Following the widespread protests kicked off by the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who was killed by police while in their custody, a number of tabletop game companies have responded by speaking out against such injustice. In the best cases, they’ve also taken steps to help. While it’s becoming less rare for this industry to unite and stand up for a cause, this occasion feels especially noteworthy. Here are some examples of such companies rallying to support racial equality earlier this month.
Paizo made the following statement, pledging (among other things) to start a new charity to help black communities:
Wizards of the Coast donated to the Naacp Legal Defense Fund, My Brother’s Keeper Alliance, and Black Girls Code, and released the following statement:
pic.twitter.com/x4EY622Z2t
— Dungeons & Dragons (@Wizards_DnD) June 2, 2020
Steve Jackson Games donated to four charities in Austin, Texas: Austin Area Urban League, Austin Justice Coalition, Project ROAR, and 400+1 Bail Fund. They posted this statement:
Goodman Games posted this inspirational image:
Green Ronin Publishing‘s Facebook account went silent for a day to make room for other voices.
Tomorrow, this social media account will go silent so that other voices can be heard. We support justice, equity, and human rights. #BlackLivesMatter
Posted by Green Ronin Publishing on Monday, June 1, 2020
Magpie Games posted a tweet standing with Black Lives Matter, and also shared a list of black leaders in gaming.
All of us at Magpie Games stand with the protestors fighting against police brutality. Black lives matter. Power w/o accountability always leads to injustice.
— Magpie Games (@MagpieOfficial) June 1, 2020
Black leaders in gaming are speaking out. Follow them: @BGGameWorks @OmariAkil @eric_lang @EloytheSaint @cypheroftyr pic.twitter.com/uf7RqQ1w01
Evil Hat Productions donated to Black Lives Matter and released the following statement:
As one step, we’ve made a donation to Black Lives Matter. We encourage you to do the same. pic.twitter.com/tfCJQi6H3H
— Evil Hat Productions (@EvilHatOfficial) June 2, 2020
Chaosium is donating a portion of the proceeds from their latest Call of Cthulhu book to National Bail Out.
Chaosium stands with all those working to end racism, fascism and inequality.
— Chaosium (@Chaosium_Inc) June 5, 2020
NBO – />Chaosium – />DTRPG – href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BlackLivesMatter?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BlackLivesMatter
Schwalb Entertainment donated $1,022 to the Bail Project, explaining that “saying something without doing anything is useless.”
Since founding this company, I have made it a point to keep my personal politics and my company separate, believing that my customers generally don’t care for whom I vote or what causes I support. But the time for my silence is over. #BlackLivesMatter. pic.twitter.com/Io6H0VdMEh
— SchwalbEntertainment (@schwalb_ent) June 7, 2020
Arc Dream Publishing donated to the Northwest Community Bail Fund in Seattle, and the publishers of Delta Green put their extensive research into criminal justice into perspective:
It’s long past time for America to treat criminal suspects with humanity. For the next three days Arc Dream Publishing (@ArcDreamLLC) will match donations to Seattle’s Northwest Community Bail Fund (@NWComBailFund), up to $846 a day. We hope you’ll join us. pic.twitter.com/xsdclKznhV
— Shane Ivey does Delta Green & stuff (@shaneivey) June 3, 2020
Monte Cook Games has made the following offer on their recent Cypher System adventure Heist on Miracle IV: “Now through June 30th, all proceeds from sales of Heist on Miracle IV will be donated to blacklivesmatter.com. Monte Cook Games will make a matching donation for the first 500 copies sold during this period.”
NEW RELEASE: Heist on Miracle IV—aliens, synths, and a caper aboard a space station!
— Monte Cook Games (@MonteCookGames) June 3, 2020
Our amazing intern @DomSDickey penned this sci-fi adventure for the #CypherSystem!
All proceeds in June will be donated to their selected charity, @Blklivesmatter. pic.twitter.com/jOHGV9DHkg
Pelgrane Press donated $1,000 and 10% of their June web store sales to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. They also released a longer statement on their website.
In response to the murder of George Floyd, the latest in a long list of Black people unjustly killed by police, we are donating $1000 and 10% of all our webstore sales in June to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Read our full statement here: — Pelgrane Press (@PelgranePress) June 4, 2020
R. Talsorian Games made $2,000 donation to the Bail Project, which provides bail assistance to protestors. The company announced this with a statement; the full version is in a blog post, but the short version fit in the tweet below…
We couldn’t fit our statement on an Instagram-friendly graphic so we wrote a blog post. Here’s the tl;dr if you don’t want to click the link.
— R. Talsorian Games Making Cyberpunk and Witcher (@RTalsorianGames) June 5, 2020
1. #blacklivesmatter
2. We despise racism.
3. We made a donation.
4. There’ll be more words from Mike later. pic.twitter.com/GwyAiOj8s5
Did you spot any game companies speaking out (or taking action) on behalf of racial equality recently? We probably missed some, so let us know in the comments!
