Jon’s dedicated Maskwitches Redux blog is the place to find all the latest new and articles about the progress of the upcoming new edition of Maskwitches of Forgotten Doggerland.
Check out some of the latest posts:
Making Tools: Lots of images, lots of text about the making of tools for the new edition, and some of the contextual issues arising.
Work continues: This post has a selection of the latest photographs and images made for the new books. Check out the covers for To The Ice Caves and The Meat Spoiler Redux
This coming weekend (March 30-31st) it’s Conpulsion in Edinburgh, Scotland, and we will be there with our stall, as well as taking part in a bunch of talks. We have a long history with Conpulsion, even before Handiwork Games was a thing, so it’s always a delight to be in attendance and to be able to contribute to the show!
Innovation in Games Design Saturday 13:15—13:45: With: Tanya Floaker and Jon Hodgson
A panel looking at how you can innovate in games design to create better and more playable games, with insights from two experienced designers and publishers. Jon Hodgson is a games designer, artist and writer, as well as the owner of Handiwork Games. Tanya Floaker is a games designer active in the indie gaming scene and has successfully crowdfunded several innovative RPG projects.
History and Gaming Saturday 12:15—12:45 With: Aleksandra Brokman and Malcolm Craig
A panel about projects exploring gaming history and applying multimedia approaches from two celebrated ENnie-nominated games designers with strong links to Conpulsion. Malcolm Craig, acclaimed author of a|state, Cold City and Hot War who is now a senior lecturer in history at Liverpool John Moores University. Malcolm is working with Handiwork Games as an integral part of his research work into the history of nuclear war in roleplaying games. Aleksandra Brokman, acclaimed author of Wise Women and host of the Lamias actual play stream, has a series of Vampire the Masquerade essays on YouTube deep diving into the evolution of clans over the editions of the game.
History in Games/Games in History: Live! Saturday 14:15—15:00 With: Jon Hodgson and Malcolm Craig
Come and be part of a live recording of the History in Games/Games in History podcast. Not only listen to Jon and Malcolm like you can on the internet, but see them live and ask them questions too. Dr Malcolm Craig is a senior lecturer in history at Liverpool John Moores University. Jon Hodgson is a games designer, artist and writer, as well as the owner of Handiwork Games. Together they fight crime talk about history in games and games in history!
20 years of a|state: Ask Me Anything Sunday 13:15—14:00: With: Malcolm Craig and Paul Bourne
Malcolm Craig and Paul Bourne, the creators of a|state, launched the first edition upon the world at Conpulsion 2004. Now available in a beautiful, full-colour Second Edition, Conpulsion 2024 gives you the chance to ask them anything about the game and their reflections of a|state’s 20 years.
We’re in the process of remaking all the art for our tabletop roleplaying game Maskwitches of Forgotten Doggerland. Jon takes delivery of a box of new things to be used in the new artwork. Hilarity ensues:
We made our RPG Maskwitches of Forgotten Doggerland as an art experiment with an early version of AI. Which very quickly proved itself to be something we were not keen to be involved in: over a very short space of time it moved from an interesting new planet to explore to something else entirely. So we’ve left it behind.
But the Maskwitches game remains good, and we want to remake it with new all handmade artwork, which is well within our powers to achieve. It’ll be a long term project, but that’s ok.
While we will lose some of the especially weird reflexive nature of exploring the deep past through the eyes of something so contemporary and unknown as AI, we feel it’s worth continuing the game in a new direction.
And so here is a candid look at the first outing of the model we’ve made for the cover, a sort of horrific “Girl’s World” from the other side. Enjoy.
It seems like a busy week for enjoying content around our games!
The latest Yes Indie’d podcast features Paul Beakley, and he has some very kind things to say about a|state: “It is in my opinion the best Forged in the Dark game out right now”.
The a|state chat begins at 43:54, but Paul is a very interesting guy to listen to, so we highly recommend the whole thing. And if you missed his deep dive on a|state, be sure to check that out!
And stay tuned, Maskwitches fans, we’ll have some exciting news for anyone attending UK Games Expo in less than 3 weeks’ time! (And yes we are exhibiting at Expo, even if the UK Games Expo site thinks otherwise. You’ll find us right next to our friends Nightfall Games.)
We’ve enjoyed using these very clear wooden dice so much in our Maskwitches game that we’ve sourced a small stock for our webstore. They’re 15mm across and come in a cotton pouch.
Huh. Jon here again, talking about Maskwitches of Forgotten Doggerland. So a little while back I spent the evening making images of drums for Maskwitches of Forgotten Doggerland. But you know what? I’m not going to use them. Which is kinda interesting.
Long post is long.
It’s very complicated, and would require too many words for blog post that anyone will read to the end, but I have some concerns about Maskwitches cleaving too close to real world Siberian shamanism (and we could throw in some other religious practices that one might call “shamanism” too) as an influence.
There’s a line on that I don’t care to cross.
Troubling echoes can be created when we take a religious practice first witnessed and recorded by non-indigenous peoples a few hundred years ago, and uncritically project it back the best part of 10,000 years into a gleefully “historio-gonzo”-but-attempting-to-be-internally-credible, fantasy game.
I’m reading a reference work right now which specifically falls into this trap, and I don’t wish to echo that mistake.
As it was being made, “Maskwitches of Forgotten Doggerland” walked a very precise line as the project developed, and I needed to trust its direction. Underneath the clear glee I have in assembling its range of fairly wild influences, and revelling in assembling the parts that “feel right”, there is a very deep well of seriousness in both a moral compass on appropriate or acceptable appropriation, and an honest creative process.
Creatively, I went looking for these drums in a self conscious way, and of course I found them. They did not find me, unlike all the other ideas in the book so far. And so they just don’t belong. They were made in the wrong way.
And in terms of moral compass, they’re giving me some bad vibes. Too on the nose, too lazy, verging on the unpleasant end of ethnography.
Contrast these with the “witch-knives” that came out of nowhere, feel really right, but don’t… take from anyone? It’s a very fragile sensibility but it matters to me as the creator. Making “right” things requires those fine-tuned delicate aerials, I think.
These drum images are however still enjoyable. And may yet find a use. But not in the panopoly of the witches for this project.
I thought this kind of curation and careful backward step might prove mildly diverting for you. Also: cool drum pics bro.
Making Maskwitches + Free PDF$20.32
Maskwitches: To The Ice Caves + Free PDF$20.32
Maskwitches of Forgotten Doggerland Dice Tray$16.27
Maskwitches of Forgotten Doggerland Redux Edition Soft Cover + Free PDF$33.88
Maskwitches of Forgotten Doggerland Redux Pine Pitch Black + Free PDF$54.22
Maskwitches Dice$6.76
Maskwitches Predestined Event Tracker$10.83
Maskwitches Knap Tokens$10.83
