This is the season to give thanks, at least in America. In Australia it's simply a time the days get hotter and it's still too many days until Christmas hols. But if you are doing your Christmas shopping early, then good news: this weekend (the 25th to the 28th) itch.io is having Creator Days - that means they stop charging their share for the games they host, so all proceeds go to the publishers (that's us). That means it's a great time to complete your collection of our games, especially those that raise money for charities. And as part of the deal, we've included Relics, our deluxe roleplaying game of angels and demons, in a yuletide themed bundle, where you can get 70 games for the price of Relics alone. 

And speaking of Relics, we know it's been a long time between supplements for this game line. And we'd like to thank you for keeping the faith. We do indeed have eight supplements planned to come out and we hope to have the very first out in the next few days! It's another look at relics and how they work in the setting plus an exciting new adventure by Nicholas Moll. 

And speaking of things to come, we've set up our pre-launch page for The Score Kickstarter! We hope to launch February 15th and of course we'll have all the updates on this on this blog, the mailing list, the fanpage, on twitter, facebook, Instagram, TikTok and most likely some of the exciting new platforms coming up. Want the easy option? Simply check out the pre-launch page and click the Notify Me button, and you'll get an email the moment we go live. Synchronize watches - The Score is coming soon!

Our last instalment was just before PAX. If you're following us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or TikTok, you know PAX was amazing for us. There was barely a minute we weren't demoing The Score on every table we could find. We ran something like 400 games! And we also had a lot of fun making a complete roleplaying game in an hour on a panel. We also got to catch up with the local design scene and all the incredibly talented local designers. PAX has now started to turn the spotlight onto the local tabletop industry and audiences seem hungry to know more. For example, Gameology is looking to promote local talent, so go here and nominate our games!

​The very same weekend was Essen Spiel, the world's biggest and most important game convention that happens every year in the German city of Essen. We weren't there but Goliath who distributes our collaborative card game There's Been A Murder was and they had a big booth to show off just how much fun murder can be! Until recently it's only been available in the US but we now know it is being exported (and translated) into Europe and Asia. Hopefully Australian stores will have it soon too. With all of this, we got word that sales of There's Been A Murder have topped 100 000 copies! Incredible again! We are so flattered!

We had hoped to get more Relics materials out this month but unfortunately it's still being developed (our head of layout has had to move house multiple times, among other things). But every Halloween we bring you a totally free one-page RPG horror extravaganza, like our ENnie-nominated gothic masterwork Two Faces. This year we have something a little different. In 1985, Freddy Mercury and Kenny Everett snuck Princess Diana into a gay London nightclub disguised as a man. This game retells that night with a horror twist. This is Princess Die. 

Can you survive until morning? Only the dice know...good luck and see you in November! (evil laugh)

Over the last few months, we've been very privileged to be assisting some of the newest Australian designers in producing their first game. Ryo Goh, Alice Maignan and Chloe Stager are all Grade Six students at the German International School and for their Social Entrepreneurship class this year, they have been working to produce a board game. The class focusses on creating a pitch for a commercial product that will produce both funding and awareness for a social issue. In this case the product is an exciting board game of koala movement, and the issue is the great risk of extinction that koalas continue to face. 

We went out to the school and helped the girls understand the basic steps of game design: making a paper prototype, testing ideas, iterating on design and playtesting, and then on to making a shinier version. Coming in to help there were the amazing folks at Launch Tabletop, who are about to launch their site for making prototypes, smaller print runs and personal game design projects. Their helpful staff took the girls start-up money and produced some dazzling prototypes. 

Next week, the girls will be presenting their work not just to the class but to an Impact Partnership Manager from the World Wildlife Fund. There's hope that the game will be perhaps of interest to them or sold to other school students, with all the profits going to help koala research. And we may even be able to offer the game to Tin Star Games fans. 

We'll have more photos next Thursday, so stay tuned!

PAX Aus 2022 is almost upon us, and it's going to be BIG. In fact, it's just seven days away now. 

