We’re delighted to have received two ENnie nominations this year, for BEOWULF Age of Heroes in Best Electronic Book, and a|state Nicely, Done for best free product.
You can vote here until the 27th of August.
Today we’re taking a look at some of what you’ll find in Nicely, Done for a|state.
Nicely, Done is an introductory adventure for the new edition of a|state, which we recently kickstarted with great success. a|state bring numerous developments to the Forged in the Dark ruleset, making your group of characters’ ability to care just as important as their ability to fight or sneak or steal.
The book opens with a series of spreads about the setting of The City. Since the PDF is free, the best place to see this is in the PDF itself. But we’ll run through some of the highlights.
These introductory spreads feature epic art by Paul Bourne, one of the co-creators of a|state first edition. Paul is our graphic designer and layout artist at Handiwork Games.
The City features enormous disparities of wealth and technology. Your characters (or Troublemakers, as we call them) are generally from one of the poorer areas, seeking to make things better for the place you live.
The City is a really unique setting, with tons of great detail. It’s very weird, in the vein of The City of Lost Children, or the various great works of dystopian fiction from the last 100 years. There’s a huge influence from the creator Malcolm Craig’s background in Scotland. The first edition was made largely in Falkirk, which is coincidentally where Handiwork Games is based.
In the full game of a|state you’ll work together to create your “corner”, the people who live there, the organisations that prey on it, and the initial challenges it faces. You’ll then set about fixing them. And this might take the form of an adventure like Nicely, Done, where you’ll investigate a rumour, and uncover some dark secret or something that’s damaging your community. You’ll then set about gathering help and resources, and taking action to put it right.
In Nicely, Done, your Troublemakers hear of children being forced to work in a factory, and set out to find out more. And potentially head of a riot as the angry locals seek to take matters into their own hands.
You’ll encounter a variety of weird and wonderful characters, and you’ll have to plot your course through the challenges presented. Nicely, Done was originally written by Malcolm, and has been adapted to the new edition by Morgan Davie, who is our line developer for the full game. Forged in the Dark adventures require way less linear structures than more traditional adventures. They’re more like a collection of places, people and situations for the GM and players to explore.
The maps for this adventure are by Gregor Hutton, one of the original Troublemakers from a|state first edition. Gregor, who you may know from smash hit indie game 3:16 is helping us with second edition too, and will be providing even more maps!
Find out more about a|state here.
Download Nicely, Done for free here
And vote for the ENnies here until Thursday the 25th.