INKYFINGERS: January Update II
Hello, all! I was mentioned in the Tavern Quiz!!! Were you one of the teams that got the answer right?? I've come over all bashful. Awww. Anyway, here's what's coming up at the Tavern:
THE BLACK ARCHIVES - Do you want to dip your toes into an RPG system other than D&D? The Black Archives are here to entice you, with two sessions still available on Friday 17 Jan. One of our amazing GMs will be running 'A Familiar Problem', which may be familiar (pardon the pun) to Critters as the rules-light game designed by Grant Howitt and created by Marisha Ray, while another of our amazing GMs will run 'Black Mass', a tarot-based story-building game by RPG powerhouse Will Jobst. Tickets are available below.
BLOODTIDE 4: A NEW HOPE - Those looking to Blood their Tide may yet have an oppurtunity. Our latest Aeturnum Narrative Event sold out in a record 10 minutes, so we are doing the unspeakable and opening ANOTHER TABLE. Tickets for this forbidden table will be going live tomorrow night at 7PM. Be sure to check the link below if you are interested.
LOST PROPERTY - Do you have a set of 6 dice missing their 7th? Over the course of the last 9 months or so, we've amassed a frankly shameful amount of lost dice and other property. While we do make an effort to reunite lost items with their owners, we are going to have to make space and dispose of these things accordingly. If you know that you have left something behind at the Tavern, please get in touch so we can save it from the incinerator.
TAVERN QUIZ - The next Tavern Quiz takes place on Monday 27 Jan. Tickets are available on the night, however, we recommend booking tickets in advance HERE to avoid disappointment. Ringo also wanted me to mention that Assassin's Creed Valhalla had a sidequest that paid homage to The Prodigy's Keith Flint. Weird.
ILLIMAT - We'd like to extend a huge Thank You to Keith and Jenn of Twogether Studios for not only dropping in and having a look around the Tavern, but also donating a copy of their gorgeous game Illimat to the boardgame library! If you're unfamiliar with Illimat, it's a game that was made in conjunction with the band The Decemberists, and evokes memories of traditional card games and infuses them with deep arcane mysticism. We recommend giving it a shot next time you're in!
I SAW THE TAVERN GLOW - AH! The light! It burns! Oh... wait... no it doesn't. It's actually quite pleasant. After what felt like an interminable wait, the illuminated portraits of the four Guild heads of Adrestia have been installed and cast their beauteous light into the Apothecary. Of course, this now means fewer shadows for me to skulk in. I must talk to management about that.
STAFF PROFILE - Luna is one of the co-owners of the Tavern and is the font of all things aesthetic and lore within these walls. Mimics fear her, necromancers want her, and this is what she has to say:
Thank you Inkyfingers, it’s always an honour.
I’m Luna, the reprehensible braincriminal and sword lesbian responsible for much of the nonsense contained within the Arcanist’s Tavern. I’m the tavern’s resident Creative Director, Designer and Writer - I create many of the things you can see and touch, and come up with excuses as to why they are there.
I fell in love with games at an early age, and soon became obsessed with creating my own. I lost countless hours writing my own ‘choose your adventure stories’ in old notebooks, replete with questionable illustrations. As a young queer kid growing up in rural Britain, these worlds were a comfort and safe escape.
TTRPGs didn’t enter my life until much later. I’d always heard wild stories about D&D growing up, but never had the chance to play until I moved to London to become a teacher and freelance designer. I quickly realized the old adage is true, no D&D is better than bad D&D - so after a few questionable one-shots I decided to take the wheel.
Lockdown provided the perfect justification to start writing, which led to a 2 year home game which genuinely changed my life. I rediscovered my passion for creative writing and performing, and also came to terms with a lot of aspects of myself. I’d already come out years ago, but D&D provided a safe environment to explore aspects of gender expression that up to that point I’d been too anxious to embrace.
As a writer, I love creating weird little games that explore and capture the catharsis of queer joy, but also the ugliness and isolation of growing up so in a deeply bigoted nightmare country. Dismantling late-stage capitalism is also a running theme it seems, as are bones (and the things people do with them). I’m inspired by a lot of gross 90s anime OVAs, Twin Peaks, everything that has slid out of David Cronenberg’s brain, PS2 survival horror games, and the hit 2015 action role-playing video game Bloodborne.
Until next time, adventurers!
I.
