Adventure Time, Smosh Starts D&D Actual Play, Roll20 Says Buy Indie Space RPGs - TTRPG News 7/6/23

As summer heats up, it’s the perfect time to stay inside and play some tabletop RPGs! StartPlaying Games happens to have a bunch of professional Game Masters who can transport you out of the heat and into the dungeon, fey realm, or even SPAAACE. We also have a weekly roundup of all the big news from the TTRPG industry. Whether it’s new games, new streams, or old friends, we’ve got the info right here. 

Adventure Time To Get TTRPG Using “Yes, And” System

Cartoon Network’s hit series Adventure Time is the latest IP to get the TTRPG Kickstarter treatment. The game will come from Cryptozoic Entertainment with no announced date for release. What we do know is that it will use a “Yes, And” system developed in partnership with Forever Stoked Creative. This system custom dice to roll for success, but emphasis is on collaborative storytelling and player engagement. Fans can sign up now on the Kickstarter pre-release page for updates. 

Smosh Gets Into The D&D Actual Play Space With Big Numbers 

Popular YouTube channel Smosh Games just started an Actual Play D&D campaign, and the results might say a lot about the state of the medium. The cast doesn’t feature recently reunited founders Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox, but DM Damien Haas and four regulars from the channel are apparently a big draw on their own. The first episode is currently sitting at over 500k views. 

Dr. Emily Friedman, an academic who studies actual play history, noted that this number blows away beloved TTRPG channels. Critical Role got a little about 400k with its latest episode, while Dimension 20’s Dungeons and Drag Queens got 172k from its first day on YouTube. While it’s too early to tell if the Smosh series will make waves in the scene, it does serve as a reminder of how small TTRPG entertainment is within the vast content creation ecosystem. 

Roll20 Game Jam Gives Us Over 90 Pocket-Sized Space Games

Roll20 completed its inaugural PocketQuest game jam recently, and the results are in. This year’s theme was Space; creators had to create something that was less than 20 pages, based on a new system or third-party license, and featured space as a theme. Now, over 95 creators from the event are having their products featured on DriveThruRPG. Many are extremely budget priced or even free, with ideas ranging from lonesome horror to pulpy action to pirate cats and beyond. 

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That’s the end of this brief news break, now to go back to the pool! And by that I mean back to playing Tears of the Kingdom while I’m supposed to be doing session prep. Have a great weekend!