Hoard of Tales: Showcasing Women and Femme Tabletop Talent for Women in Gaming Month 2024

To commemorate Women’s History Month, Actual Play channel; Hoard of Tales, are running a Women in Gaming Month, broadcasting unique tabletop content throughout March 2024. This event will feature lots of unique TTRPG content with all women and femme casts, organizers and producers. These include one-shots, mini-campaigns, interviews and panels combining a wealth of talent from across the TTRPG community.

The event started on International Women’s Day, Friday March 8th, and will run until Friday March 27th. At the time of writing, there is already a plethora of great shows to catch up on. This includes a panel from event organizers, Aida and Darcy, on creating women & femme TTRPG spaces, a talk with veteran TTRPG designer, Virginia Garcia McShannock, and a one-shot of Nordic horrors TTRPG, Vaesen. You can catch up with any of these shows on Hoard of Tales‘ Twitch or YouTube.

Check out the timetables below for the full program of Women In Gaming Month:

I caught up with event organizers, Aida and Darcy to find out more about the event and discuss why diversity in the tabletop community is so important.

A Little About Hoard of Tales

If you haven’t heard of Hoard of Tales before, they are an Actual Play channel made up of organizers and players across Europe. Based in Germany, Hoard of Tales have made it their mission to raise the profile of the EU/UK TTRPG scene. Diversity is a huge cornerstone of what they do. As they write in their press kit:

Our community represents all intersections of diversity – queer, transgender, POC/BAME, immigrants, neurodivergent, chronically ill and disabled hobbyists come together to tell stories that matter and stories that reflect their lives experiences.

Aida spoke of her experiences being the only POC (person of color) at so many TTRPG tables. One of the things she had taken great pride in, is showing people who have had similar experiences what it’s like to be at a table where you don’t feel like the odd one out and where you don’t have to modify your behavior to others’ expectations.

Hoard of Tales are proud to give a voice to marginalized groups in the tabletop community.

Operating Hoard of Tales as a safe haven, Darcy invites anyone who feels they aren’t getting represented at the table to come play with them! Asking about their motivation to provide this haven to others, they said:

Something that is very important to us is playing more diverse tables and uplifting people who wouldn’t necessarily find a safe and welcoming table in this hobby in real life.

Diversity in Gaming

One of the main issues Aida and Darcy identify with inclusion in TTRPG spaces is that a lot of people who aren’t white males don’t tend to see themselves or their stories represented in popular media. Through setting a good example and by showcasing players from diverse backgrounds, they strive to change this perspective. They also showcase how to set up safe, supportive spaces for people from diverse backgrounds.

They have challenged themselves to make have all of their games and shows made up of at least 50% POC. Though they also acknowledge that this isn’t always possible and they need to continue their engagement efforts to improve.

Darcy and Aida referenced conversations with people who felt that they had to adapt to gaming groups where they didn’t feel that they could express themselves. One of the things that motivates both of them is the feedback they get from people who see themselves represented in their games and how much it means to them. Darcy spoke of the value of knowing your worth and being empowered to find a table that suits you:

There is a table for everybody. And sometimes you have to go through a couple of bad eggs to find the place that you really got to thrive. You just got to keep having faith that it will it will find you or you will find it and not being afraid to walk away from bad tables as well.

Aida and Darcy firmly believe that by having diversity in the tabletop community, you not only empower community members across the board, but you welcome a wider pool of talent and a wider variety of stories to your games.

Fiona, Melisa, Taylor and Sequaia make up the cast of Vaesen, just one of many shows worth catching this month.

Fiona, Melisa, Taylor and Sequaia make up the cast of Vaesen, just one of many shows worth catching this month.

Making Women in Gaming Month a Success

Aida and Darcy have brought their Hoard of Tales values and lessons into making Women in Gaming Month a success. Through their outreach, they have recruited incredible TTRPG talent to showcase in their women and femme exclusive shows. These include performers and creators like Fiona KT Howat, Shamini Bundell, Taylor Navarro and Naomi Clarke. 

As well as that, they’ve also got sponsorship from Free League Publishing. This has helped massively in bringing the event together. Aida explained that such sponsorship has great value beyond immediate promotion and support. Showing sponsors that people are discovering them through femme and POC content encourages more of this kind of engagement.

She encourages viewers to subscribe and click the Free League Publishing links in the descriptions. Doing this sends a message that engaging with femme and POC groups is a viable marketing strategy.

Both Aida and Darcy pointed out that whilst events like Women in Gaming Month are brilliant opportunities to showcase and model welcoming communities, there needs to be continuous efforts throughout the year. Going ahead, they want to continue to engage with women, femme, POC and other marginalized peoples and set a positive example for inclusiveness in gaming. Aida shared her hopes for the future.

My secret hope is that it will lead people from different parts of the world to want to not just play with us but GM with us and to to bring a variety of games as well because there are so many incredible games written and designed by women and femmes and people from all over the world.

Be sure to check out Hoard of Tales‘ Women in Gaming Month every weekday until Friday 29th March for top quality women and femme exclusive content. You can catch their shows live on their Twitch or watch them at your leisure on YouTube.