Thirsty Sword Lesbians Wins Nebula Award for Best Game Writing

Thirsty Sword Lesbians has become the first tabletop game to win the Nebula Award’s “Best Game Writing” award. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America announced the full slate of Nebula Award winners earlier today, which includes the tabletop roleplaying game Thirsty Sword Lesbians, designed by April Kit Walsh. This marks the first time since the Nebula Awards added a game category that a tabletop game has won the award. Previous winners included Hades and The Outer Worlds. 

It almost seemed certain that a tabletop game would win this year’s Nebula Award for Best Game Writing, as almost all the nominees were tabletop games. Other nominees this year include the tabletop games Coyote & Crow, Granma’s Hand and Wanderhome along with the video game Wildermyth. The “Best Game Writing” award was instituted in 2019 and has included two video game winners as well as the “interactive game” Black Mirror: Bandersnatch.

Thirsty Sword Lesbians is published by Evil Hat Productions, the maker of the Dresden Files Roleplaying Game and Blades in the Dark. Thirsty Sword Lesbians uses the Powered by the Apocalypse game engine and focuses on “angsty disaster lesbians with swords” with a swordfight just as likely to end with kissing as it is in injury. Players pick a different character type, each with a different kind of emotional conflict. Thirsty Sword Lesbians also supports a variety of different settings, ranging from cyberpunk, steampunk, to classic fantasy. An expansion Advanced Lovers & Lesbians was published this year and includes even more character options.

Other designers credited in Thirsty Sword Lesbians includes Whitney Delagio, Dominique Dickey, Jonaya Kemper, Alexis Sara, Rae Nedjadi. You can purchase a copy of Thirsty Sword Lesbians from Evil Hat Productions’ website. 

The full list of Nebula Award winners can be found here. Congratulations to all the winners.