Every month, the Geek Native’s Patreon community votes for an independent tabletop publisher to step into the spotlight. You chose Open Sesame Games, a French-American studio founded by industry veterans with a mission to bring rich, original European universes to an international audience.
Typically, this feature centres around a deep-dive interview with the creators. We reached out to the Open Sesame Games team, but managing a cross-border publishing house currently in the thick of fulfilling massive Kickstarter campaigns is an all-consuming task. As an international team bridging time zones and wrangling global logistics, their silence is completely understandable and a common reality of modern indie publishing. While we wait for their schedule to clear, we can still explore the fascinating tabletop roleplaying worlds they are championing.
Bridging the Language Barrier
The core mission of Open Sesame Games is an ambitious one: acting as a bridge between the vibrant French roleplaying scene and the global market. The French tabletop industry produces some of the most mechanically innovative and narratively dense games in Europe, but language barriers often keep these gems hidden from wider audiences.
By translating established French lines and committing to publishing original creations internationally, the studio serves a vital cultural function in the hobby. They are not simply translating words; they are localising entirely distinct design philosophies across multiple genres.
A Catalogue of Diverse Worlds
While their recent board game successes often grab the headlines, the studio’s roleplaying game catalogue is remarkably deep and varied, showcasing a willingness to explore very different tones and mechanics.
The crown jewel of their current translated lineup is Ecryme. Set in a bleak, dystopian Victorian era, the game presents a world completely submerged by a highly corrosive, acidic substance known as the ecryme. Humanity clings to survival on towering, overcrowded industrial outcroppings of stone and steel, connected only by gigantic, sprawling bridges known as traverses. Adapted from the novels of French author Mathieu Gaborit, the setting leans heavily into narrative and mood. Ecryme runs on a lightweight 2d6 system designed specifically to favour skill investment and character ambition over pure luck.
If grim steampunk is not to your taste, the studio also publishes Metal Adventures, a space opera RPG where players take on the role of heroic space pirates fighting back against a totalitarian galactic empire. It offers fast-paced, cinematic action for those who want to live by “iron and blood” among the stars.
For history buffs, the publisher is responsible for the legendary Te Deum pour un massacre. This highly acclaimed, gritty historical RPG plunges players into 16th-century France during the brutal Wars of Religion. It is a game of political intrigue, duels, and survival during events like the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre, known for its meticulous historical accuracy.
The team also supports original creations like Les Chants de Loss, a “Da Vinci punk” Renaissance fantasy world created by Axelle Psychée Bouet, and is actively developing Northgard: The Roleplaying Game. The latter is an official 5E-powered adaptation of the popular Shiro Games video game, focusing on settlement building, exploration, and survival in a dangerous Viking fantasy universe on the brink of Ragnarok.
Open Sesame Games represents the ambitious, interconnected future of tabletop design, proving that good ideas and compelling stories should not be confined by geography or language.
Latest Open Sesame Games Products
You can find Open Sesame Games’ digital releases directly on DriveThruRPG.
