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The Blinking Birch Revamp

The Blinking Birch Revamp

Hello! This is the first proper update I've typed out since November - thanks for sticking around!

You might not have seen much of me over the past few months. After releasing both Death of the Author and The World We Left Behind last October, I was cursed by the writer's ancient enemy: burnout. After years of saying "my schedule will get lighter next month", I finally acknowledged that some major things needed to change - so, instead of trimming leaves off a dying tree, I tore it up from the roots and replanted it entirely, making some large changes to my work and routine.

Fortunately, the tree seems to be taking well to the new soil, and the burnout has receded. I'm less anxious then I was a few months ago. I'm working on a couple new projects I'm not quite ready to talk about, and I'm also back to making videos, something I've missed doing for a while now. The dead branches have fallen and new sprigs are taking their place, and hopefully this metaphor is still making sense.

In addition, over the past few months I've been working on-and-off on what I call "business things" - the parts of being a TTRPG designer that are not about making games. Transferring this newsletter to Ghost was one of said business things. The rest are also finally done, and ready to share!

A logo for Blinking Birch Games. The text is in a dark blue-gray, and the B's are stylized to look like tree trunks. The right side of the logo is a light brown-yellow and looks like a tree, with an eye between the words "birch" and "games".
The new logo for Blinking Birch Games.

Blinking Birch Games has a new logo! It was designed by Alderdoodle, and I could not be more delighted by how it turned out. She really encapsulated the vibes I want to bring to my games.

I'd seen a couple other logos Ramona made and was really impressed by her work, and I'm so glad she agreed to this project. She was wonderful to work with and provided many different ideas and variants along the way - I highly recommend talking to her if you're looking for a logo yourself! She also does cover illustrations, page decor (like borders & dividers), character sheets, and a bunch of other art & design work: you can check out her portfolio here.

New Website (and Webstore!)

Now for the business thing that has taken the most of my time over the past few months: Blinking Birch Games now has a website: BlinkingBirchGames.com!

A screenshot of the front page of the new Blinking Birch Games website. Shows a crop of the cover of Anamnesis behind the words "Blinking Birch Games: tabletop roleplaying games by Samantha Leigh". There are links in the top left for the pages Shop, About, Editing, and Other Work.

This site doubles as both a webstore and a landing page for all of my information. On the webstore side, you can find physical copies (and discounted damaged copies) of Anamnesis, Death of the Author, and The World We Left Behind. You can also find new Blinking Birch stickers, one of which is included in each order.

Two stickers of the logo for Blinking Birch Games. One is in color and the other is black & white.

On the info side, you can find my about page, my editing rates, and a list of every TTRPG I've been a part of, from guest writing to editing.

To celebrate the launch, I'm running a sale for 10% off all orders - just use the discount code OPEN10 at checkout. The sale runs for a week: from now until the end of August 20th. I'm currently dogsitting, so any orders will be shipped around the start of next week.

If you have any troubles with the website, please let me know! I did a lot of testing but something may have slipped through the cracks.

What else is going on?

Other than setting up the new website & newsletter, I've been busy editing! I'm currently working on The Lost Bay and Dragon Reactor (currently crowdfunding!), and I'm soon to be wrapping up A Perfect Rock.

By the way, A Fool's Errand just released digitally! This is the biggest editing job I've ever done, and the first time I did developmental editing. I love the world J & B have created, and it was a joy to work on this project after being a fan of the Planet Arcana podcast for so long. If you like tarot, this game uses it like no other: I'd be hard-pressed to find another game where the spirit of tarot shines through more.

Image credit: A Fool's Errand itchio page

I'm also designing two new games simultaneously, but both of them are still a ways before release. My tentative goal is to get an ashcan version out for one in the first quarter of 2026, but it's too soon to say. Both projects are very, very different from everything I've worked on before, and very, very exciting to me.

I'm making videos again - they'll be coming out sporadically, but it feels good to be back. I'm taking some time to experiment with different formats. The main change: I'm now offering critique, rather than just being promotional. Any game I talk about will still be one I recommend, but I'm diving into them deeper now.

I would link you to my YouTube page, but I'm participating in the YouTube blackout - starting today in the US, they're using AI to guess the ages of their users, and if you're flagged as possibly being under 18 you have to show them your ID to avoid being age-locked. There's so many pieces of this that are bad. I only heard about this yesterday, so please help spread the word!

Oh also, I'm participating in my first LARP and god it's so much fun. I'm absolutely LARP-brained now, I'll never be able to go back. If you know good LARPs please recommend them, I'd love to play more.

You can expect an update from me here about once a month. Thanks for being here!

~ Sam Leigh