D&D5e - Beowulf, Age Of Heroes - Rules (v1.1, OEF, 2021).pdf

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Monster-slaying Adventures for One GM and One Player
For the World’s Favourite Roleplaying Game
B EOW UL F
CREDITS
Written by Jon Hodgson, David Rea and Jacob Rodgers
Edited by Jon Hodgson and Jacob Rodgers
Additional development by Westley Rodgers
Foreword by Maria Dahvana Headley
Original poems by Dave Oliver www.rattleboxtheatre.com
Proofreading by Malcolm Craig, Morgan Davie and Gregor Hutton
Cover by Jon Hodgson
Illustrated by Paul Bourne, Jon Hodgson, Jan Pospíšil and Scott Purdy
Graphic design and layout by Paul Bourne
The hammer-bearing figure appearing on The Whale Road Map is by Richard Dawson,
used with kind permission www.arbarus.co.uk
Excerpts of Beowulf by Francis B. Grummere are used throughout the text.
With special thanks to our Kickstarter backers, Maria Dahvana Headley, Seamus Heaney,
and Petr Florianek for keeping our arrows true.
Dedicated to all those who battle monsters.
“Sea-cliffs shining, steep high hills, headlands broad, their haven was found”
Printed in Lithuania
SKU: HNW2001
ISBN: 978-1-9160119-5-3
Product Identity: The following items are hereby identified as Product Identity, as defined in the Open Game License version 1.0a,
Section 1(e), and are not Open Content: Proper names (characters, place names, etc.), new rules, classes, items, feats, backgrounds,
places, characters, artwork, sidebars, and trade dress.
Open Game Content: The Open content in this book includes material taken from the Systems Reference Document. No other
portion of this work may be reproduced in any form without permission.
Published by Handiwork Games Ltd, 33 Sunnyside Avenue, Brightons, Falkirk, Scotland
© 2021 Handiwork Games Ltd, all rights reserved
Find more BEOWULF resources at
www.handiwork.games
BEOWULF: Age of Heroes is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously.
Other names, characters, places and events are products of the authors’ imagination, and any resemblances to actual events or places
or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
A donation has been made from the sale of this book to anti-racism charities.
2
B e ow u l f : A g e
o f H e ro e s
B E OW U LF
CONTENTS
Foreword by Maria Dahvana Headley.......................................4
Introduction ..............................................................................6
Part 1: The World of Beowulf
Part 6: The Three Ogre Brothers
The BEOWULF Setting ........................................................10
New Rules for Beowulf ...........................................................28
Part 2: Creating a Hero
Character Creation ..................................................................34
The Peoples of Beowulf ...........................................................34
Backgrounds ............................................................................36
The Hero Class ........................................................................48
Equipment and Ships ..............................................................58
Ships ........................................................................................74
Heroic Feats ............................................................................77
More than One Player .............................................................81
Part 3: Followers
Introduction ..........................................................................150
A Light in the Darkness ........................................................151
The Ogre Lands.....................................................................154
The Swamp of Braegde ..........................................................154
The Grasslands of Magan ......................................................161
The Slopes of Bald .................................................................166
The New Kingdoms ...............................................................172
Awards...................................................................................174
Maps......................................................................................175
Follower Cards ......................................................................178
Part 7: Monsters
Followers .................................................................................84
The Reward Stage ....................................................................86
Follower Burdens and Gifts.....................................................89
Part 4: The Adventure
Monsters................................................................................182
Ceorlcund (Man-like) ...........................................................185
Dēofol (Evil Spirits) ..............................................................194
Eotenas (Ogres and Trolls) ....................................................198
Firas (Men) ...........................................................................202
Gīgantas (Giants) ..................................................................208
Gryrefugol (Evil Birds)..........................................................212
Mererúnan (Sea Monsters)....................................................215
Orcnēas (Undead) .................................................................220
Wildēor (Wild Beasts) ..........................................................226
Wyrmas (Serpents) ................................................................228
Wyrmeynnes (Dragons) ........................................................232
Ylfes and Dweorhas: Elves and Dwarfs ................................242
Part 8: Appendix
Beginning the Adventure ........................................................ 96
Preparation and Portent ..........................................................97
Sail and Swell ........................................................................100
Meadhall and Mystery ..........................................................107
Landing .................................................................................108
Meeting .................................................................................110
Exploration ............................................................................117
The Monster ..........................................................................124
Rest and Rewards ..................................................................129
Player Journals .......................................................................134
Apprentice Heroes.................................................................135
Part 5: The Treasures
Anglo-Saxon Name Generator..............................................246
Beowulf Game Flow..............................................................248
A Hall for a Hero/A Ruler for a Hall....................................249
Monster Tables ......................................................................250
Background NPC Generator.................................................254
Foreground NPC Generator .................................................258
Portent Tables ........................................................................261
Pregenerated Follower Cards .................................................262
Blank Follower Cards ............................................................263
Monster Worksheet ...............................................................264
Social Encounter Sheet .........................................................265
Character Sheet .....................................................................266
Beowulf Reading List ............................................................268
Index......................................................................................269
OGL .....................................................................................272
Treasure .................................................................................138
Magical Treasures ..................................................................140
B e ow u l f :
Age
of
H e ro e s
3
B EOW UL F
FOREWORD
BY MARIA DAHVANA HEADLEY
Some scholars speculate that the epic poem
Beowulf,
which
exists in a single manuscript dating to roughly 1050AD, is
actually a transcription of a multi-night oral performance,
crafted piecemeal between the 8th and early 11th centuries,
by a variety of performers, each one altering on the fly. If so, it
was a collaboration between many voices, over many years, and
those voices mattered, the poem being altered by every poet and
performer who encountered it.
