We're all very leftist, and it's quite an overwhelmingly majority Queer space. In fact, during the pandemic, the numbers of cooperatives founded in both the UK and US increased, and worldwide the trend has been increasing since the financial crisis of 2007/2008. Typically cooperatives are most often founded in times of economic turmoil and precarity because of their emphasis on fulfilling needs over collecting profits. Though United Paizo Workers is the first of its kind, more and more creatives like Shepherd are organising around labour issues through cooperatives.įar Horizons has published over a dozen different projects, including the recent Guide to Cults book. However, the conditions its writers, artists and creatives are organising against are not just limited to one company, and the solutions to those conditions are similarly manifold. In the past four years of its existence, Far Horizons (originally called San Jenaro) has published nine anthologies, two standalone games, two system-agnostic guides (including the recent crowdfunding campaign for its Guide to Cults), all the while prioritising a democratic way of organising and paying people for their labour.įar Horizons is a part of a growing labour movement within the tabletop roleplaying industry, the media’s coverage of which has so far been limited to the successful unionisation efforts at Pathfinder publisher Paizo. Shepherd is one of 50 members of Far Horizons Co-op, an international workers cooperative of fellow tabletop RPG designers, writers, artists and creatives looking to model a more equitable and sustainable way of publishing in the industry. And then they have this body of work which they've done, but nothing to show for it. “They’re paid very badly, often not paid, often had their work cut out at the last minute, meaning that contractually, they don't need to get paid. “TTRPG freelance writers have typically been treated incredibly poorly,” says designer, organiser and podcast host Marx Shepherd.