Dungeons & Dragons has spent much time in recent historytrying to break wider into pop culture. This year’s movie, while not a huge hit, resonated with fans and surprised many with its accessibility. Wizards of the Coast is hoping to capture an eeven wider audience with the new core books due out next year.
Pop culture has had a beneficial relationship with role playing games for many years. Many of the small bits of trivia hidden in recent Star Wars shows like Andor and Ahsoka began as tidbits in role playing sourcebooks decades earlier. The Expanse began as a RPG played by a group fo writers who eventually refined the setting and story for first novels, than a critically acclaimed sci-fi show.
The latest media to enter into the world of role playing games are narrative podcasts. While actual play pocasts have existed for a few years, a few have moved into the realm of tabletop games where fans can tell their own stories in those beloved settings. Here are three such examples: one released at Gen Con, one announced at Gen Con and one coming soon to crowdfunding.
Old Gods of Appalachia
Old Gods of Appalachia is a horror anthology podcast set in the region of Appalachia with multiple story arcs and time periods covered in its tales. The focus is mainly on the 1920s and 1930s where the forces of mining barons and railroad companies conspire with dark forces buried within the earth. The good people stand up to the monsters that have been unearthed with their own secret magics, stubborn pride and the occasional judicious application of a shotgun blast to a monster’s head.
Monte Cook Games released Old Gods of Appalachia The Role Playing Game at Gen Con as it fulfills the Kickstarter it launched for the game lasy year. The game uses the Cypher System to let players tell their own rural horror stories during the same time period. It also includes information about the first three seasons and haunting illustrations of some of the most famous monsters.
The Magnus Archives
Monte Cook also announced its next adaptation of a podcast into a role-playing game. The Magnus Archives centers around an archivist, Johnathan Sims, as he digs through an old collection of witness reports and supernatural statements. Of course, the deeper he goes the more pieces fall into place about the dark truths of the world.
The campaign for The Magnus Archives Role Playing Game is slated to launch this fall. As another Monte Cook games production, it’s likely to use the Cypher System, which means the monsters outlined here could be used for Old Gods and vice versa. The creatures in the Magnus Archives tend to break new ground in terror rather than being classic creatures like vampires and ghosts.
Welcome to Night Vale
One of the oldest narrative horror podcasts is also making the jump to the tabletop. Welcome to Night Vale is a broadcast from one of the weirdest examples of a classic horror trope: the strange little town. The people who live in Night Vale seem to handle all the weirdness there fairly well so long as they never go into the Dog Park.
Renegade Game Studios announced a Gen Conit would be publishing a Welcome To Night Vale role playing game for release in 2024. The company has background in adapting Habsro properties such as GI JOE and Transformers to the tabletop and is currently the publisher of the World of Darkness as well. Fans are looking forward to finally stepping into Night Vale…but definitely not the Dog Park.
If these games prove successful there are dozens of other storytelling podcasts that could be next. It makes sense for game companies to look at podcasts as they have overlapping audiencs and any sort of licensing fee is likely much more affordable than something for a large studio IP. We look forward to checking these games out soon.
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