For the Queen’s creator on the new edition, her many copycats, and her balloon-kink RPG

polygon.com:

If imitation really is the sincerest form of flattery, Alex Roberts’ For the Queen might be the most lavishly complimented game in indie role-playing game history. First published in 2019 by Evil Hat Productions, the company behind Fate, Blades in the Dark, Thirsty Sword Lesbians, Monster of the Week, and Apocalypse Keys, among many other games, For the Queen was an immediate sensation among indie tabletop fans. It’s a no-prep, no-GM storytelling game that’s designed to build high drama and deep emotion quickly: Players create their characters through play by drawing from a deck of narrative prompt cards that let them build a fraught, conflicted relationship with the enigmatic queen they love and serve. The best proof that Roberts’ design is appealing and inviting? It’s inspired a huge wave of independent, self-published copycat games.

Roberts, also the creator of Star Crossed and many other indie RPGs, published For the Queen under a Creative Commons license, giving other creators the right to make their own structurally similar RPGs under the label Descended From the Queen. Those games vary immensely in tone, content, and intent, but they all credit Roberts’ work as their inspiration, which has just bolstered For the Queen’s reputation further.

For the Queen now has an expanded, updated second edition that was released by Critical Role’s publishing house, Darrington Press. Polygon caught up with Roberts via Zoom to talk about what the new edition of For the Queen adds and changes, why she wants to do an explicit adults-only version of the game, how she feels about the dozens of RPGs she’s inspired (and which ones she recommends), and why the highlight of her career was designing a LARP about kinky balloon fetishists.

This interview has been edited for concision and clarity.

Polygon: Why did you move For the Queen from Evil Hat to Darrington Press?

Alex Roberts: For the Queen was the last boxed game Evil Hat put out. Since then, they have been doing