Mage Hand Press

Insomnia 0.91

Quick update!

We’re trucking through Insomnia’s art backlog and approaching 1.0 at a rapid pace! There’s over 20 pieces of new art in this version of the book, with completed NPCs for Nowhere, USA and other big new pieces throughout. If you’re playing with Character Beats (my favorite addition in the book) there’s ten more, buffing that section out by another page!

Circle of the City

Manipulate the brickwork and cobblestones of cities instead of beasts and trees with this Druid subclass from Valda’s Spire of Secrets. Break the stereotype of epic overland quests and build a druid for urban-focused, modern, or Victorian-era games by gaslight!

College of Graffiti

This punk bard lays arcane marks on any surface as a canvas to inspire all! It’s one of six new bard colleges in Valda’s Spire of Secrets; this is the most up-to-date version.

The Dragonfall Colosseum

We’re always looking for ways to make game night more fulfilling and help your players discover the best of Mage Hand classes and settings. So we’re polishing up a few ideas from past projects into campaign seeds, full arcs or short campaigns you can run for your party with minimum prep and maximum freedom.
First up, a send up of classic sword-and-sandal tropes in a gladiatorial arena, based in a city we explored in 2024-07-19 16:00:00 +0000 UTC View Post

Circle of the Wyrm

Valda’s Spire of Secrets collected and updated the best classes and subclasses from Middle Finger of Vecna since we began writing the blog back in 2015. We wanted to make the best version of these subclasses available as freely as the original. We’re starting with one of our favorites, a druid circle infused with draconic essence for half-dragon Wild Shapes!

Gravity Spells

Only one spell in the 5E SRD affects gravity directly, the 7th level reverse gravity. As magic users begin to travel the stars in a sci-fi setting, manipulating gravity becomes even more useful and deadly. And we’d like you to be able to do it before level 12! So here are three spells that let you bend gravity to your will!

Custom Character Sheets - Full

Sorry for the late post!

I have two cool projects still waiting on art, so I decided to pull some overtime hours to bring you the complete set of custom Mage Hand Press character sheets! This set now includes EVERY class AND subclass in Valda's Spire of Secrets, along with every race and cohort. We're talking hundreds and hundreds of pages, form-fillable and printable. This time, I've also included character sheets with form-fillable subclasses, so you can use t...

Spellhacks

These experimental spellhacks let you use your spells to modify other spells. We’re playtesting these for the upcoming Dark Matter revision, where magic has advanced beyond medieval fantasy fare just as technology has. Broken or balanced? Let us know your thoughts in the comments, or join the discussion on the 2024-06-28 16:00:00 +0000 UTC View Post

Hardlight Spells

Hardlight is the most versatile material in any sci-fi setting, and these new spells for Dark Matter help you make the most of it!

They're some of the new and revised spells written for the updated Dark Matter printing.

Insomnia 0.8

We’ve been hard at work on Insomnia for the last couple of months, but things have quieted down as we catch up on art and knock out some bonus content. Here’s what’s new:

Insomnia Storytelling Engine

This is one of the coolest things I’ve ever created, bar none. The Insomnia Storytelling Engine is designed to give you all the help you need to ratchet up the tension and involve the players in the storytelling process. 

The engine comes in two p...

Custom Character Sheets | Core Classes 1

Just when I think I’m out, they pull me back in! 

I said I was done with these slick, form-fillable custom character sheets. But damn it, we needed a set of character sheets to go in the Last Owlbear adventure bundle, and using core classes made the most sense. So obviously I started work on a massive pile of these things. Soon, you’ll be able to play LITERALLY every class and subclass in Valda’s Spire of Secrets on a custom character sheet. 

This mon...

Bounty Hunter's Kit: Magic Item Set 2

Gunslinging outlaws from outer space have the best gadgets, especially when their business is bringing the galaxy’s most wanted. Just like the Vestments of Ra, these living magic items come as a set, taking up a single attunement slot between them and getting more powerful the more you...

Vestments of Ra: Magic Item Set 1

These magic items from the Avia-ra faction come as a set, taking up a single attunement slot and leveling up as your character does just like living weapons. They’re part of the new magic items in the upcoming 2024-05-10 16:00:00 +0000 UTC View Post

Blaster Mods

We’re letting you mix-and-match blaster parts with this addition to Dark Matter for the upcoming Mega Box. A thermalsight and a silencer is just what the doctor ordered.

Complete Warmage 1.1

I, for one, only cast mage hand. That hand casts all the other spells.

A bit of a smaller month for releases as bigger projects bake in the oven a little longer.

This month, we bring you an expanded Complete Warmage! The mage-hand-casting Mage Hand Press favorite has never been better. Four new subclasses (one that will be familiar to Dark Matter players) and a dozen new tricks will bring your cantrips unprecedented power and versatility! Whether you like chess, go, darts...

Living Weapons

For our revision of Dark Matter, we’re not only revising the old list of magic items, but also expanding it with new categories!

Meet living weapons: weapons that scale with your level.

These have been so obvious an inclusion to the game that D&D 3.5 included them as “relics” in the Magic Item Compendium, so it’s a wonder that it took us this long to implement them!

Psionic Piercings

The new Dark Matter Mega Box will feature a revised and expanded magic items chapter, including these wonderful magic widgets that fuse fashion and function to devastating effect.

Dark Matter Mega Box: Coming 2025

We’re thrilled to announce the Dark Matter Mega Box, coming 2025! If you like this adventure, or any of the other work we do at Mage Hand Press, sign up to be notified for our next project -- our biggest to date! 

We’re partnering with Czepeku to bring you entire folios of sci-fi battlemaps, two new softcovers, a new hardcover campaign, and a revision of Dark Matter a...