Sometimes things take a bit of a life of their own. You might think you are in control, but the creative process and the collaboration can breathe such life into a project that the tight reins of control slip and you just allow the thing to canter, wilfully, with natural energy.
Heroic Fantasy is my tweaked, reordered and ‘all in one small book’ fantasy RPG founded on The Black Hack (TBH). I’m currently helter skelter to get to a finished text so that I can get the game into a simple OpenOffice layout so that a real book can emerge. One of my goals was to create a game to play with my nearly 11 year old son and to give the book to him as a Christmas present. I think I’ll miss the deadline but for the best of reasons.
A couple of my gaming chums have given me lots of useful feedback, most of which I’m trying to act on and improve what I have. Ultimately I am not planning to diverge too much from chassis provided by TBH. This brings its own limitations, but despite that I think I have the makings of a cute little game that might catch on a little out in the cloistered world of online tabletop gamers. We’ll see. Perhaps more importantly I certainly have something to enjoy gaming with my son, which was a core design goal.
For those interested in the highlights of additions to TBH, Heroic Fantasy provides an all-in-one package to play fantasy games of melee, monsters and magic in a pocket sized 70 pages.
Find within:
- Simple game rules – based on The Black Hack, reordered and polished
- 4 Races – the iconic 4 each with their own twists
- 9 Classes – full of special abilities and options
- Background Aspects – personalising characters with signature knowledge and skills
- GM ‘Fate’ Interventions – a knowing moment to spice up a situation
- Alignment – because it’s written in the stars
- Player vs Player – for those moments where it all gets out of hand
- New spell groups – a mix of new spells and lists for Bard and Necromancer
- New monsters – a sprinkling of updates and new arrivals
- Hordes – when waves of monsters threaten to overwhelm you
- Enchanted Items – more than just a +1 sword
- Deities – the gods, still breathing, exert their influence
- An Encounter – a starter situation for your not so innocent 1st levelers
- Community bright ideas – some great variations to The Black Hack from the online world
Everything you need to get started on your heroic quest with the minimum of fuss and enough to support detailed campaign play over many sessions.
More on Heroic Fantasy soon. I should dive into layout by close of November and hopefully have something out on Drivethru before the year is out…