News Roundup: Neopets, Baldur's Gate and Wrestling Belts

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This week, I’m covering a hodge podge of topics. I took a closer look at why people are talking about the Neopets TTRPG. HBO announced plans for a Baldur’s Gate television show. Finally, I interviewed a company that manufactures D&D-themed wrestling belts.

Geekify’s Neopets TTRPG Beta Draft Slammed by Designers for Looking Too Much Like D&D

This weekend, the TTRPG side of BlueSky exploded in a long conversation about the Neopets tabletop roleplaying game. This project, led by Geekify, aims to adapt the popular web game into a tabletop role-playing game. The original Kickstarter campaign raised over $400,000 in 2024 and was considered a notable success in crowdfunding terms.

Geekify published a beta version of its rules online for public review on February 5, and received a lot of feedback in the days after. The current version of the game appears to be a conversion of Fifth Edition D&D’s rules with some tweaks to stats and language that are designed to capture the unique energy and aesthetic of Neopets. How well that translates into the nostalgic experience Neopets was for many millennials remains to be seen. The game’s “spells”, renamed as powers, include a variety that could quickly be identified as spells listed in the Original Gaming License, WOTC’s document that allows third-party creators to create D&D content without copyright concerns.

The beta set of rules also focuses only on combat. While combat is available on the original Neopets website, most of the content is nonviolent, consisting of minigames and trading. This was a detail that Geekify’s original campaign focused on extensively.

The project attracted significant criticism from independent designers on BlueSky, who noted that the beta rules’ focus on combat and D&D mechanics covers only a small part of what people did on Neopets and ignores other elements at play.

That combat/adventuring aesthetic appears to be core to the game, based on remarks from Geekify’s development team.

“I think anyone coming into this expecting [the Neopets TTRPG] to be an exclusive mirror of performing dailies on the site is going to be a bit disappointed,” wrote Herdy, who claims¹ to be one of Geekify’s game developers. “ We've been very clear from the offset that this has been designed from day one to be set within the 'lore' world of Neopets where the Neopets are people and not animals owned by humans. The campaign book is an adaptation of the Faeries Ruin plot. I cannot imagine a way you could build a campaign around Faerieland falling and an invasion of monsters where the significant gameplay is exclusively fishing and picking berries. That is not to say that you cannot do those things - the campaign book's drafts include mechanics for the Deserted Fairground's games, for example. But sometimes people fight in Neopia and as a beta test, we need to know if the mechanics we've come up with work around tables in the wild.”

Geekify’s team stated early in their comments (according to Rascal News) that the original plan was to build it with Fifth Edition in mind, but the events of the 2023 OGL controversy led them to adapt it into their own system. However, the current design still screams Fifth Edition and will likely continue to do so,based on the responses we’re seeing from the team on the Discord.

We’ll see if the game will change in any meaningful way going forward, as the company’s team has expressed in the playtest beta Discord that they’re going to take the feedback. It’s unclear when the company intends to fulfill the project.

Neopets was originally created in 1999 as a browser-based platform centered on collecting and caring for digital pets called “Neopets” through games and other activities. As the site expanded, it became a complex website in its own right with its own community. economy and black market. The IP has been adapted into various video games and physical products, though its popularity has since declined. The site remains active and attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors, according to its current owners.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Gets TV Adaptation by Last of Us Co-Creator

Baldur’s Gate 3, arguably the best adaptation of D&D to video game format and perhaps one of the best video games of all time, is being considered for an adaptation into television format, according to a new report from Deadline.

Craig Mazin, the co-creator of HBO’s The Last of Us is developing his adaptation of Baldur’s Gate, with Mazin holding attached to create, write, executive produce and showrun the TV adaptation. The story will continue the narrative, exploring the world after the events of the third game and the mind flayers' work.

“After putting nearly 1000 hours into the incredible world of Baldur’s Gate 3, it is a dream come true to be able to continue the story that Larian and Wizards of The Coast created,” Mazin said. “I am a devoted fan of D&D and the brilliant way that Swen Vincke and his gifted team adapted it. I can’t wait to help bring Baldur’s Gate and all of its incredible characters to life with as much respect and love as we can, and I’m deeply grateful to Gabe Marano and his team at Hasbro for entrusting me with this incredibly important property.”

The show hopes to bring the original cast of performers back, but also intends to work without the game’s developers, Larian Studios, and their input.

The response to this has been mixed, to put it lightly. While I know some folks are eager to see more done with Baldur’s Gate 3 as a whole, I also know that some are not excited about Mazin’s involvement or the lack of involvement of Larian (who many consider to be why the game works as well as it does.)

The project is being created at the same time as Shawn Levy’s Forgotten Realms show that Netflix is developing, although we have not heard much about that project’s status since. The two are intended to co-exist, however.

The project will likely not come to fruition for several years, so keep your eyes out.

It’s ZINE MONTH. Tons of indie developers are releasing small projects at this time for crowdfunding on Backerkit and Kickstarter. We’re talking more than 80 projects in total, with many only seeking $1,000 or less in funding to succeed. I strongly urge you to check out BackerKit’s Zinetopia listing or Kickstarter’s Zine Quest and see if there’s anything that excites you. These are just great opportunities to support up-and-coming creators or maybe try your own hand at indie games yourself.

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1  I was able to find accounts with similar usernames on the Geekify Discord and on Twitter, as well as plenty of posts from this account talking about the process.