Black History Month is the perfect time to check out tabletop RPGs created by Black designers.
An excellent place to start is Harlem Unbound. Set during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, where creativity and financial prosperity were both on a dramatic rise, Harlem Unbound is about characters in that time and place with the wealth to become classic Cthulhu investigators, but who must also contend with both cosmic horrors and systemic racism. The Second Edition is compatible with the Basic Role-Playing RPG, meaning it can be used with your classic Call of Cthulhu RPG.
Khepera Publishing is the creation of Jerry D. Grayson, a designer steeped in the roots of both modern fantasy and ancient mythology. His works include the sword-and-sorcery Atlantis: the Second Age, based on the stories of Robert E. Howard, Michael Moorcock, and Clark Ashton Smith. In the wake of the fall of Atlantis, heroes might explore the dark and horror-plagued isle of Anostos, battle evil cultists, or take part in gladiatorial combats with detailed rules for alchemy and exotic technomantic wonders. In Hellas: Worlds of Sun and Stone, space-opera combines with Greek mythology to create a universe of danger, godly powers, and factions like the Amazorans, Goregons, Myrmidons, and Kyklopes. Godsend Agenda takes the idea that comic book superheroes are our equivalent to the gods and heroes of ancient myth, allowing players to create postmodern mythology through their characters’ exploits.
But lest you think that Black creators are something new to the tabletop RPG world, let’s turn our attention to Mike “Cyberpunk” Pondsmith. He founded R. Talsorian 1982 and created a mecha game, Mekton, primarily based on the Mobile Suit Gundam manga. Since the text was in Japanese, a language Pondsmith couldn’t read, he worked almost exclusively from the visuals of the comic. But his big claim to fame is the Cyberpunk RPG, which has seen a number of different editions since its debut in 1988 and has gone on to inspire CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077. In fact, Pondsmith is the voice of Maximum Mike, the DJ for Morro Rock Radio.
Mike’s son Cody Pondsmith was a lead designer on the Witcher RPG, also put out by R. Talsorian Games. Cody is currently releasing Shadow Scar, a game about dimension hopping ninjas. Created out of a frustration with how poorly stealth-focused characters usually work in the mixed-team dynamics of traditional RPGs, Cody set out to create a game where everyone could do the fun ninja stuff like stealth and assassination without leaving everyone else at the table twiddling their thumbs until the stealth character failed a roll and needed to be rescued.
Black creators have been a part of the tabletop RPG hobby from the beginning, and they’ve created some of the most creative and some of the most influential games and settings out there. If you’re curious about checking any of these games out, talk to the RPG experts at your local Dragon’s Lair Comics & Fantasy® today.
All Dragon’s Lair Comics & Fantasy® locations are independently owned and operated by local folks. Not all stores will carry all games but will be willing to attempt to special order any that they do not carry. (And they’ll carry most.)
