Dave EmmersonHello friends! What’s new with you?
It is truly our hope that this wee update finds you well!
It’s a crazy world out there, but the world of books and RPG is cosy and full of good folks who are trying their best to help each other out. Don’t be discouraged, be good to each other and if you’re feeling lonely or isolated? Why not join us for a chat on our shiny new Discord server (!!!), drop us an email, or find us @beyondcataclysm on all the socials.
Here’s some of the stuff we’ve been up to in recent months:
Tabletop Scotland
As always Tabletop Scotland ranked super high in our ‘most enjoyable convention of the year’ league. We had a great weekend catching up with old friends, making new friends, selling stock, buying even more things we don’t need, drinking copious amounts of coffee and eating donuts. Highlights this year included Chris beating TTS Chief Dave at Dread Ball, Boris GMing us through a disastrous MÖRK BORG adventure (that featured flying French hotpants and characters being choked half to death by toddlers, and a very depressed Ape). We know it’s a long way from London but we’d really encourage you to attend next year, it’s an amazing con
MÖRK ORG Quickstart Rules available now
If you’ve been paying any attention to our blogs or social media over the last year or so you’ll have seen us mention MÖRK ORG on more than one occasion. We’ve been working really hard on this daft work place based comedy horror hack of MÖRK BORG since it funded in November last year – writing content, gathering art and contributions for a myriad of amazing creators and laying it out in true art punk style. Well we’re over the moon to announce that the Quickstart rules, basically everything you need to start playing MÖRK ORG, are now available to download.
Backers can access it for free via the Kickstarter Updates. For those who missed this Kickstarter you can download it via itch.io
We’d love to hear your feedback, drop us a message here to let us know how your fist games went horribly wrong!
What else have we been doing?
What’s Chris been listening to?
Well, I’ve been hammering three key albums this quarter: First up is The Beths’ last release, Expert in a Dying Field, which is another sparkly fuzz-pop collection that holds up very nearly as well as their debut (although it’s not quite as catchy)…
Then there’s been Murder By Death’s final album Egg & Dart, for which I’ve got absolutely no objectivity. I’ve been loving them and listening to them for 20 years now, and their final tour is this summer, and I’m catching them on a last opportunity down in London. They play dark, moody, cello-laden theatre-rock, and it’s terrible and momentous and brilliant.
Finally, a couple of years ago, Sandra McCracken released Light in the Canyon, a stonking old Southern worship album of hymns and mournful Psalmage. It’s a much-needed counterpoint to the glitzy youth worship I find myself hearing all the time; it’s sad and hopeful and gritty and imperfect and real and it speaks to my soul.
What’s Chris been reading?
The most impactful book for me this last three months has probably been Purpose Driven Youth Ministry by Doug Fields —I keep seeing evidence of its positive impact amongst my friends who are leading work with young people—but in terms of fiction my big personal recommendation is for Earth Abides by George R Stewart.
I’d not heard of it until my pal Dougle mentioned it, but a few pages in and I was hooked. It’s a 1949 post-Apocalyptic novel set in the aftermath of a deadly virus. More Day of the Triffids than The Death of Grass in tone, it actually reminds me of a book I read in 2015 called Stone Age by ML Banner that… I didn’t think was very good. Regardless of quality, in that book civilisation regresses to the level of much earlier people groups, and Earth Abides provides a very realistic perspective on how that could potentially happen. Things like rubber-corrosion rates and the challenge of maintaining literacy feature, but with a little sprinkling of hope at the end too.
I especially enjoyed several interludes in the book that chose to skip forward a decade or two, giving key details, but actually allowing a very different setting for the characters when the narrative slows down again. Very cool idea.
What’s Chris been playing?
In the board game world, IV Studio sent me a bundle of review copies for Tabletop Gaming, and I’ve particularly fallen for Mythic Mischief; a mini-chess puzzle adjacent two-player battle with super cute miniatures and design. I’m no expert at it, but it’s grabbed me, and I’m always up for another game of it.
I’ve also been getting deep into the weeds with Reversi (AKA Othello), a game you’ve probably seen but maybe not played. Think Draughts meets Go and you’re totally wrong, but visually you might be sort of right. Did you know it was invented in 1883?!
The RPG that’s defined the month for me—aside from MORK ORG which is NEARLY ready!!!—is Mythic Bastionland, which I just reviewed for Tabletop Gaming. It’s not published yet, nor edited, but here’s a preview of my opening thoughts on Chris McDowall’s preview work:
Mythic Bastionland is the latest RPG from epic designer Chris McDowall.
Chris represents a sort of chimeric force within the world of roleplaying design; he takes decades-established concepts and procedures, then studiously ignores them in pursuit of narrative pre-eminence. Into The Odd streamlined mechanics that I thought were impossible to mess with, whilst Electric Bastionland set an incredibly clear vision of how a city should feel without setting any limits at all on what it could be.
When McDowall releases a game, I’m always excited, with just a hint of apprehension as to which embedded pieces of design misconceptions are about to get dislodged from my brain.
What’s is Ennie Nominated Jog Brogzin been listening to?
I am listening to songs from K-pop Demon Hunters (with my daughters, it’s a guilty pleasure). Also history and politics podcasts.
What’s Dave been up to?
Lots and lots of Turnstile
I am reading Tania Herrero’s Ennie winning Crown of Salt. This adventure, for MORK BORG, is so well written and perfectly illustrated in Tania’s rich monochrome style. We’re amped to have some awesome art by Tania in the finished version of MORK ORG too.
Does Frisby in the park with my teenage boys count as playing? Sadly, as part of our house move, a lot of our games are currently in boxes!
