#HotIndieTTRPGs For the indie rpg that caught their interest in 2020, @Eunice_Serina picked the Itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality compiled by @itchio
This year has been a strange one for gaming. I moved the London Indie RPG meetups online in March, and they haven't moved back to in-person since, which has impacted the type of gaming I've been doing. The other thing that heavily impacted my gaming habits this year was the Itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. It was massive, and practically everyone I know bought it, so...
I decided to pitch a different game from the bundle at each Indiemeet, ones that we could both play online and, preferably, written by someone from, or about, a marginalised community. It’s made for some wonderful, beautiful, extraordinary experiences.
So far, I’m on 100% success rate in pitches – every single game I’ve pitched has run, so clearly I’m not the only person who feels drawn to these themes. This year has been a big one for more interest around marginalised voices, and it’s been long overdue. For example, the big splash that was Sara Thompson’s homebrewed Combat Wheelchair for DnD 5e that started a whole train of conversation around disability. Folks created artwork and minis for it – and if that wasn’t a sign of a previously unfulfilled gap, I don’t know what is.
Then there’s the massive impact of Black Lives Matter and similar movements, boosting desperately needed conversations around racism in gaming. Those conversations have been happening for many years already, but this year has been a gut punch in that area, in so many ways.
And the number of queer-flavoured games I played around Pride weekend this year eased the isolation I felt just a little.
We still have a long way to go to increase the diversity of representation in TTRPGs, but indie gaming has such opportunity to lead here. Those BIPOC, LGBTQ+, disabled, etc. designers? They’re us, and have been all along. Now let’s give them space to be seen.
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