[7]: 43  In an interview on EN World, Walsh highlighted that the core rulebook has "five contributing authors" and "two sensitivity consultants"; it also went through "rounds of playtests" to refine mechanics.

[16] In November 2021, Evil Hat Productions launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the first expansion, titled Advanced Lovers & Lesbians.

[17][18] The expansion's 29 writers included Alex Roberts, Avery Alder, Banana Chan, Emily Care Boss, Jonaya Kemper, and Lucian Kahn.

[21][8] "Each of these character types comes with its own strengths and weaknesses, with players needing to work together to cope with whatever emotional, romantic and personality issues they may face throughout their adventure".

Should a player experience an unfortunate event, they could suffer from a nasty variety of conditions [...] which they'll have to seek out a source of emotional closeness in order to cure".

[23][24][25] Walsh stated that: Participating in romantic role-play can be very emotional and requires communication and respect for boundaries that aren't necessarily in everyone's personal toolkit when they show up for a game.

Thirsty Sword Lesbians builds consent and collaboration into the mechanics, as well as centering safety and communication practices that help groups explore more emotional themes.

[29] Alex Meehan, for Eurogamer in 2022, highlighted that the game's world is geared towards "intense melodrama and extravagance" and that it celebrates "the antics of disaster lesbians".

Its goal is not to produce realistic portrayals of lesbian characters – most gay women don't brandish swords and stash hidden tools about their person, unfortunately – but to provide an outlet for players to embrace a messier, but undoubtedly more fun, side of themselves. [...]

Langhout wrote that "keeping the language fun and inclusive throughout shows a genuine commitment to making sure Thirsty Sword Lesbians can be played by as many people as possible without compromising its vision of a game for queer stories".

[23] Langhout respects Thirsty Sword Lesbians "because it knows exactly what it wants from its players, and if my group wasn't a good fit for it, that's not the game's fault".

[23] Thirsty Sword Lesbians was included on Kotaku's "The 10 Best Tabletop Roleplaying Books Of 2022" list – Claire Jackson commented that "the game offers a suite of really cool settings to choose from, be they sci-fi, fantasy, or even 'Sparkle Heart Magic Force Go!'

A GM, Gaymaster in this game, and a group of player characters tell a collaborative story of thrilling heroics, but it's one that urges you to 'follow your heart,' and not get so bogged down in the intricate details of planning out an adventure or campaign as is often the case in this hobby.

This is a wonderful and very inviting gay-as-hell game that can serve as the basis for an ongoing campaign, or just a ruleset you turn to when you and a bunch of queer friends want to make some narrative noise".

8 on CBR's 2022 "10 LGBTQ+ TTRPGs To Play With Your Friends This Pride Month" list – Rebekah Krum highlighted that "this Nebula Award winner includes exactly what the name would suggest: sapphic swashbucklers taking on alluring enemies and making emotional connections with the people around them.

The beautifully illustrated Thirsty Sword Lesbians sourcebook includes various setting options and story seeds for gaming tables to build off of and turn into adventures".