We’ve almost made it, our 2025 roundup ends with a peek into the minds of our designers and as we pull them away from drawing, kicking and screaming I’d like to take a moment to thank anyone who’s gotten this far. Buy The Same Token is only here because you love maximising your gaming experience as much as we do. You’re the reason we can continue to make cool art for games we really love and we hope we can keep doing that in 2026.
Ed - Trench Crusade Activation
We’re talking about Trench Crusade again. I'm sensing a theme here, but bare with me. The TC range is one that became quite personal to me for a few reasons. It was the first range I really got to grips with after a lengthy period organising our efforts for UK Games Expo, and marked a return after a hiatus from drawing with some trepidation.
Anyone that knows me knows I love getting to grips with sources, I like finding the throughline in a range and trying to weave it through all the designs in a range. For Trench Crusade this meant a lot of time spent in Anna Komnene’s Alexiad and the fantastic Welcome To The Crusades series by We’re Not So Different and the American Prestige. Coupled with a lot of illuminated manuscripts, medieval marginalia and esoteric writings I was able to pull a style that was not only very fun to draw, but allowed me to draw in such a different way that it lessened my nerves on returning to design. A particular favourite is the Trench Pilgrims Activation, in the form of a biblically-accurate angel that might make you question if these people are actually the good guys.
Nick - ChronoCore Dial
Working with Chrono Core Studios has been a highlight of the year, helping to design and produce accessories for pledges in the highly successful Chrono Core TCG Kickstarter. In particular the acrylic Life & Shield dial was one project that evolved and improved immensely on the back of dialogue with both the game's creator and community.
The already established design language and theme of Chrono Core was a great jumping off point for several prototypes that continued with our own experiments of improving legibility in acrylic dials, multiple colours with inset materials and making the final object feel like a piece of in-universe tech. This included using transparent acrylic pieces over the dial wheels to give the impression of a screen and having the bonus of slightly magnifying the numbers on the dial, allowing them to be more easily read from across the table. The desire for a card sized form-factor led to a more unique staggered dial wheel layout that let the numbers be as large as possible and even left room for mech-dashboard style icons to better indicate what the scores represent.
The chrome blue circuit board background design blending into a hex shield pattern is a personal favourite design choice, that pushes the limits of our laser engraving resolution and frames the iconic Chrono Core yellow numbers, making for a highly readable and thematic dial on classic BTST gloss black acrylic.
After the design was finalised that only left the job of producing a batch of 500, which to see carefully polished and packed after a few weeks of assembly was very satisfying. It was our first venture into fulfilling a Kickstarter campaign's rewards and getting to work alongside creators that gave plenty of guidance and freedom was very appreciated and hopefully the first collaboration of many!
Well, that’s a wrap on 2025! There’s plenty more in the pipeline for 2026 and we hope you’ll stick with us to see it out. We’d love to hear some of your hobby highlights from 2026. Let us know in the comments or join our Discord and let us know. Happy holidays!
Written by Ed Cardall