An international network of researchers into all aspects of role-playing games
David Millians, Editor
Paideia School, 1509 Ponce de Leon Avenue, Atlanta, Georgia 30307 USA
millians.david@paideiaschool.org
LETTER FROM THE CHAIR
Hello All,
I finally decided it’s time to go back to playing Dungeons & Dragons in-person. As an adult, this is a lot harder than it sounds.
The first challenge I had to address was finding a neutral space. But finding a space that would work for me as a Dungeon Master and for other players is no simple task. I decided I would travel no further than a half hour at most, since I will need to transport miniatures and maps. With those parameters set, I then consulted my AI assistant to find places that might be suitable.
I needed a place where I could play for a reasonable fee, have players join easily, have space to sit for at least 4 or more hours every week on weekends, and could be loud enough to play a game of D&D without disrupting others. I also wanted it to be an adults-only game and needed some means of finding players. With these parameters in mind, I contacted game cafes, game stores, and libraries.
The two game cafes in my town closed, devastated by Covid, so unfortunately though their ghosts still linger online, they weren’t going to be any help. Two different game stores reached out and may still be an option, but the “catching” mechanism is always an open question (it was mentioned there is a very long list of folks who want to play D&D). My local library responded that while they offer 2 hours of free time in their rooms (for studying) for larger rooms it would cost $25 for the first two hours, with an additional $25/hour after that. $100/week ($400/month) did not seem feasible…
And then a librarian intervened. As we’ve discussed before, a lot of librarians are gamer geek friendly, and my local librarian jumped into the (typical response) conversation to ask if I wanted to run an adult-only session of D&D. With her help, things accelerated quickly: I now have a location with a dedicated room, a regular date and time, and a catching mechanism for players. The first weekend of every month will be to onboard new players, with the other three weekends the “regular” game. We’ll have six slots in total for the regular game, but the “session zero/onboarding” session will likely have more. The room has a TV I can use and even allows snacks! It’s a gamer’s dream, and it’s five minutes from my house.
I cannot emphasize how challenging this is as an adult. Putting aside extreme social anxiety of trying to game with strangers, having an ally in the library space help me set this up, even to just try it and see, is enormous. I may still resume a rhythm with the game stores, as the library hours will not always be the same in the summer, but for now I am immensely grateful for my local library in helping me do this.
This will be good for me. But it will also be an opportunity to build a gamer community. I don’t have any players yet, which is daunting unto itself, but no matter. We have to start somewhere, right?
I will begin sessions in late October. I’ll be back in the next newsletter to tell you how those first sessions went (or if I sat awkwardly by myself in the library). Wish me luck, and if you’re in the southern CT area, send me a note and I’ll send you more details!
Sincerely,
Mike Tresca
Committee Chair
ARTICLES
Adam’s Educational Electrum
October 2025
Hello, and welcome to my column for the monthly CAR-PGa newsletter! For those readers out there who are educators, I am flattered, humbled, and grateful for the chance to share a modest trinket of treasure to help you on your instructional quests. This might be a gaming resource, a full out TTRPG, or a particular educator’s story.
Welcome to the spooky season! The best treat for many educators in October is the chance for a Fall Break. I offer two more treats for your edification. For those within driving distance to London, KY on October 20, or Hazard, KY on November 3, sign up to attend FREE full day in-person PD on TTRPGs in learning! Check out more details, including registration links, on my Kentucky Educators for Role Playing Games (KyEdRPG) Events page.
In other news, I wrote a chapter for an educational anthology that was just published called Urgent Care for Educators: Situating Responsibility as a Way to Transform School Cultures (Brill). I discuss the story of KyEdRPG, and in particular, celebrate the stories of several Bluegrass educators (Justin Gadd, Morgan Seely, Chad Collins, John Brewer). I hope you give it a read.
And speaking of celebrating an educator’s story, this month’s column focus is on Ben Little, a high school chemistry teacher in Massachusetts. We met at a conference last year, and his work intrigued me, so I followed up and interviewed him earlier this summer. Ben was combatting a problem with his content – in his own words, chemistry is often “boring.” So he created a TTRPG around the Periodic Table, where students chose an element to personify. These elemental creatures were then pitted against each other battle royale style. Students soon began asking for more opportunities to play with their elemental creations, and Ben expanded their game adventures. Meanwhile, it became obvious that the students were understanding the Periodic Table much more deeply than the “lecture-memorize-unit test-forget” cycle of traditional teaching; Ben’s students were learning about the relational nature of elements to a degree that didn’t happen before. He now has ideas for more TTRPGs in his classroom, such as one involving countries struggling over limited energy resources and the related environmental impacts of their choices.
