Tag: kiwirpg week

KiwiRPG week returns this month!

The third annual KiwiRPG week begins Sunday June 23rd and runs until Saturday June 29th, celebrating Kiwi excellence in tabletop role-playing games!

KiwiRPG week coincides with the celebration of Matariki, the beginning of a new year. It’s the perfect time to acknowledge the year that has been, and  look forward with pride to new challenges. We invite everyone to join us and discover what we are all about!

This year’s KiwiRPG week is sponsored by Bea DnD Games! Thanks Bea DnD!

Main event: 7 DAYS OF LIVE STREAMING

The backbone of our celebration is something we’ve never tried before, a week-long livestream special event. Every day, a different Kiwi game will be played by Kiwi players, live on the new KiwiRPG Twitch channel!

Watch GMs and players from Kiwi actual play shows take on a wild menu of incredible Kiwi-designed game: TTRPG megahit Monster of the Week, new hotness Deathmatch Island, legendary cyberpunk game The Sprawl, fantasy buddy cop tales Arcane Crimes Division, hilarious boardroom brutality in Merger, Halloween kid shenanigans in Fight or Fright, and the world-famous-in-New Zealand d12GO! in zombie action mode.

And while you’re watching, win prizes from local legends and KiwiRPG sponsors, Bea DnD Games (shipping to NZ only)!

KiwiRPG week also features:
  • The launch of new games and adventures including material for Monster of the Week, Dungeons & Dragons 5E, Descended From The Queen, and new editions of some fan-fave standalone Kiwi games! 
  • Brilliant game bundles packed with Kiwi games, available all week on the two major RPG storefronts, DriveThruRPG and itch.io!
  • A new KiwiRPG podcast gathering the best episodes of other Kiwi shows as well as all-new special features!
  • A game jam event running all week, welcoming contributions from game designers anywhere in the world!
  • Special daily discounts at Bea DnD to celebrate different aspects of RPGs!
  • And more to be announced!
How to find out more

Your destination for KiwiRPG week info is https://www.kiwirpg.com/kiwirpg-week-2024/

Signing up to the KiwiRPG week email newsletter is the best way to get the full experience.

 

Kia ora e hoa mā.

With the race towards the end of the calendar year, it seems appropriate for Kēmu Whakatau O Aotearoa to start thinking about the next one, and more specifically the next end of year, albeit the Māori one. Stick with me, it’ll make sense shortly.

The tent pole event in the KiwiRPG calendar is KiwiRPG week. We have done two now and they are always roaring successes. They bring eyes onto our little corner of the hobby from far and near, with media attention and community spotlights on all of the excellent creations Aotearoa contributes to our great hobby. KiwiRPG week formed the nucleus of Kēmu Whakatau O Aotearoa in many ways. It is an amazing opportunity for us all to celebrate Kiwi creations unapologetically.

When the committee sat down to start preliminary planning of the next KiwiRPG week, naturally we turned our thoughts towards when to hold it. Previously it had been in June and May before that. Dates chosen for various reasons. This year we wanted that reason to be one that is just as special to Aotearoa as it is to KiwiRPG. So we decided to coincide the week with Matariki, the Māori new year. Hopefully the opening paragraph is starting to make sense.

Matariki is a sacred time across polynesia, and for most Māori iwi. It is the time where its namesake star cluster rises in the eastern sky, and welcomes in the new year. It is a time we associate with endings and beginnings, life and death. It is a time where we come together to plan, to enjoy one another’s company and to feast upon the bounty of our harvests. To look back at the year that’s been and forward to the year ahead. It is a time to be introspective but ambitious and full of potential.

What better time for our community to come together, unite in voice and action to spring into the new year with pride, mana and something to show the world?

With this said, I would like to confirm that the official dates for KiwiRPG week 2024 are Sunday 23rd of June through to Saturday 29th of June. This obviously coincides with the Matariki holiday on Friday 28th. We will close out the year and welcome in the new one in the way only Kēmu Whakatau O Aotearoa can.

Thank you for your time to read this. As this calendar year counts down, put some mind towards how you want to welcome in Matariki next year and know we are all here with you.

Kia pai tō koutou rā
Liam Stevens
Kēmu Whakatau O Aotearoa Chair 

Another epic KiwiRPG week is just around the corner! 

Starting with a bang on Saturday the 10th of June*, we’ve got exciting deals, streams, shows and events running throughout the week!

SEE THE KIWIRPG WEEK 2023 SCHEDULE

We’ve got something new and exciting this year. Every day there will be a DAILY DEAL, a KiwiRPG product with a huge discount, just for that day!

The DAILY DEAL will be advertised in the KiwiRPG calendar of course, but the best way to catch it is to SIGN UP TO OUR EMAIL NEWSLETTER! Get that deal in your inbox every time! Click here to sign up!

We’re really excited to celebrate Kiwi RPG ingenuity with you. See you soon!

