Malcolm Craig is now a senior lecturer in history and, as a game designer, published indie tabletop RPGs such as Cold City and Hot War.
Now, Handiwork Games will publish new editions of both. The publications will also be part of a study. They’ll look at how tabletop RPGs and historical research might affect our understanding of what happened and how that might, therefore, affect us.
It all feels very highbrow and academic, but Jon Hodgson is focused on the games.
“I’ve loved these twinned games since they first came out, and they form the high point of Malcolm’s game design work. This is an ambitious project, that brings together so much of what we love at Handiwork Games – settings inspired by history combined with clever rules, and great presentation.”
Cold City
In the divided city of Berlin, things hide in the darkness. Things that must be destroyed.
Those that seek out these horrors are riven by suspicion, mistrust and political ambition. The four occupying powers of Britain, France, the USA and the USSR all have their own agendas.
In Cold City, characters are defined not just by who they are and what they are like, but by the views of the other characters and the trust that they have in them.
Hot War
London. Winter. 1963.
It is a year since the Cold War went hot.
And this was not just a nuclear war. Far more sinister, darker weapons were deployed.
Survival and re-building are all that matter now. But human nature and tragic circumstances mean that everyone has their own ambitions.
Into this maelstrom steps the Special Situations Group, a motley band of men and women tasked with the jobs too dirty or dangerous for anyone else.
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