“I live on a boat and my access to actual miniatures is a bit of a problem because I can't store stuff,” miniature designer Rob Mafrici explains. While he describes the narrowboat as “palatial” compared to his last home, a Mercedes Sprinter, moving onto the British waterways meant he had to get rid of nearly all of his wargaming equipment. Minis, bits boxes, hardback rulebooks, none of it could make the move. However, Mafrici wasn’t going to let that stop him from having a good time.

His all-natural spin on the wargaming hobby began as one miniature, but at the behest of friends and out of love for the Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game, Malifaux, and Magic the Gathering, one model turned into Fae, an entire game system built from twigs and acorns and designed from his narrowboat’s cramped engine room.

“I've always enjoyed small spaces and I've enjoyed the challenge of that,” Mafrici says. “So being on the boat wasn't a weird change.” He’s been aboard for two years now, buying it as a wreck and gradually learning how to fix it up so he can actually move it from where it’s currently—and, for the time being, immovably—moored. But he wasn’t going to let his hobby suffer because he didn’t have room for a cutting mat or a six-foot gaming table.

There’s a 3D printer hidden in a cupboard. His bits boxes are small and focused. But there’s no chance he could find the space for a bulky Warhammer 40k box set like Armageddon, even if he wanted to. However, he was determined to ensure his hobby wouldn’t suffer due to his waterborne living situation.

What Is Naturebashing?

“Out of desperation, I just started grabbing random sh*t off the canal and building stuff out of twigs and branches, just as a bit of fun because I didn't have anything else,” he says. “I made one miniature out of it and was really surprised at how easy it was and how effective it was.”

It’s worth noting here that Mafrici has a background in design. From his parents drawing fantasy illustrations when he was a child, to five years of experience as a toy inventor for companies like Lego and a further five years starting his own outdoorswear brand, Mafrici has always innovated and created. But he swears that “naturebashing”, as he calls it, is just as easy for anyone with a creative mind—“it’s literally just gluing some twigs together,” he assures me.

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He makes one concession when it comes to the natural elements he creates with. “The minute I put a [plastic or resin] goblin head on one of these little things, I was like, ‘oh, it's completely brought into the world of miniatures.’ You need that tiny detail to make it work.

“For a long time I was trying to fight against that and trying to make it completely natural. But, in the grand scheme of things, a few grams of resin allows people to get outside, to interact with nature, to have an excuse to enjoy the environment, and learn about it. That’s the coolest thing about Fae.”

Warhammer Inspirations

Mafrici had his miniatures, but he wanted more. Drawing inspiration from his love for his favourite aforementioned tabletop games, Fae combines a focus on movement with card-based abilities to create a fluid skirmish game. However, his most surprising inspirator isn’t a game at all.

“I want to make a game that I can play out in the woods because I love camping, but there's a lot of downtime in camping,” he says. “I love that downtime, it's the best part of camping, but I'm also a f*cking nerd and I want to be able to do shit.”

However, he has been careful with the design. The character profiles are incredibly simple—there’s no wargear or anything to keep track of—and combat works exactly like Games Workshop’s iconic Lord of the Rings system. The complexity comes through a deck of cards, which represent spells your units can use to manipulate terrain or positioning to eke out a victory in a variety of scenarios.

“My intent with the cards was to bring all of that depth and complexity, but in a way that doesn't require you to look in a rulebook every five minutes—a deck of cards is just a rulebook broken up into pieces that you can have in your hand when you need it,” he says. Reducing cognitive load was vital not only to ensuring players don’t have to remember an entire rulebook’s worth of information (as well as any individual rules and errata), but also to keep the game running smoothly.

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I played an early version of Fae at Fringe Fest earlier this year, and even in this early iteration, it plays well. I took charge of the high-flying faeries, while my opponent controlled a horde of eager goblins. While I didn’t quite get my faerie rings online in time to capture the objectives, I saw Mafrici’s vision and can’t wait to see how he’s iterated on that core concept for the full release.

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As for how it will release, that remains to be seen. Mafrici believes that digital is the future, so I foresee STL files of his goblin heads and faerie wings. The WIP rulebook is already available for free, and is updated regularly as he playtests and changes things. Both Mafrici and I would love to see premium, glossy cards, so perhaps a Kickstarter is in order, as countless other independent game makers have found success through that route? What matters most to Mafrici, though, isn’t making his fortune or having a hit game. It’s getting people outside.

“I spent so many years in what would be considered most people's dream job,” he says. “But it was only when I got away from all of that and just started doing things that I was really nerdy and obsessed with that I was creatively fulfilled. [...] Only when I've put myself out there doing something that I would consider a piece of art, I felt completely creatively fulfilled and happy. And I feel like more people should just f*cking do that. It’s scary, but it’s good. Get into the community, get into nature. Touch some grass.”

Warhammer 40K

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