Susanah Grace’s first TTRPG character was a drow ranger with dual scimitars and a panther companion made for a Dungeons & Dragons 4e game. “And I didn’t know who Drizz’t even was,” she says about them.

She wears a lot of hats in the TTRPG industry. She’s primarily an illustrator but she also works as a writer, marketer, art director, and AP streamer. She got her start streaming a TTRPG campaign where she met Samantha who hired her to help with marketing for Black Cat Gaming. The job let her build up an illustration portfolio and connections that helped build the career she has now.

The moment she’s most proud of was the release of her solo game, CHLVR. “I did it all on my own, and seeing it finally come together and people playing it was just the best feeling in the world. The response to CHVLR really has been incredible, and it only adds to that feeling.”

CHLVR is a journalling game about the terrible cost of war and the scars it leaves on those who fight it. You play as a teenager chosen (or forced) to operate a mech with very little training or support. The war forces you to see and do terrible things, including killing. The game uses Wretched & Alone mechanics to tell a story about fear, violence, and hope.

Grace’s next project is another solo game that she describes as, “my love letter to survival horror games from the PlayStation 1 and 2, in particular Resident Evil and Silent Hill.” She says she played those games when she was far too young and they’ve had a stranglehold on her ever since. The project uses the Carta system and asks you to survive the night as a special ops agent investigating the rooms of a grand mansion for clues, keys, and lifesaving items while avoiding terrifying monsters and deadly traps.

She’s also making the character class illustrations for Black Cat Gaming’s new supplement for The Spy Game, The Spymaster’s Toolkit. The Kickstarter for the project is live now and promises new class archetypes, gadgets, and features that players can use as well as deadly secret lairs for the villains and masterminds to work out of.

Aside in addition to video games, Susanah Grace says she takes a lot of inspiration for her games from anime and her background as a working-class kid growing up in northern England. “Recently, my experiences of being an immigrant to Canada have been creeping their way into my work as well,” she says. “I've only been in Canada for five years, and though it feels like home, we haven't fully had the chance to leave our marks on each other yet.”

When asked about her creative process, Grace said that because of her ADHD, her process is sporadic and all over the place. “I tend to work in very intense bursts at odd hours; there's a lot of 3 AM notes app ideation going on.” She also says this is her biggest challenge. “It's been myself, honestly. Overcoming the challenges of my ADHD and learning how to navigate how that affects my processes is something that I'm still working on and still making mistakes at.”

FUN FACTS

First TTRPG Played: D&D 4e
Dream Collaboration: Anything that would let me run amok with vampires and/or gothic horror.
Fave Canadian Drink/Snack: All-dressed chips are by far the best flavor ever made.
Best Advice for New Indie Game Designers: Just keep making your stuff. If you wait for the perfect moment or the perfect mood or the perfect version, it's never going to happen. Perfect is the enemy; it doesn't exist. Just make the thing.

You can find Susanah Grace on Bluesky, Artstation, Instagram, or Twitter.