Hello Friends,

It feels a bit late to wish you a Happy New Year, but I’m wishing you all a good 2026 (even if it takes a while to get to the good bit).

As ever, I'll try to keep this short!

Recent Developments:

• TERMINUS is now available to order from the Patchwork Fez Games web shop in hardback, paperback, and digital formats!

  I took delivery of the TERMINUS hardbacks just before Christmas and the (slightly ambitious) UV spot gloss effect has come out perfectly; with glossy tiles and matte grout, it almost feels embossed.

• You can also order prints of the IT IS WAITING BELOW artwork in varying formats, and I'm prepared to make (to order) two more mosaic-decorated dice cups.

• While working on TERMINUS, I've also collaborated with a couple of US-based creators to print A5 editions of their recent zine-style projects here in the UK. These are also now available in the web shop.

  • Fear and Panic is a focused horror RPG system from Lyme.

  • The Night Clerk is a system-neutral horror scenario with an architectural angle from Ross Payton.

• These zines, plus paperbacks of Darkened Hill & Dale and TERMINUS, may currently be in stock at Orcs Nest in London. Orcs Nest is the first retailer to carry any of my work, which is exciting, but I’ll finally be offering stock to a wider variety of retailers in the coming weeks.

What I'm doing in 2026

I've been considering what to focus on, projects-wise, in 2026.

I want to be a bit more deliberate, as it were, about what I'm doing next.

I launched Darkened Hill & Dale on something of a whim, only a couple of weeks after coming up with the idea, and it rapidly grew from a zine into something rather more substantial. TERMINUS was less of a whim but was meant to be a much quicker and less intensive project that it turned out to be.

This isn't to say that I regret either project, but the last two years have been very busy indeed, and I'd appreciate a fractionally more relaxed pace for 2026.

So, having spent a couple of hours considering my too-long list of potential projects, what have I decided to work on?

I'm currently planning to do the following:

Events:

• Try to run a unconference-style gathering for tabletop game-makers, hopefully in the next few months.

• Attend the Milford Writers’ Retreat again this May.

• Run my first solo exhibition stand at UKGE, also in May.

• Attend EMF Camp in July.

• Run Trick or Retreat 2026 in October.

Tabletop Stuff:

• Develop Model Village – the board game I playtested at UKGE last year – and explore the feasibility of Kickstarting it (probably in 2027, because that'll be a lot of work).

• Do some R&D on an idea I've had for a lightweight TTRPG system to see if it's got legs. If it does, develop that and potentially combine it with... well, I don't want to give the game away for this just yet!

  I've had a concept rattling around in the back of my head for a few months now. It's perhaps a little unusual – I can't think that I've seen any comparable examples, so perhaps it's a terrible idea, but when have I ever let marketability stop me from making a thing?

  I'll share some more info on this once the system element has matured a bit more! If it looks viable, though, I might wind up for another little Kickstarter later this year...

This is possibly still Too Many Things to try and do alongside my day job, but we’ll see!

Given the current absence of an actively public-facing project, I may try to share a quick update on my activities every couple of months here – but, as above, we’ll see!

Thanks, as always, for your ongoing support.

Your pal,
– Sarah 💜