For more, please read Ben’s full interview here.
Until our next time together at the table,
Adam Watson
Adam Watson is an award-winning public school educator, writer, and frequent presenter of professional development at regional and national conferences such as Gen Con and GAMA Expo. In 2022, he launched Kentucky Educators for Role Playing Games, sharing how TTRPGs can positively impact student learning. His forthcoming book Tabletop Role-Playing Games in the Classroom: Infusing Gameplay into K-12 Instruction will be published by McFarland. For more about Adam, visit his personal site.
CONVENTIONS & CONFERENCES
NEW MATERIAL
This is a compilation of articles and other resources that have come to the editor’s attention over the last month. Everyone is welcome to send bibliographic information about anything you discover that fits the mission of CAR-PGa and this newsletter.
Anthropy, Anna (2025 Sep 1) History of RPGs. https://w.itch.io/history-of-rpgs. Games in summary form to use in educational settings.
Baldwin, Joshua, Ezgi Ulusoy, Morgan Durfee, Rick Busselle, David R. Ewoldsen (2025 July) Watching one more episode and reading one more chapter: What entertainment contexts lead to retrospective imaginative involvement?. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001691825004147. For some, extended story experiences may create stronger memories.
Batt, Simon (2025 Aug 25) I explored D&D dungeons generated by Copilot, and they were wilder than I expected. https://www.xda-developers.com/explored-d-and-d-dungeons-generated-copilot. Testing an AI DM, which displays both strengths and unpredictable gaps.
Campbell, Stephanie (2025 Sep 4) Review of Luna Uni: Educator Toolkit and Tabletop RPG. https://www.ttrpgkids.com/2025/09/04/review-of-luna-uni-educator-toolkit-and-tabletop-rpg. Fun setting, easily accessible rules, and support for educational applications.
Campbell, Stephanie (2025 Sep 8) Interview with Jennifer Siller on TTRPG speech therapy AND her interactive TTRPG themed Little Library. https://www.ttrpgkids.com/2025/09/08/interview-with-jennifer-siller-on-ttrpg-speech-therapy-and-her-interactive-ttrpg-themed-little-library. RPG speech therapy and adding imaginary space to little libraries.
Campbell, Stephanie (2025 Sep 11) Review of No Thank You, Evil. https://www.ttrpgkids.com/2025/09/11/review-of-no-thank-you-evil. Great system for young players.
Campbell, Stephanie (2025 Sep 15) Review of When the Walls Fall, a dice stacking setting generation game. https://www.ttrpgkids.com/2025/09/15/review-of-when-the-walls-fall-a-dice-stacking-setting-generation-game. World building collaboration with stacks of dice.
Campbell, Stephanie (2025 Sep 18) Review of A Young Heroes Guide, Creating Your First TTRPG Adventure. https://www.ttrpgkids.com/2025/09/18/review-of-a-young-heroes-guide-creating-your-first-ttrpg-adventure. Structured adventure building guide written with kids in mind.
Campbell, Stephanie (2025 Sep 25) TTRPGkids @ Gamehole Con 2025 event schedule. https://www.ttrpgkids.com/2025/09/25/ttrpgkids-gamehole-con-2025-event-schedule. Working with kids and games as designers, parents, and players.
Carter, Chase (2025 Sep 17) London board game cafe workers to strike throughout October. https://www.rascal.news/london-board-game-cafe-workers-to-strike-throughout-october. Unionized workers unanimously approve sustained strike.
Chan, Khee Hoon (2025 Sep 5) Tiny Table Index, a directory for small and solo TTRGPs, has shuttered. https://www.rascal.news/tiny-table-index-a-directory-for-small-and-solo-ttrgps-has-shuttered. Dedicated community members can’t perform endless service.
Chan, Khee Hoon (2025 Sep 9) Canadian Creators United seeks to build a collective for Canadian designers. https://www.rascal.news/canadian-creators-united-seeks-to-build-a-collective-for-canadian-designers. Creating community and mutual support.
Chan, Khee Hoon (2025 Sep 11) The History Of RPGs, One Hour At A Time. https://www.rascal.news/the-history-of-rpgs-one-hour-at-a-time. Interview with Anna Anthropy about her project to create an introductory curriculum for RPGs.
Chan, Khee Hoon (2025 Sep 24) Game designers are experiencing persistent payout issues from itch.io. https://www.rascal.news/game-designers-are-experiencing-persistent-payout-issues-from-itch-io/?ref=the-weekly-fanfare-newsletter. Multiple issues plague payouts from platform.
