BEOWULF. a|state. Maskwitches. Cold City:Hot War. FiveEvil
BEOWULF: Age of Heroes is a roleplaying game inspired by the ancient epic poem Beowulf.
As gamers and designers reading and enjoying the poem, we quickly realised it focused on Beowulf’s struggles against the various Monsters he faced and his relationships with the folk that he met, such as Unferth, who was at first critical of the hero but then gave him his magical sword to hunt Grendel’s mother, and Wiglaf, his loyal follower.
Continue reading “BEOWULF: The Game”What is “Beowulf”? Why is it good? Why are we making a game about it?
About a thousand years ago, the epic story of Beowulf was written down and it has been a source of wonder and inspiration for hundreds of years.
It tells a story of the Migration Period (or “Dark Ages”)— between the fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of the Middle Ages.
Continue reading “BEOWULF: The Poem”a|state
The first edition of a|state was released in 2004 by Contested Ground Studios with writing by Malcolm Craig and art by Paul Bourne. It was widely praised for its setting and presentation and was a very ambitious game for a young Scottish studio. It became a cult hit, with players all over the world.
a|state invited players to The City – a sprawling, apparently endless, futuristic dystopia, where the repressive rich enjoy lives filled with technology and comfort, and the poor… do not. The game’s action centres around trying to eke out an existence in this bleak vision of an alternate world.
With influences from JG Ballard, Upton Sinclair, the films of Jean-Pierre Jeunet and the movie Dark City, a|state presented a uniquely fascinating world to explore through play.
Mire End, Dreamingspires, The Trench, Burningfell, Fogwarren, and Calculus Tor all provided unique and evocative locations for Ghostfighters and Lostfinders to discover.
Never entirely satisfied with the original game system, Malcolm moved on to create other games like Cold City and Hot War, which had rules truer to his design intentions. Pursuing an academic career, Malcolm decided to retire from the pressures of the RPG industry.
a|state slipped from view, but never from memory.
Fast forward to 2019 and a chance encounter at Tabletop Scotland. A discussion about using Forged in the Dark rules for a new edition of a|state made it a tantalising possibility. Could it be done?
It turns out that it could!
With Paul Bourne already working for Handiwork Games, and Malcolm prepared to lend a hand on this new edition, we’re delighted to also be joined by Gregor Hutton and Morgan Davie, both of whom have a long association with a|state, and many impressive gaming credits under their own belts.
You may know Gregor from the smash hits 3:16 Carnage Amongst the Stars or Best Friends. Morgan has also written some truly amazing games, which you can find at http://taleturn.com
Welcome back to The City
In the Second Edition of a|state you and your friends will define a corner of The City, and set about defending it and making it a better place to live. We’ve fine-tuned the Forged in the Dark rules to fit the themes and tone of a|state and The City.
And with a complete scenario laid out and illustrated, we’re now ready to start recruiting playtesters! We’re looking for some groups who are familiar with Forged in the Dark games, willing to give our play test scenario, Nicely, Done a go.
If you’d like to try it, please email us at jon@handiwork.games with the subject line “Playtesting a|state”
Find out more about a|state at: https://handiwork.games/games/astate
We’ve released two digital map tile sets today! Water Tiles and Linking Tiles 2.
Digital Map Tiles are an easy and effective way to build complex maps for VTT adventures in a fraction of the time it would take to create them from scratch. With no limit on how many times you can use a given tile, the possibilities are almost endless. And with Linking Tiles allowing sets to be joined together, your VTT adventures will never be the same again!
These tiles allow you to link different sets together, in a variety of combinations.
These tiles provide links between
Cavern, Dungeon, Heathland, Forest, Mountain Pass, Backstreets, Water, Evil Forest, Hillfort and Desert.
And between Utopian Scifi and Dystopian Scifi
They’re really useful tiles that add a ton of value to other sets.
Once all our backers have their physical tiles we’ll be making the print versions available!
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/301006/Jon-Hodgson-Map-Tiles–Linking-Tiles-Set-2-Grid
Expanding on a feature from the Wave One Extra Detail tiles, this set gives you loads of options for lakes, rivers and streams, or even the sea. You can build islands, and shorelines, and includes a bunch of water tiles to create open water. This set is perfect to mix up your wilderness adventures. The Water Set connects to the Heathland Tiles.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/297163/Water-Tiles-With-Grid
You can also grab ALL our Digital Tiles in one great value bundle here: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/309487/Jon-Hodgson-Map-Tiles-Wave-One–Wave-Two-Digital-Pack
Evil Forest Digital Tiles are now live on DrivethruRPG! This digital set contains files for both gridded and ungridded tiles, as well as “fuzzy-edged” .png tiles.
