Spotlight Series | Connor Alexander

Connor Alexander, creator of a sci-fi role-playing game set in the non-colonized Americas.

As a personal project, I have started what I am calling my Spotlight Series. There are so many people in our community that are working to make things better in some way. My vision is that I want to find them, meet them, photograph them, and tell their stories. If you know an amazing person or a regular person doing amazing things, please send me an email, or fill out our nomination form!

Connor Alexander is a game designer, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, and the creator of a new game called Coyote & Crow that is currently killing it on Kickstarter with over $500,000 raised. Since his original goal was $18,000, he is at 25 times his initial goal. The game obviously speaks to some people out there!

Could you tell me the elevator speech synopsis of your game?

Coyote & Crow is a tabletop roleplaying game set in an alternate future where the Americas were never colonized. It's a science fantasy setting, blending elements of near future sci-fi and a twist of Indigenous fantasy elements. It's a game meant to be played by everyone, but I really want it to speak to Native Americans as a game that provides them with a view of themselves untangled from our unpleasant colonial past and present. The game is created and led by Natives and we speak to a broad array of experiences and heritages.

How is your game different from other role-playing games like D&D beyond the clear difference of setting?

While we've created our own set of game mechanics to differentiate ourselves and the setting is fresh, as you mentioned, I think the perspective shift in the game is the most important thing. What I mean by that is that many role-playing games are centered around the idea of accumulation, either in-game money or experience points that translate to the player's character becoming more powerful. And it's usually at the cost of someone or something else, often through violence. Our game encourages storytelling and the characters evolve rather than simply advance. We wanted to make a game that had adventure and intrigue and excitement that wasn't centered around killing something and then looting its corpse.

What do you see as the cultural significance of the game and the experience for the players as well as what impact you are hoping it will have on them?

I'm loath to attach any cultural significance to my own game. I think by definition, that will have to be decided by others. But I have two hopes. First is that Native players see Coyote & Crow as a wide-open canvas that allows them to dream of their own alternate futures. I want them to have a place that feels like their own, like they control it. I hope they find inspiration to tell new kinds of stories with the game, ones that maybe they hadn't even considered prior to this. My other hope is that non-Natives walk away from a game having had a good time, sure. But also along the way, I'd love it if the game prompts them to start examining some of their own assumptions or preconceptions about the real world Natives around them and the land they're living on.

How has your life experience led to becoming a game designer, and to this game in particular?

I was an only child growing up and I had to rely on my imagination quite a bit. It also forced me to be a little more extroverted and social. Once I stumbled upon role-playing games as a kid, it was a match made in heaven. As an adult, games and the community around playing them have become part of my internal fabric. But my experience as a Native was completely separate for a long time. They were two totally unconnected worlds. It wasn't until I started working in the game industry at a level where I was working with designers and publishers on a daily basis that I began to examine what I might be able to bring to the hobby that I wasn't seeing out there. At the very least, my position in the industry allowed me to start from a place where I could get great advice from some lovely people. When I knew I wanted to make the game I was already so far ahead of where many folks are when they reach that point. I had a solid understanding of how the overall process works and where to set my expectations. Although my expectations were, in hindsight, maybe set a bit too low.

The response to your Kickstarter has been pretty overwhelming. How have people in Native cultures responded to your game, and is it different from what you expected?

Yeah, the Kickstarter has really been speaking to people and that deeply warms my heart. I think I'm getting the response I was hoping for but at so much larger of a scale than I'd ever dreamed. So many people have messaged me across social media to express how much this project means to them personally. A common theme in those messages is that Natives never expected or even hoped to see themselves represented this way. Which is heartbreaking, really. That our collective expectations are set so low that we didn't even realize we desperately needed something until after it was offered says something about the state of diversity and representation in media in general, not just games.

I’m sure the scope of your project has changed over the course of the last couple of weeks. Do you have any new and exciting plans you now want to share?

Nothing we can share yet, but I will say that once the Kickstarter has concluded and we can really drill down and make the core game the best it can be, we'll also be looking at what comes next. We're trying to think bigger than just expansions for the game at this point. I think we've proven there's a real hunger for this world and for the kind of representation we're bringing. I may have set the original goal for the game at $18,000, but we won't make that mistake with our next project. Time to think big.

What do you like to do with your free time?

What is this "free time" you speak of? Seriously though, besides games and gaming, I love to travel. I grew up poor and my traveling was often through my imagination. So as an adult, when I get to travel it's rarely about seeing the classic tourist destinations. I have a hard time connecting to those things on an emotional level. I want to hang out where the locals do. I want to support their economy and just exist for a bit in their circles. Nothing fills my buckets more in this life than meeting someone from a different part of the world and sharing some food or drink with them or learning a new word or phrase from their language or hearing their music. The bigger this world feels to me, the more I feel connected to it.

What should I have asked and didn’t?

I think it's important to call out that a vital part of what we're trying to do here isn't just about selling a game. It's about getting those games into the hands of Natives. Role-playing games are a lovely hobby, with a ton of social benefits, but frankly, they're a luxury purchase and something with a fairly high entry cost. It's not enough for the game to exist, it has to reach places that other role-playing games might not. We have a lot of plans that involve accessibility. Some we've announced, some we haven't. Ultimately, I'll measure my own success with this game by how many non-gamer Natives that I bring into this hobby.

Connor’s blanket by Eighth Generation and a favorite Native-designed game Nunami.