* If you’re in Christchurch, the fun starts a week earlier, get along to see Dungeons & Comedians live on stage on Sunday 4th June!

 

 

MEDIA RELEASE: 20 MARCH 2023

KIWI TTRPG CREATORS STAND TOGETHER IN NEW ASSOCIATION

There is a new community voice in the international tabletop role-playing games field.

Aotearoa New Zealand’s TTRPG creators have come together to launch Kēmu Whakatau O Aotearoa, to spotlight their work on the global stage, support emerging talent, and speak out when needed.

The new association, Kēmu Whakatau O Aotearoa, also known by the short form KiwiRPG, is woven from two major strands of creative work: game design and writing, and creation of content for streams, podcasts, video and live performance. Many local creators work across both strands.

The first KiwiRPG committee is Liam Stevens (Ngāti Kahungunu), Penny D. Boyce, and Morgan Davie, who together bring significant experience across many different facets of the TTRPG industry.

The first act of the new committee was to announce the dates of the second KiwiRPG week, which will run from Saturday 10 June to Sunday 18 June (NZ time). 

KiwiRPG week showcases Aotearoa’s TTRPG streamers, podcasters, game designers, youtubers, freelance writers, and live performers, featuring special events, game launches, and special deals.

The creation of Kēmu Whakatau O Aotearoa | KiwiRPG as a formal association is a direct result of the tremendous success of the 2022 KiwiRPG week.

**ENDS**

In the first part of our tour de KiwiRPG design, I zoomed in on three creators as a starting point for navigating the back roads of TTRPG design in Aotearoa. Now in the second part I’m gonna zoom around lots and lots of others. Maybe it was unwise to cover just three people in the first part but it’s too late now! So jump on in for a high-speed adventure more exciting than a yellow mini driving from Kaitaia to Invercargill!

Apocalypse Mall

Goodbye Pork Pie, 1981 – Humour – Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand

Our first stop has to be the charming confines the Mall of the Apocalypse! Let’s drive inside and hoon around a bit.

Kiwi designs have been making waves in the PbtA scene since it began, starting with Michael Sands’s beloved game Monster of the Week. This game of TV-inspired monster hunting is rightly beloved all around the world, with podcasts and actual plays galore. (And there’s some big news about it dropping TODAY on the Generic Games site…) MotW has generated its own mini-industry of support products and spinoffs (including some #KiwiRPG examples like those by Sero of podcast Redgate & Wolf, and my own inspired-by riff Paranormal Wellington).

But while you chase monsters, don’t forget Mike’s other games! Live out the wild adventures of a heavy metal song in Heavy Metal Aeons, in the itch bundle! Collaboratively map-journal an alien world in Natural Philosophers, in the DriveThru bundle! Guide a stone-age family through generations in Three Dooms (my personal favourite)!

Elsewhere on the shopfronts and food courts of PbtA Mall you’ll find The Sprawl, another iconic and beloved Apocalypse Engine design, by Hamish Cameron of Ardens Ludere! This superbly focused take on cyberpunk missions is widely celebrated. Hamish has released several supplements, and he’s also just launched another PbtA game this week, the upsetting body-horror SF on Kratophagia. 

And just down the escalator is a play area full of happy dinosaurs! By Hamish Cameron and Dana Cameron, it’s the ENnie-winning Dinosaur Princesses (in the DriveThru bundle), a very fun and very clever RPG for young and old! Of course all around Dino Fun Park are cats, because Dana has carved out their own niche in game design as surely the globe’s premier designer of cat-focused game weirdness !

But wait – there are a few more sights to see before your tour of PbtA Mall is done! How about hopping through the wardrobe to labyrinth wonderland with Lauren McManamon’s amazing Girl Underground (and then checking out her other game designs)! And you already read about Jack’s Space Legs & Sea Legs on Monday, right?

Game Highway One

Goodbye, Pork Pie: Mini - Influx

Okay let’s get on the open road now and hightail it down Game Highway One, our national game road. Look out the window! Watch the interesting hills go past! Do that thing where you imagine that weird mark on the glass is your video game character and you move your head to make them jump from power pole to power pole! WHAT WILL WE SEE!

Hey look going past the window it’s SIMON CARRYER GAMES! His 2009 swords-and-sorcery release On Mighty Thews (in the DriveThru bundle) kicked off the present era of TTRPG publishing in Aotearoa NZ! Nod (in the DriveThru bundle too ) and Tonight We Slay A Dragon Or Die In The Attempt are wildly interesting yet highly playable experiments in structure! World of Conan is PbtA, what is it doing here and not in the mall, it’s because my metaphor is unhelpful! And more, but we’ve already driven past to-

Wow there’s HEXAVEXAGON! Lots of games and tools for games! Big tough guys in shirts! Mecha letters (in the itch bundle)! A whole category of games called “shitposts”! So much to explore but now we’re whipping on past- 