Currently available as digital files, the physical versions will be made available as soon as all our Kickstarter backers have received their tiles!
Digital Map Tiles are an easy and effective way to build complex maps for VTT adventures in a fraction of the time it would take to create them from scratch. With no limit on how many times you can use a given tile, the possibilities are almost endless. And with Linking Tiles allowing sets to be joined together, your VTT adventures will never be the same again!
Please note these files are intended for Virtual Table Top, on-screen use, and as such, they are not suitable for home printing.
Evil Forest Tiles are also available as part of this great value bundle: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/309487/Jon-Hodgson-Map-Tiles-Wave-One–Wave-Two-Digital-Pack
The physical Backstreet tiles will go live as soon as all Kickstarter backers have their sets!
Our Backstreet Digital Tiles are now live on DrivethruRPG! This digital set contains files for both gridded and ungridded tiles, as well as “fuzzy-edged” .png tiles.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/…/2…/Backstreet-Tiles-with-Grid
You can also get these tiles as part of our amazing tile bundle, which has ALL of the available digital Jon Hodgson Map Tiles for a bargain price!
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/…/Jon-Hodgson-Map-Tiles-Wave-O…
The physical Backstreet tiles will go live as soon as all Kickstarter backers have their sets!
Well this is exciting! Our very first pre-production miniatures! If you’ve played or read The Hermit’s Sanctuary you might recognise some of these characters.
We’ll have a range of figures to accompany the BEOWULF: Age of Heroes Kickstarter, which we’re hoping to launch this month!
The Hermit’s Sanctuary is a free introductory adventure for BEOWULF. Get it nowhttps://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/306721/BEOWULF-The-Hermits-Sanctuary!
And while you’re at it you can grab 4 brand-new, additional pre-generated characters! Some of whom will also be making an appearance as miniatures!
We have just released four new characters for The Hermit’s Sanctuary, the free adventure for BEOWULF: Age of Heroes!
Each new character comes with full-figure character art, a unique background, a 5e character sheet, and a choice of starting points for The Hermit’s Sanctuary adventure.
Meet:
Blaedswith, the Karelian Amulet Witch
Ham Ansfeald, the Hero-Sailor
Waelwulf, the Doomed Monster-fighter
The Wolf Child
There are also new follower cards for Ham Anfeald, who is always accompanied by his hand-fasted best friend, Bald Haeri, and The Wolf Child’s family of wolves.
This new pack also includes VTT tokens, and is Pay What you Want, with a suggested price of £1.60/$1.99.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/311352/BEOWULF-Pregenerated-Characters-2
You can grab the Hermit’s Sanctuary here.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/309487/Jon-Hodgson-Map-Tiles-Wave-One–Wave-Two-Digital-Pack
After two smash-hit Kickstarter campaigns, the digital tiles are now available for everyone to buy!
And we’ve made this super bargain bundle deal! Each set of digital tiles sells for $3.99, and this set of SIXTEEN sets costs just $19.99. That’s a saving of almost $44!
Digital Map Tiles are an easy and effective way to build complex maps for VTT adventures in a fraction of the time it would take to create them from scratch. With no limit on how many times you can use a given tile, the possibilities are almost endless. And with Linking Tiles allowing sets to be joined together, your VTT adventures will never be the same again!
From Wave One:
From Wave Two:
Please note these files are intended for Virtual Table Top, on-screen use, and as such, they are not suitable for home printing.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/309487/Jon-Hodgson-Map-Tiles-Wave-One–Wave-Two-Digital-Pack
We’ve been adding Map Packs to our DrivethruRPG store!
Map Packs feature poster-sized PDFs, which come in plain, gridded and hexed versions. There are VTT versions of everything, alongside handy “home print” files which are sliced up into A4 or US Letter chunks for easy printing at home.
Here’s a rundown of what’s available:
The latest one, just released today, is Buildings Pack 1, which features maps for a variety of halls, a shop and a mysterious house in a quarry. It’s Pay What You Want with a suggested price of $3.99.
Chasm Run is also Pay What You Want, and is a set of four really big maps that join together to form a long gully – perfect for a chase or prolonged battle.
Ruins Pack 1 is $3.99 and contains a bunch of really useful maps! A large ruined fortification, a set of ruins covered in webs, the same one without webs, and a bonus mini ruined house with a cellar.
Handiwork at DrivethruRPG: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/10726/Handiwork-Games
