vol. 3: level up
Greetings, adventurers!
This last month has been a wild continuation of 2020 and the RPG community continues to level up with new and exciting shows and games...
Last month the new Tabletop Micdrop publication on medium was forced to launch early thanks to Substack not letting us publish so much content. March is our more formal launch featuring a new article each week throughout the month!
How to Stream Your TTRPG Show, by Megan Tolentino
A guide for setting up accessible streaming of your tabletop role playing game actual play show.
RPG Industry Data (re-release), by Tess Cocchio
Originally published directly on RPG Casts on December 9, 2019, this report outlines the findings of a review of self-reported data submitted by podcast creators and/or fans directly to RPG Casts.
Are you interested in writing for Tabletop Micdrop? More info here.
February Debuts are officially up! You can read about all of the new pods that launched this past month here.
Want to know what’s coming in March? Here’s a preview:
Microphones & Monsters (Launched March 2)
Microphones & Monsters is a Cthulhu Mythos 5e D&D actual play podcast. We are combining cosmic horror into a high fantasy setting in the world of Dunzautera. Join us in madness as our heroes solve mysteries, encounter alien technology, and try to survive the dread from eldritch entities.
Subscribe: Apple | Google | Spotify | RSS
More Info: RPG Casts | Website | Twitter
Shattered Sky
An Actual Play of Cypher System
The inhabitants of the city of Sayrem spend their nightly sleep in a Hive Dream - a shared Dream the oppressive government uses to its advantage for their propaganda, and likely worse. Shattered Sky brings a story of unlikely characters banding together against a dictatorial government in a world filled with monsters and plague, following apocalyptic events from a century prior. GM Lauren Bond gives her players room to be as emotive and creative as they want while weaving the tale with melodic grace; her smooth voice is an invitation to the audience to fall into the world with her.
Recommended Starting Point: Episode 1 - A Strange Dream
Subscribe: Apple | Google | RadioPublic | Spotify | RSS
More Info: RPG Casts | Website | Twitter
Heart Beats: A Heartwarming Fantasy
An Actual Play of Ryuutama
A meet-cute on a train leads two strangers to form a friendship, and they both try to settle in as newcomers to the border-town of Heartbeats. In this slice-of-life actual-play, the characters explore their new home, meet the townsfolk, and embark on charming quests. Storyteller and GM, Xander D. Rylie effortlessly paints a town reminiscent of Stardew Valley, complete with complicated relationships, work to be done, and beautiful descriptions that make you wish you could spend a day in this enchanting town. Heart Beats is a wholesome listen that makes good on its subtitle: it really is a heartwarming fantasy.
In a delightful turn, Jazz Eisinger, who plays the character Charlene, live-tweeted her re-listen of the show in a lead up to the end of their nearly eight-month hiatus from the main story. The end of their hiatus was marked with a new episode yesterday, March 2.
Recommended Starting Point: Episode 1 - A Friend Met On A Train
Subscribe: Apple | Google | Spotify | RSS
More Info: RPG Casts | Website | Twitter | Patreon
Descent Into Midnight, by Rich Howard, Taylor LaBresh, and Richard Kreutz-Landry
At its heart, Descent into Midnight (DiM) is a game about community, family, and hope. It's a tabletop roleplaying game that takes place in a technologically advanced aquatic civilization whose culture has never been touched by humanity. Bioengineering and psionic, or mental, powers allow the strange and varied species to communicate and interact with their surroundings no matter their physiology.
Full Disclosure: I was invited to play a game of DiM, run by co-creator Richard Kreutz-Landry. I am a friend of his and the other creators, and this feature spotlight is in no way a sponsored/paid-for ad. I just really loved the experience and want to see it succeed and see more of it played.
Playing DiM was an absolute pleasure, and it was unlike anything I’d ever played before, in the best of ways. Character creation isn’t only about building the character you’ll be playing, but it makes way for the entire party to collaboratively build the setting and civilization. The world building is communal, so each player can immediately feel a sense of connection to the history and culture their character lives. Community is a key element, so your characters begin the game already knowing one another, and even sometimes in deeply personal ways. The way the character and world creation flow into the gameplay is seamless; it feels like a gentle shift from exploration to discovery. The communication between the characters, their surroundings, and their community feels so natural. Creative ideas build easily, guided both by the system and GM, setting the players up to face the ever-present threat of the unexplained corruption. Descent into Midnight left me wanting more, and even though I played two weeks ago I can’t stop thinking about all the ways this game left me both surprised and delighted.
They’ve already funded fully but you can Kickstart the game right now until their funding end date: March 15.
Follow on Twitter | Support the Kickstarter
Kickstarter Continues #ZineQuest2
Kickstarter began something called ZineQuest in Februrary of 2019: an invitation to launch RPG-related zines, meant to be small A5 booklets that could be full games, mini games, comics, maps, adventures, etc. These are small RPG-content projects that typically have a funding period of two weeks. With #ZineQuest2 ongoing, there are way too many to list here. You can still explore the ongoing funding zines for the next few weeks via Kickstarter’s ZineQuest page.
Kickstarter Launch: Beam Saber (Launched March 2)
Beam Saber is a Forged In The Dark game about the pilots of powerful machines in a war that dominates every facet of life. They are trying to do their part, then get out physically and mentally intact. The organizations that perpetuate The War throughout all of known space are too incomprehensibly huge to take down. There is no “winning” The War, there is only surviving it. Hopefully you can help others get out too.
