The game BEOWULF: Age of Heroes is built on the foundation of the fifth edition of the world’s most popular roleplaying game, commonly called 5e. The strength and balance of this game engine allows us to make some very precise tweaks to produce epic adventures for a singular Hero.

When Beowulf goes to Denmark in search of Grendel, he takes with him his Followers to aid him. These Followers only occasionally make an appearance within the story, but it’s assumed they’re always there, helping Beowulf out. They also provide a useful, friendly conduit for when the GM might need to deliver a hint about the next course of action to the player.

When you’re playing a duet game, there is a singular focus on one player character, meaning that you can engage with them in a deeper way than you can with bigger games. The nature of the Hero sets the tone for the whole campaign. This makes it easy to explore choices like the Hero’s alignment (whether with the Church, the Old Ways or carefully Neutral) in a changing world, the way they choose to enact the role of the hero, and their relationships with NPCs.

Since the singular Player and their Followers are always the star of the show, there are rules for journaling the ‘off-screen’ activities of the Followers and Hero and rewarding the Player for investing into the game world. While the GM creates adventures for the next session, the Player can use our new rules and guidelines to invest in their character and followers between sessions.

With one player, there’s less pressure to “take your turn” so that other player’s can take theirs. You can spend a little bit longer on your choices. BEOWULF makes extensive use of the inspiration system for both Heroes and Monsters.
Using 5e also means that the Monsters and other enemies that the Hero faces can use the regular 5e challenge scale, meaning you can use them in other games and settings if you like. And if you’re a confident 5e player, you can easily bring in things from other 5e settings.

If you’re excited about BEOWULF but have a larger group ready to hand, there are also rules and suggestions for playing the game with more than one Hero.