Accessible Games

Accessible Games and the OGL

OGL Controversy

Like many publishers in the tabletop RPG business, I’ve recently been stunned by the controversy surrounding the Open Gaming License (OGL). If you’re not familiar, the OGL is a license, originally created by Wizards of the Coast, that allows RPG publishers to use certain content in their games without seeking special permission first.

Many games use the OGL, including Dungeons and Dragons 3rd Edition (the game for which the OGL was originally designed), D&D 5e, Pathfinder 1st and 2nd edition, Fudge, Fate, and more.

Publishers big and small rely on the OGL to know what is safe to borrow for their own games and what’s off-limits.

If you’re not familiar with the controversy, here’s the short version. Wizards of the Coast is planning to revise the OGL and de-authorize the original license (version 1.0a) that publishers have been using for over 20 years now. …
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Survival of the Able Now Available

After a couple Kickstarter attempts and a few short delays, Survival of the Able is now officially available. It’s the game that just won’t die.

What is Survival of the Able?

In case you’ve been hiding away from society (and after the last few years, we wouldn’t blame you), Survival of the Able is a survival horror RPG built using the Fudge™ System. You’ll play as someone with a disability living in the Middle Ages, a time when people like you were cast aside …
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Survival of the Able at Everyone Games 2022

Friday, September 30th, 2022

Survival of the Able is going to be back at Everyone Games this year, and we’d like you to tune in.

On Friday, September 30th, 2022 at 7:00 p.m. Eastern, we’ll be streaming the game via the Everyone Games Twitch channel. It’ll be a three hour event, so it’s perfectly bite-sized (that’s a little zombie humor).

Everyone Games is an awareness and charity fundraising event. We’ll be raising money for two charities: Stack Up (a US-based charity helping disabled vets) and Everyone Can (a UK-based charity serving disabled gamers). If you have the means, we would love for you to donate.

Visit http://www.everyone-games.com for more information about the event and to find links to the channel.

Also at Everyone Games

I’ll be in two other events, in addition to Survival of the Able.

At 11 a.m. Eastern, …
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AGQ Issue 9 and Year 2 Anthology Now Available

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Accessible Gaming Quarterly Year 2 Financials

The final issue of Accessible Gaming Quarterly, Year 2 has shipped. Now that issues 5 through 8 have been released, it’s time to take a look back at the year and see how we did.

Like last year, we started with a budget of $4,000 USD, which translated to $1,000 per issue. This time around, we added ePub as an additional file format for digital editions of the zine. We also hit a +$500 stretch goal to add ePub to previous issues (1 through 4), but since that applied toward last year’s issues I’m not going to include the stretch goal funding in my budget analysis.

For reference, our Kickstarter campaign raised $5131 from 166 backers (an average of $30.90 per backer).

If you would like to compare our numbers to last year’s, check out our previous post in this series: Accessible Gaming Quarterly by the Numbers.

Costs Per Issue

Let’s begin by looking at …
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Organizing Your Files to Send to Layout

Introduction

“Dude, this is way more prepped than I am used to. It’ll definitely speed the process up and allow us more time to get particular with all the details.”

This is the response I received from Todd Crapper, the production designer behind Survival of the Able, after sending him the files for the book. If you had read any of my past posts about laying out a PDF, or perhaps this guest post from Ruben Smith-Zempel, then you may have an understanding of what a big process it can be. Anything a designer can do to make the process run smoother is a huge boon.

What did I do that elicited such a response?

Let’s talk about how I organized my files to prepare to send them to layout.

Manuscript

The entire manuscript for Survival of the Able is only about 38,000 words long. As complete RPGs go, I’d say that’s on the low to …
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Accessible Gaming Quarterly Issue 8 Now Available

Accessible Gaming Quarterly Issue 8 (April 2022) is now available in digital and print.

This issue rounds out the second year of the zine with Q&A, essays, character profiles, and creative ideas to spice up your games. Articles include:

1. “Questions and Answers with Accessible Games”
2. “Leggo My Lego” by Richard Bennett
3. “Dungeons and Dragons and Faith” by Travis Peterson
4. “Armond the Penguin Wizard,” written and illustrated by Linus Andersson
5. “Learning from Your Mistakes” by Justin Oldham
6. “Simulation …
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Accessible Gaming Quarterly Year 3 Kickstarter

We launched Accessible Gaming Quarterly, the world’s first zine dedicated to accessibility and inclusion in TTRPGs, in July 2020. Since then, the zine has been a big success and has struck a chord with hundreds of readers.

In 2021, we kicked off the second year of the zine to add more great content and continue the discussion of disabilities in gaming.

Now, with seven published issues and an eighth on the way, we’re launching the Kickstarter campaign to fund a third year. With its success, we’ll fund four more issues of content created by and for disabled gamers.

You can be part of the process.

You can help make a difference.

Because …
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End-of-Year Update, 2021

Happy Holidays, everyone.

It has been a busy year here at Accessible Games. Sometimes, I get so busy I forget to come back and post an update about what’s been happening around here.

If you have followed any of our recent Kickstarters, you’ll have an idea of what has been happening. Survival of the Able successfully funded at 129% and work on the game is well underway, Accessible Gaming Quarterly is about to drop Issue 7 in January, and I have been working behind the scenes on some projects I can’t talk about yet.

This year has seen a lot of successes. Accessible Gaming Quarterly Year 2 and Survival of the Able both exceeded their funding goals, which has really helped drive us forward. Their successes give me confidence that there are people out there who wisht o support diverse voices and marginalized communities, and in particular disabled gamers.

On that note, the Everyone-Games …
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Survival of the Able at Everyone-Games

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