With
FiveEvil Splinter Five released last week, we've combined all the five sections into
one 56 page PDF, which remains absolutely free. You can now enjoy this introductory scenario in one convenient slice of free horror adventure.
You can find out more and sign up to be notified when the campaign goes live right
here.
About FiveEvil
A game of unnerving terror, subverting the expectations of "the world's greatest RPG": FiveEvil takes everything about 5e and twists it around for a unique modern-day horror RPG experience.
FiveEvil is a set of new roleplaying rules from
Handiwork Games, the minds behind
BEOWULF Age of Heroes,
a|state second edition and
Maskwitches of Forgotten Doggerland. We're hoping to raise sufficient funds to print it as a beautiful, full-colour hardback book.
FiveEvil is designed to evoke the horror genre via a set of clever twists on the underlying fifth edition ruleset.
The primary focus is modern day horror, inspired by the work of Stephen King, and moody, character-driven horror films like
The Ritual,
The Descent and
Jacob’s Ladder, alongside mini-series like
Midnight Mass by Mike Flanagan, and the scariest of
Twin Peaks episodes.
FiveEvil goes further than creating horror with locations and monsters. It's a series of key innovations within the 5e ruleset which drive the horror. If you've seen what we did with the ENnie-nominated
BEOWULF: Age of Heroes, you'll be aware that we know our way around the 5e engine and how to make it sing.
These are the key innovations within FiveEvil. You can explore these in more detail
in the free Splinters.
Intensity
Intensity replaces DC and is a radical innovation for FiveEvil. Every check is based on the intensity of a scene. And you can bet your bottom dollar it’s going to escalate as the horror unfolds…
Desperation
Desperation replaces Inspiration. Rather than a vague cookie that you forget, Desperation is a debt you take on to gain the benefits of Inspiration, one which will need to be repaid. Of course like any debt, you can keep adding to it, but will you ever recover?
Desperation goes beyond just a replacement for Inspiration. You can spend it to do more.
Personality Aspects
Your character’s personality aspects are what will help them shake off the debt of Desperation. So rather than the fuzzy and optional reward of inspiration for role-play found in standard 5e, playing your character is baked into FiveEvil.
Descriptions
Descriptions are a shorthand for NPCs that can replace entire stat blocks in order to streamline play and keep the horror moving. For Player Characters they work like skills providing bonuses to a dice roll.
Advanced Ability Checks
FiveEvil gives you a clear structure for different kinds of skill check - where success is impossible, or where there’s a complex interplay of desired outcomes and unattractive possibilities bound up in one check.
Terror Encounters
Terror Encounters are where things really kick off in FiveEvil. Rather than
combat encounters where you might expect to trade blows and whittle away hit points, thing are remarkably different in a Terror Encounter. There are no standard combats in FiveEvil.
Getting Hurt
Player Characters in FiveEvil do not enjoy the luxury of copious hit points, and they are more fragile than their standard fantasy counterparts.
Suffering
Suffering is a new way to track descriptive damage and structures it into play.
Conditions
FiveEvil leans hard into conditions and has its own horror-appropriate list of conditions.
Doom Checks
GMing Horror, and making it relentlessly punishing for the Player Characters can be hard. When you don’t know which way to go, Doom Checks are here to do the hard work for you.
Investigations
FiveEvil offers a solid structure for investigating a creature or a situation using existing 5e tools in new ways.
The Verge
The verge is the structured place where the monsters are hiding, moving, changing and outflanking you while you’re not looking.
Hunt Encounters
Being hunted is a big part of the horror experience. FiveEvil provides a framework for running tense, exciting hunts and chases.
