Aug 10, 2022, 8:33 AM
That is incredible! Congratulations! I wish you all the success and joy!
Thirtsy Sword Lesbians wins some ENies
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From the Kickstarter (I was a Backer):
"A note from April:
At Gen Con this past weekend, Thirsty Sword Lesbians won “Best Game” and “Product of the Year”, taking home two Gold ENnies. The ENnies are a people’s choice award for RPGs and over 28,000 people voted on this year’s entries. Taking home double gold is a spectacular follow-up to winning the Nebula Award for Game Writing. TSL is the first-ever tabletop roleplaying game to win a Nebula, the most prestigious award for science fiction and fantasy writing in the English language.
We couldn’t have done this without all of your support, and I’m overjoyed that the game is continuing to build momentum over a year past release. I love hearing about how you’ve made new friends through the game and seeing all the amazing characters you come up with, and I love the fantastic new playbooks and adventures that people are making with the Powered by Lesbians license. I maintain a collection of them on itch that is well-worth checking out!
I truly did not expect the wins at the ENnies. Although judges decide which games are eligible to win, the awards are given out based on a popular vote, which gives the advantage to games connected to an already-popular franchise like D&D or tie-in products for well-known books, movies, and other games.
I never set out to make an RPG that would have the broadest possible appeal and we never toned down the message of Thirsty Sword Lesbians to make it more palatable to cis or straight people. Plus, the game outright tells bigots to go away.
On reflection, though, maybe one of the lessons of Thirsty Sword Lesbians’ success is that the way to make a broadly appealing game isn’t to placate an imagined ‘typical’ gamer who happens to be cis, straight, white, male, and sensitive about all of these identities. You can instead make a game that celebrates a wide range of people who are left out of mainstream stories and repels the kind of player who would gatekeep the hobby.
I love hearing about people whose first RPG (or first non-D&D RPG) is Thirsty Sword Lesbians, especially when it prompts them to explore other indie RPGs, too. We all win when we grow the hobby and show that RPGs really are for everyone who wants to play!"
I have a waggish sense of humor.
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I have no idea what this game is about, but it sounds pretty cool.
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That is incredible! Congratulations! I wish you all the success and joy!
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@Misadventure Congrats indeed! And now please excuse me, I need to go spend some money on Thirsty Sword Lesbians.
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I am just a Kickstarter Backer. Sorry for the confusion.
I have a waggish sense of humor.
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@Ganymede said in Thirtsy Sword Lesbians wins some ENies:
I have no idea what this game is about, but it sounds pretty cool.
I mean, the title says it all, doesn't it?
More seriously, it's a PbtA game about high-adventure PCs where flirting and crushing on your allies and enemies is as central to the mechanics as hitting people with swords. She-Ra is definitely one of the influences it draws from.
Also it has "Nature Witch" and "Spooky Witch" as separate character archetypes which amuses me.
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@insomniac7809 said in Thirtsy Sword Lesbians wins some ENies:
I mean, the title says it all, doesn't it?
I read it as 'thirty sword lesbians' and I didn't know if it was referring to the number of blades or ladies involved.