This week I interviewed Kreg Mosier, the creator of the forthcoming tabletop RPG Noir Wave, for Unwinnable.
Noir Wave is a roleplaying game about an 80s that never was. Think Miami Vice, 21 Jump Street, The Breakfast Club, and every trashy fantasy novel ever made shoved in a blender. Noir Wave would be the freaky concoction that would result.
The art for the game thus far is amazing, and one of the things we spoke at length about was the importance of having a diverse stable of characters.
The game already features images of men, women, and ambiguously gendered persons of all races and body types.
But, as I discussed with my fellow panelists at WisCon this past year, disabled people are still woefully under-represented in science fiction and fantasy. There may be many metaphorical disabilities in genre fiction (the mutant genes of the X-men come to mind) and many characters wind up turning into “Super Crips” (characters like Daredevil who might lose the ability to see but wind up gaining another, even more powerful sense in the bargain), but very few images of characters who just happen to use a cane or have a prosthetic limb or the like.
So, Kreg and I would like to put out a call to all of the artists out there. We want you to design some bodacious fantasy 80s characters living with disabilities for the game!
The character classes are based on the kids from The Breakfast Club, the jock, the nerd, the princess, the burnout, and the weirdo, and I would like to use this exercise as an opportunity to defy stereotypes. For example, let’s see a jock who plays wheelchair basketball. Let’s see a princess with vitiligo and a fierce fashion sense. Let’s see a burnout who uses a hearing aid when he jams out on his guitar.
What other ideas do you have? Message me via email or comment below with pitches or to discuss commission rates. I can’t wait to see what you all come up with!
Oh, and check out Kreg’s Tumblr page for some totally awesome 80s inspiration!
Megan Condis 