News Roundup: One Shot Questers' Pivot Away from D&D

Welcome to TTRPG Insider’s weekly roundup! This week, we examine why one of the most popular TTRPG YouTube creators is stepping away from the game. We also have a significant leadership shuffle at Chaosium and new release dates for the latest World of Darkness books following the return of White Wolf.

In This Edition

• One Last Shot for the One Shot Questers

• A Lovecraftian Leadership Turnover at Chaosium

• Renegade Walks a Moonlit Path to the World of Dark …

• In Other News

One Last Shot for the One Shot Questers

Duke Davis, the man behind the YouTube channel One Shot Questers, has stepped away from making D&D-centric content.

What inspired Davis to make this call? Many facets.

He noted how he had started making different kinds of content, but nothing remained consistent. He claims that “D&D was the main reason I lost my grip on the channel, my role and my enjoyment.” While he enjoyed making the content between 2020 and 2022, the 2023 OGL fiasco killed the vibe for him. He began to get “rude” and “threatening” comments whenever he published content related to D&D. He also faced a lot of pressure from others to promote other TTRPGs (a choice that “shoved him further away”, Davis claimed.

But he didn’t feel his separation from the hobby until the second half of 2024 when the new ruleset was released.

“I saw all my content creator friends getting opportunities, early access and invites to special events for the new release. Meanwhile, I got nothing. I went to GenCon and found out many creators had access to exclusive events and free materials. I had to buy [the books] all myself. I wasn’t invited. And I was bitter.”

All of these factors killed the amount of fun he was having with D&D content.

“The passion and love for creating content around D&D and TTRPGs was gone before I even knew it,” Davis noted.

Davis eventually returned to his roots as a sketch comedian and found that he really enjoyed playing his characters and that his desire to “chase the algorithm" led to him playing the characters he enjoyed less and less. Now he intends to return to his old characters (such as the paladin with the oath of “throwing it back.”)

So what happens next? Fans should expect One Shot Questers to focus more on sketch comedy videos around his characters rather than chasing D&D algorithms.

TTRPG Insider did not receive a response to a request for comment from Davis or his talent agency.

Davis’ story stood out to me because he’s one of those faces I consider a standout among the creator scene. He has over 800,000 YouTube subscribers and a million TikTok followers, making him one of the biggest independent D&D creators in the market.

It’s also a story that shows the state of D&D media online. Content creation remains an art where you’re forced to chase either SEO clout or the algorithm of websites like YouTube and TikTok. That can stifle creativity and limit one’s uniqueness. It’s why a lot of creators are forced to only make D&D-related content, even if they have more love for stuff like Pathfinder or Shadowdark.

Hopefully this pivot brings Davis more joy in the days to come.

A Lovecraftian Leadership Turnover at Chaosium

On Friday, Call of Cthulhu publisher Chaosium unveiled a few big changes to its internal leadership, including appointing its first CEO.

Chaosium co-owner and chief operating officer Neil Robinson is stepping up to become CEO, which means he will be more of a figurehead and manage all of the publisher’s operations.

There were several other changes in the company’s leadership.

• Marketing director Brian Holland will now act as game executive producer, where he will “lead in the creation, implementation, and management of strategies to grow the company's current and future tabletop roleplaying game lines.” Holland will take over the role held by former 5e designer Mike Mearls.

• ENnie-award-winning designer Jason Durall is now working on expanding Basic Roleplaying, Chaosium’s universal RPG engine, which is trying to expand more in the coming days. Durall previously did much work around Runequest, Chaosium’s Bronze Age-themed fantasy series.

• Chaosium VP Michael O’Brian will now act as producer for all future Runequest products.

• Board game designer Maciej Górkowski will now serve as production manager for the company’s board games and other projects.

• Bridgett Jeffries, a former CoC scenario author, will now act as community manager.

• Dan Zappone, a former web designer, is stepping up as assistant editor and graphic designer at Chaosium.

What does this mean for fans? I suspect very little beyond internal reorganization. Robinson isn’t a new name for Chaosium fans and has worked with Chaosium for nine years. Fans shouldn’t expect any profound changes to the company in the future. However, the appointment of the first CEO during the company's fiftieth anniversary does seem like a milestone. I’ll be eager to see what his appointment will mean for the company going forward.

News roundups and journalism like this require your help and support. Sharing this newsletter with others goes a long way. Subscribing goes even further.

Renegade Walks a Moonlit Path to the World of Darkness

Renegade Game Studios, the publisher behind the World of Darkness, GI Joe, My Little Pony and Transformers TTRPGs hosted its bi-annual Renegade Con, where it previewed some of the new content that it has prepared for the second half of 2025. The announcement drew my attention in particular since any new World of Darkness books (Vampire the Masquerade, Werewolf the Apocalypse, Hunter the Reckoning) arrive in the wake of White Wolf’s return.

Thankfully, RPG fans had a lot of books to get excited about.

• Transformers fans will now have the Transformers One sourcebook, which will let fans of the Autobots and Decepticons explore the lore around the Cybertronian civil war that originated with the 2024 animated film.

• Hunter the Reckoning fans will have a new set of hunts presented to them through Incognito Report, a collection of hunts organized by “Cog.” It’s a book heavily inspired by urban legends and conspiracy theories

• Wyrmtide is a new bestiary for Werewolf the Apocalypse fans who are eager to deal with both spiritual and mortal foes.

• This will be followed by The Moonlit Path, which is a new supplemental book that touches on the spiritual side of the werewolves and Garou, including new gifts and rites to include.

• Vampire the Masquerade fans will get Tattered Facade, a new book designed to help bring out the horror elements of VTM and bring some flavor. Want some Cthulhu-esque horror in your vampire game? This book can help.

• Kids in Capes, the superhero variant of Kids on Bikes, is also coming out here soon.

• Finally was Hawk’s Personnel Files, a book filled with iconic statblocks for GI Joe characters as well as new tools for character creation.

This brings the total number of World of Darkness books in 2025 to six, since VTM’s In Memoriam and HTR’s Apostates also release this month.

In Other News

D&D prepares to celebrate the International Day of Play on June 11 by publishing Borderlands Quest: Goblin Trouble, a free level one adventure with adventurers hunting down bandits who stole a magical bowl.

The UK Game Expo, one of England’s biggest gaming conventions, broke records with its attendance in 2025, according to the event’s director.

Giant Skull, a game developer led by one of the men involved with Star Wars: Fallen Order and Jedi Survivor, has been hired to make a D&D game. What kind of game? It’s unclear, but a lot of people are excited about what GS founder Stig Asmussen will bring to the table.

The CRIT Awards, a series of online awards recognizing creators in the TTRPG space, released its list of finalists for the second round of voting. While the CRIT Awards aren’t as important as the Ennies, it’s noteworthy because it recognizes the lesser-known creators in the space as well as the artists, actual play performers, and YouTube creators in the space. The results of that vote will be revealed closer to GenCon.

And that is all for this week! Next week, we’ll have a double feature of Chaosium interviews on the radar

Are there any stories we might have missed? Anything we should be keeping an eye out for in the coming days? Let us know!