Chan, Khee Hoon (2025 Sep 25) Blinking Birch Puzzle Hunt 2025 puts your TTRPG knowledge to the test. https://www.rascal.news/blinking-birch-puzzle-hunt-2025-puts-your-ttrpg-knowledge-to-the-test. Free puzzles about deep game lore.
Chulick, Devon (2025 Sep 3) Tabletop Therapy: How RPGs Support Mental Health, Friendships, and Romantic Bonds. https://startplaying.games/blog/posts/tabletop-rpg-mental-health-relationships. 1,000-person survey by StartPlaying shows the many social emotional opportunities in RPG play.
DnD Shorts (2025) Power Word Meal: Save Lives with the TTRPG Community. https://sharethemeal.org/en-us/challenges/45128bdd-3377-538d-9aa2-1d4b0eb156c5. Feeding families. Paizo joins the effort.
Echohawk (2025 Sep 19) How Much D&D Stuff Is There Anyway?. https://www.enworld.org/threads/how-much-d-d-stuff-is-there-anyway.715374. Stats for products, pages and prices.
Echohawk (2025 Sep 26) How Much D&D Stuff Is There Anyway? Part 2: Settings. https://www.enworld.org/threads/how-much-d-d-stuff-is-there-anyway-part-2-settings.715472. 1975-2025.
Exeunt Press (2025 Sep 16) Help libraries add your game to their collection. https://www.skeletoncodemachine.com/p/game-catalog-data. The bits and details to make a publication library ready.
Girdwood, Andrew (2025 Sep 9) Dragon Con ejects artist with police escort over AI art allegations. https://www.geeknative.com/200588/dragon-con-ejects-artist-with-police-escort-over-ai-art-allegations. Fan conventions begin to draw a line on AI for sale.
Girdwood, Andrew (2025 Sep 16) Flavor POURN launches TTRPG-inspired cocktail syrups. https://www.geeknative.com/202284/flavor-pourn-launches-ttrpg-inspired-cocktail-syrups. Proof of yet more RPG drinking options.
Girdwood, Andrew (2025 Sep 19) Is an AI Game Master the future? Quest Portal unveils its new assistant and we have an interview. https://www.geeknative.com/203162/is-an-ai-game-master-the-future-quest-portal-unveils-its-new-assistant-and-we-have-an-interview. Details on the new tool and discussion with its developers.
Girdwood, Andrew (2025 Sep 20) Marvel and Kodansha back newly independent Diamond UK distributor. https://www.geeknative.com/203438/marvel-and-kodansha-back-newly-independent-diamond-uk-distributor. Breakaway of UK branch of embattled distribution company.
Girdwood, Andrew (2025 Sep 22) Dice Legenz launches “Dungeon Mastering is Easy” podcast alongside You Need More Orcs! Kickstarter. https://www.geeknative.com/203737/dice-legenz-launches-dungeon-mastering-is-easy-podcast-alongside-you-need-more-orcs-kickstarter. Supporting those who wish to start running D&D games.
Girdwood, Andrew (2025 Sep 24) Indie publisher Melsonian Arts Council launches a physical game store. https://www.geeknative.com/204393/indie-publisher-melsonian-arts-council-launches-a-physical-game-store. Collaboration with independent bookstore in South London.
Girdwood, Andrew (2025 Sep 27) Unsupervised Adventures: At what age can kids play roleplaying games alone?. https://www.geeknative.com/204918/unsupervised-adventures-at-what-age-can-kids-play-roleplaying-games-alone. Age of starting formal RPG.
Haarman, S., Torner, E., Bowman, S. L., Hugaas, K. H., Femia, G., Tremblay, J., Spencer, A. R., Bastarrachea Magnani, M. A., & Roda Martínez, A. (September 15, 2025). International Journal of Role-Playing Issue 16 — Special Issue on Consent in Analog Role-playing Games. International Journal of Role-Playing, (16), 1–99. https://doi.org/10.33063/ijrp.vi16.993. Safety, authority, bleed, and more.
Hoffer, Christian (2025 Sep 5) Wizards of the Coast Head Explains Benefits to D&D Franchise Model. https://www.enworld.org/threads/wizards-of-the-coast-head-explains-benefits-to-d-d-franchise-model.715152. Connecting online and in-person play.
