Congratulations on making it to the end of another week! The weekend is a great time to kick back and relax by painting some minis, writing up some juicy homebrew for your campaign, or finally resolving that cliffhanger from last week’s session! If you’re still looking for a weekend campaign to call your own, StartPlaying GMs are here and ready to whisk you away to the Feywild, Exandria, and everywhere in between. 

If you’re more interested in what’s going on in the real world, however, we’ve got you covered here. Check out what happened in the TTRPG world this past week. 

Backerkit To Open Its Own Crowdfunding Platform

A new online crowdfunding platform is rising to challenge Kickstarter, and the name behind it should sound familiar. Backerkit is the service that many crowdfunding projects use to collect surveys and fulfill orders. Now the company announced that it will make its own way as a crowdfunding platform with campaigns already promised from several big names in tabletop. There are several TTRPG projects up on the service now, from dice to terrain, with more to come from companies like Monte Cook Games and Cephalofair. Backerkit should see a lot of use in the tabletop industry, as many creators have become critical of Kickstarter as of late.

Wizards Of The Coast Begins Its 2022 D&D Player Activity Survey

Dedicated Dungeons & Dragons players can often find clues in the surveys issued by WotC. The company will often ask telling questions about design decisions, favorite content, and potential future products. It’s a good way for fans to gauge what settings and campaign types might be coming in the next year. However, this year’s survey seems to break the trend. Instead of asking about subclass design or setting preference, the 2022 survey focuses on play habits. In particular, WotC wants to know how often one plays, what products they most use in their games, how digital content factors in, and how the average campaign ends. D&D as a brand also seems to be a concern, as the survey asks about one’s inclination towards D&D merch and video games. 

World Ending Game Closes Out Your Campaign In Style

So you actually made it to the end of a campaign, the big bad is defeated, and now it’s up to the GM to deliver a memorable postmortem session. Some GMs are pros at this, but even the most experienced storyteller can have trouble saying goodbye. Enter World Ending Game, a new book written to give your campaign the emotional, sweet, and beautiful ending every table deserves. It’s system agnostic–less interested in rules and more about providing a narrative framework for “the last 20 minutes of a movie.” Players are guided through Endings that range from silly to sad to bittersweet, all in cinematic fashion. The book is in pre-sale now, and is expected to release digitally and physically in September. 

D&D Influencers Satine Phoenix And Jamison Stone Accused Of Abuse In Business And Personal Relationships

The biggest story of the week has to be the many accusations coming forth on Twitter about the way Satine Phoenix and her husband Jamison Stone have mistreated others in the industry. Phoenix has been a prominent D&D streamer for years, known for her bard persona from the show Sirens of the Realm. Stone founded Apotheosis Studios, a company set to publish 5e supplement books based on Sirens and featuring NPCs based on the couple. 

Early last week, tattoo artist Chad Rowe shared screenshots of text conversation with Stone in which the latter berates the artist and questions his professionalism. After the post gained traction, several TTRPG freelancers told their own similar stories from their time working on the Sirens book. Some claimed that they still weren’t paid for their completed work, and others said that they were paid less than they initially believed they would be. Comicbook.com has a more detailed breakdown of the various incidents, all of which paint a picture of two people who believed that their status entitled them to special treatment and the ability to threaten the careers of others. 

In the days that followed, several conventions and organizations pledged to stop working with Phoenix and Stone. Stone has since issued a public apology and stepped down as CEO of Apotheosis, but still appears to be an owner of the company. Phoenix hosted an Instagram Live stream to give her apologies and tell her side of the story

And that’s the news of the week. It’s all a great reminder to treat each other with respect, and remember that TTRPGs are about having fun together! These games are collaborative by their very nature, so let’s work as a team to make this weekend’s games go smoothly for everyone.

Posted 
Jun 18, 2022
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Tabletop Gaming News
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