We just made an update at the BEOWULF kickstarter. Late pledges are available now here.
The headline is: progress is great, and everything is on track! September is going to be a busy month here at Handiwork HQ – we’re moving office, and taking delivery of basically everything other than the book itself! Fingers crossed the new office door arrives before all the miniatures/other goodies! Below is the more detailed breakdown – some of this is catching up on things we’ve shared on our discord channel, so my apologies if you’re seeing some of this stuff again.
Over at the BEOWULF kickstarter we recently updated backers on the progress of our various gorgeous accessories that are available as part of the campaign, or as a late pledge.
We’ve noticed that Ham Anfeald and Bald Haeri were missing VTT tokens in Pregenerated Characters 2 for BEOWULF: Age of Heroes. It has now been updated to include those tokens!
The Hermit’s Sanctuary is the ENnie-Award nominated, free, full-length, introductory adventure for the forthcoming BEOWULF: AGE OF HEROES for 5e!
Designed for one player and one GM, BEOWULF provides unique rules and support for single-player games in the Age of Heroes. Take to the Whale Road as a monster-slaying hero! Voyage to the island of the hermit, and investigate the cause of its woes!
Lavishly illustrated in full colour, The Hermit’s Sanctuary includes:
a complete, 52-page adventure for one GM and one Player
optional poster-sized PDF battle maps for all locations
optional VTT-friendly battle maps for Virtual Tabletops
4 pre-generated characters
printable accessories: inspiration tokens and inspiration pool
blank character sheet
rules reminder sheet
handy adventure flowcharts
About BEOWULF: Age of Heroes
One of the oldest recorded stories in Western Europe, the poem Beowulf is an epic tale of hero against monster. And then the monster’s mother. And then a dragon.
BEOWULF is a setting and rules set for 5th Edition, designed for duet play – one GM and one player. Set in the world of Anglo-Saxon myth, no deep knowledge of history is required – the themes are eternal and instantly recognisable, adventures occur in the story-world of the Saxons, and we’ve done all the historical reading for you!
BEOWULF presents a host of new and specially adapted rules to create epic and thematic adventures for your lone hero and his or her companions.
BEOWULF features a unique new set of subclasses: The Hero, with subclasses for each ability score. It has BEOWULF specific backgrounds, and unique rules for sea voyages, inspiration, alignment, followers, a new condition and more!
Explore mythic, migration-era Europe and beyond, solve mysteries, and do battle with dreadful monsters. Fully funded with numerous stretch goals unlocked, and with writing and rules design from hand-picked 5e and folklore geniuses, and with art from Jon Hodgson and friends, BEOWULF will be a thing of epic wonder.
Our Kickstarter for BEOWULF blew the doors off, and if you missed it, late pledges are available now – click below to find out more!
Made by the dice experts at Dice Dudes, this gorgeous set of 7 rune-carved polyhedral dice will bring a taste of the doom-laded North to any game. But they’re especially cool for BEOWULF: Age of Heroes!
The Kickstarter for BEOWULF: Age of Heroes is now live!
Featuring a host of exciting new content and rules for mythic 5e games, and focused on duet games for one player and one GM, BEOWULF is supported by a plethora of incredible accessories.
• Art from Jon Hodgson (D&D, The One Ring)
• 5e rules design from a team led by Jacob Rodgers (Adventures in Middle-earth, Forbidden Lands)
• Graphics from Paul Bourne (The One Ring, Adventures in Middle-earth)
BEOWULF: Age of Heroes is something truly special.
An important part of any RPG character’s life is their equipment, and in BEOWULF: Age of Heroes, this is a place where we can really show off some important aspects of the setting.
At a first glance, the list of weapons and armour for BEOWULF is slightly shorter than you might be used to. It is very much derived from the historical period of Beowulf. Because it’s a mythic, story-based world – meaning that the action is meant to take place in a half-remembered fireside tale about heroic ancestors, rather than any kind of “real” Europe – we can include things from a span of about 500 years while keeping the right feel. But the kinds of equipment used in those times also gives combat a real focus.
At the heart of Anglo-Saxon warfare is the shield. And we’ve given the shield a bit more love than it gets in standard 5e. Most shields will give a bigger boost to AC than you might be used to.
Which in turn means it’s possible to forego the time it would take to pull on your mail, and enter the fray with just a shield. Indeed, poorer warriors who lack armour are still challenging foes if they own a shield. And let’s be honest – anyone planning to fight owns a shield.
It also means that some weapons are favourable because they are designed to either circumvent shields – like the winged spear, with its lugs designed to pull down a foe’s shield, or an axe that can smash its way through a warboard, or an iron-hafted Angon, the javelin designed to piece a shield, then bend, rendering that shield impossible to use.
Break your opponent’s shield and you stand a good chance of breaking them. Indeed, using some of the special new rules found in BEOWULF: Age of Heroes many an opponent will gain the defeated condition when their shield is broken.
In a regular 5e game, it’d be awfully boring if everyone was using weapons with special rules for these things, and combat would be painfully slowed down. But this is where BEOWULF can capitalise on duet play. With just one player, having a few more tactical options derived from a limited set of weaponry and armour makes for a lot of fun!
Combine your era-specific weapons with the thematic abilities of your Followers, and you can start to create some marvellous “saga combat” moments as your Followers come to your aid in the heat of battle! Such steadfastness deserves rewards from the Hero.
The lands around the Whale Road, where BEOWULF: Age of Heroes takes place, is largely a gift-giving economy. Remain loyal to the local ruler, and he or she will provide for you. And a good host will provide ample hospitality. Day to day expenses we might recognise in our modern world are not of concern to a Hero!
And yet money still exists. In BEOWULF: Age of Heroes, wealth is measured in pounds of silver – a measurement of wealth that might be obliquely familiar to the Brits reading this: Pounds of sterling silver, Shillings and Pence all date back to the Anglo-Saxon world!
The upkeep of a ship, and maintaining the loyalty and good humour of one’s warband of followers is where a Hero’s money goes! And any Hero will frequently have need to set out in search of further “adventure” (silver) after all of one’s Followers are rewarded for their loyalty, and everything is mended aboard ship. Did we mention every Hero has a ship? Every Hero has a ship!
Here’s a free VTT map for the weekend! This is based on the Jon Hodgson Maps Evil Forest tiles: https://www.dropbox.com/s/xrk8y9615tg4tfn/Evil%20Forest%20VTT%20map.jpg?dl=0
You can get the digital Evil Forest Tile Set here. And there’s a super value mega bundle of ALL Jon Hodgson Maps digital tiles here.
