In January 2023 we presented the all-new Beowulf 5E Bundle featuring Beowulf: Age of Heroes, the mythic lone-hero 5E campaign setting from third-party publisher Handiwork Games. One of the oldest recorded stories in Western Europe, the epic poem Beowulf is a tale of a hero against a monster – and the monster’s mother – and a dragon. To make this thousand-year-old epic as current as 5E, Beowulf: Age of Heroes introduces a new Hero class and creative rules for Followers, portents, voyages, and your Hero’s wyrd (fate or destiny). Beowulf adventures work great for a gamemaster and just one Hero player (plus nonplayer Followers), so it’s easy to start a game and easy to keep the campaign going. Discover a fierce medieval land of wild seas and savage monsters, of meadhalls and legendary heirloom swords. Gain Followers, take Inspiration from unique Portents, and use specially crafted tokens to guide your voyage along the Whale Road. Embrace your wyrd, and sail on to glory.
Set in a mythic, half-remembered Europe of the early-medieval migration era, Beowulf: Age of Heroes is “history-adjacent” but takes inspiration from ancestral Anglo-Saxon stories in lieu of technical accuracy. In the epic poem, Beowulf, a hero of the Geats, is larger than life, with the strength of 30 men. He sails his ship wherever there is trouble, leads his band of followers in pursuit of what is right, and busies himself fighting monsters. Beowulf travels to Denmark and fights the terrible monster Grendel in King Hrothgar’s meadhall, tearing off its arm. After Grendel’s mother attacks the hall in revenge, Beowulf hunts and slays the monster. The poem then tells of Beowulf’s successful turn as king until, at the end of his life, he is forced to fight a dragon.
It’s a fascinating world with different ideas of loyalty and hospitality, wealth, the Gods of the Old Ways, and a sense of overriding destiny – all great material for a Witcher-style monster-hunting campaign. The Northern Seas are filled with many small kingdoms in need of help. The player character is a unique human Hero, chosen by the Wyrd Sisters to help people, oppose monsters, and do the impossible. The Hero class has several new features that increase survivability, such as a fighting style (Desperate Duelling, Shield-Strong, Hammer-Handed), Mighty Mettle (gain temporary hit points), and an “alignment die”: When you roll with advantage, you select one of the d20s to be your alignment die; if you select that die as the result, you gain inspiration.
The Hero has a distinctive Background (Adrift, Avenger, Believer, Chosen One, Foundling, Noble’s Blood) and a Heroic Tale (subclass), such as Bench Breaker, Swift Blessed, Ox-Spirited, Riddle-Reaver, or Honey-Tongued. Most important are the Hero’s Followers, named individual NPCs (or Noble Animals) with their own gifts and/or burdens. In play, the Hero can activate each Follower’s gift once per long rest. Between sessions, the Hero player can develop and improve Followers, much in the way Blades in the Dark players spend downtime improving their Lair.
The heart of Beowulf is “duet play” – one gamemaster, one player. A lone Hero player (plus nonplayer Followers) explores the world, uncovering mysteries and battling monsters. Whether you find it easier to schedule just two people, or to introduce a novice or family member to RPGs, or just fill in when you can’t get the gang together, duet play makes it easy to set up a game, to play online, and to keep the campaign going. When you focus on one central character, it’s easy to create a deep storyline and a consistent feel in play. Given the breadth of playable Heroic Tales, you can rerun the same scenario many times.
This Beowulf 5E Bundle let players follow their fate and build their own 5E duet campaign of danger and glory on the Whale Road. There were six titles in our Beowulf Collection (retail value $44) as DRM-free .PDF ebooks, including the complete Beowulf: Age of Heroes core rulebook (plus the free play aids in The Hermit’s Sanctuary and six pregenerated characters), along with four complete adventures for one GM and one player – The Elfshot, Horror at Herrogate, Seven Stones, and The Witches and the Wyrm – as well as the beautiful Art Book.
(Note: Beowulf: Age of Heroes requires the Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition rulebooks.)
Ten percent of each payment (after gateway fees) went to this Beowulf offer’s pandemic-related charity, Direct Relief. Direct Relief sends protective gear and critical care medications to health workers, with emergency deliveries to medical facilities across the US and to regional response agencies across the world.