Hoffer, Christian (2025 Sep 30) Hasbro Opens New Wizards of the Coast Video Game Studio in Montreal to Support D&D Franchise. https://www.enworld.org/threads/hasbro-opens-new-wizards-of-the-coast-video-game-studio-in-montreal-to-support-d-d-franchise.715529. Expanding digital creation studios in Canada.
Hutton, Christopher (2025 Sep 21) New RPG Actual Play Directory Offers Glimpse Into Breadth of Play. https://www.ttrpginsider.news/p/news-roundup-actual-play-directory-offers-glimpse-into-popular-games-to-record#new-rpg-actual-play-directory-offer. One source of games most used in actual play.
Hutton, Christopher (2025 Sep 28) Mapmaking Software Provider Inkarnate Faces Pressure Over AI Policies. https://www.ttrpginsider.news/p/news-roundup-mapmaking-software-provider-inkarnate-faces-pressure-over-ai-policies. Defining policies on AI.
Hutton, Christopher (2025 Sep 30) TTRPG Crowdfunding Slowing Down in Q3 2025. https://www.ttrpginsider.news/p/ttrpg-crowdfunding-slowing-down-in-q3-2025. Signs of diminishing funding and shifts in users.
Ionita, Serban (2025 Sep 10) A History of Imaginas’ D&D Con (and my personal highlight, the Arena). https://therpggazette.wordpress.com/2025/09/10/a-history-of-imaginas-dd-con-and-my-personal-highlight-the-arena. Growing gathering returns to Bucharest in October 2025.
Ionita, Serban (2025 Sep 24) When RPGs Become Literature: From Planescape Torment to Thousand Year Old Vampire. https://therpggazette.wordpress.com/2025/09/24/when-rpgs-become-literature-from-planescape-torment-to-thousand-year-old-vampire. Playing inside the story as art.
Jay Dragon (2025 8) The Expressionist Games Manifesto. https://possumcreek.medium.com/the-expressionist-games-manifesto-122d8afd1fe2. Subjectivity and inner worlds within imaginary worlds. Discussion of the discussion by Thomas Manuel.
Jill Bearup (2025 Aug 28) Women Want 🤯WHAT🤯 in Their Games?. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h495S4Qqdrc. Critique of recent study of women’s perception of character depictions and interest in playing those characters.
Johnson, Rich (2025 Sep 10) Now Diamond Comics, The Debtor Is Suing All The Comic Book Publishers. https://bleedingcool.com/comics/now-diamond-comics-the-debtor-is-suing-all-the-comic-book-publishers. Suits and countersuits. Update from Chase Carter. Another from Andrew Girdwood.
Jones, Keith (2025 Sep 22) 80 Games with 20 Students: A Review and Case Study. https://analoggamestudies.org/2025/09/80-games-with-20-students-a-review-and-case-study. Digging deep into games in a semester-long course.
Kaplan, Craig (2025 28) D12 rolls much farther than a D20. https://mathstodon.xyz/@csk/114931260772358327. Mathematicians going deep.
Kolinoi, Navid (2025 Jan 7) The Semiotics of “Queer” in TTRPGs. https://web.archive.org/web/20250107235629/https://cohost.org/Inumo/post/5732476-the-semiotics-of-qu. How games support anti-assimilation politics rooted in outsider LGBT+ identities.
Kyriakoudis, Nikolaos (2025 Sep 2) Back to School Made Easier With Family Friendly TTRPGs. https://www.rascal.news/back-to-school-made-easier-with-family-friendly-ttrpgs. Insights and ideas for back to school from the creators of Adventuring Family.
Lawson, Daniel (2025 Sep 22) Transmediation and the Marvel Super Heroes RPG. https://analoggamestudies.org/2025/09/transmediation-and-the-marvel-super-heroes-rpg. Rhetorical tensions and ludonarrative dissonance.
Lhuzie (2025 Sep 5) What awards do for us?. https://splitparty.substack.com/p/what-awards-do-for-us. Critique of the ENNIES in particular but RPG awards in general.
Manuel, Thomas, Rowan Zeoli, and Chase Carter (2025 Sep 2) Plus One Exp’s Brandfox Saga. https://www.rascal.news/plus-one-exps-brandfox-saga. Tale of complex collapse of distribution and support for small publishers.
Manuel, Thomas (2025 Sep 29) Why do people love to hate Shadowrun?. https://www.rascal.news/why-do-people-love-to-hate-shadowrun. History, publishing, fans, and criticism.
MacDougall, Nico (2025 Sep 3) August 2025 TTRPG Crowdfunding Retrospective. https://ttrpg-spider.blogspot.com/2025/09/august-2025-ttrpg-crowdfunding.html. Declining funding overall and changes in searching for Kickstarter campaigns.
