Kat Kruger 🦄

FWIW, we have some cool alternative gaming industry events in Canada!
@xpgaminginc.bsky.social has events in Toronto and Halifax in May and June,
plus MIGS in late 2026.
Also in June is @torontogamesweek.com and Edmonton-based Game Con Canada’s inaugural North American Games Industry Summit.

Boromir from THE LORD OF THE RINGS, holding The One Ring. He thought he could use it for good, but everything done with the ring turns to evil. He was one of the mightiest warriors of middle earth, and he could not resist its powers. Others even mightier fell to the ring. Do you think you are stronger than them? The One Ring is generative AI.

Techbros seem to love Tolkien, so here's an analogy to help you understand what genAI is.

GenAI is The One Ring. You think your use is justified, b/c you don't have evil in your heart.

But it came from evil, it is intended for evil purpose, & anything you do with it will be twisted to that end.

This is the cutest little cutie ever!!! 💚

👀 Your maps are awesome! You did maps for my MCDM hobgoblins right? I feel like that’s the only time we’ve “worked” together (so far).

Coming soon: Big Bads: Most Wanted Crime is legal! Become a Big Bad with this boss bestiary book for D&D 5e and TTRPGs

This looks like so much fun! I've contributed to Big Bads in the past both as a designer and actual play "agent" and I love this "Be bad, do crimes" take: www.kickstarter.com/projects/hit...

I believe Publishers Weekly makes some of these announcements.

5 Calls Spend 5 minutes. Make 5 calls. Make your voice heard.

Finished my daily calls (voice mails this morning) begging my reps to not fund the group that could haul me off the street with impunity for "looking Asian".

Now to my regular begging people on social media to please make the calls too. It takes 5 mins. Get over your anxiety - people are dying.

👀

Shades of orange on the background in a painterly splatter.On the right side is an image of me, Kat Kruger, a light-skinned Asian woman with a pixie cut. I'm wearing a dark green top and black-rimmed cats eyeglasses. Words on the page read: "Where Words Meet Play. Game design, Adventure writing, Narrative content including books and lore, Professional game master. Accepting new projects. steampunkunicornstudio.com

A pinned update. I'm Kat Kruger, a narrative game designer and author available for freelance or contract work. Let's connect: linktr.ee/krugerkat Interested in hiring me as a professional game master? Check out my StartPlaying profile in the links.

Same thing happened to me this week. My 18-year-old Tofu dog is still in the US where I had to leave him with my partner who I’m sponsoring into Canada. I hope you get visits with your kitty.

I saw a cooking show once (while sick) where the person used potato chips as a substitute for bread crumbs.

Just a reminder, friends, you are under no obligation to watch videos of violence: By all means, do keep yourself informed by watching or reading reliable news sources, but you don't have to subject yourself to second-hand violence and trauma. Please curate your feed according to your needs.

A timely reminder that you can turn off autoplay on videos through your settings. Take care, everyone. 🫂

A tale of two countries: In the USA, spent years trying to navigate the system trying to get my bright kid support & wound up paying out of pocket for OT. In Canada, signed up for community centre programs, mentioned he could get dysregulated in certain situations & immediately got FREE 1:1 support.

⚔️ 🐦‍⬛

🧙 🐉

2026 is starting off with a bang in the TTRPG sphere. While I don’t have huge news like my amazing peers who deservedly have taken on some great roles, I’ve got a bunch of cool freelance projects in my inbox that I’m incredibly excited about. 🔥

Congrats, James! I’m so looking forward to what you do next.

4 teen characters. One in wheelchair conjuring a water fish, one playing a stringed instrument, one painting a prosthetic arm, and the last in a cloak conjuring a flame.

Many of you will want to practice new skills in 2026, so why not make it sign language? With our award-winning ttrpg INSPIRISLES, you can learn ASL while exploring a mythical kingdom as a descendent of King Arthur.

Available now from @ipr.bsky.social:
www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Inspir...

Yay! They were awesome to work with at Hal-Con so it’s nice to hear the book is still doing well enough that it’s still in stock.

How To Be More D&D book face out on a shelf with D&D books. It’s a small journal size hardcover with a red hexagon in the middle surrounded by black and red D&D ampersands.

Always nice to see my book out in the wild, especially when it’s displayed face out. My partner sent this while out shopping this weekend.

My fave end-of-year projects have all been designing content for @hellomcdm.bsky.social Draw Steel. Looking forward to seeing it all on the other side of playtesting in 2026! 🙏

Took some liberties with the new Monster Manual sphinxes! The big ears remind me of a certain other foundling with immense powers.

A page preview of The Cub featuring a grumpy looking gray and white sphinx cub crouched down at the bottom.

A page preview of The Cub featuring a warrior in full armor wiedling a fiery sword.

If you're looking for a one-shot through Eberron, helping a sphinx foundling of immense (if chaotic) powers -- perhaps playing a Wayfarer paladin or under the group patron of Wayfarers -- consider picking up this adventure that includes these features and more. bit.ly/TheCubAdvent...

💝

Such excellent news! Congratulations on the well-deserved new role.

Cannot stress enough how important end-of-year support is for freelancers, when incoming work basically comes to a standstill.

I have a $3/month Patreon Patreon.com/katkruger

I have a Ko-Fi account ko.fi.com/katkruger

I also just published my first D&D 2024 personal project bit.ly/TheCubAdvent...

Adam did an incredible job on the layout and design of The Cub!

THIS!

Please leave five star reviews for books that you love wherever you can!

It happened! I got locked out of Bluesky. For anyone about to face the same issue: log out, log back in and “forget” password. Unfortunately there’s no way to get around adding your birthdate though.