The workweek is coming to an end, and that hopefully means game night! For me, it’s a campaign finale and a giant army battle back-to-back. Until then, however, let’s see what the biggest events in the tabletop RPG scene are this week!
This week: the Neopets was forced to comment after its TTRPG playtest contained bizarrely adult content, novel series Temeraire hit its crowdfunding goals, Critical Role made a Hallmark hire, and D&D Beyond laid out huge plans to improve its platform.
Neopets TTRPG Controversy Erupts Over Bizarrely Adult Themes
Neopets is getting a TTRPG after a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2024. Backers and fans have found troubling content in the latest playtest, however, which caused the Neopets company to weigh in.
A playtest document has players fight drunken bandits and includes Session 0 guidance on discussing sexual themes, reports EN World. This immediately alarmed fans of the Neopets game, who enjoy its kid-friendly setting. After fans shared parts of the playtest on social media, the Neopets company itself made an official statement. Essentially, they were not made aware of this latest playtest and are now working to realign the TTRPG with the brand.
Temeraire TTRPG Kickstarter Burns Through Initial Funding Goal
A TTRPG based on the alternate history fantasy novel series Temeraire is now guaranteed thanks to Kickstarter backers. Magpie will be adapting the setting with a brand new game system based on d6s. Players will get to create their human character and their dragon character. The highlight of gameplay is aerial dragon combat, as well as balancing one’s own passions with duty in true regency fashion. The meraire Kickstarter campaign is going on until March but has already met most of its stretch goals for VTT support and more physical goodies. A free quickstart is available now.
Critical Role Puts Former Hallmark Exec In Charge Of Improving Beacon
Critical Role announced a recent hire from outside the TTRPG industry, reports EN World. They’re making Alyssa Zeisler the general manager for Beacon, Critical Role’s streaming platform and community hub. Zeisler most recently worked for the Hallmark Channel as Vice President of Product, where she worked on improving Hallmark+.
Many CR fans express a desire to support the company directly instead of streaming on YouTube/Twitch, but also find Beacon’s performance to be lacking. And it seems Zeisler is here to fix that, as CR stated her work will "level up and evolve" Beacon.
D&D Beyond 2026 Roadmap Revealed, Promises Engine Rebuild
The D&D Beyond team has heard all of your rants, it seems, and is working on an ambitious fix for the things we use most. The platform revealed its 2026 roadmap; it’s an ambitious plan which hopes to make everything run faster and make more sense.
The attention-grabbing item is a total overhaul of D&D Beyond’s base to act more like a game engine. This will supposedly allow it to more quickly support changes as well as make the site more stable. Search tools and navigation will also see improvements with the new engine, with the team aiming to make it easier to find specific rules/features. Finally, player onboarding and character creation is going to get major upgrades to make the whole experience less of a hassle.
That’s all for this week! Thanks for reading, and may your dice be kind.
Sergio Solórzano is the best Dungeon Master in the USA (according to a Wizards of the Coast competition, anyway). He loves minis and terrain but also goes all-in on improv!
