From Coyote & Crow to Between Earth & Sky, Indigenous creatives reimagine fantasy worlds

Written by: Jessica Thompson

(TAHLEQUAH, Okla.) SkasdiCon, an annual showcase of Indigenous influence on pop culture, is right around the corner. In addition to gaming tournaments, fandom bingo, and cult classic films dubbed in Cherokee, this year’s event will also feature a variety of panels, including “The History and Future of Indigenous Tabletop Games”.

The panel will be led by Cherokee Nation citizen William Thompson, game creator of hits such as “Paleovet” and “Winter Rabbit” and co-owner of Absurdist Productions.

Thompson also served as a writer for “Stories of the Free Lands”, the first expansion for Coyote & Crow, an award-winning role playing game created by Kenna Alexander, also a Cherokee citizen.

Can you imagine an alternative history in which European settlers never arrived in the Americas? Given colonization’s far-reaching impact on day-to-day life, that feels nearly impossible. However, that is exactly what the tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) Coyote & Crow: The Roleplaying Game asks of its players.

In 2022, Alexander brought to life an alternative history in which a climate disaster prevents long-distance travel for hundreds of years. Players begin their adventure 700 years after the climate event in the bustling metropolis of Cahokia, which the company describes as “a world of science and spirituality where the future of technology and the legends of the past will collide.”

“When people want to sit down and play a game to escape, they don't want to think about the traumas that they're dealing with,” Alexander said. 

Alexander, a veteran in the game industry, leaned into the TTRPG genre’s hallmark mechanic of providing players all the information they need to create their own adventures. 

“One of the things that drew me immediately to role-playing games, is this concept of cooperative storytelling,” Alexander said. “The rules, to me, are the least important part. The stories that you're telling are important.”

Unlike many of its contemporaries, Coyote & Crow doesn’t place combat at the center of the gameplay. The game focuses on building relationships through dialogue and creative problem-solving to reflect a world that is more than just good versus evil.

Alexander firmly believed it needed a creative team and a publisher who could understand and respect not just the vision for the game, but also the importance and sacredness of these traditions in Indigenous cultures. For her, the weight of that responsibility required “maximum integrity” in the publishing process.

Alexander assembled a creative team built almost entirely of Native American creators from several tribes, and although several friends and colleagues offered to publish the game, she wanted a publisher with Native American leadership. When that search proved fruitless, Alexander decided to self-publish. Coyote & Crow Games was born, and Coyote & Crow: The Roleplaying Game took to Kickstarter, a crowd-funding platform, where she hoped to source startup funding from Native Americans who enjoy tabletop role-playing games.

“I drew the line at writers. I'm like, "I'm not having any non-Native writers on this project,"” Alexander said.

Alexander set what she felt was a reasonable goal of $18,000, hoping for “maybe 300 people to back the project.” 

But the response didn’t quite match Alexander’s expectations, in the best way. In just 45 minutes, the Kickstarter was fully funded, and by the end of their 30-day campaign, the new company had raised a whopping $1,073,453 from 16,269 backers, far outstripping any expectation of the creative team. 

“I think I set my bar so low,” Alexander said.

Since its launch, Coyote & Crow: The Roleplaying Game has earned multiple awards and nominations, including the 2022 Origins Award, two Dicebreaker Tabletop Awards, the 2023 Diana Jones Award for Excellence in Gaming and a Nebula Award nomination for Best Game Writing.

In addition to Stories of the Free Lands, Coyote & Crow Games has released other gameplay material, including the expansion Ahu Tiiko.

Although created and published by Native Americans, Alexander stressed that Coyote & Crow is for everyone.

“We want to see them represented on the page, we want them to recognize themselves on these pages. But we also want non-Natives to feel welcome, like, this is not exclusionary,” Alexander said.

Its success also helped demonstrate the demand for Indigenous storytelling in tabletop gaming. Now, Alexander is helping bring another Indigenous-inspired fantasy world to life- an upcoming collaboration with science fiction author Rebecca Roanhorse, who is of Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo descent. 

Between Earth & Sky: The Roleplaying Game will be based on Roanhorse’s novels Black Sun, Fevered Star and Mirrored Heavens.

“I managed to introduce Rebecca Roanhorse, and a company called, Monte Cook Games, to each other. And they agreed on a license for the role-playing game, and then both of them came back and said, "We'd love you to work on the game,"” Alexander said.

The project is currently raising funds through BackerKit, with its crowdfunding campaign set to end on November 13. It has already surpassed its $50,000 goal.

In this new game, players will explore the Meridian, a fantasy world inspired by civilizations of the Americas before European colonization. Players will navigate ancient magic and competing gods as they create their own adventures.

Alexander is part of the game's design team, working with Monte Cook Games senior designer Shanna Germain and other creatives.

Monte Cook Games is now holding an open call for additional artists with American Indigenous ties to help illustrate the Meridian.

Alexander is also developing a companion guide, Crossing the Cultural Divide: Gaming in a Culture Other Than Your Own.

Can’t wait for the upcoming releases? Thompson is sure to have plenty more TTRPG recommendations during his upcoming panel, “The History and Future of Indigenous Tabletop Games,” from 3 to 4 p.m. Saturday.

SkasdiCon Vol. V takes place November 14, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Chota Center at Cherokee Casino Tahlequah.

More information is available at skasdicon.com.

And for those inspired to discover the world of Coyote & Crow, gather your party, stock up on snacks and roll for initiative!

This story was developed through StoryKeepers, a Crosswinds News program dedicated to sharing community stories, cultural knowledge, lived experiences, and important issues impacting Native communities.