As mentioned last month, Tin Star Games will be showing our next game "The Score" as part of the PAX Aus 2022 Indie Showcase! We can be found in the Indie Showcase area at booth TS18. Drop by for a chat to see the prototypes of The Score AND we'll be selling Relics and Partners if you need to grab copies! We'll have swag to giveaways, too, for every visitor; grab our card, and you'll get a free game on the back. Score! (see what we did there)

We will be trying to run demos at the booth but if you want to guarantee you get to play The Score, swing by the PAX Rising Tabletop RPG area just past our booth. We will be running our showcase winner, "The Score", every day from 11 am to 11 pm—plenty of time to plot and execute your Score heist in this rapid-fire roleplaying experience. Although the game takes only 18 minutes, new sessions start every hour on the hour. Book your session at the RPG info desk for details.

We hope to have other secret agents around the con running The Score everywhere they can, as fast as they can. Take a picture of your game and send it to us and we'll share it on the socials! (Also? We have a tikotk now. )

Want to hear more about The Score? Steve will be on a panel chatting about the Indie Showcase in the Fruitbat Theatre at 6:30 Saturday about what makes The Score a winner. And at noon on Sunday, Steve will be in the PAX Together space workshopping how YOU can make YOUR first RPG in one hour flat! That's right, an entire RPG, driven by you the audience! You can also read more about The Score and its design process in this wonderful interview we did with Player 2 Magazine. 

And in non-PAX news we have an equally exciting milestone: The Score Digital is now in open beta!  That's right, we've built a version of The Score that plays on your computer, online, with up to five friends. Go to the itch.io page link, download the .exe (all players need a copy) and you'll be able to heist to your hearts content. It's still bare bones but with your help we will keep updating it and improving it! And we'll be running it every Friday night at our new FRIDAY NIGHT HEIST events on the Tin Star Discord. That's Friday nights from 8pm AEDT (Daylight Savings starts this weekend).

Don't miss out on everything that's happening with Tin Star Games - subscribe to our blog or our mailing list! And of course - see you at PAX, gamers! Like Big Kev used to say: we're excited!

Tin Star Games' "The Score" is a winner: we have been chosen as one of only four tabletop games to feature in the prestigious PAX Aus 2022 Indie Showcase! Come to PAX Aus (Melbourne) from October 7-9 to experience the quick-play heist adventure during the convention. 

"The Score" is a rapid-fire card game where players roleplay a heist scenario and all its twists and turns. We're still looking for playtesters to beta test the print-and-play version of the game and take a post-game survey to let us know how you found your escapades. Want to get in on the action now? Sign up here, invite some friends and get heisting!
​Treasures At Last:
It's been a long eight months since our failed Kickstarter but we are finally ready to produce the material we had planned. We can't make a beautiful hardcover book or the deluxe tarot box we wanted but we can give you the written rules. What was going to be one big book is now going to be four separate releases. Part 1 should be released sometime in the next two weeks, hopefully before the end of August. This first installment looks at making your own miraculous items and includes an all-new scenario. Subsequent books will contain the relics themselves!

Treasures on Earth acts as an expansion on the tarot-based roleplaying game, Relics: A Game of Angels with a brand new fantastical campaign. Continue the plight of the angels in Relics: Treasures on Earth as they endure their battle against demons and all things evil. Patreon backers will have free access to ALL 4 PDFs of the books coming out over the next 6 months - good stuff!

Speaking of Relics, we've just realized that the fire at the heart of the game - the tarot deck - has been available for download on our DriveThru page but NOT on our Itch page! An error for two years, finally fixed. Sorry about that. 

Before you go: 

Check out Steve's interview on the "Scheduled for Launch" podcast about Tin Star’s library and the thought processes that go into our games. You might not know just how deep the catalogue goes!

Have you got a favourite podcast or reviewer that hasn't covered our games? Let us know and we'll send them free copies!

As always, stay tuned for further updates next month and before - and keep on playing!

We’ve been hard at work this month as always, preparing a special offer in honour of Pride month, and making updates to our existing catalog! 

Game Updates!
A revised version of the core Relics rulebook will be put up on DriveThruRPG - owners of the game just need to log in to collect it from your library! This version is what fans have been asking for: the inclusion of proper digital bookmarks to make it much easier to navigate the book. The update will also go out for all those who purchased it through our itch store.

Last month we announced the launch of The Score the fastest RPG in the world. This month we've released the print and play files for patreon backers at the Subscriber level or higher.  This will allow you to start playing the beta right away - just print, sleeve and go! And don't forget you can now play The Score on Tabletop Simulator too! 

