[Tabletop Thursday, 27.03.25] A Nearly-Full-Monty (Python RPG) Column.
I’ll be putting out a Content Roadmap and Podcast/Blog update about some slight changes to how we’re approaching promotion and news items on the ISC Blog. Stay tuned!
Right now though, I’ve got an instalment of Tabletop Thursday for you, this one focused specifically on the latest treasure-trove items made available by excellent community stalwarts Exalted Funeral.
These guys have been in operation since 2018, founded by Cristin and Matt Kelley. Their vision has always been to bring the grittier, more avant-garde side of the indie and 3rd party publisher periphery further to the forefront of a primarily DnD-ed public consciousness. By the looks of their overall expansion and recent successes through the Before Times, lockdown-hell and to the present day, I’d say they’re doing a metal-as-fuck job of it!
For instance, financial reports from the org themselves indicate growth from around $1m revenue to upwards of near $5m in recent times, as well as a doubling of their current staff from 5 to 10. Might not seem like much compared to the traditional organisational structure, however you’ve got to remember this is an industry where profit margins are often razor-thin. As with the music industry, any increase in staffing is demonstrative a company is achieving growth in a sector often infamous for the opposite.
I believe I’ve waxed lyrical on this blog (as well as the podcast, socials etc) about my love for this metal-as-fuck indie RPG publisher/distributor. And why not? I mean, dude - just check out some of the artwork below, as well as the thematic flavour of their roleplaying-smorgasbord. It’s often either progressive avant-garde jazz in RPG form, or a roiling storm-front of grimdark black metal TTRPG nastiness.
Much like the scope and emotional range of the heavy music underground, the independent and third-party publishing industry for tabletop RPGs, board games, video games, minis, terrain and other hobbyist ventures has a creative and emotional depth to it that might lie unperturbed. That is, until folks like ourselves get out our polyhedral garden tools and get to working on exhuming some brutally awesome stuff.
Enjoy, support the scene, welcome to another Tabletop Thursday.
Peace, Love and Thrash-Metal-Coded RPG Publishers xoxo - Brady.
Recent Stirrings From The Crypt - Thu 27th March, 2024:
The Job - Backerkit Pre-Launch Page Now Open For Sign-Up!
Shake down that local delicatessen owner, park your car a block away and flick a cigarette nonchalantly to noir jazz… or something similar. ‘Cause The Job is an RPG that’ll transplant you into the seedy underworld of heists, shakedowns, seizures, plots and escapades! Like a Quentin Tarantino rendition of Blades In The Dark, this one’s all about planning, navigating and carrying out professional forever-borrowing without the local John Q. Law nabbin’ ya - all within a very pulp/pop-culture aesthetic.
Capice?
Plus, peep that artwork:
I’d love to see Guy Ritchie run a game of this, honestly. Anyone wanna send him the link? Go on.
Straight from the getaway-drivers’ mouth, here’s the scoop on what antics you’ll be getting up to - plus a primer on the mechanics, which sound easier to get into than a cheese-steak after a hard day of dodging stakeouts:
“THE JOB is a tabletop roleplaying game, leaning into the narrative, story-driven genre. In conventional RPGs, winning or losing is irrelevant. In this game, however, it isn’t. Players have a clear objective: to pull off a heist. They either do it, or they don’t. The game is played in two phases, Preparation and Action. In the first phase, players devise their master Plan.
In the second, they put it into action and discover how (ill-)prepared they were. This phase is played with a teetering dice stack that may fall with any failed action, potentially compromising the entire heist.”
Mechanics are light, simple and easy to follow. Don’t want Louie and Fingers McGee (shhh, I don’t have a mook/mobster/arch-thief NPC name generator open right now, ‘kay?) forgettin’ the ropes in the middle of a snatch-and-grab, eh?
Twelve scenes. One heist. Zero do-overs.
“No long-winded backstories, no stats to crunch—just a slick, high-tension system where the only thing standing between you and success is a tower of dice teetering on the edge of disaster. The more risks you take, the higher it gets. Knock it over three times? Game’s up, you’re busted, enjoy your life behind bars.
But if you pull it off… well, let’s just say there’s a cocktail with your name on it, somewhere far, far away.”
Suss on the offer so far? Good work, kid. Stayin’ sharp and getting all the minute details’ll help you land a successful heist and a good night with your table-crew.
We made a little birdy sing (don’t ask how), and here’s the loot promised by a successful sign-up button-smash:
The Job Boxset
Crack open the The Job boxset and you’re holding everything you need to pull off the most audacious heist of your tabletop career—no safecracking required. Inside, you’ll find:
The Job Book – A5 size, 48 pages of pure heist-delight, including rules, stunts, and enough cinematic inspiration to make you feel like a criminal mastermind.
Character Sheets – Fully reusable, eight of them, because your crew might not survive the heist, but at least the paperwork will. Comes with a dry erase marker for on-the-fly aliases and last-minute panic edits.
Briefing Notepad – Your go-to for scheming, plotting, and pretending you have a clue what you're doing.
Dice – All d6s, fifteen of them, because let’s be honest, you’re gonna need ‘em.
Reusable Plan Sheet – The grand blueprint of your heist. Will it be a masterpiece or a roadmap to disaster? Either way, you’ll get to use it again.
Backer Exclusive Adventure!
2. Monty Python’s Cocurricular Mediaeval Reenactment Programme Has Stomped Down Like A Massive Cartoon Foot On The EF Store!
