Plunge Your Players into the Strange!
From the pen of agent, Matt Goetz
So you want to bring the Strangelight Workshop to your table? Here’s some tips and tricks to help you run a successful first investigation.
First and foremost, get to know all the new character options, backgrounds, adventuring companies, and gear available in Strangelight Workshop. Even if you’re familiar with the Iron Kingdoms as a setting, you’ll have new and interesting things to explore in this most unusual private organisation of the Iron Kingdoms.
Psst. Over here. If you aren’t familiar with the Iron Kingdoms yet, don’t fret! Strangelight Workshop helps introduce new players to the history of this unique setting. If you want more, Iron Kingdoms: Requiem and its companion books can give you a wealth of additional full-metal-fantasy goodness!
The Strangelight Workshop is a vast organization with layers of strange rules and regulations that protect its agents, advance its agendas, and, perhaps most importantly, keep the true goals hidden. At any time, somewhere within the headquarters or a branch office, unusual experiments are happening that only a few are aware of, on a need-to-know basis. The deeper you go as an agent, the more this odd, supernatural world reveals itself, all managed like the office of a civilian business.
Embrace the absurdity of this bizarre situation. Provide your characters with forms to sign, which include head-scratching messages followed by lines that would fit right into a wild Thamarite's journal.
Navigating the Strangelight Workshop’s labyrinthine bureaucracy isn’t simply a matter of ticking boxes or following procedure. Every form and memo can be steeped in cryptic hints, veiled instructions, and peculiar codes that reward the observant. Agents must master the intricate dance of paperwork and protocol, where routine tasks can, and often do, take an unexpected turn. Whether deciphering obscure policy or investigating anomalies, the interplay between the mundane and the occult sets the tone, guiding the group from the structured chaos of the Workshop’s administrative machinery directly into the vibrant local streets and investigative challenges that await beyond Blackwell Hall’s doors.
Think Locally, Investigate Globally
The core book offers a deep dive into the membership of Blackwell Hall, the headquarters of the Strangelight Workshop, and of the Cygnaran city Ceryl, which it lies just north of. Would you like to play in a sandbox populated with a roster of predefined personalities at the heart of the organization, or are you more interested in forging your own way, developing a smaller branch of the Workshop from the ground up?
The Workshop has numerous branch offices in cities across the Iron Kingdoms. Most of these are hole-in-the-wall operations that are understaffed, underequipped, and need to freelance as gremlin-busters to keep the gas lights going, but offer a group the opportunity to forge their own Workshop identity.
Not a Typical Adventure
A Strangelight investigation isn’t exactly like the standard adventure. It's often more of a mystery than a heroic quest, and while combat can and does happen during the course of an investigation, interviewing eyewitnesses for clues, hitting the library to research the history of a place, or a significant event, can take up just as much time as a brawl in a Ceryl alley. It's important to let the characters use their non-combat skills and be rewarded for their successes.
Rather than focusing solely on battles or straightforward missions, investigations in the Strangelight Workshop demand an inquisitive mind and a willingness to explore the unknown. Agents will find that the heart of each assignment lies not in confrontation, but in unraveling cryptic evidence and deciphering arcane clues found in dusty archives or whispered by eccentric informants in shadowed corners. The process is collaborative and often extends beyond the organisation's boundaries—networking with unusual contacts, piecing together disparate details, and navigating the labyrinthine structure of the Workshop. By prioritising resourcefulness and creativity, every session offers players the opportunity to immerse themselves in the unpredictable, layered mysteries, setting the stage for the oddities and twists that await around the next corner.
Embrace the Odd
“Strange” is right there in the name of the organisation, and for good reason! The Strangelight Workshop deals with the downright weird parts of the Iron Kingdoms. Embrace the oddness of it all and make it even stranger. At Blackwell Hall, the Workshop’s headquarters, one of the seniormost officers is an old one-eyed barn cat named Warlord.
The world of the Strangelight Workshop is built on unpredictability—agents may find themselves deciphering riddles embedded in reports, hunting spectral anomalies that defy logic, or even negotiating with mischievous imps who seem to know more than they should. Each new assignment reveals peculiar layers: obscure codes scrawled in the margins of requisition forms, eldritch symbols etched on office doors, and rumors of clandestine meetings in the sub-basements. This ever-present sense of mystery challenges both the characters’ wits and their resolve, as they realise the rules are mutable and the ordinary is just a veneer over the truly extraordinary.
Monster of the Week and Big Bads
Some of the media that inspired the Strangelight Workshop featured two main types of stories. First, the Monster of the Week was usually a self-contained episode where characters faced a new, unusual creature or situation. This provides a variety of interesting challenges for a team of agents to confront.
The second type of story focused more on the overarching plot of the media and the Big Bads of the series, whether a single supernatural entity or a large conspiracy. These installments act as links in a chain, bringing the characters closer to a showdown with their enemies.
You can also combine these two story types within a single investigation. For example, during an investigation that appears to be a typical Monster of the Week case, there might also be a hint about the team’s main rival. Revealing this hint can change the perspective on everything the team has done, as they realise their rival was behind their encounter with what seemed like an unrelated entity.
And there you have it! You’re ready to answer the call of the occult and run your first investigation. Get out there and explore the weird and wonderful Strangelight Workshop with your players.
As instructor Garsea of Blackwell Hall likes to say, “The only way to get a thing done is to start doing it.” Good luck out there, agents!
Pre-order The Strangelight Workshop now and begin your otherworldly adventure.
The Strangelight Workshop roleplaying game allows you to fully explore every darkened corner of the Iron Kingdoms setting, every complicated aspect of a secret society devoted to explaining the unexplainable, and offers you a 5e compatible RPG experience unlike any other!
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