It was remarkably easy to spot attendees carrying Greedy Gorgon Press books around the UK Games Expo halls this year. While fantasy art across the tabletop industry is universally fantastic, this independent publisher has carved out an unmistakable aesthetic signature. Their books demand attention with stark, high-contrast black-and-white ink drawings punctuated only by the occasional visceral splash of red blood.
The visual footprint across the NEC floor perfectly mirrors the studio’s underlying philosophy: Greedy Gorgon Press is entirely dedicated to delivering heavy metal vibes to the roleplaying games community. Having recently wrapped up the printing and fulfilment of their successful Heavy Metal Monster Manual project, the design team used the convention to formally showcase their expanding physical line and tease their next major release for Dungeons & Dragons 5E and 5.5E players: the Heavy Metal Handbook.
The studio’s previous release, Heavy Metal Monster Manual, raised £13,498 on Kickstarter to bring 100 hard-rocking homebrewed monsters to the tabletop. Featuring 150 pages of metallic aberrations, legendary encounters, and specific battlemaps crafted in partnership with cartographer Kawaiju, the book established the core tone of the line. The publication relied on the distinct, energetic artwork of Kim Diaz Holm, a traditional artist and self-described metalhead whose raw ink style provides the backbone of Greedy Gorgon’s visual presence.
With the monster manual now successfully landing in the hands of crowdfunding backers and convention attendees, the team is shifting its focus toward the player’s side of the screen. Promotional material distributed by the publisher at the event reveals that the Heavy Metal Handbook will act as an unholy expansion to the core rules, explicitly designed for roleplaying game tables that want to bring a rock-and-roll attitude to character creation and spellcasting.
The upcoming book will introduce four entirely new character classes designed to let players literally form a musical band within their adventuring party. The player sourcebook will also include a suite of thematic subclasses, 100 character backgrounds, 100 heavy metal feats, and 100 new spells tied directly to a custom “School of Rock” magic tradition.
The upcoming player book represents a direct scaling up of the studio’s broader independent portfolio. In addition to their main hardbacks, the team debuted two fresh-to-print softback zines at their convention stand: Great Hexpectations, which explores hexflower point-crawl mechanics, and Beat Up The Beatles, a satirical 36-page dungeon crawl that turns a monstrous caricature of the historic Cavern Club into a D&D combat gauntlet.
Greedy Gorgon Press operates as a close-knit independent outfit. The team openly characterises its writing style as the literary equivalent of power chords and double-kick drums, utilising proper British and Hiberno-English phrasing alongside a healthy dose of creative swearing and irreverent humour. While their digital distribution remains anchored to DriveThruRPG for global printing and fulfilment, the heavy presence of physical stock at the UK Games Expo marks a clear transition toward wider retail visibility for the indie group.
The presence of dedicated pre-launch landing pages alongside live show promotion indicates that the studio is accelerating its production schedule. Tabletop groups looking to inject subwoofers, spikes, and saving rolls into their next campaign can expect the formal crowdfunding push to commence shortly, bringing a highly specific subculture flavour into the current 5.5E release cycle.
Quick Links
- DriveThruRPG: Heavy Metal Monster Manual.
- Kickstarter: Heavy Metal Handbook.
