Welcome to the Cannibal Halfling Weekend Update! Start your weekend with a chunk of RPG news from the past week. We have the week’s top sellers, industry news stories, and discussions from elsewhere online.
DriveThruRPG Top Sellers for 10/30/2021
- Minsc and Boo’s Journal of Villainy (5e)
- Traveller: Secrets of the Ancients
- Hundred Devils Night Parade (Collected Edition)
- Traveller Core Rulebook Update 2022
- FlexTale Solo Adventuring Toolkit
Top News Stories
Storytelling Collective Hosts Online Writing Program for Aspiring Tabletop RPG Designers: From a press release sent to CHG:
“The Storytelling Collective, formerly known as the RPG Writer Workshop, recently opened registrations for its Write Your First Adventure online workshop, which begins on November 1st, 2021. Storytelling Collective is an online learning program that helps aspiring narrative designers write their first adventures and eventually enter the tabletop roleplaying gaming industry. Write Your First Adventure is the program’s flagship course and takes place every July and November. More than 8,000 writers have participated since the first course in summer 2018.
The Write Your First Adventure course offers three official paths:
- Call of Cthulhu path, in partnership with Chaosium. Guest instructor Paul Fricker contributed several lessons in this path to guide CoC creators.
- D&D 5th Edition path, in partnership with Dungeon Masters Guild. Students will learn the basics of D&D writing with lessons by notable D&D writers.
- General Path, for students who want to write for game systems other than D&D 5e and CoC and publish to platforms including DriveThruRPG and Itch.io
- A free preview path offers several free lessons and resources for those who aren’t ready to take the full course yet.
Additionally, the Storytelling Collective team assembles bundles of the students’ published adventures after the course ends to help promote their hard work and contributions to the community.
Registration is open until October 31st, 2021. The course is all online and composed of written lessons that can be completed at any time. Lessons unlock throughout the month of November. Aspiring writers are invited to register for $35.”
SideQuest, a creator-led funding drive, begins on the 1st of November: From a press release sent to CHG:
“On the 1st of November 2021, the inaugural SideQuest has begun. Designers will work together to crowdfund RPG zines over the course of the month. Modelled after ZineQuest, the event is not limited to a single crowdfunding platform. Participating campaigns will include the SideQuest logo, appear on the SideQuest website, and their designers will promote one another. By pooling resources, they will shine a light on all their projects.
Marc Strocks (he/they) founded SideQuest. “I was excited for ZineQuest but didn’t see any community form between participants. I created a Discord server to help people network and lift each other up. We don’t need corporations. We work together to show what indie resources can do.”
Vincent Baker (he/him) is a giant of the indie games scene. “My first games were zines, my current games are zines, we should all be making zine games, buying them, trading them, playing them all the time. Zine games are great for first-time designers testing their wings, old-time designers trying to learn new tricks like me, and everybody in between. I especially love to see an indie project like SideQuest picking up the ZineQuest baton. Love it!”
Laurie O’Connel (he/him) had breakaway success with Lichcraft. “For me, the exciting thing is the opportunity to do projects that come from your heart, but aren’t as ‘mainstream’. When I put Lichcraft together, I thought that it would get very little attention. It turns out, if you love a game, there’s a solid chance other people will love it too. My SideQuest project, Stolen Crown, has also been in the back of my mind for far too long. This is a chance to finally make it happen.”
Tanya Floaker (they/them) is publishing their first game, BE SEEING YOU as part of SideQuest. “I’ll be helping other designers. In turn, they will be helping me. Being part of a collective endeavour is why I’m giving this a go.”
Spencer Campbell (he/him) of Slayers and LUMEN has to say about the event: “SideQuest represents everything I love about the indie RPG scene: an opportunity for a wide variety of designers to show off their amazing work, and the community lifting one another up together.”
SideQuest is an initiative of the Zine Creators Workshop. ZCW is an incubator for game development, a knowledge base, and pushes to get new designers in to print. Go to SideQuest.info to see all participating projects. Follow the conversation on Twitter and Instagram with #SideQuest2021. Sign up at tinyurl.com/JoinSideQuest or itch.io/jam/sidequest-2021”
National Game Design Month Begins Monday: One of the ‘Rebel’ initiatives that has spun out of National Novel Writing Month, National Game Design Month challenges its participants to create a game – digital, tabletop, big or small – within the month of November. There is no word count to reach – instead, the initiative asks designers to simply create, play (their game or others’), and talk about the experience with others.
There is a jam on itch.io,and along with the website there are social media gatherings such as Discord where creators can find resources such as assets and advice, recruit playtesters, and talk through the process. Good luck to all those trying to slay the #NaGaDeMon!
Have any RPG news leads or scoops? Get in touch! You can reach us at cannibalhalflinggaming@gmail.com, or through Twitter via @HungryHalfling.
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