Fib – Part One

1. “So why do they call you Fib then?” “Well” paused Fib, as if recalling it himself for the first time in a long spell. “Are you a fan of David Attenborough?” “I guess so” Marcus replied, unconvincingly, “I mean, I guess everyone is right? He seems unimpeachable”. “That’s the thing”, Fib shot back with […]

Escape Artists – An Interview with Themeborne Games

Emerging out of the Norfolk city of Norwich – regarded as the most complete medieval city in the United Kingdom – it’s perhaps no surprise that the origins of Themeborne Games were set to percolate in the shadow of towering cathedrals (and mid-morning matters). The trio of Thomas Pike (Director, Designer), Alex Crispin (Artist, Musician) […]

Pax Viking – Blood, Fire, Politics

Murder, maiming, fornication, ginger beards! Foaming horns of mead! Sweeping blonde shampoo commercial locks! Enormous girthy hammers!! Our popular culture’s understanding of antique Scandinavian culture is nothing if not subtle. This fervent embrace of the ‘Bathory album cover’ end of this spectrum is perhaps nowhere better exemplified than in the realm of tabletop gaming, where […]

Grigor’s Lament – An extract from the Codex Aeternum

The following is an extract containing one of the many short stories I penned for the forthcoming Codex Aeternum book for Machina Arcana by Adreama Games. Each piece in the book sheds further light on the lore, protagonists and antagonists in the ongoing Machina Arcana story, focussing specifically on the forthcoming ‘To Eternity’ chapters. It […]

Toadlicking Tabletop Round-Up

Thrills! Spills! Hallucinogenic Venom! There’s nothing to quite make you question your adherence to the cloying yoke of consumerism like a legion of shelf-toads leering at you. Call it a ‘Shelf of Opportunity’ all you want as it crowds your mental space, but it’s some shameful shit. It’s been a while since my last full […]

Sekigahara – Tokugawa Rides Out

Every so often you encounter a gaming experience that is so good it makes you re-evaluate your entire relationship to the hobby. Sekigahara- The Unification of Japan by designer Matt Calkins and published by GMT Games, offers one such experience. Adrift and jaded in a sea of blinged-out ‘narrative’ titles, the elegance, immediacy, and […]

Judean Hammer- All roads lead to Jerusalem

The Tabletop gaming hobby is nothing if not an expansive milieu. If, sadly not yet in demographic terms, then certainly in the range of experiences on offer and the mindsets they attract. From the abstract to the thematic and all the myriad variations therein- it contains niches within subsets within niches. Each with a tightly […]

Glam Metal Monster Hunter -Are we doing Stonehenge?

Of all the musical movements to have captured the popular imagination over the years, the brief technicolour explosion of 80’s cock rock arguably had the most glaringly obvious use-by date. Wildly resonant in an era of Reaganomic excess, this tawdry eruption of imbecilic hedonism managed to suffuse the world in a dizzying cloud of Aquanet […]

Oath: Chronicles of Empire and Exile – Heavy is the head that bears the Crown.

It is a well-worn adage that ‘history is written by the winners.’ Far less credence is given however to the truth that in order for that history to take root, unfettered by the hand of revisionists – the winners need to keep winning. The history of all dynastic legacies is rife with tales of bloody […]