This bundle supports Direct Relief, a charity providing protective gear and critical care medications to health workers around the world, especially targeting Covid 19. Certainly an important and worthy cause.
The Bundle is only active for a short time, so get it while you can!
We’re so excited about this announcement! We can’t wait to make this book a reality with your help!
For immediate release:
Artist Wayne Reynolds partners with Handiwork Games to make RPG Saints Sketchbook
Fans of renowned fantasy artist Wayne Reynolds will have followed his year long project to draw Christian saints in the style of RPG characters. Wayne has been regularly sharing his beautiful drawings on social media, and they’re a regular feature of his social media presence. These drawings are now to be collected into a gorgeous hardcover sketchbook, produced in partnership with Handiwork Games. The book will launch on Kickstarter in February. Wayne said: “The popularity of this personal project was unexpected that I felt these sketches needed to be collected into one book. I like Handiwork Games because they are so awesome”. Jon Hodgson of Handiwork Games said: “Who doesn’t love Wayne’s drawings? They’re incredible, unique pieces of art, and it’s a huge honour to work with Wayne to make this much-requested book a reality”.
Step inside a baroque urban nightmare, the world of a|state.
In The City you’ll fight off threats to your canalside home, trying to make this grim and haunted place safer and better, somehow.
a|state brings a new, hopeful approach to the much-loved Forged in the Dark ruleset. Your ability to Care counts as much as your ability to Fight.
Create Troublemakers such as the deft and deadly Ghostfighter, the caring and curious Lostfinder, the persuasive and passionate Activist, and the striking and stealthy Sneakthief. If they can trust each other they might have a chance.
Defend your corner from selfish authorities, angry gangs and heartless industries, and deal with the spiralling consequences of your own actions as you struggle for a better tomorrow.
Bringing the wine-dark visual vibes of Dark City and The City of Lost Children, a|state delivers Dickensian anti-Thatcher sparks and knives sci fi.
Here’s a glimpse of some of what you’ll find in a|state second edition, in chapter order:
A smooth, powerful iteration of Forged in the Dark
Seven character playbooks with many more variations to explore
Rules for creating your own threatened corner of The City
Guidance for going on missions as you struggle to bring hope to your community
New rules to bring downtime between missions to life
A toolkit for exploring the unknown reaches of The City beyond your home
Focused assistance for the GM to create missions, support players and manage the whole struggle
The Trouble Engine, an innovative creation system that will throw problem after problem at the corner and those who defend it
A vibrant and instantly usable guide to life in The City
Playable details of 26 locations
Full descriptions of every major faction in The City and how they will make life difficult for the corner
Insights into the deepest mysteries of The City and the strange beings known as the Shifted
And throughout, there will be songs, poems, folk tales, advertising, and ephemera that vividly bring to life the world of The City.
This is the story of how you fight back.
Written by Malcolm Craig, Morgan Davie, and Gregor Hutton with Tanya Floaker, Brian Nisbet, Gareth Ryder Hanrahan and KC Shi.
Illustrated by Paul Bourne, Jon Hodgson and Scott Purdy.
Printed in full colour on one side of sturdy 3mm MDF, and laser cut, this set of inspiration tokens features the iconography seen in the BEOWULF Age of Heroes rulebook, created by Handiwork Games graphic designer Paul Bourne.
And of course, for when you’re feeling super fancy, there are our beautiful metal inspiration tokens!
Hello! Jon here! 2022 has certainly been an interesting year!
It has brought us lots of challenges as our little company grows.
The stories that most impacted our year are not really mine to tell, but we faced a couple of very serious health issues in the team which were alarming to say the least. I think we’re all ending the year realising how much the team mean to one another, and there’s no way we could do what we do without every single team member.
The rest of our challenges were the same old boring covid/global logistics/Brexit/UK-government-crashes-the-Pound boredom. I’ll spare you all that nonsense. Simply put, it’s tough to do business out of the UK right now. But it’s where we live, and so we’ll just keep trying!
We’ve certainly learned a lot in the process of overcoming the obstacles 2022 threw at us.
There were of course some really great times too.
We experimented from January 2022 with a four-day working week for our full timers, and that was a great success. Due to some of the arising challenges I haven’t managed to remain on a four day week consistently, and the same has been true for Paul, but we’ve certainly recognised the benefits of it, and even the flexibility to shift back into five days when we need to has been useful. Productivity, when it comes to flat out creative jobs, is simply better on a 4 day week. Simple as that. Rest is good, and makes for better more creative work.
