GoCorral

I took on a new project a few months ago, but haven’t announced it on my blog yet. I’m one of the two people in charge of the Tabletop Community Spotlight (TCS).

TCS History

The Tabletop Community Spotlight was originally started by Peter from Tales from Elsewhere and Zarek from Odin’s Key Gaming. The intention was to give aspiring game designers a place to shine and show off parts of what they’d been working on. The hosts read/watch the entries and give some comments on them, but there aren’t any prizes or winners. Just community spirit!

Each spotlight occurs roughly every three months and has a theme. Designers create something for their own TTRPGs or an existing TTRPG that fits the theme. The first theme was designing a Barbarian in your system (Part 1 and Part 2). The second theme was Death Mechanics (Part 1 and Part 2). I joined the second theme with my own badly sound mixed video, Wu Xing – Injuries and Death.

After the second theme, Peter and Zarek became too busy to continue the TCS. Zarek’s crowdfunding campaign for his superhero TTRPG, Indominant, succeeded. Peter was ramping up to start his and has since succeeded. They’re now both busy producing the rewards for their crowdfunding campaigns. They’re also both still accepting late pledges!
Peter’s Tales from Elsewhere: Clockworld Kickstarter
Zarek’s Indominant BackerKit
Peter and Zarek’s departure for their main TTRPG projects meant that side projects like TCS were going to get abandoned.

Leadership Transition

That’s where community members from the Tales from Elsewhere Discord server stepped in. Myself and others enjoyed the TCS and wanted it to continue. I volunteered to host the video streams. Since then, myself and another TfE Discord member, Danny, have become the main leads of the TCS.

I’d like to take a short interlude to plug the TTRPG stuff Danny is working on. He’s designing his own game called Metanoia. The game aims to emulate a magic system similar to the Nen abilities from the Hunter X Hunter cartoon. Metanoia is still in an alpha stage, but files for it are available on the TfE Discord. Danny also has his own TTRPG blog called Tabletop Discourse.

Our first theme in the community TCS was Crafting Rules. Our second theme was a Winter Themed Adventure. Peter and Zarek advertised the original TCS using their minor internet celebrity followings. The first two themes that Danny and I led were only within the TfE Discord server. I think we’ve got a good handle on it, so I’m extending the TCS back to the rest of the world!

Next Theme: Necromancer

The theme for the first quarter of 2026 is designing a Necromancer. This can be for your own system or an established one. Good or evil means. Magical spells or a science fiction horror robot. Anything loosely connected to the prompt will do! All entries must be in by March 6th. Further details below from what Danny wrote about the prompt.

Tell us about your spin on this classic archetype and how your game supports them! This could be a player character or an enemy. If you’re not making a fantasy game, you can definitely still join! Any kind of: “I raise/summon bunches of things to do my bidding” and/or “I cheated death by my power” will work! A scifi version could be something like an engineer making a bunch of automatons, etc…

Get creative and don’t worry about if it’s a little off the beaten path! Whether you’re designing the Night King from Game of Thrones, Sung Jinwoo from Solo Leveling, some kind of Netrunner in a cyberpunk world, someone that produces Jiangshi in Wuxia or Xianxia, or a spiritist, they’ll all count!

Remember we may not have insight into your game and how they work, so as you’re explaining this archetype, it’s super important to find the balance of “don’t go into too much detail” and “help us understand why this is a good thing.”

Submission Requirements

Submissions must be made in the appropriate #tabletop-community-spotlight channel on either the Setting the Stage Discord server or the Tales from Elsewhere Discord server.

Submissions may be made in a document form or a video form.

Documents must be less than 700 words, not counting appendices.

Videos must be less than 7 minutes long, not counting other portions of the video that we’re allowed to skip (intro themes, other updates, sponsorships).

Appendices include relevant rules for your system that are necessary to understand your submissions and anything else you think we might need to understand your submission.

All submissions must be in by March 6th 2026.

After March 6th, Danny and I will host a stream on my YouTube channel. During that stream we’ll read/watch each submission and have a short discussion on each before moving on to the next one. The time and date of that stream will be announced later, but it should be some time in March.

Feel free to ask questions if you’re uncertain about your submission or if there’s something concerning you.