Northern Iron - Our brand of humour

One of the fun parts of writing this world was maintaining a light hearted atmosphere despite the harsh realities of civil war and the atrocities that would no doubt be committed by all factions. Part of this comes from several visual gags that reoccur throughout the game world.

One of the most prominent visual gags is the use of billboards, often showing propaganda, or having been horribly vandalised by the marauders in inventive and amusing ways.

The use of pin-ups that depict male models in Bettie Page style poses is a common gag that was hit upon almost immediately due to its resonance with the personality of the central protagonist Rachael Chadwick. The drawing above was done by my friend Jeff Maddison after I discussed the idea of using male pin-ups as a visual gag and his been instrumental in shaping the humour of the game.

This pin-up was created by Adam who was amused by the idea.

This pin-up was created by Andy specifically for the Weapon of Sass Destruction and combines several Northern English stereotypes with an image of Bettie Page in a martini glass, swapping out the stockings for hairy legs, the martini glass for a pint glass, the skewer for a pick axe and hair for a flat cap and beard inspired by an AC/DC album cover.