Sonic TTH Goes To SAGE!
- McShmoodle
- Sep 19
- 5 min read
What Does Eggman's Daughter Have To Do With This?
Not that Sage, this is Sonic Amateur Games Expo, organized by Sonic Fan Games HQ. I don't envy the event organizers who have had the SEO of their event take a hit in recent years due to the confusion, though.
For those not in the know, SAGExpo is an annual online showcase devoted to promoting the works of Sonic fan games and original indie games. Some might remember the indie darling Freedom Planet from some years back. It earned its stripes at SAGE back in the day as a demo, to give an idea of how far-reaching the legacy of this event is.
In recent years, the scope of SAGExpo has expanded beyond computer games and into the tabletop gaming space, opening the door for indie tabletop creators to showcase their work at the event. Funnily enough, there have been TTRPGs based on other properties and other tabletop game types based on Sonic featured in the past few years, but no TTRPGS based on Sonic.
So this year, TTH will fix that!
What to Expect from Sonic TTH at SAGE
Sonic TTH will be given a designated "booth" on Sonicfangameshq.com, which in turn will enroll it for eligibility in the showcase on the designated SAGE 2025 website. This showcase is set to run from Sep 19th-26th.
As far as content goes, there frankly won't be anything new on display. As neat as it would have been to have some sort of original content for the event, I've decided to focus on compiling existing content into an appealing display that will give virtual attendees an attractive and informative overview of the 1.4.x system as it exists today. If you want to stop by to offer your support, such as by commenting on the booth or circulating links to the page, feel free to do so. But otherwise, this is basically a glorified Superbowl ad for Sonic TTH.
Also, keep an eye out for something in the official SAGE trailer...
Why Is TTH Debuting Now?
Simply put, neither I nor the game were ready for the level of exposure that SAGE would have potentially brought to the game circa its initial release. Sonic TTH spent its first few years getting the core experience polished and I was very busy dialing that in. Heck, the core dice resolution wasn't finalized until a year after release! I didn't really have the bandwidth to coordinate the promotion of the game on the side with all the tinkering I was doing. Not to mention, it wasn't clear exactly what a TTRPG would look like at SAGE even a year ago, before some intrepid trailblazers pushed the envelope of what the event's format supported and provided a template for others to reference.
Granted, in the spirit of the event being an amateur expo, submitting a rough cut of my system would likely have been welcomed with open arms. But the unfortunate reality of tabletop games, particularly complex ones like TTRPGs, is that it is extremely difficult to get casual bystanders to engage with it in early stages, due to how fundamentally demanding it is for the reader to digest and comprehend. A buggy computer game demo can be played for minutes or even seconds and the user can meaningfully engage with it in a very immediate and convenient way. You'll see handfuls of reviews that cover a snapshot of impressions with the game.
With an unpolished tabletop game, you'll be lucky to get a single review, and it will most likely just be a list of typos the reader found. Once that initial impression is formed its unlikely that many users will come back to check on it again if a new demo is presented at a future expo. So showing off the game before it was ready for the general public could have hurt more than helped in the early stages of development.
However, after consistent iteration, Sonic TTH has accumulated a lot of quality-of-life improvements that enhance the digestibility of the system for new users, including a recently completed video tutorial series that introduces new players to the basics of the system. So now's as good a time as any to become the first* Sonic TTRPG to debut at SAGE!
Why was there an asterisk there?
A Tale of Two TTRPGs
As some (if not many) of you readers may be aware, there are lots of other fan-made Sonic TTRPGs out there. Nearly a decade ago, when Sonic TTH was in early development, that very much was not the case. But as TTRPGs asserted themselves in the mainstream consciousness in the 2020s, a lot of Sonic fans had similar yet distinct ideas about how to represent Mr. Gotta Go Fast in a tabletop setting. Unbeknownst to me until after I first published Sonic TTH, another TTRPG had developed in parallel to mine, beating me to the punch of initial release by a few years.
Rings and Runnings Shoes, developed by Torchbound, is a Powered by the Apocalypse-based roleplaying fan game that has gained a substantial following, to the point where if you encounter a typical netizen describing an experience with a Sonic TTRPG, there's a more than even chance they are talking about an experience with R&RS. This is how I first discovered the system myself, which surprised and intrigued me. I began following the community in the intervening years of my game's own growth, culminating in what appears to be our respective systems becoming the "Big Two" of the Sonic roleplaying scene. Our communities have cross-pollinated a bit, and the Polygon article featuring us together has helped facilitate the status.
So it's only appropriate/ironic that, due to completely independent circumstances, we decided to debut both systems at the same expo, the same year. Once I caught wind of this, I realized there were three paths before me:
Ignore it and just debut my game alongside theirs, like two work acquaintances entering the same store at the same time after-hours, awkwardly waving at each other and then avoiding eye contact the rest of the time.
Go on the offensive with some sort of playful "Genesis does what Nintendon't" style marketing smearing R&RS in favor of Sonic TTH.
Capitalize on the coincidence and use it to cross-promote each other, making the most of what little attention tabletop games at the event typically receive
I chose the latter. I never really seriously considered number 2, as it just isn't really in my nature to be competitive with people, especially since this is just a non-profit passion project for both of us, and I've enjoyed a cordial relationship with the R&RS community up to this point. Plus, I realized that it was going to be an uphill battle getting either of our static medium games noticed in a cacophony of quick-moving visuals and EDM music that will likely characterize the event's media coverage. So why not lift each other up to stand out? A rising tide lifts all boats, as they say.
With the blessing of the R&RS creative team, I created a trailer spot and promo material for what I like to call the "Roleplay your Way" campaign. I even took advantage of both systems coincidentally having bat characters on the cover and created unique complimentary artwork for each.
So yes, Sonic TTH is one of the first Sonic TTRPGs to debut at SAGExpo, right alongside R&RS!
