Alex Roberts is a Canadian
tabletop role-playing game designer. Her games typically lack a
gamemaster (GM) and include romantic themes.
Career
Roberts was the host of the role-playing games podcast "Backstory" on the
One Shot Podcast Network from 2016 to 2019.
Roberts made ''
Star Crossed'', published by
Bully Pulpit Games in 2019, a game about forbidden romantic pairings;
it was funded via a
Kickstarter
Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...
campaign. The game won the 2019
Diana Jones Award.
The use of a
Jenga tower as a game mechanic to heighten tension was inspired by the horror role-playing game ''
Dread''.
She designed ''For the Queen'', published by
Evil Hat Productions in 2019, a GM-less storytelling card game that initiated the genre of games called "Descended from the Queen."
Brittany N. Arde at the
University of Cincinnati used Roberts' ''For the Queen'' in a psychological study on the influence of storytelling games on team building. Emily St. James, for ''
Vox'', stated in 2020 that "Roberts is one of the RPG creators whose work most excites me right now, and ''For the Queen'' is her best game";
in 2022, she called Roberts "one of the best RPG designers working right now".
She created the two player
play-by-post
A play-by-post role-playing game (or sim) is an online text-based role-playing game in which players interact with each other and a predefined environment via text. It is a subset of the online role-playing community which caters to both gamers ...
game ''Our Time on Earth'' in 2021.
Roberts also did design work for ''Till the Last Gasp'' (2023), a 2-player dueling game published by ''
Critical Roles imprint
Darrington Press.
Linda Codega, for ''
Io9'' described ''Till the Last Gasp'' as a blend of
Will Hindmarch's tactical, mathematical design approach with Alex Roberts' "established" experience "designing immersive two-player games".
Personal life
Roberts is working towards finishing "a master's degree in counseling".
Works
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roberts, Alex
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
Date of birth missing (living people)
Canadian game designers
Board game award winners
LGBT-related tabletop games