Handiwork Games’ Beowulf: Age of Heroes is an RPG that uses D&D’s 5e with one substantial modification. The game is designed for two players: a DM and one PC.
A recent Kickstarter for the project hit challenges as a shipment from the Scottish company went missing.
Jon Hodgson, Managing Director and co-creator of Beowulf, explains;
We unexpectedly found we had some extra time to devote to KING BEOWULF, and it’s a bittersweet tale. The shipment of BEOWULF books was lost en route to our Trials of the Twin Seas backers in the US, costing us a great deal of money to deal with. We’ve recently discovered that they were not just lost, but actually stolen, which was a hard blow for us to endure. Law enforcement are involved, but if you see copies of a|state, The Twin Seas or BEOWULF on sale from US eBay accounts with multiple copies? They’re stolen goods.
Geek Native urges readers to be on watch for dodgy copies.
The theft is annoying for Trials of the Twin Seas backers, but the impact for the indie RPG publisher is far more significant. How much will a crate of stolen RPG supplements cost a small company?
Jon tells us;
We’re just a small operation and the loss of some £25,000 of stock when the pallet was just “lost” was very hard to survive. But we dug deep, we worked hard, we took on extra jobs, and have managed to recoup enough of the lost funds to replace the stock and money spent on shipping.
It gets worse.
This additional news that the goods were actually stolen has been personally devastating, if I’m honest. We’re now competing with stolen goods in the US market.
However, there are some glimmers of hope. Handiwork is not taking the setback lightly, and despite the challenging business environment, they are determined to do right by their backers.
US law enforcement are investigating, but until they take action it’s a tricky one for us.
We won’t take a major BEOWULF title like KING BEOWULF to kickstarter until our ever-patient US backers have had their books dispatched – that’s a matter of honour. That should all be done within the next week or so, which is an excellent result for our team. Lesser blows have killed bigger companies!
I’m not sure I’d be as honourable as Jon. I’d need the money.
Jon has found the upside.
But the silver lining to these events is that this gave us more time that we thought we had to work on KING BEOWULF. During that extra time we hit on some really unique new ideas, and decided to seize the opportunity and update the manuscript. We really feel we’ve made something awesome, and we hope it’s well received, that BEOWULF players in the US will forgive us the delays, and we can get our ship back on track.”
It’s in the run-up to the Kickstarter for King Beowulf that Handiwork has released the 4-page and free-to-download Of Kingdoms and Ring-Givers.
Quick Links
- Free Download: King Beowulf: Of Kingdoms and Ring-Givers.
- Buy: Beowulf: Age of Heroes.
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I’m a US backer of the Trials Kickstarter. It has been incredibly frustrating watching this unfold, but Jon and Handiwork Games have been nothing but great during the whole process. They have my deepest sympathies. “Shipping difficulties” can often be a crowdsourcing red flag for fraud. But Jon’s past track record (very, VERY good) and his continuing transparency (very, VERY transparent) have established a DEEP well of trust. Combined with other continents’ backers reporting receipt of product means Handiwork Games gets the benefit of the doubt. I’m looking forward to my receipt of Trials. I will be backing Handiwork Games… Read more »