Handiwork Games is proud to announce the release of the inaugural Handimonsters Annual in both print format (64 full colour pages with heavyweight full colour perfect-bound cover) and PDF. The book collects dozens of monsters that were originally developed as part of the Handimonsters Patreon (www.handimonsters.com).
Development and design of the monsters is led by the amazing Jacob Rodgers (Adventures in Middle-earth, BEOWULF Age of Heroes, Ruins of Symbaroum and many more), whose work for 5e games has earned many award nominations and several victories. He has been ably assisted by Jon Hodgson (Adventures in Middle-earth, BEOWULF Age of Heroes, The One Ring Roleplaying Game and many more) and other guest designers.
The tremendous art for Handimonsters is provided by the incredible Scott Purdy (BEOWULF Age of Heroes, Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder and many more) and the stunning Jon Hodgson (Dungeons and Dragons, The One Ring Roleplaying Game, Warhammer Historical and many more). Layout is done by the prodigious Paul Bourne (a|state, BEOWULF Age of Heroes, The One Ring Roleplaying Game and many more).
The first Handimonsters Annual collects dozens of monsters with challenge ratings from 1/4 (the subterranean knackers) to 20 (the majestic Dragon of Dreams). Each monster is a unique and fresh creation and this is the first time they’ve ever been collected together in a single volume. They are available for purchase at the following links:
We’ve been hard at work bringing our patrons at Handimonsters.com brand-new 5e monsters every single week of the year. And now, since we have such a horde of wild and wonderful unique beasties, we’re going to publish them in an annual!
It will be a handsome, full colour softcover book, 64 pages long, available direct from our webstore, and of course in PDF from DrivethruRPG. Every monster gets its own page, with it’s own unique stat block, abilities and actions, along with its own stunning piece of art. Since we’ve built this horde up over a year, they’re all unique killer, and absolutely no filler!
Our monsters are designed by Jacob Rodgers (Adventures in Middle-earth 5e, The Ruins of Symbaroum 5e, BEOWULF Age of Heroes) and illustrated by Scott Purdy (Pathfinder, Numenera, BEOWULF Age of Heroes)
We’ll have more information on how you can get your hands on one very soon. And be sure to swing by www.Handimonsters.com to check out the free stuff and subscribe!
Character Queue is an ongoing series where we dive deep into our pregenerated characters that we made as part of our introduction to our BEOWULF:Age of Heroes roleplaying game. We were fortunate enough to fund sculpting and casting these characters, so not only do they appear in character sheet form but as professional miniatures as well.
Our character today is Ibn Uthman.
“We have travelled far across the sea, through the storm, having heard that your kingdom is beset by woes. My name is Ibn Uthman, a traveller in these lands. I would speak with your lord and find out more of your troubles” – Jon Hodgson (from the backer playthrough of the Serpent of Glennreddin)
Once a trader and writer, Ibn Uthman was exiled from the lands of his birth for using his prodigious ability with words most unwisely: a tangled financial dispute with a Northern King means that returning to Baghdad and his old life is no longer an option for Ibn Uthman. Resolved to explore the North, Ibn Uthman has found himself far from home.
Telling a tale or two seemed to please the people of these freezing Northlands, and they enjoy his melodious, strange-sounding voice, and his songs from afar. His ability to spin a story has grown with the miles he’s travelled.
Uthman is faithful to the One God, though his version seems somewhat different to those of the Northerners.
Hello! Jon here. Just a very brief, slightly exhausted blog post to say a huge thank you for all your amazing support throughout 2021. We’re all slowing down and stopping work over the next couple of days. Jacob is finishing up BEOWULF backer dispatch right now. Scott’s been finishing up some client work, Paul’s been hard at work on a|state (late pledges close very soon!), and I’ve just made BEOWULF Digital Pack Seven live. Grab that as a wee Christmas present to yourself. You deserve it.
Our webshop will remain open over the festive period, but orders will be processed weekly until the New Year. We’ll pop a notice on the store to this effect.
We’ll be back with a crowd funding campaign for a print collection of BEOWULF Adventures, we’ll have the Handimonsters Annual and the BEOWULF Annuals out, we’ll be delivering a|state in PDF and thereafter print (gosh what a book that will be!). We’ll be unleashing The Forest Dragon Farmer on the world, as well as a couple of things we’re not ready to talk about yet.
Thanks again for all your support, while it’s ben a very tough year for everyone, we feel very lucky to be able to do what we do, and blessed to have such a great community growing around us. We hope you have a very safe and restful festive season, however you’re choosing to celebrate. And here’s to a hopeful New Year.
Character Queue is an ongoing series where we dive deep into our pregenerated characters that we made as part of our introduction to our BEOWULF:Age of Heroes roleplaying game. We were fortunate enough to fund sculpting and casting these characters, so not only do they appear in character sheet form but as professional miniatures as well.
