ve brought or others I haven’t tried before.
So what I’m looking for is a good big play area, and while the old venue was all right, the new one is better: a huge tarmac-floored barn of a space with room to park food trucks outside, about a quarter of the ground floor given over to the the vendors and other things round the edges, but otherwise filled with tables. As usual flags were available for those seeking players, so I could set up games and wait for people to wander past; since it’s all in one large space it’s easy to look around and spot other players. Some hotel cons try to pack too many people into small rooms; some have lots of little rooms and all your friends have always gone to another one. Tabletop Scotland avoided both these traps.
Meanwhile, over at the vendors, it wasn’t just the usual suspects I can see at any decent-sized English con: not only were there fewer box-shifters and more firms demonstrating their own games, there were quite a few makers, with such joys as giant dice full of fluid-filled plastic eyeballs, or hand-carved wooden dice boxes and towers.
The games library was also doing a brisk trade, and the bring and buy clogged up as they always do at cons with more than a thousand people (this year attendance was up 70% to 6,500 turnstile, 3,900 uniques). I didn’t even get as far as the upstairs events, the RPGs, seminars, and apparently continuous games of Blood on the Clocktower.
It was also pleasing to see plenty of families with small children: it’s commonplace at Essen SPIEL (since boardgaming has been a normal family activity in Germany for over fifty years), but in England there’s the ancestral memory of horrible endless games at Christmas, and hobby-game shows have tended to separate themselves from “children’s games”. Not so much at this show, and today’s player of Meeple Quest may be beating me at Imperium next year.
Like Airecon, it’s a show that started small, has got big, but still has the small show feel. There’s business being done, but the gamers aren’t an inconvenient side note, we’re why the show is there in the first place. I’ll be back next year.
The Wisdom Of Sam De Smith
I was a little bit skeptical when I heard TTS was moving, even though I didn't love Perth (or parking there at least), but given that it was moving a half hour down the road from my house I wasn't going to miss it. I took my bestie and 2 teenagers... and we loved every minute of it, suspicious odours and all.
It felt big and spacious, but never empty, even on the quieter Friday. We got try a bunch of new games, including Looot! (A viking-themed game with elements of area majority and puzzle board optimisation), Mandalorian Adventures (an adventure quest through season 1 of the tv show) and Monkey Palace (a truly magnificent lego building puzzler race for all ages) as well as playing plenty of Lorcana (I enjoyed trying the new Bridge format, which encourages multiplayer) and teaching folk Star Wars Unlimited.
It was also great to see plenty of local Scottish stores selling their gaming wares, although I was a bit disappointed in the lack of miniatures and ccgs on offer if I'm being honest. I'd really hoped to see some classic stuff on offer, but I suppose Tabletop Scotland is at it's heart a boardgame show. Nonetheless there was a good showing from Mantic, with the new Worms game (Incoming!) and Warlord had 2000AD goodies galore, plus I was really taken with the range of dwarf miniatures from newcomers Bifröst - I picked up a Dwarf Highwayman for no reason other than to paint it.
Whilst inevitably there were few teething issues - the food was inevitably very expensive and, honestly, not fantastic - it wad extremely well organised, parking excellent and I met a bunch of fabulous folk! Roll on 2025!
Conclusion
From discussing the event with other attendees the overall feeling towards Tabletop Scotland is positive. The new venue has capacity to allow the convention to continue to grow and we all fully expect it to keep getting better year on year. Well done to the organisers - we appreciate your hard work!