 Happy Pride Month!
In honour of Pride month, everything digital for Relics is on sale for a crazy $10! That's Relics (updated) and its first two supplements, a value of over $50, over 80% off! And if we reach our sales goal, everyone who grabbed the bundle gets a free scenario! Grab it now! 

Convention Season
Convention season has begun and we'll be out on the road again - but staying safe too. Sometimes so safe we will only be online! On July 16/17 we will be playing The Score at Ettin Con online! Jump into their discord and we can run you through the fastest RPG ever made! 

Then a week later, on the 23rd and 24th of July, we will be in Canberra for Gamma Con running demos of The Score and selling all our games. Come say hi! This will be a dry-run for us appearing at PAX Aus in October and possibly other cons. We're still looking for GMs to join our PAX Aus team, so get in touch if you'd like free entry to the biggest con of the year. And uf you've got an event you'd like to run our games at, we will sponsor you and send you free stuff! Just ask!

We'll also have copies of Relics on sale at GenCon August 4th to 7th thanks to the Indie Game Designers Network. They'll be 20% off for attendees so go gab a bargain! Those are also the last copies ever of the tarot deck - everywhere else is sold out. They really are a limited edition. 

Always More
Next month we hope to finally bring you some more material for Relics that was supposed to be in the kickstarter from last year. We didn't make our goal but we are keen to bring you more relics, more scenarios and more stuff! If you like that, tell you friends: word of mouth is the best advertising of all

​This is it. This is the big one. This is the heist of a lifetime.

This weekend we were thrilled to be a part of Role Call Sydney, the launch of a hopefully regular celebration of local rpg designers and demonstration of their craft. For us it was also the launch of our next big print RPG - big in impact that is, but very small in size!

The Score is an 18 card 18 minute roleplaying game. With no GM and just a handful of cards the rules use a unique fast paced story prompt system to guide you through the heist of a lifetime - and out with the goods. The short playtime and approachable rules make it perfect for folks new to roleplaying, or as a filler any time you have a few minutes to spare. In a world of multi year campaigns and big chunky rulebooks, The Score is like nothing else. It is guaranteed to be the smallest, easiest and above all fastest rpg ever made. Get in, get great gaming and get out - in record time!

We intend to bring The Score to crowdfunding in the first quarter of 2023. In the meantime we’ve put up our landing page and you can follow all the developments there and on our blog and our mailing list. Over the next nine months we’ll be revealing sneak peaks of the cards, run downs of the rules and more. In fact right now if you have tabletop simulator you can subscribe to the mod and start playing online today!

But wait: there’s more. To celebrate the launch of this heist thrill ride, we’re giving you a steal: every product in our online store is 20% off for the next 18 days when you use promo code “thescore” when you check out! Nows the time to grab the missing parts in your collection!

Finally, if you liked our March release of The Rent, you can now get a full printed copy now from The Game Crafter.

Till next month,
​Steve

Storysynth was developed by Randy Lubin for his award-winning game For the Queen. Not unlike Partners, it uses randomly generated prompts, handed out in turn to characters to drive the story, as opposed to players driving their characters. So it was a perfect fit for Partners! For The Badge is also for two players and focuses on one night, on a stakeout. Both of you have bent the law a little. But maybe you have secrets you've never revealed. With a darker tone than the standard Partners game, this is perfect for an intense session of twenty to thirty minutes. Also works great solo, or with a group suggesting the ideas. By focusing on a single situation with dialogue as the key feature, we also encourage folks to record their sessions like radio plays, and create a new kind of intimate, actual play, that crosses the line between RPG and theatre. 

For the Badge is Pay What You Want on our itch site. This is our fourth month in a row of keeping our pledge to put out a new product every single month! We'll be back in May with another exciting Tin Star Games product! Next month we'll have an exciting new publication AND if you're in Sydney, watch for details for the first official preview of The Score, our next big RPG product! We'll be running it at a special event coming up at the end of next month!

Till next time, keep watch the (tin) stars!

Howdy Star Gazers! We wanted to dive straight into this month and ask you a rather personal but reflective question. Do you think you could make it through a year below the poverty line? What will you have left at the end? Of couse, maybe you already have. Poverty touches far more of us than it would appear, even if we save up for a fancy game now and then. Maybe someone you love is struggling right now.

These are the questions we ask our players to think about before, during, and after experiencing our newly released title The Rent. ​