MonarcWriter 2025 Highlights / 2026 Plans
A look back at highlights from 2025, and thoughts on what’s to come for MonarcWriter in 2026!
It is the start of a new year, and although a little late, I wanted to offer a bit of a 2025 Year-In-Review for MonarcWriter Storytelling Games, while also offering a peek at what I will be focusing on in the new year!
2025 Year-In-Review
Completed Projects
A Dream of Thorns and Roses: My coloring and map-making game based on Sleeping Beauty was released as part of DriveThruRPG’s PocketQuest game jam. I am proud of the design and system for this game, but it also is my first time using my own hand-drawn art to create content for my games!
Neverending Nights: This expansion to Thorns and Roses was released for free alongside the print-on-demand version of the game. It collects all the extra content that was used to expand the physical book beyond the original PocketQuest page-limit.
A Butterfly Story: I released a print version of my free Story & Color game about developing the story of a character’s transformative journey using pictures of the butterfly life cycle. The physical book has proven popular, and has become my go-to “gift” to show others my game design style and philosophy.
The Sorcerer’s Slam Book: An anthology of encounters for the Strixhaven setting, this is the largest game project I have put together (over 100 pages)! I recruited 9 designers to expand the relationship-system introduced in Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos into a series of social encounters for the NPCs in the original books, with developing storylines for all 18 characters depending on whether players build positive or negative relationships with them. I am incredibly proud of the book and the both whimsical and moving stories the team came up with for these charming characters.
Tabletop Simulator adaptations: I had already published card decks for Vanity: Glass & Stone and G.E.M.S., so this year I decided to try my hand at transferring those decks into Tabletop Simulator. The process was fun and much simpler than I expected, and allowed me to make my games available on yet another platform.
In Person Events
I set-up a vendor table at two in-person events this past year, and both were fun experiences. I attended ComicVerse Con in February, where I got to sell my games at the location of the very first comic book convention I ever attended as a kid. Then, in July, I participated in an Author’s Fair at my favorite local bookstore: A Seat At The Table Books. Despite the small venue and limited time, I actually had my best number of sales for an in-person event, plus I got to meet some very cool authors and even another game designer!
Distribution
Indie Press Revolution: I signed up as a publisher with Indie Press Revolution this year, and began selling three of my games through them: Into the Starlit Sky, Vanity: Glass & Stone, and G.E.M.S. It has been such an amazing experience! IPR sells the books via their online store, markets to game stores and libraries, and even sells the books in-person at conventions. Over the course of the year, each of my games has sold out and been restocked! It has led to some big milestones for me, including my favorite LGS from my college days selling Into the Starlit Sky and featuring it in their newsletter, and seeing my books be sold at Gen-Con!
ALA International Games Month: I signed up as a sponsor for the American Library Association’s gaming event this year, and ended up sending copies of Good Nature and A Butterfly Story to multiple libraries across the country for use in their Game Day events. I love libraries, and being able to help their events while also getting my games into their distribution and rotations was awesome!
Newsletter
I published 21 posts for the MonarcWriter newsletter this year, trying to keep to a release of at least once a month, with an average of a post every two weeks. The most popular newsletters in 2025? Reviews! Both the PocketQuest series and Baldur’s Gate Jam series of reviews got the most views, almost double that of any of my other posts!
Looking Ahead At 2026
Upcoming Projects
A Name For Nobody: I committed to completing this project in the fall as part of my fundraising efforts for Feed America. It’s an exploration, bargaining, and spelling game inspired by fairytales and children’s fantasy films, designed around the Carta system. The writing is finished and layout is progressing on the book and deck of cards. This project should be ready in the next few weeks!
The Strongest Suit: A project I’ve been slowly developing over the last year or so, this one combines my love of Superhero comic books with my love of fashion. I intend to use the Lost & Found SRD by Mousehole Press to design a sketch journaling game about the legacy of a superhero identity. Gameplay will have players designing and modifying a costume as they tell the story of its owner and the successors to the mantle.
VanRichten’s Case Files Vol. 3: Hellish Hunters: I still have two volumes left to complete for my Ravenloft series of villains. This year, I intend to complete the third book, which will focus on two monster archetypes: the Fiend/Demon and the Vampire.
“Stickers”: I was gifted a sticker printer over the holidays, and me and my kid are obsessed with making stickers! I want to see if I can develop a game that uses stickers as its primary mechanic. I’m currently looking over Cassi Mothwin’s The Sticker Game to see what has already been done in the TTRPG design space with this idea.
MonarcWriter Newsletter
I intend to continue with the newsletter this year as well, and am committing to at least one new post every month (with hopefully 2 more frequently). Game Jam and bundle reviews seem to be popular, so I will be on the lookout for more of these events to cover and highlight new creations. As always, if you would like something you have made to be reviewed, fill out the interest form and I will do my best to write-up some thoughts on your product in an upcoming newsletter!
I will also continue with Design Diaries for my games, and maybe the occasional tutorial or guide on how I create specific components of my games.
Share your own highlights from the past year or what you are looking forward to in 2026 in the comments!