The Apocalypse Players
At some point we must admit we are of the World. But not today. Less than Horsemen, more than likely people (of a sort), we are certainly Players. Dreaming cultists? Quite possibly… These Are Our Names:
Dominic Allen
Writer, Actor, Lore Keeper and sometime Cheese monger, Dominic Allen — or Dom, as his followers call him — is a notorious gamer and Staffordian. Hailing from the deep pits of the Black Country, his gouty brilliance with Call of Cthulhu plotting and dungeon administration borders on the savant. No system is safe from Dominic’s charms, however. His experiments in Indie gaming are appalling and delicious. Merciless and yet sensitive, he stalks the discord servers and rehearsal rooms of the land in search of would-be players at every opportunity.
Studying as a linguist, few humans can dare to hold a candle to Dom’s terrifying etymological tenacity. His ability in the field of semantics is only matched by his powers of performance and indeed his ability to eat vast quantities of cheese. Normal men would suffer sweats and worse. Dominic is not cheese-normal.
Fortune took Dominic to the West and to Bristol to train in the dark arts of acting at the infamous Old Vic school. It is no accident that the Severn Valley is of course the setting for the great Brichester stories of Ramsey Campbell and Dom’s own dark works have taken juicy and gruesome inspiration from Campbell’s vile Estuary and Lake inhabitants.
Dominic now lives in London, too close to the Queen. He is preparing a trilogy of scenarios for publication set in and around the American Wars of Independence, perhaps partly inspired by his one man show regarding Thomas Paine. The working title of the collection is of course The Yellow King:
King George III in coronation robes, Allan Ramsay circa 1765, Public Domain
Dominic can be found being uncharacteristically diplomatic on twitter at @domjallen
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Joseph Chance
The only Apocalypse Player whose name does not begin with D (for Demonic? Devilish? Deranged?), Joseph is also actually a Michael. Raised in Norfolk and a gamer since 985AD his ageless facial exterior belies a terrifying Lichedom the power of which is not even understood by himself. Indeed he believes he was “born” in the 1970s and will relate to anyone who will listen his first encounter with roleplaying (Red box D&D) with his brother in the GM chair in 1986.
Having read English Literature at a reputable university of an equal, if not greater status to Miskatonic U itself, Joseph foolishly pursued the theatrical arts at the London Academy, embarking upon a stage career, and ruining any hopes of fiscal standing or stability. A life spent at the edge of theatrical success has left him inclined towards the worship of ritual and dangerous cults of improvisation.
Chance, fireside capering, masked
Providence drove Chance to the old borough of Bedfordshire where he now lives with his wife and only child – a pale, curious creature with an air of other worldly strangeness and too many teeth for its head. Joseph is currently writing a sequence of British Weird Tales for accompanying scenarios, alongside an Elizabethan era campaign for classic Call of Cthulhu. His wife is extending the very large barn that sits, squat and ominous, at the end of their rambling garden. The sound of hammering is incessant.
Joseph will ignore correspondence on twitter at @josephchance2 (who's Joseph Chance 1? Poor Michael has already had to change his name once...)
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Danann McAleer
Part-man, part spirit of misrule, Danann McAleer grew up in many different places, claiming association with Fenland, the West Country, Ireland and Hyperboria. He is the only member of the Apocalypse Players to be named after a god. No M.R. James story is safe from Danann’s clutches, though his appetite for horror is eclectic and includes a dalliance with Death Metal stylings alongside Shakespearean leanings.
Rumour has it that Danann was born atop a singing stone dolmen. Music has pursued him throughout his life. He believes the podcast is created by darke magicke. The thought of an RPG of the 2012 video game Dark Souls has been known to bring moistness to his eye. Even a 5e version is enough to tempt his gamer’s spirit.
Danann is starting the revolution on twitter at @danannmcaleer
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Dan Wheeler
Actor, writer, editor, voiceover artist, there is no end to the list of things that Dan is truly terrible at. He’s a self-proclaimed arsehole and makes no apologies for it. He has infuriatingly low levels of respect for anyone who disagrees with him on that matter — or, indeed, anything else.
The only person in the world misfortunate enough to have shared a stage with each of the other players, Dan now lives in a liminal space between waking and sleeping, anxiety dream and daytime nightmare, acting and yet not acting. His quest for knowledge has sent him on a circuitous journey around the country, from Hampshire to Yorkshire to London and now seemingly to Bristol (where he resides in a house built on a foundation of woodlice with walls carved out of pure porridge), although it is a strange and unexpected view he sees from his window…
Begetter of unholy spawn, Dan’s chief responsibility is the thankless task of shepherding a precocious 3-year-old seer through the world. She sees faces that aren’t there and talks of horrors beneath the floorboards, and licks tombstones in the storied cemetery around the corner…of which, more anon. Some of her occult trance-visions can be seen below:
A ghoul?
Headless Horseman?
Mi-go?
A mothers’ day card.
Dan can be insulted on twitter at @danwheeleruk