Pharaoh’s Workshop is Arthouse tabletop creation
Hi there, we are Sebastian & Mavis and run this small but fine workshop. Pharaoh’s Workshop is a studio (alelier) based in northern Germany and also operated from Thailand, France and Hongkong where we live parts of the year. We are committed to the creation of high quality game worlds for RPG, TTRPG and Tabletop Wargaming and structure our work into three different main categories, each released under a sublabel:
Sounds simple and casual. No, it’s not – Let us explain.
Many tabletop game and RPG creators out there would describe themselves as just creators, content creators or game designers for tabletop games and RPG. You won’t believe how long we have thought about what we are actually doing here and how we should „classify“ that. We were not able to find our style among those descriptions for years and we were not able to find our values and interests reflected in any of those „drawers“. But we somewhat found them in arthouse movies. In arthouse, philosophy and atmosphere are everything. Arthouse is celebrating a theme and/or discussing a deeper thought. This is the way we are working as well. And if there is anything in our creation which does not look this way, then it is at least part of a bigger idea or world which reflects that background. Additionally, one of the most meaningful parts for us in our work is to create scenes and worlds that look and feel like they are really going to soak you in.
We take a bow – Welcome to Pharaoh’s Workshop, welcome to the show, welcome to ArtHouse game worlds!
We are ArtHouse original- and composition artists. But what does art mean for us? – Soaking in experiences. Exploring the world. Following political, social and environmental topics and developments and discussing and transforming related impressions into something new. Telling a story and trying to make people think and reflect. To give our art form, we design and compose. Our mediums are tabletop and rp games and we are working on them in quite a cinematic approach.
Homebrew
You can almost call it a family activity. While Sebastian is the mind behind Pharaohs Workshop and Secrets of Alexandria, his wife Mavis is doing mainly the media design part in photography and video, as well as designing everything behind the Necropolis of Sakkara.
Who are we?
Sebastian
I´m in touch with RPG-, board- and computer games since early childhood and always loved to create new worlds, characters and stories. But I guess my first big love was LEGO, where I could construct, play and tell stories with. Much later I started to get deeply into the acts of drawing, painting and digital modeling, to be able to express my own visions.
After finishing my studies in economics and following a classic academic career for 6 years, I felt that everything was quite stable, but there was something in the back of my mind that told me „This can’t be it, this is not how I want to live my life“. But I needed a kick to give up that convinient, easy and somewhat safe lifestyle. This kick came in terms of a very serious sickness in my early thirties. While mastering it, I had what I would call my personal awakening and I began to ask questions and to act differently. I understood that time is limited, we never know how much we would have and I would regret not having gone „my way“ later on. I did not want to go on living my life this way, not doing what I love every day, sitting in a golden cage just because it was the easiest approach and comfortable for me. And safety? This sickness told me that real and full safety actually does not exist at all. So, instead I wanted to be free and self-determined, no matter what. I quit my former job as a university assistant professor and enthusiastically began to do professionally what I’m living for – finally founding my first studio Awake Arts, which later became Pharaoh’s Workshop. You can imagine, in the beginning this was a very difficult and rocky road to walk with a lot of sleepless and worryful nights. But it was worth undertaking this trek. Ever since my head is almost exploding with ideas and wishes about what I still want to do and create and now I’m at a point where stability is back and I feel finally free. After being married in Hongkong and integrated into Cantonese culture, this characteristic formed my Cantonese first name literally meaning „Freely traveling bus full of wishes and ideas“, chosen and given by my wife and Hongkong friends. It became my signature, also visible in the logo, appearing in turquoise color.
Today, depending on season, we live and work mostly in Germany and Hongkong, and sometimes in Thailand and France. And sometimes adventure calls – Then we have episodes of digital nomadism, working from lots of weird places around the world. Well yeah,… And then there is the always this nagging voice in the back of my mind – Hoisting sails to New Zealand and land to stay. I feel so close to this place and the people… Which brings us back to Arthouse creation. In the future you can expect projects to explore this topic.
Being a culture and landscape, as well as history and fairytale lover, my art approach is highly influenced by frequently made travel and backpacking experiences and of course other authors, film makers/directors and artists – Hironobu Sakaguchi (Japan), J.R.R. Tolkien (* South Africa), Peter Jackson (New Zealand), John Carpenter (USA), George R.R. Martin (USA) Rola Chang (Taiwan), Yoshitaka Amano (Japan), H.R. Giger (Switzerland), Ridley Scott (UK), James Gurney (USA), William Gibson (USA), Quentin Tarantino (USA), Robert Rodriguez (USA), Steven Spielberg (USA) and Masamune Shirow (Japan), just to name a few. Great inspiration also comes through music, e.g. Dream Theater, Naked and the Famous, Perturbator, Carpenter Brut, Iron Maiden, Rammstein and many others are my choice these days.
Mavis
I’m a media artist and design consultant, originally from Hong Kong. At the same time I’m also pursuing to add alternative digital media therapy (mostly music) to my profile. 10 years ago I came to study my Master abroad in Germany and never left again.
My work has been exhibited and performed mostly in Bremen, London and Hong Kong. It attempts to reveal a delicate sense of „introversive“ emotion which reflects the situation of the personal identities being confronted by an immersive ideological ecology carried by contemporary trans-human interaction. Sounds complex – yes, it is :).
During the past time I also became more and more active at Pharaohs Workshop, now mainly caring about everything that is photography and video, as well as the whole design work behind Necropolis of Sakkara. But I also get involved in how our projects should feel like and in which way they discuss the topics which they are about.