Art Imitating Life

There are times when writing for games is a truly magical experience--even a transformative one. I have said in the past how wonderful it is to be able to work closely with artists and how much I admire their ability to bring life to text and ideas. Watching an artist interpret and transform the text you've written and take it into a new creative dimension is quite an extraordinary thing. Or at least, for me, it is. So imagine my delight then at having an artist--in this case, the talented Scott Purdy--take my likeness and transform it into artwork for an upcoming, storytelling card game. Well, you can see the results to the left and the transformation below.

The 'Family Doctor' card here is part of the recently funded Cthulhu Tales game which I worked on with Francesco Nepitello and Marco Maggi, perhaps best known for 'The War of the Ring' board-game. In the game, players are inmates of an asylum desperately trying to convince doctors, police, or whomever will listen that you are, in fact, wrongly incarcerate and should be freed. Unfortunately for them, the other players are trying to escape as well and more than willing to throw hazards into the inmates way.

My unwholesome transformation into Dr Willett, Charles Dexter Ward's family physician, began with a simple photograph taken by my wife. This was whisked away to Mr Purdy's diabolical workshop and, voila!, my visage became that of the family doctor. You can see three stages of this transformation below.

I love the resulting graphic and I am particularly fond of the final resemblance to the late, great Roger Delgado, 'The Master' of Doctor Who fame. (That's the old, classic 1970's Doctor Who serial, folks, pre-Eccleston/Tennant/Smith/Capaldi/etc.) Anyway, it's an amusing comparison, although Delgado's sinister look beats mine any day.

So, yes, writing for games might not bring you critical accolades, great wealth, or fame, but there are very real perks to be had in working with great people, producing great games, and occasionally being turned into a family doctor.

Up next: An update on the novel...

Cthulhu Tales - Kickstarter

Some months ago, I had the very real pleasure of working with Italian game designers Francesco Nepitello and Marco Maggi, well known for their award-winning War of the Ring game among many others. The project, at that time, that we were working on was called 'Arkham Tales' and, with a slight name change, that project has now come to Kickstarter as Cthulhu Tales.

Cthulhu Tales by Cubicle 7 Entertainment.

Working with these two Venetian gentlemen was a treat as I don't often get called on to work on card games. So it was a great opportunity for me to work in a different gaming genre. The results of my involvement can largely be seen in the titles and text on the cards.

The game is being produced by Cubicle 7 Entertainment who I've worked with a great deal over the past five years and who have become synonymous with high-quality games since their inception. Having had the chance to play-test Cthulhu Tales with my friends, I have no doubt that Cubicle 7 has another hit on their hand here. As always, it was a real pleasure to work with the Cubicle 7 team and to see them turn a project into a thing of beauty.

It is also really nice to see a narrative storytelling game like this making it to market. Add some willing conspirators and you've got all the components you need to spin Lovecraftian tales of your own. It's a lot of fun. Click the link below for Kickstarter page itself. And happy dreams!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/461807648/cthulhu-tales-storytelling-card-game-of-the-cthulh?ref=category_social