This is the latest in a series of interviews of our EN World Columnists. In this installment I interview one of our most prolific and longest-tenured writers, Egg Embry!
Michael Tresca (MT): Tell us a little about who you are and what you do.
Egg Embry (EGG): Forgive the pretentiousness, but I see my articles and social media as platforms to spread the word about tabletop roleplaying games. Encouraging gamers to explore new TTRPGs as they debut via crowdfunding campaigns, attend new conventions, try out new gaming stores, and to learn more about the creators and their designs, it’s what I’m drawn to examine in tabletop. At EN World, I’m the TTRPG crowdfunding tracker; my weekly column, RPG Crowdfunding News, spotlights active campaigns that speak to me as a gamer and a consumer. In addition, I conduct the majority of the interviews on EN World; the full range of my EN World articles can be found here. Beyond EN World, I’ve written for Knights of the Dinner Table, Geek Native, Around the Table (GAMA’s magazine), and many other TTRPG news sites. In the middle of 2024, I’ll debut a new column at EN World discussing TTRPG design and production with a variety of creators, picking their brains for artistic tips and innovative manufacturing options. Beyond journalism, I’m designing an OSR through Egg Embry Publishing. Expect B/X mechanics set in the [then contemporary] 1970s. This goes without saying, but like everyone that logs onto EN World, I love tabletop roleplaying games. To every gamer that swings by the website or plays any TTRPG, may your rolls always be NAT 20s.
MT: What's next for your column?
EGG: More crowdfunding reviews. The annual TTRPG crowdfunding calendar looks like this: The January reset as we return from the holidays. February's Zine Month / Zine Quest when the number of TTRPG crowdfunding campaigns blows up. Throughout the month, I get multiple requests per day for coverage, only a fraction of which I can share in my column. The Gen Con drought in summer as publishers and fans focus on the convention over crowdfunding. The end of year holiday crowdfunding thinning when everyone is with family and putting their funds towards other priorities. The rest of the year, it’s wall-to-wall TTRPG crowdfunding campaigns.
MT: Are there any interviews or product reviews you're looking forward to covering?
EGG: Each year I attend a number of tabletop gaming conventions and game stores East of the Mississippi. For many creators, I’m the only TTRPG journalist they’ll meet face-to-fact. For others, I’m in their email. As a result, I get to cover most every product I want to. As you know, Mike, I get many more review offers than I can handle. The excess I pass on to you to distribute among the rest of the EN World columnists. [Publishers, no matter your size, please keep the press kits, offers for review copies, and news coming in. You never know what is going to click with the different journalists and reviewers, myself included. It never hurts to make the offer.] If there were a product category I’d love to review, it’s one-page pamphlet TTRPGs and adventures. I love pamphlets. One page that defines everything you need to play, brilliant. I’ve written a few pamphlets and want to create more. I’d love to craft a monthly column that shares 3 to 5 one-pagers. What always stops me is the artwork for the article. These pamphlets are only one page, front and back, so how do I share an image of the product without oversharing and giving too much away? I worry it’d feel less like a review and more like unintended piracy. I’ve never been able to envision how to make that work so I’ve never proposed that column. Le sigh. At EN World, there will be more interviews in 2024 and at least a handful of review. For Knights of the Dinner Table, I have a review of Ben Milton/Questing Beast's Knave Second Edition coming out in KotDT 311. It’s a good product and I highly recommend it to fans looking for a streamlined OSR ruleset. That said, in hindsight, for issue 311, I should have reviewed Amber. [Someone will get that beautiful disaster of a joke and realize I’m all mixed up. Yep, I’ll be here awhile.]
MT: What games are you planning to play this year?
EGG: My dieselpunk 5e homebrew, Upon A Steel Horse. We’re close to wrapping the campaign, which is perfect because I’m nearly ready to jump into playtesting my next project, the OSR I alluded to above. This year, I’m focusing on creating and playtesting over running other games. Still, I will not bypass a chance to sling some dice and play other games at Gen Con and elsewhere including a short ALIEN campaign in March.
MT: If your work is published anywhere else, where can we find you?
EGG: I’ve written for many TTRPG news sites. Some I’m current with, others were years ago, but collectively it’s a large body of work.
EGG:
EGG: Since you asked, let me share some dates related to my history with EN World. My first article on EN World was published April 15, 2017. I started out at EN World reviewing all-ages TTRPGs. I have several retired columns such as reviewing third-party Cypher Systems products, third-party Storyteller Vault books, and sharing lists of TTRPG jobs. Over the course of 2024, I’ll write about gaming conventions as well as my annual Free RPG Day roundups and my annual Ennie Award Dream Dates. In addition, there are the interviews I conduct with a variety of TTRPG creators. My first interview article was with EN World's own Mike Myler in 2018. I do what I can to talk to creators about their upcoming projects. What I'm most known for at EN World is taking over the “RPG Crowdfunding News” from Angus Abranson on November 21, 2018. Every week since then, I’ve put together another article promoting projects on Kickstarter, Backerkit, Indiegogo, GameFound, and more. In 2024, I'll reach 300 articles in that column alone, which is something I’m proud of. If you’re a fan of TTRPGs and you join us here at EN World or any online TTRPG gathering, thank you. I love talking to gamers and publishers, gaining better gaming techniques. Our work – I mean writers, GMs, and players – helps to spread these great games far and wide. Thanks for letting me participate and be a part of the gaming community. Thanks to you, the readers, to EN World and EN Publishing, my editor, Mike, and my fellow TTRPG journalists.
Michael Tresca (MT): Tell us a little about who you are and what you do.