Follow on Twitter | Support the Kickstarter
Kickstarter Funding Continues: Decuma (LAST DAY today, March 3)
Decuma is “the R&D for your RPG”: a tarot-inspired card game that helps the GM and their players collaboratively create all the important details for their campaign, including key locations, character connections, and setting conflicts. Decuma uses a unique set of question cards that give the whole experience a feeling of mystical interconnectedness—as if Destiny herself is guiding the campaign! Decuma saves the GM a ton of prep time and can be easily customized to focus on (or exclude) specific aspects of campaign creation.
Follow on Twitter | Support the Kickstarter
Kickstarter Funding Continues: Incarnis (ENDS March 10)
Incarnis is a tabletop role-playing game about a pantheon of gods who are all about interfering with each other's lives and with the mortals 'down below'. Think of Disney's Hercules, Terry Pratchett's The Gods Trilogy and Neil Gaiman's American Gods. The gods are people; prone to being emotional and very interdependent. They just happen to be the almighty incarnations of raw creation as well. So, as your gaggle of gods pursue their individual needs, the world trembles in their wake, forever changed.
Follow on Twitter | Support the Kickstarter
Kickstarter Funding Continues: Pasión de las Pasiones (ENDS March 20)
Pasión de las Pasiones is a game of passion, drama, secrets, delights, and heated conflict. In Pasión de las Pasiones, you and your friends will play out the stories of the greatest telenovela ever to air—a telenovela called, of course, Pasión de las Pasiones. You’ll play through stories with dramatic reveals, explosive confrontations, evil twins, and more!
Follow on Twitter | Support the Kickstarter
Kickstarter Funding Continues: Princess World (ENDS March 24)
Princess World is a table-top role-playing game of action, adventure and problem-solving. Two to five players take the roles of various diverse Princesses, working together, for the most part, to deal with issues and concerns in Princess World, while one player takes the role of Weaver, who works with the other players to gather their ideas and choices into a shared narrative, with everyone playing to find out what will happen next.
Follow on Twitter | Support the Kickstarter
International Podcast Month (IPM) 2020 is Open for Submissions
International Podcast Month (IPM) opened its participation submission form for its 2020 event:
IPM is a collaborative event where podcasters come together to create unique episodes that are released throughout the month of September on the IPM RSS feed. This month-long event celebrates the podcasting community! It’s a wonderful opportunity for podcasters to cross-promote, celebrate each other, and share the love of podcasting with the world. We’re bringing creators together to generate incredible content this September.
The form is open from March 1 through until April 15, with interested parties to be advised of their participation acceptance no later than April 25.
More Info: Participant Info | Participation Form | Website | Twitter
March Maskness Begins
March Maskness is a community building event aimed at promoting actual play podcasts that use the Masks system (by Magpie Games). In their own words, “March Masksness is podcast smashing, community bridging, hero challenging crossover event.” Follow their Twitter and join in on the fun!
Jeff Stomer launches “The Podcasting Game” RPG Podcasting Article Series
Award-nominated podcaster and game designer Jeff Stormer has announced the launch of The Podcasting Game, a new article series aimed at “RPG podcasters and RPG publishers can better work together to benefit everyone involved, and the community at large.” The article series, publishing bi-weekly on Jeff’s Medium page, will cover the topics podcasters need to know about approaching publishers, recruiting guests, and promoting games through podcasts — and how designers can leverage podcasts to promote their games, make the most of guest appearances on podcasts.
More Info: Medium | Website | Twitter
Fate Accessibility Toolkit (Evil Hat Productions) is a 2019 Nebula Award Finalist
The Fate Accessibility Toolkit is a new toolkit for Fate Core that brings characters with disabilities into your game and supports players with disabilities at your table. We’ve assembled a team from disabled communities to ensure that this book speaks to you from their real, lived experiences.
The Fate Accessibility Toolkit is a finalist of the 2019 Nebula Awards, presented by The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), in the category of Game Writing. You can read Evil Hat Productions’ response to the announcement here. A major congratulations to the writers and contributors!
Prism Pals Launches Season 2
Prism Pals launches the premiere of their Season 2:
With the Unity Festival a day away, our heroes must recover, while an enemy looms on the horizon. This force threatens to turn an event dedicated to peace into a battleground. Can the party stop it in time?
Prism Pals continues their “Artist Spotlight” every episode, where they promote and shout-out LGBTQIA+ creators (artists, musicians, writers, etc.). This is a powerful, and frankly lovely, community-building boost. Anyone can put their name forward for a shout-out via their Google form.
Subscribe: Apple | Google | RadioPublic | Spotify | RSS
More Info: RPG Casts | Twitter
Join the Party Launches Season 2
Join the Party launched the introduction to their second season, JOIN, today. In a burgeoning city in Upstate New York grown from a small lake town, JOIN is set in a modern world similar to our own. The introduction features the cast world-building collectively: setting the scene, the strokes of the plot, and the world.
Subscribe: Apple | Google | RadioPublic | Spotify | RSS
More Info: RPG Casts | Website | Twitter
Austin Walker, Michael Bowman, Fandible, Roll Like A Girl, Dice For Brains, The Hydian Way, Christine Sherer, Darcy Kennedy, Michelle Shepardson, Adrian Brooks, John Harper, Waffles a.k.a. Mahaffay, Minna Reilly, Ryan Boelter, Rane Wallin, Diana Paparozzi, Rob Abrazado, Jason Lillis, Splinters of a Broken Sun, Alice Kyra, Max, Tavern Tales, Kelly Froese, DC, The Broadswords, Landon, The Redacted Files.