In 2022 our second major RPG release, a|state second edition came out in pdf and then print! It’s another great looking book to add to our stable, and another thoughtful and innovative application of an existing system. It’s completely different to BEOWULF in so many ways, but there’s a common thread to these games.
BEOWULF’s The Trials of the Twin Seas Kickstarter campaign was a rip-roaring success, and we’re in the process of getting those books out there right now.
We’re still boggled by how many people thought Maskwitches was worth their time. It’s a really unique and creative little project, and it’s heartening to see so many people backing it in the week long campaign. That will see a wider release in the new year, but stock will be limited as we move on from experimenting with AI generated imagery. I have some exciting plans for what we’ll develop Maskwitches art into, which will begin with some experiments for The Silver Road update.
Right at the end of the year we opened the preorder for the Handimonsters Annual 2023, collecting the final batch of awesome monsters by Jacob, Gar and myself. It’s a jam packed little book, and it’s lovely to round off that project.
We had a very busy year in the Handiwork Studio, we illustrated and laid out a bunch of books for our friend Luke over at The DM Lair, and completed art and layout for Out of the Ashes for the mighty Paul Mitchener.
And of course, the whole time we’ve been working on some really cool and as yet unseen things. A bunch of new releases about to drop in the New Year.
I’m very much looking forward to getting things really moving having had a nice rest over Christmas.
We returned to the convention circuit this year. UK Games Expo was really good, and we enjoyed some clear financial benefits after being absent from shows for so long. It was really satisfying to meet so many people and sell so many books!
Tabletop Scotland was also great! It was lovely to host Tanya and their game, Be Seeing You. There’s something really special about being able to offer a bit of space at the last minute and see someone take that tiny boost and absolutely run with it. It’s what life is all about!
And that seems like a good place to end this little look back at some of our 2022.
From all of us to all of you, we hope you have a happy and healthy New Years Eve, and we’re looking forward to seeing you again in 2023.
As a special treat for reading this far, there’s 20% off almost* everything in the webstore for the next 24 hours when you spend £50 or over, with the code HNY23 at check out.
*pre-orders for Twin Seas and Maskwitches books and decks are excluded to be fair to those who have paid full price and are waiting for their books
From everyone at Handiwork Games, we hope that you and yours have a peaceful festive period, however you choose to celebrate it.
Thank you for all your support over 2022. It’s been without doubt our most challenging year, but here we are at the end of it, with loads of great things happening at the start of 2023. We might do a review of the year for New Years. Or we might just enjoy a break!
If you’re at a loose end over Christmas Day, we have a friendly discord community which you’re welcome to pop into and say hi. Jon will be popping his head in through the day.
Our webstore will remain open for orders over the Christmas break, but orders won’t be dispatched until we’re back in work at the beginning of January.
The Second Handimonsters Annual is a 48 page softcover book packed with new and unique monsters for your 5e games. The Floating Terror, The Mountain, The Mushroom Spider, The Pawg, The Skurrig and more!
Written by Jacob Rodgers, Jon Hodgson and Gareth Hanrahan, with art by Scott Purdy and Jon Hodgson. Layout by Paul Bourne.
Pre-orders open tomorrow Tuesday 19th December, with a copy of the PDF version absolutely free!
Here’s an exclusive first look at the table of contents for KING BEOWULF, by Jacob Rodgers.
This is a work in progress, and subject to change. And of course you’ll see we haven’t slotted in page numbers yet. That’s still to come. Click the image to enlarge:
About KING BEOWULF
“Then Beowulf came as king this broad realm to wield; and he ruled it well fifty winters, a wise old prince, warding his land, until One began in the dark of night, a Dragon, to rage.
KING BEOWULF is the high level, realm ruling supplement for BEOWULF: Age of Heroes. Penned by BEOWULF co-creator Jacob Rodgers, in KING BEOWULF your Hero will move beyond the role of wandering mender of wrongs, and you’ll establish your own realm, just like the older Beowulf of the poem. Rather than followers you’ll gather advisors, build alliances, battle even bigger monsters, and resolve threats to your kingdom!
Gone to the Dogs took us to the Folly Hills Dog Track, introducing the track as a site of a whole bunch of troubles, a potential corner for your troublemakers and provided loads of material to help you run investigations in a|state second edition.
Now The Machine by Malcolm Craig and Morgan Davie brings us to Woebegone Crescent, where things are going badly wrong. It’s a ready-to-play struggle, which clearly shows you one way to play a|state second edition. It’s also a potential corner in which to base your troublemakers.
The Machine is packed with characters, locations and rumours to add enormous play value to your a|state game.
The Machine is in layout now, and will be initially released to backers of a|state second edition. It will then be available to buy on DrivethruRPG.
