Jon at Handiwork Games
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handiworkgames.bsky.social
Jon at Handiwork Games
@handiworkgames.bsky.social
2.9K followers 1.3K following 3.4K posts
Scotland-based #ttrpg developer and publisher of #BEOWULF Age of Heroes, #astaterpg second edition, #Maskwitches, Silver Road, Jon Hodgson Backdrop books, #ColdCity, Hot War, #FiveEvil and more

https://handiwork.games
Posts Replies Media Videos
handiworkgames.bsky.social
The Black Friday sale @Drivethru is on now! If you've been eying up our PDFs, there's no better time to grab a load of 'em!
www.drivethrurpg.com/en/publisher...
The cover to BEOWULF Age of Heroes The Cover to a|state Second Edition The Cover to Maskwitches of Forgotten Doggerland The Cover to FiveEvil
November 25, 2025 at 5:44 PM
handiworkgames.bsky.social
Behind the scenes of some fresh nonsense. I think they want their planet back? Me lovely rewilded tufty lads.
A group of modified robot kits all rusty and covered with tufts
November 25, 2025 at 5:28 PM
handiworkgames.bsky.social
This is the ideal male body. You may not like it, but this is what peak performance looks like.

The new 'World War Ruins' and 'More Skies' Backdrops Books contributing to reality. #jhbackdrops

handiwork.games/product-cate...
A vintage Matchbox Adventure 2000 Raider Command 1977 toy in front of a World War Ruins Backdrop Book A vintage Matchbox Adventure 2000 Raider Command 1977toy in front of a More Skies Backdrop Book
November 25, 2025 at 3:47 PM
handiworkgames.bsky.social
Unbelievable scenes!
malcolmcraig.bsky.social Malcolm Craig @malcolmcraig.bsky.social · 8h
Writing a scenario pack of @fromthemorgue.bsky.social brilliant #FiveEvil RPG from @handiworkgames.bsky.social, and was shocked to find my writing contains:

A secret bunker!
Cold War experiments!
Dodgy civil servants!
Fungal mutations!

I'm just as startled as anyone by this.
November 25, 2025 at 1:20 PM
handiworkgames.bsky.social
This is some weighty stuff, and while it’s hard to talk about enjoying an article about this subject matter, I came away feeling like I had been quietly led to a bunch of questions that will eventually make me a smarter person. Serious content warnings apply.
danthurot.bsky.social Dan Thurot @danthurot.bsky.social · 1d
I don't know how to introduce this one. After three titles about opium peddling, I figured the rest of SDHistCon would be breezy by comparison. I was wrong. The next day, I experienced one of the toughest board games I've ever played. Perhaps *the* toughest. spacebiff.com/2025/11/24/u...
Unnameable
After the first day of SDHistCon, where I played three games about opium peddling, I figured the second would be easier on my stomach. I could not have been more wrong. It has no name. Its designer…
spacebiff.com
November 25, 2025 at 7:42 AM
handiworkgames.bsky.social
Weeeeeeeyyyyyy!!!!
November 24, 2025 at 7:43 PM
handiworkgames.bsky.social
What a busy day! Haven’t had time to post here - we finished laying out a new book for a client and it’s looking great! But not our story to tell. We’ve been absolutely run off our feet with Backdrop Book orders. Perfect Christmas present, right? Anyway, hope your Monday was ok.
November 24, 2025 at 6:00 PM
handiworkgames.bsky.social
Nice.
owolf.bsky.social Olli Wolf 🐺 @owolf.bsky.social · 2d
Sunday #Guardvember post:

What would the Imperial Guard be without its officers?
“Better off!”
That’s the answer you can hear from some enlisted soldiers (but only behind closed doors).

