03 Dec 2025 9 min read RPGs

Welcome to the Inn, Traveler

Welcome to An Evening at the Inn, an RPG-focused newsletter with original reporting and insights on role-playing video games.

Your party trudges through the mud, the earth desperately pulling you further down with each step. Tired, cold, and hungry, you desperately want nothing more than to a nice fire and a good meal. Rounding the corner you finally see it – a shining beacon of respite on the side of the road, and the word "vacancy."

The inn has always been an integral part of role-playing video games and table top games alike. Places of healing and rest, where you can feel reinvigorated for the road ahead. That's what I want An Evening at the Inn to be – a place that kindles that sense of renewal. Something you can bring up on your phone or computer in the evening after work or during your morning commute, to find something new, inquisitive, and thoughtful.

But first, I should introduce myself.

From the Innkeeper

My name is Hayes Madsen, and I'm a freelance journalist covering entertainment, specifically video games, for over 15 years now. I currently write full-time for Inverse.com (and you should support us!), but currently or previously I also have writing at Rolling Stone, Kotaku, IGN, Game Informer, GamesRadar, and more.

I've also profiled numerous well-known creators, including Hironobu Sakaguchi, Katsura Hashino, and Sam Lake.

Across all that time, RPGs have been my biggest, and often singular, focus. I grew up on role-playing games like so many others, finding myself lost in the worlds of Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Tales, Ultima, Baldur's Gate, and more. These games not only informed who I am, but also what I wanted to do with my life.

With An Evening at the Inn, I want to provide a robust, entirely RPG-focused newsletter – where I can highlight not only my own work, but that of so many other fantastic writers, critics, and journalists.

Each issue of the inn's "paper" will be split into three different parts. There's normally going to be something brand new here, but hey, this is the first one, and I've gotta get through introductions, so stick with me. (But I've still got something for you – if you want to look at Inverse's Top 25 RPGs of the 2025, which we just put together). Or you can read my Octopath Traveler 0 review.

This first part is where I put all my experience and expertise into focus, trying to provide meaningful coverage about role-playing games – with a large focus on the people who both make, and play, them.

But I'm also not committing to a singular idea of what this newsletter will be. Yes, I'll have original reporting, including interviews with developers and creators, particularly emphasizing indie creators. But I might also have op-eds, features on communities and other creators, podcast segments – maybe I'll even talk about why sports games are RPGs (hint). We also aren't going to abide by some archaic definition of what is and isn't an RPG – I want to provide insight about the nature of role-playing in video games, plain and simple.

After years and years of working at corporate media (and I still do) this is where I can get more experimental with what I do, and hopefully try and tap into what people care about in the process. I've always loved digging into the process of how role-playing video games are made, and how they're molded by their creator's lives – and that's something I want to continue to focus on.

As an example, for an upcoming issue, I'll dig deep into an ingredient of RPGs that doesn't often get enough attention, guest party members – how they're utilized as a unique piece of storytelling and character development, with particular emphasis on the works of Yasumi Matsuno. In the next two months, I also have a couple interviews I'm hoping to line up.

The point is that with each issue, I want to provide something that might make you think or learning something you didn't know before. Over time, I'm sure you'll start to see the things I like, but nothing will be entirely focused on one section of role-playing games. I'm not sticking to strictly Western or Japanese RPGs, but trying to give a comprehensive view of the worldwide state of the genre, and the occasional tabletop games (although that's a world I'm not super well-versed in).

Think of this section like the appetizer, or first course of your meal at the inn. When you've just sit down and dug in, ready for what's next.

Around the Realm

This is the second section of the newsletter – where I'll highlight the outstanding work of others in covering the role-playing genre. Here, I want to curate a selection of insightful interviews, illuminating opinion pieces, or outstanding video essays.

I already consume a lot of content through the jobs that I work, but I'm really challenging myself to have a more comprehensive view of video game coverage for this. So, each issue, I'll be putting active effort into this section, because I think there are some truly phenomenal creators out there doing incredible work.

I want An Evening at the Inn to feel comprehensive, a look at the state of role-playing video games as a whole. This is the main course of the newsletter, and if you dig what I do, where you'll spend the most time – reading or watching.

With that in mind, here's your first selection.

Jason Schreier's Interview with Team Cherry on Silksong and DLC

Dia Lacina on Dragon Quest 1 & 2, Remakes, and Legacy

Leah Isobel's extensive interview with Brandon Sheffield on Demonschool, his training in journalism, rent, and more

Andrew Brown's interview with Hooded Horse CEO Tim Bender, and the idea of "passion publishing"

Wesley LeBlanc's interview with Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii, on the difference between DQ and Final Fantasy

The Back Page

Any three-course meal needs a dessert, right? So here's a third, and final, short and sweet section. For this, I'll have a list of key RPG releases for the month, both indie and AAA. Here's that for December.

Dec 1 - Assassin’s Creed Shadows (Switch 2)
Dec 4- Octopath Traveler 0 (Everything but mobile)
Dec 4 - Echoes of Elysium (PC Early Access)
Dec 8 - Angeline Era (PC)
Dec 8 - Yakuza 0: Director’s Cut (PC, PS5, Xbox)
Dec 9 - Romancing SaGa - Minstrel Song Remastered International (PS5, Xbox, Switch)
Dec 16 - Utawarerumono Zan (PC)

But I'll also have a very small update. Maybe I'll give a little recommendation for a game that you, hopefully, haven't heard of – or something that's on sale.

Maybe I'll have a little story about my two cute cats, Garrus and Kelsey (who you can see in my wonderful art), or my poorly behaved (but also cute) Chihuahuas, Screech and Oreo. I want this newsletter to feel conversational, so if you're interested in life updates, those will, occasionally, be here. But if you simply don't care about how Garrus ripped through a loaf of bread and made himself sick, then hey, you don't have to read about it. And yes, you didn't think I wouldn't make you look at pictures of them all, right?

On the theme of animals, my game recommendation for this inaugural issue is Octopath Traveler 0 – because how can you not play a game with this kind of message?

The crux of everything with An Evening at the Inn is doing the kind of coverage I want to, in a media landscape that feels increasingly hostile to writers, artists, and anyone who simply wants to create and share with others. It was important to me to work with a real human artist for this newsletter's logo (and pay them). Equally, I will never, literally never, cover anything created with artificial intelligence – that's an absolutely hard no for me.

I really want An Evening at the Inn to be something you might see in your email, and sit down with for 20 or 30 minutes. Maybe it gives you something to do for an evening when you're feeling down, or maybe it gives you a new game that you spend hours, days, or weeks with. The world's a hard place right now, and if I can give anyone even a bit of distraction, that makes it all worth it.

With that approach, An Evening at the Inn will, currently, be completely free. Even with original reporting from myself, I won't have memberships or fees – and if that ever changes, I'll make it abundantly clear. An Evening at the Inn will be bi-weekly because, well, I work a full-time job, freelance on the side, and sometimes drive Uber – and I'm not trying to put myself in an early grave.

But if, by some chance, you do want to support this newsletter specifically, or the work I do as a writer and critic, more broadly, I'll be sharing my Ko-Fi link.

https://ko-fi.com/hayesmadsen

If you've read this far, my utmost sincere thanks for doing it. And in two weeks, we'll get things in gear. I hope you'll join me.

From the Innkeeper

Around the Realm

The Back Page

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