The Who, What, Where, When and Why of Cave Borg

Who am I?

I’m a graphic designer, illustrator, animator (a bit), gamer, and nerd. I’ve been a gamer for as long as I can remember, the only reason I wanted to learn how to read in elementary school was so that I could read the red box Basic D&D set (which I still have, with seven year old me’s pencil marks still in it). I work full time in the resource industry as a mining company’s branding and design lead. Before that, I worked freelance as a designer and illustrator for various advertising and creative agencies, and also a film production company doing graphic design and concept art. 

My first job related to gaming was doing illustration work for Goodman Games back in 2005. Then I got much deeper into the world of OSR games by doing illustration work for Greg Gillespie’s mega-dungeon Barrowmaze, which led to me designing and illustrating for it’s next iteration, Barrowmaze Complete. After that, I also designed and illustrated his next release, The Forgotten Caverns of Archaia. 

I’ve been fortunate enough to share illustration credits with the likes of Erol Otus, Larry Elmore, Jim Rosloff, Russ Nicholson, Jim Holloway, and Timothy Truman. Artists I idolized as a kid—seven year old me would be proud.

What is Cave Borg? 

First off, Cave Borg is a working title—although I am kind of partial to it! Cave Borg (or whatever it will be called, but for now, that’s how I’ll reference it) is a Mork Borg hack set in a primitive fantasy world of cave people, mammoths, sabre tooth cats, dinosaurs, and even primal demons from the underworld. Inspired primarily by Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal animated series, as well as The Land of the Lost television series, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World, the 1966 film One Million Years B.C., and anything else that has cavemen co-existing with dinosaurs—except for maybe The Flintstones.

Where am I?

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Not that it really matters. But it does mean that there will be no Armor Tiers, but there will be Armour Tiers.

When am I Doing This?

Right now! But this project started back in 2021 during covid lockdown—sort of. To keep myself busy I invited a friend to start meeting once a week to develop our own RPG. We started developing a Star Frontiers inspired sci-fi game with our own ruleset, but as the project started to get larger and larger (and because I can’t focus on a single idea very long before my brain starts coming up with different ideas) we switched to a post-apocalyptic game, and then to a caveman board game. When I discovered Mork Borg, I decided that making a Mork Borg hack was the best route to get this done. Once it’s in a proper state and been play tested, I plan on starting a Kickstarter to fund the production. If successful, I would like to move on to my more expansive ideas for making other hacks with larger scopes, and I already have an idea for a supplement for Cave Borg.

Why am I Doing This?

I’ve been in my design and branding role for over twelve years, and in the last year it’s been a very stressful, chaotic atmosphere, coupled with ongoing family issues, it has created a perfect shit-storm of an environment. At the time of this writing, I’m on leave from my job for my own mental health and to hit “the reset button” on my life and job. For the past twelve years my design work has been almost exclusively corporate, and adheres to strict brand guidelines—but my natural inclination is for dark imagery, inky black chaos, monsters, and grimdark fantasy—so Mork Borg seemed like the perfect fit for me. In design school, I was known as “that guy that paints the ink spattered crows,” and this project is a throwback to those (more creative) times.

Additionally, a friend of mine invited me to illustrate his entry for the Pirate Borg design jam for their upcoming book, Cabin Fever, which we won first place in the miscellaneous category—so I figured the community must at least like my work a little bit!

As for why I’m doing this blog, I hope to get input and feedback (the helpful kind, let’s not be troglodytes!) from the people who play these games, as I am constantly blown away by the creativity and support that I’ve seen in this community. Even if you’re someone who just buys these books for the art and design, I also want those people to like what they see—so far, the feedback has been positive! I’ll be sharing sneak peaks of art and design, as well as discussing ideas for rules and game concepts.

I’m also doing this as a challenge to myself, as I will be be writing, designing, and illustrating the entire project myself. Although, if I have a successful Kickstarter campaign, I would like to bring on a proper editor, and possibly enlist the services of a more well known artist for the cover art.

Most of all: No deadlines. No armchair art directors. No meetings. No brand guidelines. No one typeface to use. No grids. Just creative design and illustration that I want to enjoy making and other people enjoy looking at.

Survive. Evolve. Die. Welcome to Cave Borg.