#Nerdlings
#WarhammerCommunity
#JHBackdrops
Old metal miniature of a Cadian Officer with a bionic eye. He’s dressed in a long brown coat and green armor with gold decorations. He’s holding a power saber and has a large holster on his belt. Crate by Fenris Games and backdrop by Jon Hodgson.
November 23, 2025 at 8:53 AM
handiworkgames.bsky.social
It is time for three more robot kits to undergo THE PROCESS
A top down view of three robot kits in a plastic tub having basing material glued to them.
November 22, 2025 at 6:41 PM
handiworkgames.bsky.social
I think I’ve made peace at this point with something that used to bother me - photoshoots using backdrop books where the backdrops aren’t especially visible. But you can’t get from A to B without a backdrop. Anyway - @fenrisgames.com Grendel model in full effect. #jhbackdrops
A behind the scenes shot of Fenris Games’ mighty Grendel model with some scatter terrain in front of a backdrop from the first Backdrops Book. The resulting shot of Fenris Games’ mighty Grendel model with some scatter terrain in front of a backdrop from the first Backdrops Book. There’s a bit too much smoke. Careful readers of this column may notice the slight intercession of the extreme foreground scenery. It’s barely there, but that kind of detail adds a lot to a scene.
November 21, 2025 at 7:42 PM
handiworkgames.bsky.social
Hey it's the weekend. Want some free stuff? Here's a thread of our free or PWYW stuff. Most of it is fully playable, or great reading:
The Hermit's Sanctuary for BEOWULF: www.drivethrurpg.com/product/3067... ENnie Nommed! Twice!
The cover to the Hermit's Sanctuary, showing a circular metal icon with an interlaced figure and a small ship, in front of a maritime scene of a small long boat heading into the waves.
November 21, 2025 at 5:20 PM
handiworkgames.bsky.social
Might do another one this afternoon. We'll see how the time goes.
handiworkgames.bsky.social Jon at Handiwork Games @handiworkgames.bsky.social · 12d
It's another episode of your favourite 1970s children's animation "The Maskwitches and the hungry dead shivering like flukes through our pine-tar souls".

I'd say I'm sorry to people frightened of the Maskwitches and the teeth stuff, but you'd know I was lying.

handiwork.games/home/the-sil...
November 21, 2025 at 12:44 PM
handiworkgames.bsky.social
Screw it, I'll repost myself. If it's a mistake, something good still might happen. Just different than what I intended in the first instance, and that's ok. Good is good.
handiworkgames.bsky.social Jon at Handiwork Games @handiworkgames.bsky.social · 4d
Thinking a lot about creativity and my own suspected (but largely inconsequential to me) neurodiversity because once again I have been asked to speak to young people about creative jobs. I have been a full time creative for 25 years by blithely fucking shit up & then going "oh wait! A connection!".
November 21, 2025 at 9:38 AM
handiworkgames.bsky.social
All the masks that the NPCs wear on the BBC version of “The Traitors” use the same base mask as I used for this. Call me back, cowards.

Anyway, goodnight.
#maskwitches
A painted mask, with teeth in its eye holes A painted mask, with teeth in its eye holes. One of the eyes is strongly lit from within with an orange light. There is also smoke visible. A close up on one toothy eye hole. It is lit from within and smoke is leaking from it. A close up on both toothy eye holes with lots of smoke coming out.
November 20, 2025 at 10:57 PM
handiworkgames.bsky.social
Reskeet with a time you looked cool

(This was right after a young man tried to tell me that I probably didn’t even play dnd when I was wearing my dnd t shirt on a train. “Well I did art for 3e, 3.5e, 4e, the core books for 5e, & I’ve played it since I was 11 which is probably twice your lifespan?”)
A selfie of OP pulling a “hmmm” face. Wearing a red box dnd t shirt.
November 20, 2025 at 9:02 PM
handiworkgames.bsky.social
With the new More Skies book we're offering 32 versatile sky backdrops which are closer to "photographic" than the original Skies Backdrops, but which remain stylish and stylised. Here we see a Fenris Games Rubble Adventurer in a collection of Fenris Rubble and the mighty troll bridge,
A Fenris Games Rubble City Adventurer and Rubble city scenery in front of a More Skies Backdrop Book. A Fenris Games Rubble City Adventurer and Rubble city scenery in front of a More Skies Backdrop Book. A Fenris Games Rubble City Adventurer and Rubble city scenery in front of a More Skies Backdrop Book. A Fenris Games Rubble City Adventurer and Rubble city scenery in front of a More Skies Backdrop Book.
November 20, 2025 at 4:07 PM
handiworkgames.bsky.social
The World War Ruins Backdrop Book is out now! 32 pages of ruined cityscapes to level up your miniatures photography. Here we see a rewilded robot kit exploring the ruined world into which it has awoken.

