Punk is Dead - a Mörk Borg Compatible Songwriting TTRPG
Plus Opeth / Ian Anderson Team-up & Hecate Cassette Archive
Tim Roberts is crowdfunding a punk rock songwriting tabletop RPG with music themes called Punk is Dead. Here are some excerpts from the game description:
“Punk is Dead is a MÖRK BORG compatible TTRPG set in the Un-united Kingdom, where everything that could have gone wrong has gone wrong: nuclear war, pandemics, the collapse of law and order and monsters”
“Amid this chaos, a small band of musicians are kicking back, travelling the realms in a rusty old tour van, using music and other skills to help the helpless and bring light to the dark.”
“One player is the Band Manager (BM or GM if you like). The Band Manager arranges gigs loosely analogous to sessions and runs the game and any non-player characters (NPCs) the players meet.”
“Other players are Band Members. As well as their general skills, each member has a unique talent related to their chosen role in the band. Predefined roles include Vocals, Guitar, Bass, Drums, Keys and Roadie.”
The art by Vincenzo Ingenito and the graphic design of the game look to be perfectly on point for the punk rock vibe. I love the way the hardcover book is in a 7” format that matches a 45 RPM record. There is even a playlist for inspiration:
Tim Roberts has published other TTRPG products through his Critical Kit Ltd. I haven’t bought any of his work before, but browsing through the website, I’m really impressed with the preview art and aesthetic of games such as Be Like a Crow and d666. There is about a week left in the Punk is Dead campaign, so consider backing the project here.
Marvel(ous) Team-Up - Ian Anderson and Opeth
According to this Blabbermouth article, Ian Anderson from Jethro Tull will be appearing on the next Opeth album. Tull and Opeth are two of my top ten favorite bands, and I have both of them on my Appendix LP list of musicians who have inspired my gaming. Here is how I described them in an essay in the first issue of the Critical Hit Parader zine:
Jethro Tull - Ian Anderson looks like an adventuring troubadour, and the band has released many songs that evoke a fantasy RPG atmosphere, including “Songs from the Wood,” “Jack in the Green,” “Minstrel in the Gallery,” and “Broadsword.”
Opeth - They recorded two albums concurrently that had the initials D&D (Deliverance and Damnation) and graced us with song titles that read like the Goodman Games online store, including “Demon of the Fall,” “Master's Apprentices,” “The Grand Conjuration,” and “Sorceress.”
Hecate Cassette Archive
Although it does not seem to be directly music related, a current TTRPG crowdfunding campaign caught my eye because one of the pledge levels includes a physical cassette tape. Hecate Cassette Archive from RV Games is a “supernatural Mothership 1e adventure zine of anarchy and analog audio.”
Lead writer and designer Joshua Justice “is a TTRPG writer/designer, and music aficionado. They DJ and put out a long-running radio show on Freeform Portland.” The campaign page provides this intriguing description of the project:
“The anarchist Analog Survey crew has been sent to retrieve a cache of encoded tapes from the imposing Hecate Cassette Archive, but they aren't the only ones after them, or even the first ones in...”
I am surprised to hear that Ian will work with Mikael because very recently I heard somewhere that Mikael had reached out to Ian years ago about a collaboration and Ian never even replied. Can you imagine a young Ian working with people like Mikael, Steven Wilson, or Devin Townsend? I don't think his ego would have allowed him to work with other visionaries. He liked to work with brilliant musicians, but only if they muted their egos in favor of his. This is why I have so much respect for someone like Robert Fripp, who would work with anyone big or small if the project was interesting to him.