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|stateCold 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:

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.

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.)

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.

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:

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:

Maskwitches breaks £14,000 stretch goal!

Maskwitches of Forgotten Doggerland has reached £14,000 and unlocked a new Silver Road setting to go with Maskwitches, penned by Malcolm Craig (Cold City, Hot War, a|state). It is called “The Burn”. All backers at a reward level will receive this in PDF. Very exciting!

At £16,000 we unlock another art print for everyone.

Which allows us, at £18,000, to open the Young Designer Fund, should we reach that level of funding. This will aim to find and commission an up and coming young RPG designer to write a scenario pack for Maskwitches or a new adjacent Silver Road setting, depending on what they’d prefer. This will be aimed at giving a new young talent an opportunity to reach a new audience and be involved with an established creative team. They will of course be paid properly for their work. We will publish the setting and share the proceeds with them.”

Click the image to head to the campaign: