profile

Everlasting, Neverending Game Night

cynical turn

Published over 1 year ago • 1 min read

Hi Reader,

Welcome! Please, come in. Let me take your coat. Can you believe it snowed today? None of it stuck, but still.

I've got a saucepan full of hot chocolate in the kitchen. Mugs are in the cupboard.

So. Some wild things happened since we last met:

  • I went to Big Bad Con in San Francisco, where I spent time with some of my favorite people, ran Defy the Gods, and met folks who will help me finish the book. I also went to U-Con in Ann Arbor, and I made the hard decision not to go to PAX Unplugged next month. (Curse you, day job!)
  • I went on a YouTube show called Wet Ink Wednesday to talk about the Aerial Adventures expansion that I wrote for Garbage & Glory. It was so much fun to translate Raccoon Sky Pirates' chaos into a more structured system!
  • I went on a Twitch stream called Happy Jacks to talk with some super nice people about Raccoon Sky Pirates and Defy the Gods.
  • I was selected as a Horizons Fellow by GAMA, the Game Manufacturers Association. The Fellowship is an eight-month accelerator program to lift up marginalized publishers and retailers, including trans people like me. I get some financial assistance, a great cohort, advice, and—my favorite part—a mentor! An experienced publisher and dear dear friend from conventions past. I can't tell you how lovely it feels to hear people in this industry rooting for me. On their web page, you can learn more about all the amazing Fellows.
  • Last, I got stunning character art from Thalie Shelen, who is designing the playbook portraits for Defy the Gods. Here's her latest line art:

Aren't they amazing? Can you believe you get to play these characters?? I'll share the colors as soon as I get them!

What else happened?

Hm...

That's about it. Boring fall.

Just kidding!

The U.S. had a presidential election. For me, it was catastrophic. I'm still reeling. It feels like the '80s all over again.

It also makes tabletop RPGs feel worthless. 80 million people just showed enormous cynicism about politics. The coming years will only foster even more cynicism—about government, about truth.

Right now, though, I'm so grateful for tabletop RPGs. Here, we make real community. We look each other in the eyes. Our made-up stories—whether sweet, horrific, violent, or flirty—nurture real ideals. A cynical age needs ideals. Living, strong, load-bearing ideals will sustain us—and each other.

Please find your friends and tell some stories together.

Cheers,
Chris

P.S. I'm setting up the Kickstarter for Defy the Gods! Currently slated for (gulp) March. I'm working with more artists, Rue Dickey for copy editing, Sean D'Souza for Sumerian world-building, and Cris Viana for graphic design. This game is looking sweet. Next time, I'll send you the launch page for the Kickstarter!

Everlasting, Neverending Game Night

by Chrys Sellers, she/they

🌈🚀 Reliable wonder engine. I make narrative role-playing games that imagine a weirder, queerer, more connected world.

Read more from Everlasting, Neverending Game Night
the back end of a cadillac strains to take flight, giving off lightning bolts and held to the ground by one taut bungie cord. A raccoon reaches out of the trunk to release the cord.

Hi Reader, Welcome! Please, come in. I put stalks of crown-pink in a jar on the table. If you can see them. Don't mind the smoke. The raccoons are in the back yard, getting their ship together. Tomorrow morning at 9 am Eastern, the Kickstarter for Raccoon Sky Pirates: Total Chaos Edition will finally launch. I made a hilarious video for it. I can't post it here, because it's too big. But you can see it on the Kickstarter page tomorrow morning. Yuri Lowenthal, the voice of Spider-Man, narrated...

6 days ago • 1 min read
dumpster fire icon on a progress bar, which is doing loop-de-loops.

Hi Reader, Whew! What a time it's been since we last got together. Unconscionably, I swiped a stalk of Lady's Gloves from a neighbor's hellstrip and put them in a milk bottle on the table. They look magical, but it's still theft. If you've been following along, you may think the Raccoon Sky Pirates Kickstarter should have launched by now. Yesterday, even. But a Kickstarter is always more work than I remember, and let's be fair, I was pushing too hard in not enough time. So now the Dumpster...

11 days ago • 1 min read
Full-color Raccoon Sky Pirates box, 10 inches on a side and shrink-wrapped, with the same art as the original but in color, & the words Total Chaos Edition on it

Hi Reader, Welcome! Please, come in. I had some flowers on the table, but this raccoon ate them. I call him Reggie. Careful, he bites. If you started coming to game night because you backed the original Raccoon Sky Pirates Kickstarter, then this game night is especially for you. Because Raccoon Sky Pirates is coming back. The legendary box set, all black and white, that came in a little mailer box, will be available in the upcoming, imminent Kickstarter. It looked like this: But that's not...

20 days ago • 1 min read