The Workshop

GenCon 2014. A workshop called “Hacking as Women,” organized by Mark Diaz Truman. Two designers who had never met ended up at the same table. Whitney Beltrán said “Bluebeard.” Sarah Richardson said yes. Marissa Kelly, co-founder of Magpie Games and one of the most experienced Powered by the Apocalypse practitioners in the indie scene, signed on as system coach. Three years later, their game would win IndieCade’s Grand Jury Award and redefine what an RPG could make you feel.

But Richardson didn’t arrive at that table as a designer. She arrived as a layout artist. She had entered the RPG industry in 2013 through visual arts—illustrating, typesetting, making books look right. Her earliest credits were for Lamentations of the Flame Princess, the OSR horror line whose art she admired because it showed women as active adventurers, not passive victims. She held a degree in Visual Communication from Washington University in St. Louis, with additional work in printmaking and bookbinding. The physical object was always her entry point.