Melsonian Arts Council (2025 4) DIY Crowdfunding. https://www.melsonia.com/blogs/news/diy-crowdfunding. Moving away from the safety and perils of crowdfunding platforms. Daniel Sell’s personal take is here.
Meng, Wenjie (2025 3) Solve history’s hidden mysteries. https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202509/03/WS68b77a29a3108622abc9e846_1.html. Exploring history with games and a hearty dollop of nationalism.
Moyzhes, Leonid (2025) Of modern monsters and scientific magic: the design challenges of simulating an enchanted world in Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition. Journal of Roleplaying Studies and STEAM: Vol. 4: Issue 1, Article 3. https://digitalcommons.njit.edu/jrpssteam/vol4/iss1/3.
Montgomery, Andrew (2025 Sep 17) Season two opens for Winging it, the love child of improv and DnD. https://calgary.citynews.ca/2025/09/17/calgary-winging-it-2. Performers and audience collaborate and create.
Morrissey, Russ (2025 Sep 25) Heritage Dungeons & Dragons Auction. https://www.enworld.org/threads/heritage-dungeons-dragons-auction.715455. Apparently, many of us are now antiques, ends October 16.
Morrissey, Russ (2025 Sep 29) They’re Building A Memorial Game Table Sculpture In Honor of Gary Gygax. https://www.enworld.org/threads/theyre-building-a-memorial-game-table-sculpture-in-honor-of-gary-gygax.715511. Gygax Memorial Fund raising money for statue in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.
Nelson, Samantha (2025 Sep 24) D&D icon R.A. Salvatore might be done writing Drizzt. https://www.polygon.com/ra-salvatore-drizzt-finest-edge-of-twilight. Changing eras and changing generations.
O’Brien, Brandon (2025 Sep 15) Games aren’t too violent — they don’t make us think about violence enough. https://www.rascal.news/games-arent-too-violent-they-dont-make-us-think-about-violence-enough. Musings on the place, nature, and context of violence in our games.
O’Donnell, Hugh (2025 Sep 22) Approaching Controversial Conflicts: Tabletop Simulations as Museums. https://analoggamestudies.org/2025/09/approaching-controversial-conflicts-tabletop-simulations-as-museums. Examining games as learning experiences through a card game based on the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
Ouellette, Jennifer (2025 May 29) Your next gaming dice could be shaped like a dragon or armadillo. https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/05/your-next-gaming-dice-could-be-shaped-like-a-dragon-or-armadillo. Many shapes can be fair dice.
ten Napel, Hendrik (2025 Aug 3) Game mechanics as demands, refusals, requests, encouragements, discouragements and allowances. https://buttondown.com/hendriktennapel/archive/game-mechanics-as-demands-refusals-requests. Analyzing games for what they allow, encourage, and block and the context in which they occur.
Thomas, Brian (2025 Sep 22) The Case for Chaos: Leveraging Contingency in Taskmaster and in Mental Health. https://analoggamestudies.org/2025/09/the-case-for-chaos-leveraging-contingency-in-taskmaster-and-in-mental-health. Examining contingency and applications of RPG in clinical settings.
Voigt, Aaron (2025) TTRPG Tools Jam. https://itch.io/jam/ttrpg-tools-jam. Increasing ease of play, reading, or access for various indie RPGs, starting October 1, 2025.
Volk, Jason (2025 Sep 4) D&D Heading Back to Brazil With New Partnership. https://dungeonsanddragonsfan.com/dnd-brazil-galapagos-asmodee. Ongoing Portuguese publishing plan.
Weird Place (2025 Aug 22) Fantastic Sports (TTRPGs) and Where to Find Them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJsFQDrYDOo. Sports RPGs.
© Copyright 2025 by the Committee for the Advancement of Role-Playing Games (CAR-PGa), ISSN 1071 7129. The CAR-PGa Newsletter is a monthly publication. For more information contact David Millians, Editor, Paideia School, 1509 Ponce de Leon Avenue, Atlanta, Georgia 30307 USA, phone (404) 808-1070, fax (404) 377-3491, email millians.david@paideiaschool.org. Back issues are available. Contributions of material from the membership are urged, and the byline is responsible for content. Deadline is the last weekday of the month, email preferred. Permission is granted to copy anything in the Newsletter, provided we get a credit line in the publication copying it, and it doesn’t have someone else’s copyright on it. Information, including details on joining CAR-PGa, can be obtained on the Internet at car-pga.org.