Category: The Silver Road

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The Burn: Making the Wee Folk

For The Silver Road setting book The Burn, I knew we would need something different. 

The locations in the book are real – albeit seen through the eyes of memory and a kind of folkish magical realism. 

The wee folk who you play seemed really the crux of the whole thing. And of course coming out of finishing up the Maskwitches Redux, models and sets were on my mind. But in this case the sets were life size – the real places along the Polmont Burn, just moments from my door, and coincidentally where the author Malcolm played as a child. 

It seemed like a good idea to build some figures and I have wanted to do this for a while. The pre-made figures I used for Maskwitches have their advantages, but also many limitations. 

I already had some armature wire on hand – it’s thick, but very flexible metal wire that bends easily but stays where you put it. It’s easy to cut, despite being several millimetres thick. I enjoy working with it. 

Continue reading “The Burn: Making the Wee Folk”
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The Making of Maskwitches Continues!

Jon’s dedicated Maskwitches Redux blog is the place to find all the latest new and articles about the progress of the upcoming new edition of Maskwitches of Forgotten Doggerland.

Check out some of the latest posts:

Making Tools:
Lots of images, lots of text about the making of tools for the new edition, and some of the contextual issues arising.

Read it now

Work continues:
This post has a selection of the latest photographs and images made for the new books. Check out the covers for To The Ice Caves and The Meat Spoiler Redux

Read it now

A Journey out of niches:

A long form piece considering why we make things, and what matters.

Read it now
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Conpulsion in Edinburgh: Talks and more!

This coming weekend (March 30-31st) it’s Conpulsion in Edinburgh, Scotland, and we will be there with our stall, as well as taking part in a bunch of talks. We have a long history with Conpulsion, even before Handiwork Games was a thing, so it’s always a delight to be in attendance and to be able to contribute to the show!

Innovation in Games Design
Saturday 13:15—13:45:
With: Tanya Floaker and Jon Hodgson

A panel looking at how you can innovate in games design to create better and more playable games, with insights from two experienced designers and publishers.
Jon Hodgson is a games designer, artist and writer, as well as the owner of Handiwork Games.
Tanya Floaker is a games designer active in the indie gaming scene and has successfully crowdfunded several innovative RPG projects.

See https://handiwork.games and https://floaker.itch

History and Gaming
Saturday 12:15—12:45
With: Aleksandra Brokman and Malcolm Craig

A panel about projects exploring gaming history and applying multimedia approaches from two celebrated ENnie-nominated games designers with strong links to Conpulsion.
Malcolm Craig, acclaimed author of a|state, Cold City and Hot War who is now a senior lecturer in history at Liverpool John Moores University. Malcolm is working with Handiwork Games as an integral part of his research work into the history of nuclear war in roleplaying games.
Aleksandra Brokman, acclaimed author of Wise Women and host of the Lamias actual play stream, has a series of Vampire the Masquerade essays on YouTube deep diving into the evolution of clans over the editions of the game.

See https://handiwork.games/cold-city-hot-war and https://ksandra.itch.io and https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKkMR3i11sDcJ6EHE56j6y8pcb-WAGZ5v&si=YeUxFRlUafkpqRk6

History in Games/Games in History: Live!
Saturday 14:15—15:00
With: Jon Hodgson and Malcolm Craig

Come and be part of a live recording of the History in Games/Games in History podcast. Not only listen to Jon and Malcolm like you can on the internet, but see them live and ask them questions too.
Dr Malcolm Craig is a senior lecturer in history at Liverpool John Moores University.
Jon Hodgson is a games designer, artist and writer, as well as the owner of Handiwork Games.
Together they fight crime talk about history in games and games in history!

See https://handiwork.games/history-in-games-games-in-history-podcast

20 years of a|state: Ask Me Anything
Sunday 13:15—14:00:
With: Malcolm Craig and Paul Bourne

Malcolm Craig and Paul Bourne, the creators of a|state, launched the first edition upon the world at Conpulsion 2004. Now available in a beautiful, full-colour Second Edition, Conpulsion 2024 gives you the chance to ask them anything about the game and their reflections of a|state’s 20 years.