A poem with a history this long is a poem in which everything
imaginable has happened, whether by improvisation, or by
aggressive editing. We don’t know all the twists and turns the
Beowulf
poem took in the years before it was written down, and
in the thousand years since, it has continued to change, through
translator’s choices. Sometimes, when I think about Beowulf,
I like to imagine a version, told in say, the year 775, an elderly
embroiderer in the women’s wing of a castle changing events to
suit her listeners, ending the story early, as her audience bites their
threads and ties their knots. Did Beowulf always win his battle
with Grendel’s mother? Maybe in
The Embroiderer’s Version,
Grendel’s mother ended the battle kneeling on Beowulf ’s chest,
her needle sticking into his heart.
Playing a game like this one is, in some ways, similar to the
path I took when translating this epic into contemporary poetry.
Your path as a player is constructed of encounters, each one with
many possibilities – just as my translator’s path through each
Old English word offered possibilities that would ultimately
change the resonance, scope, and meaning of the entire story. It’s
possible to think about
Beowulf
simply, as a fixed text, heroes and
monsters, brave deeds, but to think of it that way neglects the
wide range of possibilities inherent within it. Through a text like
Beowulf,
we can get a sense of shifting understandings about the
key elements of our own society – after all, heroes, adversaries,
and notions of “good kings” are fundamental parts of society to
this day, albeit slightly recast.
Beowulf: Age of Heroes
offers the opportunity to analyze the
ways that someone looking to gain status might frame his
adventures, and to equip oneself to discern moralities, weigh
loyalties, and battle strategically. It’s possible to linger under the
mere with Grendel’s mother, to consider what might motivate a
monster to attack a hall with the multi-year tenacity displayed by
Grendel, and to investigate what sort of invasion might make a
dragon so angry that they set the world on fire.
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F o rew o r d
B E OW U LF
We can also try on different guises: does heroic behavior make
one a hero? What if you have some qualities that would normally
be found in the monster category? Is there a version of the story
in which you’re the monster, and everyone in the hall, even though
you used to wear glittering armor, is convinced that you’re now a
creature attacking from out of the dark? All of those possibilities
are inherent in every monster-hero story, and in Beowulf, they’re
front and center. By the end of the poem, after all, our hero has
died by dragon fang, his final hoard-claim a heap of cursed gold.
His people look to the future with horror, as their king left no
heir, and died without making any plan for their safety. Over
the course of the story, Beowulf has tried on a variety of roles,
ranging from Boy Warrior, to Loyal King’s Right Hand, to Good
King, to, ultimately, Irresponsible King. Through all these roles,
he carries with him qualities that are found in only one other
character – Grendel, the monster. Both Beowulf and Grendel, the
poet takes pains to tell us, are capable of slaying thirty men in a
single blow, and both are stronger and bigger than anyone else.
They don’t need to wear armor, or wield swords. They battle hand
to hand, well-matched. The difference between them is all in their
choices. One path, into the hall to kill, and another, into the hall
to preserve. Those choices, though, are storyteller’s choices.
Stories offer justification for intense acts, as well as
opportunities for unexpected empathy, analysis of wrongdoing,
and brainstorming of better ways to build societies. The
Beowulf
story is no different. Experiencing a story like this one through
RPG is an invitation to imagine and elaborate upon the world
of the poem from the inside. To play this game is to link hands
with a long chain of poets, performers, and translators, as well as
with the heroes and monsters of their imaginations, all of them
equipped with stories of their own, just under the surface of
simple categories. It’s up to you to imagine the complications, to
engage with the potential for pain as well as for courage, and to
ultimately build upon all of this to craft your own path from an
ancient text to a modern understanding.
— Maria Dahvana Headley
Beowulf: A New Translation
F o rew o r d
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