FiveEvil is a standalone horror roleplaying game from Handiwork Games, the fiendish minds behind BEOWULF Age of Heroes, a|state second edition and Maskwitches of Forgotten Doggerland.
FiveEvil has been carefully crafted to evoke the horror genre by cleverly twisting the underlying fifth edition ruleset. FiveEvil subverts fifth edition play to defy expectations and concentrate the horror.
Taking rules you know, and twisting them up, FiveEvil creates a truly intense and unsettling horror gaming experience. It’s also packed with advice and ideas on how to create the very best horror gaming sessions.
The primary setting focus is modern day horror, inspired by the work of Stephen King, and moody, character-driven horror films like The Ritual, The Descent and Jacob’s Ladder, alongside mini-series like Midnight Mass by Mike Flanagan, and the scariest of Twin Peaks episodes.
Rather than seeking out evil in order to vanquish it, or investigating clues to battle malign influence, characters in FiveEvil are regular people trapped in a terrifying situation just attempting to survive and escape.
FiveEvil was created and written by Morgan Davie, features art by Scott Purdy and Jon Hodgson, and boasts graphic design and layout by Paul Bourne.
This standalone core book contains all the rules you need to create characters and play the game, as well as five sample adventures to show you how best to run FiveEvil, with tons of customisability and replay value.
There are also plans afoot to cast a wider net with scenarios set in different eras: a key feature of FiveEvil is the ease with which it creates settings and scenarios woven together.
What’s in the Book?
FiveEvil is a 280 page, full colour hardback, packed full of advice and tools to run effective horror games. We’ll be sending the book off to print soon, and the pre-order for the print book is open. The PDF is also available now.
The chapters are:
Chapter One – Playing Horror
Chapter Two – Core Rules
Chapter Three – Wakefield House intro Scenario
Chapter Four – Creating Characters
Chapter Five – Running the Game
Chapter Six – Designing Scenarios
Chapter Seven – Settings
Chapter Eight – Horrors
Chapter Nine – Campaign Options
Chapter Ten – Scenario: Last Fun Weekend
Chapter Eleven – Scenario: Everyone Got Something Going On
Chapter Twelve: Scenario: Out of the Circle
Chapter Thirteen: Scenario: Big Screamin’ Demons
We’ve created a series of introductory PDFs which we released one a week in October 2024. You can get them collected into a single PDF right now for free.
It’s 56 pages, includes loads of behind the scenes insights into the aims of the design, as well as a full scenario to pay right now.
“I’ve been looking through this, and in its slender and sinister 12 pages it crams in an absolute ton of fascinating game and scenario design. Starting to think that D&D was invented just so Handiwork could butcher it and do interesting things with the corpse.” – Chris Gardiner, Splinter One customer
Key Innovations
FiveEvil goes further than creating creepy situations with locations and monsters. It is a series of key innovations within the 5e ruleset which drive the horror. If you’ve seen what we did with the ENnie-nominated BEOWULF: Age of Heroes, you’ll be aware that we know our way around the 5e engine and how to make it sing. FiveEvil goes even further. If you’re at all interested in RPG rules design, and how rules create play, this is well worth your time.
These are the key innovations within FiveEvil. You can explore these in more detail in the free Splinters, detailed below.
Intensity
Intensity replaces DC and is a radical innovation for FiveEvil. Every check is based on the intensity of a scene. And you can bet your bottom dollar it’s going to escalate as the horror unfolds…
Desperation
Desperation replaces Inspiration. Rather than a vague cookie that you’ll forget to eat, Desperation is a debt you take on to gain the benefits of Inspiration, one which will need to be repaid. Of course like any debt, you can keep adding to it, but will you ever recover? Desperation goes beyond just a replacement for Inspiration. You can spend it to do more.
Personality Aspects
Your character’s personality aspects are what will help them shake off the debt of Desperation. So rather than the fuzzy and optional reward of inspiration for role-play found in standard 5e, playing your character is baked into FiveEvil.
Descriptions
Descriptions are a shorthand for NPCs that can replace entire stat blocks in order to streamline play and keep the horror moving. For Player Characters they work like skills providing bonuses to a dice roll.
Advanced Ability Checks
FiveEvil gives you a clear structure for different kinds of skill check – where success is impossible, or where there’s a complex interplay of desired outcomes and unattractive possibilities bound up in one check.
Terror Encounters
Terror Encounters are where things really kick off in FiveEvil. Rather than combat encounters where you might expect to trade blows and whittle away hit points, thing are remarkably different in a Terror Encounter. There are no standard combats in FiveEvil.
Getting Hurt
Player Characters in FiveEvil do not enjoy the luxury of copious hit points, and they are more fragile than their standard fantasy counterparts.
Suffering
Suffering is a new way to track descriptive damage and structures it into play.
Conditions
FiveEvil leans hard into conditions and has its own horror-appropriate list of conditions.
Doom Checks
GMing Horror, and making it relentlessly punishing for the Player Characters can be hard. When you don’t know which way to go, Doom Checks are here to do the hard work for you.
Investigations
FiveEvil offers a solid structure for investigating a creature or a situation using existing 5e tools in new ways.
The Verge
The verge is the structured place where the monsters are hiding, moving, changing and outflanking you while you’re not looking.
Hunt Encounters
Being hunted is a big part of the horror experience. FiveEvil provides a framework for running tense, exciting hunts and chases.
Scenarios
FiveEvil contains 5 scenarios: The introductory Wakefield House, which our play testers will recognise, and four additional scenarios. As well as allowing you to get into playing right away, with expertly crafted scenarios that make the very best of FiveEvil, these scenarios also show you how best to work the levers and dials within the new rules, and explore the various themes they provoke. You can customise each one for maximum replay value.
Morgan Davie, FiveEvil Designer: “I love 5e and I love horror gaming and in FiveEvil we get to push both of them somewhere unprecedented. a|state has shown we love exploring new pathways with beloved game systems, and this one is heading into wild new places. It’s a dream project, and I look forward to giving everyone nightmares.”
Jon Hodgson, Handiwork Games: “Morgan has proved his uniquely powerful and insightful design chops with both a|state and The Three Coins. When he pitched this stripped-back take on 5e, purposefully built to deliver a particular flavour of horror gaming, I was really excited. Having now played it, I can confirm it absolutely delivers on its promise to subvert so many of the expectations in 5th Edition, bringing something really fresh to the gaming table. I love it, and I can’t wait for us to share it!”
