Heart of the Deernicorn Inc. has been designing, manufacturing, and distributing tabletop role playing games since 2015. Mo Golden and Ross Cowman are the owners and power couple behind the business. As a publishing gaming company, they needed a name that is memorable, and that fires imagination and curiosity. As with many of their game prompts, they spliced creative narratives resulting in a surreal narrative to inspire autonomy in thought, inviting your own imagination along, and so Heart of the Deerincorn was launched.
They custom screen print textiles (bags, maps and T-shirts), also cards for games, all made by hand from physical drawings, digitized and then screen-printed onto canvas. Included in the games are cast coins designed by local artist Doug Keith, who is a well-known illustrator of Magic the Gathering cards and the children’s books Giant Island, and Something Special (written by Terri Cohlene) and the children’s poster Elfabet. He is also the illustrator of both Cowman’s Games, Fall of Magic, and City of Winter. City of Winter is about immigration set in a fantasy world. Cowman observes we all have our own experiences and perspective about immigration, but he wanted to give people the experiences of immigration without preconceived ideas of nationalities. Storytelling games are different from role-playing games as they don’t involve a dungeon master. They incorporate collaborative world-building into a game about relationships, social science fiction, and fantasy. Cowman oversees product development, creating complicated adventures, turning them into a package that allows you to have the experience without him present.
Cowman says he has been casually designing tabletop games since he was a kid. He published his first game, Serpent’s Tooth, in his spare time in 2012 and has been working full-time professionally since 2015 designing rules and procedures for games. He also manages the practicalities of how the warehouse, and files are set up.
They moved into their space above their current site in 2015, expanding to their street level space in 2017. This space is for manufacturing and marketing purposes, they don’t have a public store front as such, but they do sell from various games outlets, The Mystic (next door), Gabi’s Cards and Comics in Lacey, (who hosts a whole bookcase with a selection of Deernicorn products), Blue Highway in Seattle, and Guardian Games in Portland, OR. Deernicorn also ships anywhere in the world from their online store, and you can pick up from their warehouse doorstep.
In 2017, Cowman and Golden made a game together called Night Forest. It was co-designed by them both, and Golden illustrated it. Designed to be performed outdoors in a woodland setting, either at dusk or lamplight for atmosphere as a meaningful sharing experience as well as a role-playing game, although Cowman admits in some ways it’s not entirely role-playing because the idea is that you are the embodiment of your own wandering memory. The game asks you to share your life experiences and you can choose to be as revealing or concealing with your memory story as your comfort level dictates. In other ways, it is very much a role-playing game as the game asks you to share real memories while interacting with other players, exchanging cards which change the direction of the narrative, while accessing a deeper part of yourself and your past. They advise a safe shared space. Cowman says you are in control of your responses, and the prompts give opportunity to share in a poetic way, poetry being a love of Cowman’s which he studied as a student at Evergreen College.
Golden studied fine art with Marilyn Frasca, also movement with Rob Esposito at Evergreen. She studied oversees with sculptors Yanka Mikhailova in Spain, and Mariana Gabor in Buenos Aires. She says Frasca and Esposito played an important part in providing her with the foundation of recognizing the connection between designed images, with a view to somatic experiences. For example, the practice of working with clay, making tactile items for the home.
Golden started up the business Gold Herring, which makes gift products. Cowman played a supportive part in this business, and Deernicorn still does the shipping for Gold Herring. Golden sold her share in 2023, which allowed her to step into her work with Deernicorn in a more meaningful way.
Golden is starting her own department of their enterprises named Studio Golden, specializing in tactile handmade, home décor, inspiring creativity and connection. Marketing charming, practical and usable home items: vases, ring dishes, wall pockets, all handmade on site. As with Deernicorn, she is starting production herself and slowly ramping up and training staff. Golden will be designing, and they will eventually be employing local artists to make the product.
In the back of the warehouse is Studio Golden, Golden’s art studio. She says her painting process is deep and personal about sensed and emotional experiences as her essential childlike self in her relationship with her natural environment. She says she doesn’t know what or why she creates an image until something emerges and talks to her. She says her painting is the source of her ceramic artworks, that her painting practice is wilder and more ethereal, while her ceramics are more directional and practical, their whimsy is from her paintings.
Golden is currently painting a series with whales and oysters. She was invited to show with Copper Wolf Gallery for a group, ocean-themed show named Tides, also showing other local artists (owners) Danny and Aimee Schreiber, Cass Brown, Lydia Pitts, Mary Kuzmina, and David Cheifetz. The reception will be June 21 from 4-7 p.m.
Golden is from an expressive arts and education background, Cowman comes from his experiences in the music industry, gaming industry, and publishing; Golden has a sensitivity to the human experience, and her observations of how users experience gaming shapes how Cowman thinks about creating and designing games.
Both of their art is geared to facilitating and giving people tools to access creativity and deepen connections with others. It is important to them that their creative business makes jobs for artists, also that products are interactive and create experience and become more self-aware.
Cowman observed that both he and Golden are artists in different ways, but both are trying to create spaces and experiences for people, and they both care about business. Cowman’s strength is his dream and vision and games, Golden’s is sales, marketing and business development, strategy, and game conventions. They don’t feel threatened by each other’s talents and give each other space in the spotlight. When they met they didn’t have experiences with each other’s disciplines, but the combination makes for double the know-how, little friction, and a very exciting product.
Photos by Lynette Charters Serembe.
WHAT:
Heart of the Deernicorn, Studio Golden
WHEN:
- June 21, 4pm-7pm, Mo Golden’s paintings are part of group show at The Copper Wolf Gallery, Tumwater.
- June 28, 10am – 4pm, Studio Golden at Boston Harbor Flower and Art Festival selling ceramic wall pockets and hand painted floral dishes
- Sometime in July, launch of Cowman’s new game BFF! The Golden Years on Kickstarter. If you want to get notified, you can join the Deernicorn discord here: https://heartofthedeernicorn.com/community/
WHERE:
207 4th Ave E, Olympia
LEARN MORE:
HeartOfTheDeernicorn.com, StudioGolden.shop, Hello@mogolden.com, RossCowman@gmail.com