News Roundup: Tomb Raider Loses Its Evil Hat

In this week’s roundup of top TTRPG stories, Evil Hat ended its partnership with the publisher of Tomb Raider. The Diana Jones Awards also announced its finalists and included two major news sources; a big win for TTRPG news as a whole.

Evil Hat Cancels Tomb Raider TTRPG

Evil Hat, the publisher behind Monster of the Week and Blades in the Dark, announced on Friday that it was cancelling its TTRPG adaptation of Tomb Raider.

Tomb Raider: Shadows of Truth was initially announced in February 2024 and was built using rules from Powered by the Apocalypse and Blades in the Dark. The book was going to be led by Rae Nedjadi (designer of Apocalypse Keys) and include Evil Hat founder Fred Hicks, Sean Nittner, sensitivity consultant Pan Punzalan, as well as author and game designer April Kit Walsh (Thirsty Sword Lesbians). The project started playtests around March 2024 but went quiet afterward until now.

Evil Hat said in a BlueSky post that the Evil Hat and Crystal Dynamics teams split apart because of “creative differences.”

The source of the philosophical split has not been disclosed, although some have speculated that the game’s approach to a revised version of Lara Croft could be involved.

"Raiding, as depicted in the original Tomb Raider games and stories, involves going to ancient tombs and historical sites of different civilisations and acquiring artifacts. It operates on the assumption of 'finders keepers' that grants raiders with the means and the drive to claim ownership of artifacts, regardless of whether they have any historical or cultural claim to the treasure,” one part of the playtest stated, based on clips posted to social media. The clip reflects the critical approach that Evil Hat took toward Tomb Raider and her legacy of of raiding tombs and how Crystal Dynamics was trying to think differently about the story.

That clip also went viral and earned flak from the far-right/anti-woke crowd, who decried it as evidence of how progressive game devs were ruining the franchise.

The playtests presented a critical approach to Croft’s legacy of tomb raiding, but they were not necessarily a new development for the IP. The 2013 trilogy of Tomb Raider shifted away from raiding tombs for its own sake toward a character-driven narrative focused on Croft’s growth as a hero. While we don’t have many insights into how Crystal Dynamics and Evil Hat’s conversations went, it seems unlikely this was the dividing difference in opinion.

So what’s next? The game has been in the works for a while, and Evil Hat intends to publish it in some form. We will likely see a version of the game without Lara Croft or Crystal Dynamics’ input in the future. The project was scheduled to be funded through Kickstarter in 2025, but I expect the revisions may delay that campaign until 2026.

Enjoy TTRPG Insider? Make sure you subscribe and share this with fans. The more readers means the more coverage we can do. And it’s free to subscribe! We publish three times a week.

TTRPG News Leads Diana Jones Awards

If you’re unfamiliar, the Diana Jones Awards are an annual set of awards recognizing “excellence in gaming,” from designers to influencers. It even named the concept of “Actual Play” the winner in 2018. It’s a very different approach to awards compared to the CRIT Awards or the Ennies.

This year’s list includes:

• Daybreak, a board game about climate change.

• Rascal News, the independent tabletop news website.

• Charlie Hall, former tabletop editor from Polygon

• Rose Estes, the author of the Endless Quest series

Two journalists on the list are a big win for TTRPG news. I’m super excited for Rascal and Hall. Hopefull,y it will help them get more support (and help smaller outlets like TTRPG Insider get more attention.)

The results are scheduled to be revealed at GenCon on July 30. I hope to be there, so let me know if you attend.

In case you missed our earlier coverage:

Saturday is Free RPG Day! If you have not visited your store to get free quickstarts and adventures, make sure you do so! Also buy games. FLGSes need your money and now is a perfect time, especially since Free RPG Day content comes out of the store’s pocket.

Wizards of the Coast owner Hasbro confirmed that it laid off 3% of its workforce. This includes DnD franchise VP Jess Lanzillo and video creator Todd Kenreck.

Monte Cook, the developer of Cypher, is updating its ruleset through a new version funded by an upcoming Backerkit campaign. Cypher is used by many games, from The Magnus Archives to Old Gods of Appalachia. So, this will be a core system that will make Cypher “faster” and “better,” but still be compatible with many of the company's published books.

Mausritter, a rodent-themed Redwall-esque fantasy adventure released its rules in SRD form, which means other creators can create Mausritter content! That includes creating books for Mausritter Month, a new indie TTRPG event hosted by Backerkit this November.

Dark Horse Comics is getting into D&D comics with The Fallbacks. The company has done Critical Role content, so D&D and high fantasy are very normal for them. But this will be a 4-issue series of adventures set in Loudwater about four adventurers facing against kobolds and thieves.

What’s it like to play in an actual play of Call of Cthulhu? Rob Wieland talked to VAs Mark Meer (Mass Effect) and Samantha Beart (Baldur’s Gate) about the experience.

Did we miss a story? Have a scoop you want to sharE? Send any tips or emails at [email protected].