In conversation with Alexis Sara, Nebula Award-winning writer of Thirsty Sword Lesbians

At my table, Thirsty Sword Lesbians is the go-to tabletop RPG. Designed for queer, melodramatic adventure where character development is front and center, TSL avoids the often rigid battles and endless quibbles of the likes of Dungeons and Dragons. Instead, TSL comes from a different tradition, prioritizing rich, emotional experiences in line with Apocalypse World — the story-driven post-apocalyptic TTRPG from which the game inherits its central mechanics. It’s perfect for me and my table of queer women looking to escape the long shadow of British patriarchy, if only for an evening. 

TSL is a creative storytelling game where you and your friends pretend to be a gaggle of queer heroes. Most of TSL’s mechanics govern the relationships between the different characters. Rather than a class, you’ll pick a playbook based on your character’s emotional vibes and potential story arc and go from there. You can raise emotional stakes, flirt with people, and even declare yourself “smitten” should someone catch your character’s eye. It’s an improvised queer soap opera where the emotional battles are just as important as physical ones.

TSL came to be thanks to the work of over a dozen creatives — fitting for the first TTRPG ever to win a much-coveted Nebula Award, a.k.a. one of the most prestigious awards for sci-fi and fantasy writing out there. I sat down with Alexis Sara, one of the game’s writers and self-described pot of “minority soup,” to discuss TSL, queer motherhood, representation, her role in TSL’s Advanced Lovers and Lesbians expansion, and her future projects.