Over by that scenic rest-stop, I can see SCARY MONSTER GAMES! Jamie Sands makes neat little emotional games, except when they’re traumatic messy dangerous emotional games! Four Things, High School Princesses (the scariest game I have ever played, OMG, and in the DriveThru bundle and the itch bundle too), and the superbly named Silver Kiss of the Magical Twilight of the Full Moon, and moar! But oh no we’re accelerating around some corners-

It’s STEVE HICKEY GAMES! Philip K Dick weirdness with Left Coast (in the DT bundle) and pitch-black cult shenanigans with Soth, and if you hunt around you might find some fascinating other games in development… but no time for hunting now-

-okay i was wrong time to stop for ice creams, it’s a road trip, everyone done? back in the car, let’s goooo-

Fast Drivey Bit

Cars in Film : Goodbye Pork Pie - AROnline

It’s the part of the metaphor where the blog post has been going on for a while and we need to speed up and go even faster! There’s a new road! Transmission Gully! Lean forward everyone!

Jacques Cousteau (in the itch bundle) and Battle Royale with Tim at Old Dog Games! Ambitious thoughtful sci-fi with kickstarter success Sapience by Brian Leybourne! The not-actually-a-joke really-very-good DuckQuest RPG by global miniature-sculpting legend Darcy Perry!  Brave team action goes down In a Blaze of Glory by Ciarán Searle! And the game being played on a KiwiRPG stream in my headphones as I type this, fast-play multi-genre pick-up-and-go excitement with d12GO! (in the itch bundle)!

How about some road-themed games seeing as I’m like eight paragraphs deep into this ill-advised metaphor! Cosmic taxis dodging trash critters from gothHoblin (critters in the itch bundle)! Extensive roadworks with 200-word-RPG-winner Route Clearance by Andrew Millar and Highway (in the itch bundle) by vonklaude! And drive through crowds of zombies with Z-Land Survival Horror by Rycon (OH! Z-LAND! I GET IT!)!

Going real fast now! Western game Tombstone! Epic magic in DriveThru Gold bestseller The Runed Age! Art heists in Masterpiece! Ghostly tea in The Last Tea Shop! Ghostly ruins in The Ruin! No future no past in Mayfly (in the itch bundle)!

OH HECK NO

NO WE BROKE THROUGH THE REALITY BARRIER 

WHERE ARE WE

the other place

welcome to the other place. here your car is actually your ??book. relax. walk over here.

this is normality. it was released in 2009. it was released in 2021. everything is normal here.

sit down, now. sit down and open the ??feet in front of you.

everything is fine

 

-morgue, with apologies to the rest of the KiwiRPG team 

 

 

It begins: KiwiRPG Week!

The first ever #KiwiRPG Week has arrived! Tabletop RPG creatives from all over Aotearoa are busily sharpening their dice and honing their microphones in excited anticipation. Are you excited yet? Here’s why you should be:

  • SALE BUNDLES! Two huge bundles of Kiwi games at a bargain price, one on DriveThruRPG, the other on itch.io! 
  • EXCITING STREAMS! Eight live-play streams, some from studio tabletops, some played online, and some played live on stage in front of a live audience! 
  • NEW STUFF! Two new TTRPG releases during the week, with more announcements to come!
  • TOUR DE BLOG! Explore #KiwiRPG with a series of blog posts across the week showing off the well-known, the should-be-known, and the nearly-unknown of the local scene! 

And that’s not all:

  • MONSTER OF THE WEEK! If you’re a MOTW fan, you don’t want to miss the big announcement dropping on Wednesday! 
  • BIG BAD ONLINE! Global RPG phenomenon Big Bad Con Online is hosting a KiwiRPG panel during KiwiRPG week!
  • CHARITY PREVIEW! “The Cult of Keviine” is a lead-in to the amazing YES, AND 24 Hour Charity Livestream!

Make sure you don’t miss a moment! Check out the week’s schedule, which is being constantly updated as new things are added to the programme.

 

Monster of the Week: The Faces Of TolTeTotl

Here’s a great way to kick off the week: On Sunday night (NZST), a team of stars from around the #KiwiRPG podcasting and streaming scene will gather to play legendary Kiwi game Monster of the Week! 

When headless bodies start appearing on the outskirts of a rural NZ town, T.H.E.M. (Tasked with Hunting Extraterrestrials and Monsters) sends their top hunters to investigate this baffling string of deaths.

Watch the show on the Getting Dicey channel at twitch.tv/GettingDicey, at 7pm NZST on Sunday 1st May. That’s 8am if you’re in the UK! (It’s like 3am if you’re in the Eastern seaboard of the USA, so insomniacs welcome I guess?) 

 

Tell your friends and find us on the socials:

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/kiwirpg

TWITTER: https://twitter.com/kiwi_RPG

INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/kiwiRPG/ 

 

See you soon!

morgue and the #KiwiRPG crew