Use bants and your noggin to survive an apocalyptic London in “post-Brexit RPG” Shadow of Mogg
You can’t spell Pyrrhic victory without Tory.
They say confronting one’s worst fears can strip them of their potency. Whether or not that’s true, players can explore a post-Brexit UK in RPG Shadow of Mogg, now available in physical and digital form.
Published by Manic Productions, Shadow of Mogg takes place after the Event - a catastrophic turning point for the island nation that nobody speaks about directly. Society has been forced into the underground and survival is a daily struggle with which all must contend. You know, a completely fictional and not-at-all-crushingly-relatable premise.
Designer Panayiotis Lines constructed a dice bidding system alongside full-party voting on every major decision undertaken by the group. Consensus - and who or what stands in the way of such - are important tenets of Shadow of Mogg. Players fill the shoes of everyday people caught up in a cataclysm beyond their control, choosing one of 37 potential classes including the “oppressed proletariat, a humble baker, a nurse, a firefighter, a time traveller or the Chief Executive of RBS,” according to a press release.
Most classes lean hard into a satirical gallows humour, such as the Whigg - outlined in a Tweet from Manic Productions. Their special, Proroguing, allows them to shut down all voting and further propositions for one full day. Proroguing, for those unfamiliar, is the action once described by Matt Hancock as representing “the end of the Conservative party” should it ever take place - before UK prime minister Boris Johnson subsequently moved to prorogue parliament for five weeks ahead of the country’s planned departure from the EU in 2019.
Each boast a few unique abilities and moves that can affect interactions both in combat and when negotiating with fellow survivors, and all of these are modified by one of four key stats - Noggin, Bants, Dash and Hench. Character questions provide a hook for roleplay and provides fuel for the GM to burn in the ashen pyre of society.
As an Old School Revival game - one that hearkens back to the dungeon-delving yesterdays of tabletop where each flesh wound could be fatal - Shadow of Mogg situates most of its interactions within a labyrinth of tunnels stretching beneath the London Underground. As the group explores, random events - both innocuous and life threatening - will complicate whatever mission sent them into the dismal, barely mapped depths to begin with.
Shadow of Mogg will ship an A5 zine sourcebook with more than 90 pages, along with a map of London, post-Event. Both a digital and physical version are available for purchase at £8 and £15, respectively. A hardcover “Shadow of Bozza” special edition is also available for £30 through Manic Productions’ online store.