Greenlight This, You Cowards: Roll to Fall in Love with Dames and Dragons

Greenlight This, You Cowards: Roll to Fall in Love with Dames and Dragons

Fans of tabletop roleplaying games live in an exciting time. The TTRPG world is blossoming, and the popularity of shows like Critical Role and The Adventure Zone (TAZ) are encouraging a boom in tabletop media outside of traditional Twitch streams and podcasts. TAZ has already been adapted into a series of graphic novels drawn by the wonderful Carey Pietsch, and is now getting an animated series! At Sidequest, we’ve not been shy about our love for TTRPG podcasts, but the growing number of adaptations made us wonder how we’d like to see our favorites adapted. (more…)

Customizable Player Characters Don’t Replace Diverse Leads

Customizable Player Characters Don’t Replace Diverse Leads

When I talk to people about the need for more female, NB, and trans playable characters in video games, I tend to get the same response: “Well, what about ‘x, y, z’ game? It lets you make your own character!” This is a complete non-answer to a very real problem, and a dismissal of my feelings and concerns. It’s saying that, because a handful of games allow me to create either a male or a female main character, I should be content that the default character on the box is the same cisgender white man in every game. It’s saying that representation doesn’t matter in games so long as I’m able to create it for myself.

This mentality shifts the responsibility from the developers to the players. Rather than encouraging game developers to expand their audience and create more diverse characters, it forgives them for their short-sightedness. “It’s okay that game developers never consider you the norm,” these respondents seem to say, “because at least they let you insert yourself.” But this ignores the fact that the game wasn’t made for me, that the world wasn’t designed with me in mind, and that every part of the game will reflect that, whether the developers intended it or not. (more…)

Violence, The Last of Us Part II, and Who Holds the Weapon

Violence, The Last of Us Part II, and Who Holds the Weapon

I’m not a big fan of video game violence. It’s a tired, overused method of engagement, whether it’s abstract pixels shooting one another or lovingly rendered, 4K HD blood and guts. Games can and should do more, do better. (more…)

Exploring a Hidden Culture with Lienzo’s Mulaka

Exploring a Hidden Culture with Lienzo’s Mulaka

Hidden in the peaks and canyons of the Sierra Madre Occidental mountain range, just south of New Mexico in the Mexican state of Chihuahua, hides the isolated culture of the Tarahumara. They’re a rugged, mountainous people that are known for their endurance. Legend has it that the Tarahumara can outrun a deer—all while wearing sandals made from recycled tires.

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