See: https://handiwork.games/games/astate

Get your tickets for Conpulsion in Edinburgh here:

Conpulsion Tickets
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Handmade Maskwitches: A Return to Doggerland

We made our RPG Maskwitches of Forgotten Doggerland as an art experiment with an early version of AI. Which very quickly proved itself to be something we were not keen to be involved in: over a very short space of time it moved from an interesting new planet to explore to something else entirely. So we’ve left it behind.

But the Maskwitches game remains good, and we want to remake it with new all handmade artwork, which is well within our powers to achieve. It’ll be a long term project, but that’s ok.

While we will lose some of the especially weird reflexive nature of exploring the deep past through the eyes of something so contemporary and unknown as AI, we feel it’s worth continuing the game in a new direction.


And so here is a candid look at the first outing of the model we’ve made for the cover, a sort of horrific “Girl’s World” from the other side. Enjoy.

Find out more about Maskwitches of Forgotten Doggerland
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Podcasts and Streams

It seems like a busy week for enjoying content around our games!

The latest Yes Indie’d podcast features Paul Beakley, and he has some very kind things to say about a|state: “It is in my opinion the best Forged in the Dark game out right now”.

The a|state chat begins at 43:54, but Paul is a very interesting guy to listen to, so we highly recommend the whole thing. And if you missed his deep dive on a|state, be sure to check that out!

You can grab a|state in PDF at DrviethruRPG here.

Or the physical book, and a range of useful and fancy accessories at our web store here.



This Sunday, Telling Tales will be running Maskwitches of Forgotten Doggerland at 15:00 BST on Twitch. We’ll be excited to tune in! https://www.twitch.tv/tellingtalesrp

We just released the Original Soundtrack for Maskwitches at DrivethruRPG, so you can now enjoy some very strange and disturbing music along with your very strange and disturbing Mesolithic spirit battlin’.

And stay tuned, Maskwitches fans, we’ll have some exciting news for anyone attending UK Games Expo in less than 3 weeks’ time! (And yes we are exhibiting at Expo, even if the UK Games Expo site thinks otherwise. You’ll find us right next to our friends Nightfall Games.)

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The Silver Road Version 2 out now

The new edition of The Silver Road is out now in both PDF and print! The stock of print books arrived today and look great!

If you already purchased the PDF you have the new edition waiting for you in your DrivethruRPG library at no extra cost.

About The Silver Road

The Silver Road is a minimalist storytelling game for three to five players, including a Game Mediator. Written by Jon Hodgson and illustrated by Jon Hodgson with Paul Bourne.

When playing The Silver Road, you and some friends can get together and tell stories.

This is an unashamedly minimalist story telling roleplaying game. It has a “breathtakingly simple” core mechanic that is applied any time there’s uncertainty about what happens next.

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Maskwitches, The Meat Spoiler and Amulet Deck out now in PDF!

It’s a triple release for Maskwitches today, as the game itself, the first scenario story PDF, and the Masks and Amulet Deck all come out in PDF at DrivethruRPG!

Maskwitches of Forgotten Doggerland is a standalone storytelling game powered by the minimalist Silver Road rules. It takes your stories to Forgotten Doggerland, where you’ll take on the role of the mysterious Maskwitches, protecting the community against arising spiritual threats!

The Meat Spoiler is the first ever scenario for Maskwitches, and presents a host of material for Mediating your first Maskwitches story. We can’t say too much about it without spoilers! But things go wrong, and the Maskwitches must put them right!

The Masks and Amulets Deck PDF presents a set of print-at-home cards to track which witches are holding which masks and amulets: in the game your character is defined by their masks and amulets, and their masks can be traded between characters. These homeprint cards are a helpful accessory to track your character and who has what masks at any given time.

The PDFs are also available for free with a pe-order of the Maskwitches soft or hardcovers or the card deck:

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Maskwitches releases in PDF 24th October

Tuesday (that’s tomorrow at the time of posting!) sees the PDF release of Maskwitches of Forgotten Doggerland AND the first story scenario for Maskwitches – The Meatspoiler. They’ll both be available on DrivethruRPG tomorrow!

Powered by The Silver Road rules, Maskwitches of Doggerland is a psychedelic mesolithic storytelling game. Players taking the role of the Maskwitches in a desperate battle against evil spirits spawned by disharmony in their community. Meanwhile, the tide is rising and nothing can stop it…

Of course if you’d like the PDF of Maskwitches /free, you can pre-order Maskwitches in book form here:

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