Our character today is Blaedswith.
“Just like Bald Eadig from last week, Blaedswith is another example of a character who believes strongly in their alignment. Of course, she is opposite from Eadig, taking faith in the tried-and-true wisdoms of the Old Ways.” – Jacob Rodgers
Blaedswith, A Karelian Witch
Born into a community of witches from the East, and wise in the ways of copper amulets, charms and talismans, and the speech of animals and ways of medicine, the beliefs of her people were changed by coming of the new faith. Blaedswith viewed this as a grave mistake on the part of the newly converted, as a great deal of old wisdom was scattered and forgotten.
The copper mines and smithies now make crosses bearing the outstretched arms of the new god, which hold no magic against monsters. Abandoning her home in disgust, she has set sail in search of a more useful life.
Blaedswith knows that there is no lasting victory against the darkness, and in the great weave of time, the age of people will suffer a great and permanent defeat before oblivion. It can only be held back, but that is her Wyrd, and the fates demand that as the last of her witch clan she continue the fight against the old horrors that will inevitably eat the world.
Her youth and training in magic make her a both charming and powerful follower of the Old Ways.
Wow, what news we have for you. More details on the forthcoming Handimonsters 2021 Annual, a sneak peek at a|state accessories and lots of details on BEOWULF Age of Heroes!
BEOWULF: Age of Heroes
We’re almost done getting all the BEOWULF rewards out, BEOWULF hits the top ten best sellers, and Digital Pack Seven is almost ready, and you can order the Art Book in both PDF and the Print Edition.
Kickstarter US Shipping Wrapping Up
It’s been a big task getting the books to the US during the global shipping crisis, and a challenge while we waited for them to get through customs, and of course fulfilling any successful kickstarter has a lot of moving parts, but we’re almost there! We’re wrapping up the last few backer orders and starting to get the preorders into the process. Most backers have got their rewards now and we anticipate the great majority of those still in progress will arrive before the end of this coming week.
BEOWULF hits the Top Ten!
We were delighted to learn that BEOWULF Age of Heroes was in the top ten best selling Historical RPGs of 2021! Find out more at Geek Native.
Digital Pack Seven Coming Soon!
Our next BEOWULF Digital Pack will release before the end of the month. It will bring some new Followers and some new Gifts and Burdens to the game, present some more monsters to challenge your Heroes and more!
Art Book Available Now!
The BEOWULF Art Book in PDF form is now available for everyone. If you are located in the US and backed the BEOWULF: Age of Heroes kickstarter, then check your email/spam folder for a free coupon for this PDF as a thank you for your patience.
The BEOWULF Art Book print edition is a compact and beautiful 32 page booklet in full colour. It’s 210mm x 210mm square, and packed to the brim with BEOWULF art and commentary.
The free PDF will be sent to you via DrivethruRPG coupon within 24 working hours of ordering, and the print book will be dispatched in the new year 2022 – it is at print right now. We are sending books from both the UK and the US, so it should arrive very early in the new year.
Please note: If you are a US-based BEOWULF backer we have sent a discount coupon for you to use on this book as a thank you for your patience during the global shipping crisis.
a|state Video Review of Accessories, Late Pledge Window Extended
We’ve received the very first samples of the Compass and Coins from our friends at Campaign Coins – check out the video:
We’re keeping the pledge manager open just a little bit longer… we realise how busy this time of the year is and we want to make sure everyone who’s interested has a chance to put an order in.
Handimonsters 2021 Annual, Preview of Mad Man Jack
The pre-order for the Handimonsters annual will open in the new year!
A full colour 64-page softcover book covering a range of monsters that we released during 2021 along with bonus material, this print edition will cost £10.95 ($15.99 US), plus shipping. Preorders open next week, and we will print in both the UK and US for fast delivery.
A devilish sort of fellow, Mad Man Jack is quite dangerous, with his abilities to leap over moderately sized buildings and do horrendous damage with his claw-hand. Fortunately, he’s only found in cities. You’re not planning to visit one any time soon, are you?
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Yesterday we announced the BEOWULF Art Book and gave away coupons for a free PDF our very patient US backers. Today we have opened the PDF for general sale and the print edition for preorder. Let’s talk more about each in turn:
The Art Book PDF
The BEOWULF Art Book in PDF form is now available for everyone. If you are located in the US and backed the BEOWULF: Age of Heroes kickstarter, then check your email/spam folder for a free coupon for this PDF. The book is full of beautiful art, informative detail, and inspiring ideas for BEOWULF games.
BEOWULF Age of Heroes Art Book, PDF $3.99
The Print Edition Art Book Preorder
The BEOWULF art book is a compact and beautiful 32 page booklet in full colour. It’s 210mm x 210mm square, and packed to the brim with BEOWULF art and commentary.