Egg Embry (EGG): Forgive the pretentiousness, but I see my articles and social media as platforms to spread the word about tabletop roleplaying games. Encouraging gamers to explore new TTRPGs as they debut via crowdfunding campaigns, attend new conventions, try out new gaming stores, and to learn more about the creators and their designs, it’s what I’m drawn to examine in tabletop. At EN World, I’m the TTRPG crowdfunding tracker; my weekly column, RPG Crowdfunding News, spotlights active campaigns that speak to me as a gamer and a consumer. In addition, I conduct the majority of the interviews on EN World; the full range of my EN World articles can be found here. Beyond EN World, I’ve written for Knights of the Dinner Table, Geek Native, Around the Table (GAMA’s magazine), and many other TTRPG news sites. In the middle of 2024, I’ll debut a new column at EN World discussing TTRPG design and production with a variety of creators, picking their brains for artistic tips and innovative manufacturing options. Beyond journalism, I’m designing an OSR through Egg Embry Publishing. Expect B/X mechanics set in the [then contemporary] 1970s. This goes without saying, but like everyone that logs onto EN World, I love tabletop roleplaying games. To every gamer that swings by the website or plays any TTRPG, may your rolls always be NAT 20s.
MT: What's next for your column?
EGG: More crowdfunding reviews. The annual TTRPG crowdfunding calendar looks like this: The January reset as we return from the holidays. February's Zine Month / Zine Quest when the number of TTRPG crowdfunding campaigns blows up. Throughout the month, I get multiple requests per day for coverage, only a fraction of which I can share in my column. The Gen Con drought in summer as publishers and fans focus on the convention over crowdfunding. The end of year holiday crowdfunding thinning when everyone is with family and putting their funds towards other priorities. The rest of the year, it’s wall-to-wall TTRPG crowdfunding campaigns.
MT: Are there any interviews or product reviews you're looking forward to covering?
EGG: Each year I attend a number of tabletop gaming conventions and game stores East of the Mississippi. For many creators, I’m the only TTRPG journalist they’ll meet face-to-fact. For others, I’m in their email. As a result, I get to cover most every product I want to. As you know, Mike, I get many more review offers than I can handle. The excess I pass on to you to distribute among the rest of the EN World columnists. [Publishers, no matter your size, please keep the press kits, offers for review copies, and news coming in. You never know what is going to click with the different journalists and reviewers, myself included. It never hurts to make the offer.] If there were a product category I’d love to review, it’s one-page pamphlet TTRPGs and adventures. I love pamphlets. One page that defines everything you need to play, brilliant. I’ve written a few pamphlets and want to create more. I’d love to craft a monthly column that shares 3 to 5 one-pagers. What always stops me is the artwork for the article. These pamphlets are only one page, front and back, so how do I share an image of the product without oversharing and giving too much away? I worry it’d feel less like a review and more like unintended piracy. I’ve never been able to envision how to make that work so I’ve never proposed that column. Le sigh. At EN World, there will be more interviews in 2024 and at least a handful of review. For Knights of the Dinner Table, I have a review of Ben Milton/Questing Beast's Knave Second Edition coming out in KotDT 311. It’s a good product and I highly recommend it to fans looking for a streamlined OSR ruleset. That said, in hindsight, for issue 311, I should have reviewed Amber. [Someone will get that beautiful disaster of a joke and realize I’m all mixed up. Yep, I’ll be here awhile.]
MT: What games are you planning to play this year?
EGG: My dieselpunk 5e homebrew, Upon A Steel Horse. We’re close to wrapping the campaign, which is perfect because I’m nearly ready to jump into playtesting my next project, the OSR I alluded to above. This year, I’m focusing on creating and playtesting over running other games. Still, I will not bypass a chance to sling some dice and play other games at Gen Con and elsewhere including a short ALIEN campaign in March.
MT: If your work is published anywhere else, where can we find you?
EGG: I’ve written for many TTRPG news sites. Some I’m current with, others were years ago, but collectively it’s a large body of work.
- EN World which includes RPG News
- Geek Native
- Open Gaming Network
- d20 Radio
- Tessera Guild
- Knights of the Dinner Table (Kenzer & Co)
- Around the Table (GAMA)
- High Level Games
- 5e blogging at Ghostfire Gaming
EGG:
- Facebook - Log into Facebook
- X (Twitter) - https://twitter.com/EggEmbry
- Blue Sky - Egg Embry (@eggembry.bsky.social)
- Mastodon - Egg Embry (@EggEmbry@dice.camp)
- LinkTree - Egg Embry, TTRPG Journalist | Twitter, Instagram, Facebook | Linktree
EGG: Since you asked, let me share some dates related to my history with EN World. My first article on EN World was published April 15, 2017. I started out at EN World reviewing all-ages TTRPGs. I have several retired columns such as reviewing third-party Cypher Systems products, third-party Storyteller Vault books, and sharing lists of TTRPG jobs. Over the course of 2024, I’ll write about gaming conventions as well as my annual Free RPG Day roundups and my annual Ennie Award Dream Dates. In addition, there are the interviews I conduct with a variety of TTRPG creators. My first interview article was with EN World's own Mike Myler in 2018. I do what I can to talk to creators about their upcoming projects. What I'm most known for at EN World is taking over the “RPG Crowdfunding News” from Angus Abranson on November 21, 2018. Every week since then, I’ve put together another article promoting projects on Kickstarter, Backerkit, Indiegogo, GameFound, and more. In 2024, I'll reach 300 articles in that column alone, which is something I’m proud of. If you’re a fan of TTRPGs and you join us here at EN World or any online TTRPG gathering, thank you. I love talking to gamers and publishers, gaining better gaming techniques. Our work – I mean writers, GMs, and players – helps to spread these great games far and wide. Thanks for letting me participate and be a part of the gaming community. Thanks to you, the readers, to EN World and EN Publishing, my editor, Mike, and my fellow TTRPG journalists.
