It’s been a while since we’ve spoken about KING BEOWULF, the kingdom stewardship supplement for BEOWULF: Age of Heroes!
With our commitment to delivering all physical rewards on The Trials of the Twin Seas* before launching any new BEOWULF book, we’ve had a bit of extra time to work on KING BEOWULF, and we’ve put it to good use.
During this additional development time, we have hit on some really exciting new directions and, in the name of seizing that silver lining, we’ve decided to fully pursue them – building on the first version of the KING BEOWULF manuscript towards something even more unique!
This week we’ll be releasing a free 4 page PDF introduction to some of the concepts we’ve developed for KING BEOWULF. We’ll add it to all the BEOWULF: Age of Heroes core book at DrivethruRPG, as well as making it its own title for free download.
Most excitingly, we will have a number of printed versions of this introduction available at Tabletop Scotland this weekend!
Very soon you’ll be able to sign up to be notified when the kickstarter for KING BEOWULF launches.
*In case you missed it, the US stock of Kickstarter rewards were “lost” by the shipping company, and this has caused us a real problem – we’re a small company, and we’ve had to work very hard to replace those lost rewards. But we’ve done it and they’re all shipping out right now!
The beautiful replica Fuller disc brooch in the image above is by https://glitterbeards.co.uk, and used with permission.
Paul Beakley of the Indie Game Reading Club is documenting his a|state campaign. Paul has a lot of really interesting thoughts about rpgs, and his blog is well worth your time.
We gave our newsletter subscribers a chance to get in first, but now we’re opening the FiveEvil play test to everyone!
FiveEvil is a dedicated horror adaptation of fifth edition by Morgan Davie. It’s a radical reinterpretation of 5e, with many changes to the base game to facilitate creepy, atmospheric horror games. Find out more here.
We ask that only one person per group sign up to help us manage each group, collate feedback and ensure your accurate names make it into the book.
You can pre-order the forthcoming Sci-Fi Backdrops book right now at the Handiwork Games web store (or the Bad Squiddo store if you would prefer!)
Jon is almost done painting the 32 backdrops which will be included – here are some demos with some beautiful Bad Squiddo minis, and prints made with our office printer.
FiveEvil is a set of new roleplaying rules from Handiwork Games, slated for release later this year. FiveEvil is designed to evoke the horror genre via a set of clever twists on the underlying fifth edition ruleset. The primary 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 where fighting isn’t likely to help.
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.
FiveEvil was created and written by Morgan Davie, features art by Scott Purdy, Jon Hodgson and friends, and boasts graphic design and layout by Paul Bourne.
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!”
Closed play tests are complete, and we will be inviting play testers to the next round of testing soon. A printed book will be funded on kickstarter later this year.
Miss the 7 day quickstarter campaign for 2 books of painted backdrops? By (massive) popular demand we’ve opened a pre-order here! We’re expecting to deliver these backdrop books in October this year.
The commercial licenses are not yet available, but stay tuned, they’re coming soon!
We’re running a mini-kickstarter to fund a print run of a book of backdrops to use with your minis and models. Jon has painted quite the collection of these, and while there are twosets available at DrivethruRPG, we think it’d be a great idea to make a book of them, so you don’t need to print them at home.
Here’s the low down in a sneak peek at the Campaign Video:
Sign up to be notified of the launch – the campaign is just 7 days long, so don’t miss out!:
This week has flown by, as we got the 2023 BEOWULF Annual ready to go, unpacked the returning stock, and caught up on our studio work. But last weekend was UK Games Expo in Birmingham. And what a show! Despite the train strikes, (up the workers, give ’em hell) people turned out in droves, and the venue was packed. It’s really nice to get out and about again, and always a pleasure to meet our customers in person.
Left: Malcolm was in charge of aero pressing the coffee and thank God for that. Above: our neighbour Shep of Hansor Publishing was in charge of whatever that is Shep is doing.
Jon and Malcolm were on booth duties for the weekend, and we were right next door to our friends at Nightfall Games, Word Forge Games, Hansor Publishing and Dice Sports in a loosely-defined conglomerate presence! We were on the same size mini-booth as last year, but we really need to go bigger! We have too much stuff now!
Jon arrived from Scotland early evening on Thursday, and by 9pm we were all set up to go.
Friday saw Malcolm and Jon deliver a panel on Games in History and History in Games. This was well-attended, and we enjoyed some really good questions from the floor. It’s always terrifying when an audience member begins a question with “I’m a medievalist…” but everyone was so kind, and a really good discussion was had. I’ve said to many people in attendance that it’s always hard to know if your anecdotes and experiences of making games with historical themes are interesting or not. But apparently we gave good account of ourselves. Malcolm (or should we say Professor Craig?)’s current research project is about what we can learn about attitudes to the Cold War through the medium of post-apocalyptic roleplaying games, and there’s some truly fascinating stuff coming to light. It’s really satisfying to see our hobby being taken seriously as an art form and social document.
We’re not sure if a recording was made – still trying to find out – we’ll let you know!
By the end of Friday we had to send out for more copies of BEOWULF Age of Heroes – it’s really cool that despite being our very first book, it’s still a great seller at shows. The “5e for two players” angle really works, and it was an insta-buy for loads of our customers. Welcome, if this is your first time to our site having found us at Expo!
It’s always lovely to catch up with industry pals at shows, and this year’s expo was no exception. Of course we don’t always remember to get photos, but Annie from Bad Squiddo did! Bad Squiddo make an amazing range of 28mm figures of women from a broad range of eras, including the early medieval period, perfect for BEOWULF!
These people are clearly in no way up to shenanigans.
Jon managed approximately 2 minutes away from the booth to say the briefest of helloes to Fenris Games, who kindly let us use some of their models in the new artwork edition of The Silver Road.
Our brand new mini-catalogues went really well, and loads of those are now out in the world! We’re very happy with the way those show off what we do in a really convenient format. And don’t worry, Handiwork-superfans – all mail orders come with a catalogue now too!
The special edition of Maskwitches was all gone by Saturday, and we did a lot of talking about a|state – it’s always a treat to have a|state co-creator Malcolm on hand to answer questions straight from the horse’s mouth. A lot of those folks came back on Sunday and snaffled up a bunch of copies!
On Sunday we caught up with some HIGH LEVEL SUPER MEETINGS, and we will hopefully have some very exciting announcements to come in the next few months.
All in all we had a really great show, and couldn’t have asked for more. Special thanks to our friends at GMS Logistics and Nightfall Games for all their help. Couldn’t do it without you.
Right at the end of Sunday we got to visit the portion of our stock that lives in England at the GMS warehouse. Exciting stuff! And then while the Nightfall team had a meeting, Jon even got some writing done for an upcoming Nightfall project!
Thanks of course go to everyone who stopped by to browse and pick up a game, and the Expo organisers for another amazing year at UK Games Expo! See you next time!
