We’re into March and therefore picking our April Spotlight honouree! In this post, our Patrons get to vote for a publisher that the blog and podcast will promote.
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This month we offer thanks to; Sean P Kelley, Philippe Marcil, Adept Icarus, Noril of Cold River, R Waibel, Allen Varney, Kate, Paul Wilson, and Heike.
Geek Native’s Patreons have voted Open Sesame Games the honouree for March. You can see previous honourees on the Spotlight page.
If you’re a patron, you can vote in this month’s private poll.
The five candidates for next month’s RPG Publisher Spotlight are:
Stories in Stories
The French-American tabletop publisher Open Sesame Games has officially been voted the winner of Geek Native’s March 2026 RPG Publisher Spotlight.
The studio’s very namesake, the magical phrase “Open Sesame,” holds a unique place in literary history as a prime example of a frame narrative – a story within a story. The tale of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves was not originally a standalone adventure, but rather a desperate, cliffhanger-laden narrative spun by Scheherazade within the overarching epic of One Thousand and One Nights. This structural technique of nesting one reality inside another is a familiar concept to any group sitting around a table playing roleplaying games, where the players themselves act as the framing device for their characters’ adventures.
Beyond Scheherazade’s life-saving storytelling, the frame narrative has long been a foundational tool in geek culture and gothic literature. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, for instance, is entirely constructed of layered accounts. The reader experiences the chilling sci-fi tragedy through the letters of Arctic explorer Captain Robert Walton, who is merely transcribing the frantic confessions of Victor Frankenstein, who in turn recounts the experiences of his monstrous creation. For tabletop gamers, this nested epistolary structure is the exact framework that fuels the booming genre of solo journaling games and immersive, prop-heavy horror campaigns.
Similarly, Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow utilises the concept of a fictional, madness-inducing play nestled within a collection of short stories. This specific literary device was so effective at blurring the lines of reality that it became a cornerstone of cosmic horror, directly inspiring decades of investigation modules where players must uncover cursed, world-ending media. On a much lighter end of the spectrum, William Goldman’s The Princess Bride presents a grandfather reading a book to his sick grandson. The constant interruptions and selective skipping of “the boring parts” perfectly mirror the collaborative, editorial dynamic between a Game Master pacing a session and players eager to get straight to the action.
To cast your vote for next month’s indie tabletop creators and help generate media coverage for growing studios, you can join the Geek Citizen tier on the Geek Native Patreon.
