With Tabletop Scotland fast approaching (just one more sleep!), I was really lucky to catch up with the amazing Gareth Edwards from Farplace Games to learn more about his upcoming game Litter Tray, and also to hear about what’s next for the charity!
Litter Tray has now reached its Kickstarter goal many times over, and money raised will partially go towards funding the animal rescue, as well as giving grants to other smaller rescue organisations in need – so, a great cause to support, and there’s still time to back it!
B: Just a few days left of the Kickstarter, and then Litter Tray goes into production! How are you feeling about it?
Gareth: I always like to see our games arrive. Litter Tray will arrive in time (just) for NE Tabletop Expo and Essen Spiel so kickstarter pledgers will not have long to wait at all.
B: Anything new or exclusive you’re able to share or tell us about Litter Tray?
Gareth: I am pleased with playtest feedback from a few events including U.K. Games Expo. It uses push-your-luck but in a fun and short game so should only take around 10-15 mins.
B: You clearly have a passion for rescuing animals, and the fact you’re able to combine it with your love of gaming seems like living the dream. What’s it like running the rescue and working on games at the same time?
Gareth: We needed to diversify income as a charity and it made sense to use my hobby of playing tabletop games with the charity to help achieve this. It is long hours of playtesting for sure but it doesn’t feel as much like work as some tasks.
B: I can imagine! What’s in the future for Farplace – do you have any other game ideas in mind?
Gareth: We have just licensed Cat and Woof Days to be produced in Ukrainian, and will be donating all our profits from this to Ukrainian no-kill shelters. We are looking for more licensing deals to help more rescues in other countries.
We are also in various stages of development of the following games –
- Tile Wars – a vicious stacking take that tile game
- More Woofs, More Cats and More Dinos expansions
- Zombie Days and Chaos Days
- Clean the Castle – clean your castle and bury the plague victims, deal with manure, oil and banquet waste. Fight other cleaning teams and avoid your own workers dying too quickly.
- Cat Castle – a card placement game of cat tree creation
- Armed to the Teeth – a huge tabletop miniatures game with the first factions being Zombies and Dinosaurs
- Coexistence – a cooperative game of dealing with various unwelcome visitors to your home, from rats to wasps. Your challenge is to encourage them without killing to live outside your home.
These are our plans for the rest of 2024 and 2025 – Armed to the Teeth for example has been in development since January and will take till at least next autumn to be fully polished. It is a joy to design a range of games even though it is very time consuming.
We are running NE Tabletop Expo and hope to add other events in 2025. We could always use donations to our event games library which can be dropped to any of our stalls or posted to us.
B: Oh my word – you’re incredibly busy! How about the rescue itself – I know you have plans to expand into a network of no-kill rescue centres across the UK. Tell us a bit about that.
Gareth: We give a lot of grants to other rescues. Some of these over time who are family run will be ready to pass over their organisation to us so we can carry on their work. This is a much more efficient way of growing the rescue centre than having lots of rescues which only survive one generation.
Our grant programme is part of this too. We need the overall number of rescue places for animals to grow massively – and Farplace is happy to help do this whether in our own locations or by helping others.
B: Is there anyone else, company or person, you think might be coming to Tabletop Scotland that you’re particularly keen to meet?
Gareth: I love meeting anyone who is passionate about games. I don’t card frankly who they are – if they have a love of games they are all magnificent people. If we solved the world’s problems with board games instead of guns, the world would be an amazing place.
B: That’s a lovely sentiment, and I agree wholeheartedly! Where else might people be able to catch up with you?
Gareth: North East Tabletop Expo – 27-29th September at Gateshead Stadium, Essen Spiel stand 2E520, and Dragonmeet. And in 2025, Airecon Harrogate, Salute, UK Games Expo and many more.
B: Amazing! Thank you so much for this catch up, Gareth – it’s been great to hear what you’ve been getting up to, and all of your exciting plans for Farplace. Enjoy Tabletop Scotland!
And if you’re planning to be at Tabletop Scotland, Gareth will be around to give live demos of Litter Tray – or just to have a chat!
Have you played any games from Farplace Games yet? And if so, what’s been your favourite – and what are you most excited about? Let me know in the comments.
