Alien conspiracy theories, comic books and D&D come together in the weird and wonderful universe of Secret Unknown Stuff

Words by Eric Watson

‘INSTEAD OF HAVING A MID-LIFE CRISIS WE CREATED A BOARD GAME’

What do you get when you bring together a cigarchomping grey alien, a tentacled family of four and a sentient twoheaded cow named Snippy Von Bell? Either the greatest sci-fi B-movie of all time, or the party members from RPG dungeon-crawler Secret Unknown Stuff: Escape from Dulce.

Secret Unknown Stuff is Sentient Cow Games’ pulpy sci-fi universe that counts among its eclectic inhabitants mutated monsters, killer robots and time-travelling samurai. Escape from Dulce comes packed full of miniatures, character sheets, colourful dice and even a 3D tower – representing the real-world conspiracy of an underground government research facility near the town of Dulce, New Mexico, that your motley crew is trying to escape from.

An expensive RPG with minis and a 3D board is rarely a winning formula for first-time game creators. But the creative masterminds behind Secret Unknown Stuff have not only successfully shipped their debut game – they are already writing the next two chapters in the wacky sci-fi series.

ORIGIN STORY

Sentient Cow is made up of three newcomers to the gaming industry, but who all hold years of experience in entertainment, writing, acting and art design.

Chris Weller and Donna Ackerson are married, and previously worked at a toy company.

“I worked in the toy industry for 20 years, and started doing toy packaging for Marvel in the late nineties – it was a dream job,” says Weller. He went on to work on several comic-book movies, including the early Spider-Man fllms and the first few movies from Marvel Studios.