Greetings Horizoners,
Here in Northern England it's hot. Having to work in an office and commute by bus makes this pretty unbearable, and I don't have a lot of energy or patience to use my commute time effectively for editing, organising, or otherwise catching up on CoOp business. As well as this, it hasn't rained in so long that my evenings are rapidly disappearing with watering plants. And the later sunset mean my kids are wired to stay awake much later. All-in-all, I'm short on time. So there's not a tonne of stuff to report this time.
In lots of Southern European countries there's a culture of adapting to the heat - working early, taking a long break, then working late; having a nap in the middle of the day; or even taking off the entirety of the hottest month of the year. To my eye, it's a culture that values the worker over the work, that prioritises the human producer over the capital produced. And there's goodness in that.
On the other side, I've heard of effective winter shutdowns in extreme northern areas too, which is effectively a similar thing - an excuse to focus on people over profit. It's just us temperate climate fools who have to deal with working in the worst weathers.
As the world heats up, metaphorically and physically, and heatwaves in June become the norm in Northern Europe, we need to come back to looking at our work cultures and evaluate whether it's sensible to have people working in the middle of the day. Can we free up their time to sleep, or pursue their own enjoyments?
Big questions. But vital ones.
Anyway.
News
Brinkwood Bundle of Holding
A long old time ago the Far Horizons CoOp was involved in the making of Erik “The Bearik” Bernhardt’s Brinkwood: The Blood of Tyrants, an anti-capitalist Forged in the Dark game about taking out feudal-era vampires with swords, bows & arrows, and a lot of guts. It’s taking that idea of the rich being blood-suckers to a whole other level, and it’s been consistently one of the bestsellers we’ve been involved with.
We were approached by Bundle of Holding, that wonderful TTRPG institution, to have Brinkwood in one of their bundles, and lo and behold here we are. For another six days from the time of this post, you can get the full Brinkwood collection for $14.95 – that’s the core book, a Codex of expansion material, and the Brinkwood Art Book – at a whopping 73% off.
You can read a bit more on the Beyond the Bundle blog, but honestly I think Brinkwood needs little more selling than what I did there. It’s cool, and if you’ve been waiting to buy it, check out the bundle now.
Project Updates
Far Horizons Guide to Death
Death is probably more than a heartbeat away but we’re processing the 80+ submissions we had to the open call for pitches for the Far Horizons Guide to Death. So far we’re seeing some amazing ideas come out, and I “can’t wait” to filter these down to four games and one essay for the final book. I’m extremely excited and I think you will be too.
A Thousand Burning Stars
Season Two
Season Two of the A Thousand Burning Stars series of small games zines will be spearheaded by long-time CoOp contributor Nynphaiel. They’ve threatened to be extremely organised, and we’re trembling at the prospect. But we’ve got some great authors lined up, from within the CoOp and from beyond its gilded walls, so buckle up, friends, it’s gonna be a ride.
Kobolds: Work Until You Die
Kevin C Bryan’s exploration of work culture through the lens of kobold myths will be out this month, I’m sure of it. Keep your eyes peeled to the FHC Twitter feed or join us on Discord and you’ll find out when it drops.
That’s it for now. Remember: make cool games. wage class war.
— F.H.C.