We love a straight-forward tool at Handiwork Games (make of that what you will) and we’re delighted to be able to share with you the FiveEvil Character keeper.
Simply head to the link, make a copy, and edit away to your wicked heart’s content.
You can also grab pre-made characters for the first scenario in the book, Wakefield House, in the same format here.
Backer copies of FiveEvil are arriving with our UK backers, and heading out to everyone else right now.
You can pre-order your print copy of FiveEvil here, or get the PDF – currently in the Halloween Sale at DrivethruRPG here.
When it comes to resolving conflicts in Cold City and Hot War, both the players and the GM have access to groups of ten-sided dice to roll, and they gamble on how many to use in a given conflict.
This first horror scenario takes us into space with Gar Hanrahan. Can you survive waking up on a ship full of randos? Probably not, let’s be honest.
The first PDF scenario for FiveEvil, Theseus Protocol by the mighty Gar Hanrahan (Moria, The Dracula Dossier, Eyes of the Stone Theif) starts off as an ‘alien monsters have infested your spaceship’ bug hunt, which is second only to the dungeon as familiar territory for a roleplaying game.
However, instead of a unified team or crew, the characters are a mismatched bunch of recently defrosted colonists; their skills and specialities are not especially suited to dealing with alien horrors.
Later, the tone of horror shifts, moving from mere survival in the face of alien horrors to something colder and more cosmic.
Ultimately, it’s about being cut off and adrift in a vast and uncaring universe. Fun!
FiveEvil is a standalone horror roleplaying game from Handiwork Games, the fiendish minds behind BEOWULF Age of Heroes, a|state second edition and Maskwitches of Forgotten Doggerland.
FiveEvil has been carefully crafted to evoke the horror genre by cleverly twisting up the fifth edition ruleset. FiveEvil subverts fifth edition play to defy expectations and concentrate the horror.
By taking the rules you know and fiendishly mutating them, FiveEvil creates a truly intense and unsettling horror gaming experience. This book is also packed with advice and ideas on how to create the very best horror gaming sessions.
The primary setting 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.
Rather than seeking out evil in order to vanquish it, or investigating clues to uncover malign influence, your characters in FiveEvil are regular people trapped in a terrifying situation. You will attempt to survive and escape.
FiveEvil was created and written by Morgan Davie, features art by Scott Purdy and Jon Hodgson, and boasts graphic design and layout by Paul Bourne.
This standalone core book contains all the rules you need to create characters and play the game, as well as five sample adventures to show you how best to run FiveEvil, with tons of customisability and replay value.
As a horror game, FiveEvil contains mature themes and is suggested for adult readers.
As of August 21st 2025 we have paused shipping to the USA. This is because of President Trump’s executive order under his emergency powers to impose tariffs on goods coming from other countries. He has removed the prior exemption for orders under $800 being tariff-free. Now ALL incoming goods to the US are effectively taxed at the border, with the person ordering the goods being responsible for paying those tariffs. Because this change was made using an executive order it doesn’t have the usual weight of legislation behind it – no one really knows how to implement it on every single parcel, so the temporary measure of charging a flat fee of $80 has been imposed on all incoming goods.Â
We don’t want you to get a surprise bill of $80, so for now we’re not shipping to the US. It seems likely that books will prove to be exempt, but for now that’s not clear. As soon as we either have a workaround to charge you the 10% tariff in advance, or books are declared exempt we’re not going to ship to the US.
We hope to reopen US shipping as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience.
You can now sign up to be notified when the Trench Crusade Backdrops Book campaign goes live. As you might know we often run short campaigns, so don’t miss out!
The PDF version of The Burn is now updated to the standalone edition, with everything you need to play! If you already have it, we’ve updated your library to contain the new version absolutely free
The physical book is off to print, and the pre-order for that will be coming soon! We’ll be bringing copies of the new edition to Tabletop Scotland in September.
We’re producing a new stand alone edition of The Burn! No longer will you need a separate rulebook to play. Everything you need will be in the one 64 page book, complete with some new artwork of our Wee Folk friends along the Polmont Burn.
Take on the role of the Wee Folk and protect The Burn from the spirits of pollution, litter, and filth!
We will have print copies at Tabletop Scotland, and we’ll update everyone’s existing PDFs with the new edition as soon as it’s locked in.
