This RPG Publisher Spotlight will likely help raise the profile of a Ukrainian tabletop games company.
Ganesha Games‘s copyright notice is for an LLC registered in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Footage and news stories this week shows Russian bombs hitting the city.
Geek Native’s RPG Publisher Spotlight is all about raising the profile of TTRPG makers, contributors, or curators who might not otherwise get it, so promoting Ganesha Games seems appropriate.
Our Patreons voted for Ganesha, but this article will take a slightly different format as we’ve not been able to get in touch with the company, so we don’t have the regular Q&A interview.
Who are Ganesha Games?
Ganesha was founded by Andrea Sfiligoi, who is Italian, and while we’ve not been able to get in touch with Andrea, we know he’s okay. A statement on Ganesha Games’ Patreon says;
The main goal of this Patreon will be to reconstruct my game design studio and buy equipment and software. I and my wife could not go back to Ukraine (we were based in Kharkiv) because of the Russian invasion. Our apartment is still standing as I type this, but I doubt we will ever return to Ukraine as we do not want to live under a tyrant. We are currently in my native Italy (I am Italian, my wife is Ukranian).
In further encouraging news, Andrea also posts to Ganesha Games’ Instagram and the last one was just a few days ago.
Damon Richardson is a partner at the company, too, a chemical engineer by training who runs the logistical arm of Ganesha while also managing the company’s sculpting efforts.
There are several more authors associated with the company!
- Sergio Laliscia – Based in Terni and currently working on board games for Ganesha.
- Daniel Mersey – A published history book author who also made Dux Bellorum for the Osprey Wargame series.
- Ben Boersma – A frog lover and currently working on a board game called Akitsushima.
- Mr. Bisto – A US wargamer who published Song of Deeds and Glory.
- Rich JonesWargames Journal. Andy Frazer – A Warhammer and D&D gamer, based near Belfast in Northern Ireland and contributor to Savage Worlds and Call of Cthhulu supplements.
- Andre Boswell – With writing credits for Mongoose Publishing, Australian Realms and the author of Ganesha’s Flashing Steel.
- John McBride – A history teacher, author of Pride of Lions and Song of the Splintered Lands.
- Nic Wright – A professional archaeologist, a wargamer and author of Song of Shadows and Dust and Irregular Wars: Conflict at the Worlds End.
- Massimo Moscarelli – An Italian WW2 paratrooper reenactor, WH40K fan and designer of ‘the world’s smallest wargame’ Zen Garden.
- Graeme Davis – Yes, that Graeme Davis, the British designer who helped develop Warhammer and Vampire: the Masquerade.
Are we sure about this impressive roll call? It’s all paraphrased from Ganesha’s own site.
Why was Graeme Davis mentioned last at all? No idea. Perhaps he’s the newest or the least involved.
Which games are Ganesha best known for?
This blogger knows Ganesha for Four Against Darkness, and that’s what DriveThruRPG rates as their hottest game.
Four Against Darkness, by Andrea Sfiligoi is an Adamantine Best Seller and after over 100 ratings has a 4.8/5 star rating. Trust me. That’s impressive.
And yet… Four Against Darkness is not a TTRPG and nor does it involve four players. Instead, the title is a solo RPG/dungeon crawl.
Ganesha says;
You choose four character types from the classic classes (warrior, wizard, rogue, halfling, dwarf, barbarian, cleric, elf), equip them, and start adventuring in dungeons created by dice rolls and by your choices. When you enter a room, you generate its content on a series of random tables. You will meet monsters, fight them, hopefully defeat them (or decide that discretion is the better part of valor!), you’ll manage your resources (healing, spells, life points, equipment), grab treasure, dodge traps, find clues, and even accept quests from the monsters you meet. Your characters can level up and become better at what they do, but it will not be easy.
Four Against Darkness has its own supplements such as the mature (lust, crime, betrayal) Treacheries of the Troublesome Towns or the recently published Twisted Traits.
Song of Blades and Heroes is a 4.5/5 star rated platinum best seller. The game is a miniatures skirmish game and former Origins Award nominee for “Bet Minature Rules.
There is also Tales of Blades and Heroes as Ganesha Games’ RPG. It’s a relatively small download at 56-pages, a gold best seller and a system which fits a whole character onto a 3×5″ index card.
Tales of Blades and Heroes is a fantasy system without world setting associated with it. The system uses d6s and does all the combat with just one roll, it does without spells but has a spell system and gets rid of the idea of character classes, too.
What’s Ganesha Games working on?
Once again we turn to the website for clues of current and forthcoming Ganesha Games projects.
A second edition of the romantic Late Renaissance skirmish game Flashing Steel has been announced. True to form, the current Flashing Steel has a gold best seller badge at DriveThruRPG and rated 4/5 stars there.
Of Armies and Hordes has been announced. We’ve seen Ganesha with several successful skirmish games and Of Armies and Hordes is slated to be fantasy mass battle rules.
Equally, there’s also Harder Than Steel and while we don’t know the scope, we know it’s a sci-fi.
There’s also a horror version of Four Against Darkness underway, but it does not yet even have a name.
Some disclaimers
It’s a shame we couldn’t get in touch with Andrea Sfiligoi, but clearly, the rapid move to the safety of Italy is more important than responding to emails from gaming blogs.
As a result, much of this information has been harvested from Patreon news, an old Kickstarter and old website. It’s clear that Ganesha Games are still publishing but updating their public records might not have been done for a while. The write-up here is at risk of being… well,… wrong. Sorry about that!
Ganesha Games
- Ganesha Games’ website.
- Official Song of Blades and Heroes Facebook Group.
- Ganesha Games on X.
- Ganesha Games on Patreon.
- Ganesha Games on DriveThruRPG.
Comments on this article can be left in the box below.
My name’s probably last on the list because I worked with Andrea a little while ago, on one of the less successful lines. I was hoping to do a series of sourcebooks for Of Gods and Mortals, but other Ganesha Games titles have bigger followings and very sensibly Andrea has chosen to focus on those.
Ah, that makes sense and is a shame at the same time. I appreciate that you took the time to comment!