Jon at Handiwork Games

Thank you! I think it’s a really important idea that it’s not a real skull but it is also a real skull.

A digital montage of “David Skeleton”. David is a skull with a flower for an eye, some fake skin stretched over their face, a long tangled black wig and a garland of dried flowers and dried hands. Yes hands. If you’d have backed the Redux kickstarter you could have got a postcard of this absolutely free.

A photo of a fake skull in a wig with smoke coming out of its holes.

A screenshot of an extract of the linked blog text which reads: I set up some further tests, and discovered just how well a hose from my smoke machine can fit into David's noggin. I used some hot glue to seal up some of the various cranial exits, to direct smoke from the nose and eyes. Because we all know that's going to be all the more special. (I do worry sometimes. I want you to know that.)

“Alas poor David Skeleton. i knew her, Horatio.” Vintage material from the Making Maskwitches blog.

making-maskwitches.ghost.io/a-short-hist...

Nice.

Coming soon to print: FiveEvil Double Feature. Two Horror Scenarios. THESEUS PROTOCOL by Gareth Hanrahan and Glasshouse by Malcom Craig.

#ttrpg #horror #fiveEvil

World War III: The twentieth century's most important war? From 1945 onwards, it was a war that never broke out that occupied the minds of millions of people around the world. During the Cold War era, World War Three remained an apocalyptic fantasy, but it was a fantasy with enormous impact, relevance, and resonance. Facing this ‘spectre of ever greater annihilation’ politicians, officials, military leaders, and 'boffins' all pored over its implications, planned for its outcomes, and wrestled with the morality of it all. The global public consumed ideas about a third major twentieth century conflagration through an untold number of novels, comics, films, plays, artworks, news media articles, and games. This talk will cover the imaginary of World War III more generally, and then focus on how analogue games approached this topic and what this can add to our understanding of the twentieth century.

Better Dead Than Red: RPGs and the invasion of America Since the founding of the United States 250 years ago, fears of subversion and invasion by foreign powers have waxed and waned, but have never gone away. The 1980s saw the emergence of RPGs and board games that explicitly dealt with this threat, either literally or metaphorically. What do we make of these games as historical objects and how do we analyse them within their historical context. This talk by Malcolm Craig will invite you to consider games like Freedom Fighters, Year of the Phoenix, and the infamous Price of Freedom, and think about what they tell us about the United States in the era of Ronald Reagan.

They're not up on the site yet, but I'll be giving 2 talks at @conpulsion.bsky.social in Edinburgh on April 11/12:

11th: 11.30-12.30: World War III: The 20th century's most important war?

12th: 15.30-16.30: Better Dead Than Red: RPGs & the invasion of America

More on the talks in the images below

The cover to BEOWULF Annual 2022

The cover to BEOWULF Annual 2023

The cover to BEOWULF Annual 2024

BEOWULF Age of Heroes has loads of supplements to add new material to your adventures on the Whale Road. The Annuals collect all the material from our BEOWULF Digital Packs into softcover books. They're full of new stuff - weapons, monsters, followers and more! handiwork.games/beowulf/beow...

Here's a random tip for publishing friends. I ummed and ahhed about implementing this for a stupidly long time, but investing the ~£70 a year in tech that allows customers to browse our web shop in multiple currencies has netted us thousands in increased sales. The effect was instant and lasting.

I’m talking about a currently active monastery in 2026.

3. Is That So? These koans, or parables, were translated into English from a book called the Shaseki-shu (Collection of Stone and Sand), written late in the thirteenth century by the Japanese Zen teacher Muju (the '...

…but sometimes I feel this huge untapped power in just ignoring whatever the rich idiots are up to now and persisting on our terms, under our own steam. I’m reminded of “is that so”. Google also corrects “koan” to “loan” now. Gosh.

