Paizo and R. Talsorian court indie designers for their next projects
Fresh success from traditional methods.
Two notable tabletop RPG companies want to bring smaller creators under their publishing umbrella. Speaking at the 2025 GAMA trade show in Kentucky, R. Talsorian Games and Paizo told Rascal of their plans to broaden their respective portfolios with new titles from independent designers.
“We're in a very small period of growth where we are looking at doing publishing for smaller indie creators and taking in games that would not normally be published, or get the opportunity to get published, and bringing them to distribution,” said Cody Pondsmith, lead designer at R. Talsorian Games.
Pondsmith, who is developing the upcoming Shadow Scar RPG, said the storied publisher of the Cyberpunk tabletop series is keeping their eyes peeled for “things that look interesting to us” while also directly contacting designers. But R. Talsorian has also been accepting pitches, especially from creators outside the usual publishing channels. “We want to make ourselves available for that sort of thing so that those people who would not normally get the chance to produce, to publish their stuff, get that opportunity,” he said.
