Queer Your Games with This Zine and Card Deck
Tools for inclusive worldbuilding crafted by queer creators with backgrounds in writing, game design, cultural psychology, therapeutic gaming, sex education, sensitivity editing, and more!
In building an entirely new world, there lies so much potential. Writers and game masters piece together their ideas of magic, technology, culture, geography - and every piece of their world shapes the player characters who live in it and the challenges they face on their adventures. These worlds are built from the ground up, and they could do or say anything about the complex concepts of gender, sexuality, and attraction - but so many of them don’t, opting for worlds that, in these regards, look nearly identical to ours.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Just as a fictional world might contain silicone-based lifeforms or food that grows in the palm of your hand, so too might it contain a species with three fluid sexes, a culture where each gender wears a different metal, or a place where sexual attraction to multiple genders is considered the default. Imagine Queer Worlds is a guide leading aspiring and experienced worldbuilders alike on a journey: to rethink the drawing board and build a world where nothing is assumed. To radically redefine and dismantle the norms of fiction and in doing so, creating better, more interesting stories. It will guide creators on a path to imagine how the fictional societies, cultures, and environments they craft engage with the personal questions of sex, gender, romance, and more - and how those ideas and norms shape the characters who live in them.
The zine will include:
- A guide to terminology
- Prompts for thoughtful worldbuilding
- Example cultures and characters from queer writers of varied backgrounds
- A system for using dice and cards to shape the process
- An abundance of queer joy and creativity
The Kickstarter also just reached its final stretch goal to unlock the Deck of Queer Worlds, a deck of prompt cards to guide the creative and worldbuilding process in a tarot-style system of card drawing and placement.
Imagine Queer Worlds and the Deck of Queer Worlds are created by Jaclyn Lewis in collaboration with other queer folks from our world.
Professional game master, writer, and lifelong queer weirdo. They enjoy crafting words, gifts, and community, and can be found at conventions of all sorts in the Midwest and beyond.
Queer (adjective), queer (noun), writer, sex educator, mediocre blogger, and GM to the best dang party in the world (I love you, Honky Cats!).
Cultural psychologist, writer, and game designer specializing in all-ages game design and culture-conscious worldbuilding and sensitivity editing.
Game designer, consultant, and creator of the ENnie-award-winning TTRPGkids resource. Steph enjoys playing TTRPGs with their kiddo and using their work to help others find new worlds to explore and be seen in.
Queer, Black, all-out nerd who loves gaming. Professionally, she does marketing for creatives and helps get projects launch-ready for crowdfunding. Outside of work, she is a volunteer game master for youth through her local community resource center and is currently world-building with her equally nerdy wife for a future setting and campaign in which they can play and be chaotic. She loves roleplaying as a variety of player characters but keeps accidentally making lil cinnamon rolls. Sometimes art imitates life!
Performative storyteller, subversive drag thing, nefarious BBEG, and perpetually engrossed in a world of silly voices. Owner of Goblin Forge, Kitsch is a queer chaos gremlin that recently received their certification in Therapeutic Gaming, so let's have fun and talk about your feelings! Don’t worry, he’s brought snacks!
In 2020, I (Jaclyn) accidentally volunteered to run a game of D&D for a group of queer teenagers in my city. Five years later, it’s become my whole life. Now, I spend my days using tabletop roleplaying games to tell stories, have fun, and create safe communities where everyone has a place at the table. As I started to share about my experience, I found myself deep in the all-ages and inclusive-focused subcultures of the TTRPG community. Turns out there are lots of amazing people telling stories, crafting systems, and fostering a culture of inclusion, care, and creativity. I started going to gaming conventions, where I found fantastic indie games and creators, ran adventures for all ages, attended seminars, and met incredible people from both sides of expo tables.
Helping out at booths like Rem Alternis and Tabletop Gaymers, I’ve seen a lot of the same kinds of people over and over again. Queer people and allies alike who were hungry for representation, wanted to create a more inclusive community, but didn't know where to start or how to do it. This project was born as a way to help them do just that. It started out with me writing worldbuilding prompts for a queer game jam, then quickly realizing I needed more help. So I gathered a group of intelligent, creative queer folks alongside me. They’ve lent their expertise, offered incredible insights, and even joined on as co-writers to bring this project to life. I hope you will join them!
