Tabletop Scotland 2024

hi y'all,

What is this? 2 posts in 2 days? Well this is just a quick bonus post, haha I said I would add a few of these now and again...

Last weekend I flew up to Edinburgh for Tabletop Scotland 2024, the biggest gaming convention north of the border and rapidly becoming the biggest outside of Expo. I haven't been to TTS since before Covid, when the convention was held in Perth. That convention was my first and was brilliant fun with me showcasing my own board game design - Blood, Sweat and Horses! A chariot racing game you can find out about here. The whole weekend was filled with gaming, broken only by an unfortunate trip to A&E after I fell and bust my ankle, made worse by me having to drive 11 hours to get back to the southeast coast of England at the end of the con.

Fast forward to last weekend, TTS has outgrown its previous home and was being held for the first time at the Highland Centre, conveniently located within walking distance of the airport. So, I thought why not? I really wanted to go back but could not resist flying - £39 return ticket, 5 hours of travelling instead of 11 and delivered right to the door, what could go wrong... oops!

Getting up at 02:00hrs on the friday morning wasn't too bad I suppose, except it was a peasouper foggy kind of morning - bugger! No worries, we slowed it down and got to the airport 45 mins later than planned, but we were safe. Onto the plane - no problem, held on the tarmac for 30 mins longer than planned - no problem. Arrived in Edinburgh only 30 mins behind schedule, not too bad and we're all safe and sound... or are we? where is J? they haven't got off the plane - 20 mins later and they are wheelchaired of the plane and we are on our way to A&E - two trips to Scotland, two trips to A&E! thankfully the Scottish NHS is more than up to task and our group member was triaged, assessed and treated within 3 hours - a time that shames almost every hospital I've ever been to south of the border and i'm a paramedic so i've seen quite a few! However, drama over we still managed to get to TTS, missing only the first hour which would have been held up by the queue to get in - which was impressive and just shows how big the con has grown in the last few years!!

home from home...

The convention was amazing fun and I was too busy to get a load of different pictures but there was a massive area for retailers, game demonstrators, free space, game library and bring and buy.  I spent so much money that missus Gobbo will be wearing a frown for some time. I also played so many games from wargames like Fallout and Bolt Action, to RPGs (a brilliant Wild West RPG which is going through Kickstarter atm), to board games such as Zen Monkeys, Rising Sun, Hues and Cues, and may others. But by far was my favourite - Worms the board game by Mantic games! based on the video games from back in the day, Worms is a faithful recreation of the old classic and the nostalgia hit alone was worth the box price, let alone the excellent game play that had me laughing throughout the whole game and recreating the sound effects from the vid game.

our amazing accommodation

playing Worms in the airport following the delay 

my set of painted worms

i loved painting these guys and completed the whole lot in just two days. I could go on and on about the convention but as this is just a bonus post, I'm gonna leave it there and just thank the awesome David Wright and his excellent team for hosting a brilliant convention.

hope you enjoy

dGG