Thirsty for D&D Podcasts

Thirsty for D&D Podcasts

What do you do when you can’t find representation in your favorite hobby? You make your own. And that’s just what the women and queer people behind the veritable flood of Dungeons & Dragons Actual Play Podcasts did. You don’t have to look very far to find hilarious and talented people saying, “We’re here, we’re queer, and we’d like to roll to fall in love,” carving out space in the stereotypically white and straight male-dominated space of Dungeons & Dragons. From the family-friendly content of D20 Dames to the raunchy hilarity of Dungeons, Dice, & Everything Nice (DD&EN) to the emotional story arcs of The Broadswords, there are D&D podcasts for everyone, and the underlying message of them is the same: Dungeons & Dragons—and tabletop gaming—is for everybody.

To introduce you to the beautiful world of woman- and nonbinary-helmed, queer D&D podcasts, Alenka and Kate—two D&D podcast-obsessed fangirls—interviewed each other about why we love ‘em. (more…)

Exploring the Streets of Cyberpunk: Night City with Matthew Webb of Jackalope LARP

Exploring the Streets of Cyberpunk: Night City with Matthew Webb of Jackalope LARP

When it comes to immersive experience LARPs, Jackalope LARP of Austin, TX is at the top of its class. After the success of The Night in Question, a Vampire: the Masquerade LARP held by Jackalope last November, they announced their newest event for May 2019—Cyberpunk: Night City, a Cyberpunk 2020 LARP. We were able to catch up with Jackalope organizer Matthew Webb about what this newest event has in store! (more…)

Fandom Inspires: An Interview With Scey of Beyond the Sense: Lucid Dreamers Studio HER.E

Fandom Inspires: An Interview With Scey of Beyond the Sense: Lucid Dreamers Studio HER.E

Beyond the Sense: Lucid Dreamers is a 2D adventure game that follows a group of friends uncovering a mystery as they are trapped in a strange world slowly falling apart.

Beneath its surface, BTS:LD is actually a covertly designed fan game that uses the members of K-pop group BTS and the themes of their music as a template for its characters and narrative. (more…)

Remembering Our Heroines: An Interview With the Duo Behind Mamayani

Remembering Our Heroines: An Interview With the Duo Behind Mamayani

Meam Genovaña and Crown Patalinghog make up the team behind Mamayani, an RPG dedicated to the unspoken revolutionary heroines of Filipino history.

The game takes place during the tumultuous period of the Japanese and later American occupation of the Philippines. Players take on the role of a young girl faced with a heavy task that inevitably intertwines her with several historical figures, such as Concepción Felix, a human rights activist and founder of Asociación Feminista Filipina (Filipina Feminist Association), one of the first feminist-dedicated organizations in the Philippines.

Both Meam Genovaña and Crown Patalinghog were able to provide their time to discuss the project and the lasting, educational impact they hope to achieve with it. (more…)

Witchy Women: A Chat With Coven Club Founder Lottie Bevan

Witchy Women: A Chat With Coven Club Founder Lottie Bevan

Weather Factory producer Lottie Bevan recently announced the formation of Coven Club, a monthly London event for women in the games industry. Known for her work with Failbetter Games on titles such as Fallen London, Sunless Sea: Zubmariner, and Sunless Skies, Bevan more recently left Failbetter to launch Weather Factory with her partner, game developer and Failbetter Games founder Alexis Kennedy. Weather Factory successfully Kickstarted and created Cultist Simulator, an innovative card-based narrative game of delving into the sorts of weird and transcendental horror that give the various Failbetter titles their distinctive mood.

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My Mom Plays Wolfenstein: An Interview

My Mom Plays Wolfenstein: An Interview

Okay, audience: you and I both know the “women don’t game” thing is total bullshit, right? From trading Pokémon with classmates, visiting my roommate’s Animal Crossing village, or watching my friends platform on Twitch, women have been present in every stage of my video game life.

Rampant sexism aside, I think part of the reason this myth persists is that sometimes people genuinely don’t know, because women’s voices in gaming are often silenced or just aren’t sought out. And it’s even more of a problem with the older generation of gamers—the ones who played on Commodore 64s, stockpiled quarters, and lived through the Great E.T. Disaster—as gaming continually focuses on the teens and twenty-somethings on the latest consoles. With all that in mind, I reached out to talk about gaming with one of the older gaming women who’s been present since my first Game Boy cartridge… my mom, Jean. (more…)