Footnote: I’m kinda bothering myself that this is an incomplete thought, and I haven’t really fully processed something I’ve been thinking about for years - the power in just doing what’s in front of you. And for sure, sometimes that is protest and clamour. (Catch me on tv doing that recently)…

I’m not bothered about the god stuff, being an atheist and all, but I relate to just getting on with it. If people want AI newspapers, or the people who make them want to try and force people to want them? By running down Cormac McCarthy, of all people? What can we do about that other than continue?

Was watching some daft tv show the other day, and it featured a monastery, and these Benedictine fellows were just living their life, mostly self sufficient, growing their apples, doing their god stuff, and I thought it was surprisingly affecting. If the world ended it wouldn’t affect them so much?

It’s hard to explain because it sounds sort of… ugh… “black pilled” or defeatist? But I just have this huge faith in our audience. I don’t need everyone to want our stuff. Just some people. And we’ll make that work?

The NYT thing - On one hand I’m just speechless at the crass misunderstanding of what makes good writing. It’s such a wild self own, it’s so bizarrely reflexive, this pride in such ignorance.
On the other hand, if that’s what people want? We’ll be over here doing something different? Same as ever.

Available for pre-order now: Cold City and Hot War
handiwork.games/cold-city-ho... #ttrpg

Thanks! A section like this really helps me out when running these adventures, even knowing them really well!

Find out more: handiwork.games/beowulf/beow...

The Trials of the Twin Seas for BEOWULF Age of Heroes presents 6 scenarios for one GM and one Player in the Age of Heroes. Set sail for ADVENTURE! With adventures by Gar Hanrahan, KC Shi, Elaine Lithgow, Marco Rafala, Jacob Rodgers, and Jon Hodgson, Trials will keep your Hero busy for ages!

A screenshot of an order confirmation screen from Bad Squiddo Games showing the text: Your orde Signposts (10) × 1 Humiliated Nazis (3) × 1 Questions on your order?

“Questions on your order?”
Yeah I probably do have some questions…

Naturally, we support our women colleagues in tabletop gaming on all days of the year, but today more than ever. And I think you should buy an extra thing from Bad Squiddo to offset the 10% off.

Right, I need to go pre-order some humiliated Nazis. Wasn’t planning on writing that this morning.

Two of the best RPGs ever, be good to yourself and pick them up. 😊👍🏻

a|state second edition features an easily-digested iteration of Forged in the Dark with numerous developments such as The Trouble Engine, faction rules, caring as an action and more. It's packed with glorious art, unique setting material and is a hefty tome of wonder. handiwork.games/games/astate

A character model from “The Burn” - a sort of fairy type with wispy red hair and blanket clothes.

Twi character model from “The Burn” - a sort of fairy type with wispy red hair and blanket clothes.

“Goblin your food is bad for your elf” AAHAHAAHHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHABAHAHAH

THE BURN handiwork.games/home/the-sil...

Cold City & Hot War are out now in PDF and available to pre-order in print. Written by Malcolm Craig, a senior lecturer in Cold War Studies, & updated for this 2026 edition, Cold City & Hot War bring trust and betrayal to a backdrop of a terrifying alternate timeline. handiwork.games/cold-city-ho...

Nice.

Nice.

And the beetle is Clive Evil. Wait sorry sorry I said I wouldn’t mention him again

It’s like when you run your eye across the video shelf: oh look. A beetle. With hands. And a razor blade. Different. Exciting. Terrifying.

FiveEvil Get FiveEvil in PDF Order the print book with free PDF FiveEvil is a standalone horror roleplaying game from Handiwork Games, the fiendish minds behind BEOWULF Age of Heroes, a|state second edition…

FiveEvil is currently reduced in the GMs Day Sale at DrivethruRPG: www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/5...
Or find out more at our website: handiwork.games/fiveevil

The FiveEvil cover showing a fly on a die

Some spreads from FiveEvil

Some spreads from FiveEvil

FiveEvil takes the underlying basics of fifth edition, skins them, guts them, turns them inside out and sews it all back together on a really solid skeleton of solid iron. FiveEvil delivers horror roleplaying to your table, using the system you know so well against you.