Browse the selection of Backdrop Books in A4 and A3 here: handiwork.games/product-cate...
A robot model in front of a ruined cityscape. A robot model in front of a ruined cityscape. A robot model in front of a ruined cityscape. A robot model in front of a ruined cityscape.
November 20, 2025 at 10:52 AM
Reposted by Jon at Handiwork Games
floaker.bsky.social
If anyone wants advice on how to make games with no money and no time, hmu. Flattening the perceived Player > GM > Designer hierarchy and demystifying the processes is something I love about Edinburgh Indie Gamers, #NaGaDeMon, and @groundhogplay.bsky.social.
November 20, 2025 at 10:22 AM
handiworkgames.bsky.social
I always feel bad if I just repost without commentary, but this stuff is just interesting innit?
malcolmcraig.bsky.social Malcolm Craig @malcolmcraig.bsky.social · 5d
I'm putting together a short presentation on how RPG designers use historical primary sources for @luciejones83.bsky.social, and I'm swithering about including the fake documents from #ColdCity 2nd ed. I mean, they do look great.
A fake official document from the Cold City 2nd edition RPG. A fake official document from the Cold City 2nd edition RPG.
November 20, 2025 at 9:09 AM
handiworkgames.bsky.social
Found these old friends. Always thought these were ok. The aim was always to stop doing black and white art, but in getting there there was a phase where I’d done a lot of it and had a handle on it to some degree. From the Dragon Warriors RPG line as republished by Magnum Opus Press 2008ish.
“Merchants” from the Magnum Opus Press edition of Dragon Warriors supplement “Friends and Foes”. A monochrome digital painting of three characters. A woman with long dark hair in a fur trimmed coat, a posh looking medieval fellow in hose, and a ragged beggar type of character. “Nobles” from the Magnum Opus Press edition of Dragon Warriors supplement “Friends and Foes”. A monochrome digital painting of three characters. A fellow sat on a throne looking remarkably like Ciaran Hinds from awful television programme Vikings (but painted a decade before hand), some kind of wild-eyed troubled fellow in a gambeson, and a handlebar moustachioed portly type in plate armour.
November 19, 2025 at 9:06 PM
Reposted by Jon at Handiwork Games
malcolmcraig.bsky.social
Oh, this also applies if you read my article on games and the Cold war in issue 7 of @wyrdscience.bsky.social - the survey is open to anyone who has read my stuff, heard one of my talks, watched a video I've been involved it, etc.
malcolmcraig.bsky.social Malcolm Craig @malcolmcraig.bsky.social · 6d
2) What also important to me is archiving and analysing the responses to my work. That's why I've asking if readers would kindly take the time to complete this short survey about my work. This is super helpful for the project as a whole.
forms.gle/VKhMCyS2uBGp...
Role-playing games and the Cold War research by Malcolm Craig
Hello, and thanks for taking the time to complete this survey! If you're reading this you'll have attended one of my talks at a convention, watched one of my YouTube videos, or read an article (in mag...
forms.gle
November 19, 2025 at 5:53 PM
handiworkgames.bsky.social
Look what arrived and got photographed in some kind of weird midnight at the oasis/The City from a|state mashup, which pretty much describes the author it's only MUM CHUMS by @floaker.bsky.social and the crowd goes wild
A photo of the Mum Chums RPG by Tanya Floaker against the backdrop of an astate ship yard, with some inexplicable model palm trees and Fenris Games rubble city stuff in the foreground
November 19, 2025 at 6:46 PM
handiworkgames.bsky.social
A thread on rpgnet asks: FiveEvil - has anyone picked this up?
forum.rpg.net/index.php?th...
"it's a really engaging premise and clearly a labour of love from its creators." TRUE STORY
November 19, 2025 at 1:09 PM
handiworkgames.bsky.social
Nice.
col-orange.bsky.social Richland Chester @col-orange.bsky.social · 6d
Good boys and girls and enbies get @badsquiddogames.bsky.social minis and @handiworkgames.bsky.social backdrops, and so do I!
November 19, 2025 at 11:07 AM
handiworkgames.bsky.social
Late pledges are now open for official Trench Crusade Backdrop Books! With the new plastics incoming, now is the perfect time to secure your copies! www.kickstarter.com/projects/han... #trenchcrusade
November 19, 2025 at 10:24 AM