I’ll quote Exalted Funeral directly to start off, as even the Cliff-Notes summary of this completely whacky, loveable TTRPG absolutely reeks of Monty (and spam):
About The Book:
Betwixt these firm yet supple covers, one shall find everything one needs to experience the joy of Mediaeval study, from character creation and factions to ready-to-run quests and monsters – including the French! One need not be familiar with Monty Python’s work, nor is experience with ‘role-playing games’ required. If you have experience with the latter, you are probably too silly a person to participate and should stop reading immediately.
Features:
An original rules-lite gaming system with spam.
Guidance on designing adventures with spam.
Ready-to-run quests, spam, and guidance on designing one's own adventures.
Character creation, spam, bestiary, spam, and Dramatis Personae sections.
Tables for generating all sorts of things with spam.
Original hand-painted illumination
6.2% more spam.
I was fortunate enough to have employment around the time the Kickstarter campaign for this one launched, thus snagged my own copy.
Don’t believe me? Think I’m as daft as those silly English k-nnnnnnnnnn-i-g-hts?
Well, silly English wipers-of-other-people’s-bottoms (whose fathers smelt - of elderberries!)! How’s about I launch a retort sailing through the air, digitally squashing such pre-emptive scoffs like a peasant under a catapulted wooden siege rabbit?
First, the absolutely fire packaging for the dice set as part of my pledge tier (available via the web-store, link below). Oh, there’s also a d30 …. because reasons, that’s why.
Not to mention some other very interesting proprietary dice additions as well, if you look closely enough:
Yep, that’s a dead-parrot die on the bottom left there. Heh, die.
Smaller RPG add-on packaging usually goes the way of recycling, if space is an issue, but I honestly don’t see myself parting with this gorgeous holder of packaged polyhedrals any time soon. It’s the legendary black beast of Argh, after all!
The book itself, whilst a little damaged around the corners due to being punted several quests for the Holy Grail in length, is absolutely gorgeous too.
Let me know if you’d like either a blog and/or video flip-through, because the art style contained within is exactly what the front cover below implies, and then some.
There’s a level of attention to the madcap Terry Gilliam master-stroke pastiche of clippings, classical artwork, detailed caricatures and bonkers cat-scratch cartoons the man was known for. Honestly, my pledge was worth it from the artwork alone.
See?
“It’s only a model…”
The mechanics themselves just ooze Monty Python energy, and my read of the book so far concurs it being faithful to their own…. particular…
‘Idiom, sir?’
Idiom!
Some much flashier snaps taken from the campaign and site, from those higher up in the Department of Light Entertainment than I:
This is the Public School Edition (I copped the Sensible Middle Class Edition).
Quoth EF:
“This limited edition version of Monty Python’s Cocurricular Mediaeval Reenactment Programme features a faux leather cover with debossed gold foil.
It is exactly the same as the Sensible Middle Class Edition on the inside but far, far more sophisticated and pretentious on the outside.”
… did I mention the titular adornment for the Gamemaster is not ‘Dungeon Master’ but HoLE?
Yep. Head of Light Entertainment.
Which opens you up for a (w)hole lot of bad puns when your definitely-cheeky players inevitably fire your Persona for bad programming.
Oh yeah - you adopt personalities in an MC-like manner, and those both need to be acted and are at constant risk of being booed off the stage/TV set. I’ll go into that in further detail in future, but as someone who is terrible with just about every aspect of game-mastery aside from putting on a range of voices and personas, I’m very keen to try out some of the many zany avatars available for the… HoLE.
Anyway, here’s a HoLE-screen! It’s literally a screen for your HoLE!
I didn’t procure this with my pledge, and now I feel morally and spiritually compelled to. Almost as though someone had given me some form of quest, with divine importance. Hmm.
psst. Did I also mention they have a GODDAMN DICE CATAPULT?!
Yep. Even better, this is part of an almost-separate board game called Fetchez La Vache which is literally about catapulting cows at people! It’s 3 games in one! GO LOOK AT IT HERE! IT’S GLORIOUS.
Last little precursor - yes, I was lucky enough to obtain these cloppy clackers in my campaign pledge - what Monty Python tabletop rendition would be complete without two empty ‘alves of coconuts, let alone clapping them loudly at the table to establish dominance in any arguments over African versus European swallows, migratory patterns and the like?!
It goes without saying that all these precious artifacts of RPG tomfoolery are now available across the globe, via the links below. Go on, have a crack. They’re fun to clop around the house with and annoy any fellow enjoyers of your domicile!
Also, there’s even a free sneak-peek preview for those being repressed! A free quick-start guide for those experiencing violence inherent in the system!
CLICK HERE, bloody peasant!
All this looks about as serious as a lengthy educational brief from the Ministry of Silly Walks, but I’m serious that from my read of the RPG so far? It’s properly fleshed out, at 250+ pages, and actually contains some decent heft and scope both for running pre-made adventures or creating your own, creating outlandish characters and some surreal situations, beasts, NPCs and the like. All the tropes are there, and then some.
I’ll get more into the finer details of this RPG at another time, if there’s any interest/demand to do so.
Until then, I’ll encourage you to check out the links below for all things Exalted (and Monty).
Beyond that, be sure to follow us here/on our social media, Youtube channel, podcast etc (links all around ya, but also at the bottom) for more Dicey News, Tabletop Thursdays columns, podcast episodes with interviews, reviews, topical discussions and more on all things hobbies, arts, tabletop and mental health.
More? Yeesh, I don’t know.
Maybe take some sage advice given by a silent hermit, suddenly jolted from his meditations by a certain religious fugitive named Brian…
Just kidding. That’s mean.
Love you guys, you’re a great community.
