Get Wild with Exalted Funeral's TAVERS The Meow Wolf Roleplaying Game

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Today, we’ve got a quick interview with Andrew Bellury aka “TIGER WIZARD” of Exalted Funeral Press. EF recently launched a crowdfunding campaign for TAVERS The Game, a TTRPG that tries to create a psychedelic TTRPG experience while offering “collaborative storytelling, tactile inventory management."

It’s a game about “Tavers”, who are people that sense the strange interplanar connections that unite the “TAVE”, a psychic network of people across various planes of existence. It’s a big game with a lot of ideas, and isn’t for everyone. But it’s weird enough that you should give it a look.

The game was made in partnership with the art collective Meow Wolf and Genuine Entertainment.

Could you tell me where this project came from? What sparked the idea of a collab between Meow Wolf, Exalted Funeral and Genuine Entertainment around this game? What sort of history do you have?

Meow Wolf had long wanted a tabletop role-playing game. Joe LeFavi (Genuine Entertainment) got wind of that desire and sought us (Exalted Funeral) out. I had already been to several of the exhibits, but I had just visited the Denver location for the first time when the prospect landed, so I was full brimming with ideas before we even made the first connection. After it was settled I made it a priority to visit the rest of the locations. Very fun way to research a project!

What inspired the idea of TAVERS overall?

I wanted to emulate the experience I had wandering through the various spaces inside of their exhibits. You would be in one totally amazing room, and then pop through a door and be somewhere completely different. The concept of a TAVER already existed in Meow Wolf’s extensive lore, although there was a lot of space to add on and gamify. I allowed myself a lot of time to visit and read through, well, everything they shared with me, before finally settling on TAVERS as the way to go for a Meow Wolf RPG.

What is it that makes the game stand out thematically?

It’s definitely variety. Once you get your hands on a copy, you’ll see that flipping through the pages spans the gamut of vibes. Which, I suppose, is kinda a vibe of it’s own. Perhaps a better way to state the same thing would be that it is open for interpretation from a breadth of perspectives. The consistent themes that come to mind are: putting art forward, encouraging players to make the Meow Wolf worlds their own, and fostering collaboration through creativity. 

What does the play experience look like? How are you trying to capture the chaotic and psychadelic vibes that the game appears to exude through mechanics?

I imagine from an onlooker's perspective it would look like an arts and crafts day in a preschool. Pages and papers and neon colored squares and pencils and markers littered across the table really does sing psychedelic chaos. I like to relate the experience to doing a jigsaw puzzle with a group of friends. Sure, yes when you spill a thousand brightly colored pieces on the table it's a lotta bit chaotic, but over time, as you sort them and figure out where they go, and laugh about it together, and discuss what the bits mean, you end up putting a story together. The mechanics all exist to aid this process.

Can you elaborate on what the inventory management mechanics entail?

All the items (we call them ITEMTRONICALS) in a game of TAVERS are represented by little squares. Small items are one square each, medium are two, and large ITEMTRONICALS are four orthogonally connected squares. As you discover or collect them you’ve gotta place them on a grid in the center of your character sheet. It’s a fun mini puzzle game within the game.

 What about the “backstory-fueled skills?”

MEMvention is the process of creating a MEM (Effectively a Memory or Dream). Much like the normal gameplay progression, players will take turns adding small bits to a short piece of backstory for one character. That player will get to snatch a few words from the backstory (we call these FRAGMENTS) and add them to their MEM BANK. Your bank holds all your one time use FRAGMENTS, so the skilled moves you can accomplish change as you tell new stories from your past.

What does goal-oriented character progression entail? 

Character progression and story progression happen when TAVERS fulfill their Schemes and Sparks. Schemes are specific to the individual TAVERS, and are fun little side goals. Sparks are also specific to the individuals, but they push the story forward. 

How do all of the mechanics above change the TAVERS experience?

All of these mechanics are present to aid the players in group story crafting. I think of these mechanics like guide rails for portal hopping storytelling. Really, every part of the game is intended to give a wide variety of springboards to bounce their ideas off of each other and the wild environments they find themselves in.

How would you describe the appeal of the game? 

I’ve been using the term “a collaborative drawing experience in tabletop roleplay form”, but you could also describe the limitlessness of an open creative world.

What sort of stories are you trying to tell with this game?

Haha. Well. This one has been tough for me from the beginning. The easy answer is, whatever the players want, but, I am also a storyteller. In designing this game I’ve struggled to not fill in blanks that are intended for the players to find and make their own assumptions about. It’s really cool to see in playtesting all the different sorts of stories that can emerge from play from the same prompts. All the while, I’m watching, thinking to myself, “I want this to happen” or “What if I push this thing to exist” The game really is a storytelling game, and the fun really comes out as players figure out what kind of stories they want to tell.

What role do the distinct art and soundtrack play in the game? 

Again, it’s all about the variety. So many amazing artists are already tied to the project with more on the way. This game is an art object, and the soundtrack adds yet another sensory experience to the game. While you don’t need to use it for background music during play, the tracks are so good that you might need them for your next dance party.

Tavers, the RPG, is available for crowdfunding here.

What are your thoughts? Send any scoops, tips or press releases to [email protected].