Beowulf; Telling An Epic Tale On The Tabletop

Beowulf is a tale that has captured my imagination for years. I first stumbled on it when I was learning about Anglo-Saxons and was told about this epic poem telling of a Geatish hero who travelled to banish a beast from the halls of Heorot.

Since then I've read much more about it, especially at university, where I read the famous version by Seamus Heaney and the newer translation (or older?) translation of it from Tolkien which was also very fun to read.

Beyond that, there's also fun versions of it out there in the world like Beowulf & Grendel featuring Gerard Butler which switches things up a bit but I've always wanted to try and play it out on the tabletop so I can be part of the action.

With that in mind, I've been thinking about how this could be achieved and some of the games that you could use with which to do it. I should add that I have been inspired to write this thanks to the new miniatures from Otherworld which included Beowulf (pictured above) and Grendel (see below).

I think the models look great with a heroic quality to Beowulf and the monstrous Grendel looking like the troll creature that we've seen before in artwork and what adorns the cover of the new Beowulf Beastslayer gamebook.

Fighting The Epic

So, to begin with you need to think about what aspect of the Beowulf tale you're going to try and play out. The focus here is going to be on the clash between Beowulf and Grendel in Heorot but you could easily expand this to include the clash with Grendel's Mother deep within the bowels of the earth or the battle with the Dragon when Beowulf is in his twilight years.

 The focus should really be on the epic hero of Beowulf at the centre alongside some of his closest companions and maybe a handful of warriors.

If you're using a game like SAGA for example that I am familiar with you'd have Beowulf as a Warlord with a healthy dose of defence and some ferocious attacks. I'd also have some way of him banishing Fatigue from both himself and his companions, inspired by his feats of valour and heroics.

Supporting him you could then work on maybe a pair of Hearthguard acting as his closest companions, maybe the named Thanes like Wiglaf for example. The rest of the men could be made up by Warriors so that you have some hardy folk with him but nothing compared to the might of Beowulf.

Next, you have to think about Grendel and how this beast will work. The way I'd like to see it done is to treat Grendel like a Warlord. You'd give him a good defence, lots of attacks and then allow him to ignore more wounds like Ragnar Lodbrok can in the older version of SAGA. You could then add to this and make him even harder to kill, gifting him what I like to call 'lives'.

This works a little bit like fighting bosses in video games. Each time you take him down you don't kill him but instead, move him onto his next phase. This could be lowering his defence but upping his attacks, a bit like a cornered beast. This means that the clash shouldn't be over quickly and there will be a real level of tension in play as you get to that final stage after Grendel has been bloodied.

You'd then fight this out over a number of game rounds, removing a lot of the Battle Board stuff in favour of some special rules for Beowulf and such to make it a quick and deadly encounter. You might even want to place it in a proper Anglo-Saxon hall like the Heorot one by 4Ground!

I do like the idea of taking this further. Beowulf contains a lot of different encounters you could play out, either with friends or solo, like the clash with Grendel, Grendel's Mother, perhaps an introductory clash between Beowulf and some foes in a story which adds to his fame, and of course the later clash with the mighty Dragon that threatens his kingdom. John Howe imagined the Dragon as a great black Wyrm so you could have fun looking for an appropriate model.

Alternative Systems

Beyond using SAGA which has a quick and easy set of mechanics to get your head around you could go to a few other systems for your clash between Beowulf & Grendel. First up I'd suggest Ragnarok from Osprey by Tim Korklewski.

The system is built to be heroic and you can make really awesome characters who can engage in Heavy Metal Combat. This means throwing stuff around, using epic powers and pushing things towards a more characterful level. The same goes for your foes, Grendel in this case.

You can also pick up a set of rules called Blood Eagle by A Ministry Of Gentlemanly Warfare. This game is a lot more granular and allows you to stat up your own heroes and monsters very easily allowing, once again, for a bit more of an RPG focus to the experience.

Both of these games would allow you to really delve into the brutality of the conflict and get a bit more involved in the mechanics of it all whilst SAGA could work for more of an event game which is more pick up and play.

How would you approach playing out this epic clash and could you see yourself turning it into a campaign where you fight out the different scenarios from Beowulf's life?

Art by John Howe