The free PDF will be sent to you via DrivethruRPG coupon within 24 working hours of ordering, and the print book will be dispatched in the new year 2022 – it is at print right now. We are sending books from both the UK and the US, so it should arrive very early in the new year.
Please note: If you are a US-based BEOWULF backer we have sent a discount coupon for you to use on this book as a thank you for your patience during the global shipping crisis.
Our very patient US-based kickstarter backers are taking delivery of their BEOWULF Age of Heroes books about now, with the last round of packages heading out from our US dispatch centre. As a thank you for their amazing patience we’ve decided to put together a BEOWULF art book, which they’ll be getting free in PDF, and at a reduced price for the print version.
The PDF will go on general release this week, and we will open pre-orders for the print version soon. The booklet is 32 pages long, in full colour. It’s a cute square format, 21cm (~8 inches) square.
Each spread features a piece of art from BEOWULF Age of Heroes, along with some exclusive commentary about each piece, and how it might inspire your adventures.
The BEOWULF Art Book is now available for US Backers! Once they’ve had a chance to redeem their PDFs and get their discount codes, we will open up the PDF and print books for orders. The books are being ordered in short run batches in the UK and US, so the wait for the print book will be a short one.
Character Queue is an ongoing series where we dive deep into our pregenerated characters that we made as part of our introduction to our BEOWULF:Age of Heroes roleplaying game. We were fortunate enough to fund sculpting and casting these characters, so not only do they appear in character sheet form but as professional miniatures as well.
Our character today is Eadig.
“Bald Eadig is a character that represents one extreme of our alignment system. He is a true believer in the new church and its messageand vocal about those beliefs. But he exists in a world where he’s often the exception rather than the majority and his confidence often provides excellent roleplaying opportunities as others react to him or he has to negotiate a situation among those who feel differently.” – Jacob Rodgers
Bald Eadig, Wrestling Hero
There are a great many dark places in the world, and the Book teaches that the faithful should bring the light, and with it burn out evil wherever it may be found. Blessed with the barrel-chested strength that comes with middle-age, a distinct lack of hair, and a devotion to the word of the Book, Bald Eadig means to carry the news of the saviour far and wide, and in doing so battle the forces of darkness as an example to all. Where he can’t bring the benefits of writing and contemplation, he will bring his big stick.
Possessed of a simple knowledge and an earthy goodness, Bald Eadig is a fearsome enemy of the darkness. He has helped build priory walls, defended pilgrims, and guarded monks. Now he is setting out on the swan road to find the greatest enemies of the Church – the very devils of hell and the sons of Cain.
Editing continues, art-making continues, as does work on the accessories. Layout of completed chapters also continues – there’s a whole of continuing going on!
Let’s have a look at some new art from Paul. Always a treat, and we can’t wait to see these in situ.
Playmats
The play mat has gone through several iterations since the campaign ended. The initial version we showed was a barebones mock-up, which has now had much more attention from our graphic designer Paul Bourne.
We’ve been through a couple of versions, just making sure we’re really happy with how it all prints on neoprene. As you can imagine, printing on neoprene, with its fabric weave texture is a little different than printing on paper.
We now have the final version.
We’ve decided to stitch the edges. We don’t really need to – unstitched mats work just fine, but it does look so good! Little bit more expensive for us, but it’ll be a lovely thing when you get it.
Coins
The design process for these was very straight forward and have been done for a while. We just got these photos from Campaign Coins of real actual metal coins, and we should get out hands on these first few very soon. I’m very happy with how these look. They’re 30mm across, so the a set of four should be a solid handful, as well as being appropriately portable for playing The Three Coins.
Compass
This one proved a little more tricky to get right in the final stages of pre-production. We’ve elected to update the design – the cracks behind the City sigil presented a small risk of not working out quite how we wanted. So we’ve added a background design like the one on the coins.
I think it looks great! And there’s zero risk of anything looking odd. Just like the coins we just got these photos of the real thing. I can’t wait to own one – great work as ever from our friends at Campaign Coins.
Summary
So in summary excellent progress all round. We’re slightly behind schedule on editing due to the surprise arrival of BEOWULF books in the US, which has taken up some team time in processing those. But nothing I’m concerned about. I’m monitoring that closely and if we need to bring in some extra help we will do.
In terms of PDF delivery, I would prefer not to force the team into a crunch to beat the impending Christmas break, which they all deverve to enjoy without being worn ragged ahead of time. Given that I’m satisfied with some very high quality work and great progress towards our goals, I think it’s likely to be a new year delivery for the PDF. I’m sure we’d all rather get it right than do it fast.
Late pledges
Late pledges are due to close this week. We might opt to keep them open a little longer. We’ll see!
