So, I made this game.
Heartbreaker originated in an ENWorld discussion about a year ago, about combining the best features from certain RPGs--more specifically, from certain editions of one RPG. I won't specify which RPG and which editions here, since I would prefer not to get sued, but you can probably guess. I originally had a different name for it, but I decided on this one because this game is what folks at the Forge would call a "fantasy heartbreaker*," and I realized "Fantasy Heartbreaker" was a damn cool name for a game. (Though I have to say, it hasn't broken my heart--quite the opposite.)
My primary goals in developing Heartbreaker were as follows:
Given the announcements of the past couple months, this may be as far as Heartbreaker goes. A certain other new game is soon to enter playtest and looks like it may provide most of what I wanted Heartbreaker for in the first place. Still, even if this game ends up languishing in a corner of my hard drive, I have no regrets. Creating it was a fascinating, tremendously enjoyable exercise, and taught me a huge amount about game design. You get a very different perspective on these things when you have to stop blue-skying ideas and sit down to assemble a working, playable system. You also come up with new ideas that you would never have thought of otherwise.
Everything in this ruleset is open content, start to finish. (Details in the OGL legal bits on the last page.) Anybody who wants to yoink ideas, systems, or specific wording from this system and use 'em in your own game, feel free. I'd appreciate an e-mail to let me know you're doing it, and maybe a line someplace in your credits if you use big chunks of the rules, but I'm certainly not filing any lawsuits.
Last of all, a shout-out to Raven Crowking, who sadly has departed these boards in the interim, for blazing the "personal hybrid edition" trail.
[size=-2]*Okay, so technically it's not, because it wasn't written in the 1990s and I'm not trying to naively imitate the original game's publishing model. I have no expectation of turning Heartbreaker into a going concern. But it's at least a cousin to the old fantasy heartbreakers, in that it remains very close to its source material and is one gamer's idiosyncratic labor of love.[/size]
Heartbreaker originated in an ENWorld discussion about a year ago, about combining the best features from certain RPGs--more specifically, from certain editions of one RPG. I won't specify which RPG and which editions here, since I would prefer not to get sued, but you can probably guess. I originally had a different name for it, but I decided on this one because this game is what folks at the Forge would call a "fantasy heartbreaker*," and I realized "Fantasy Heartbreaker" was a damn cool name for a game. (Though I have to say, it hasn't broken my heart--quite the opposite.)
My primary goals in developing Heartbreaker were as follows:
- Remain true to the flavor, the spirit, and to some degree the mechanics of the original. Fans of that game should be able to pick up Heartbreaker and have an intuitive sense of how things work. This has meant retaining some elements I would otherwise have jettisoned, like the "spell slot" system, the use of armor class, the traditional six ability scores, and the distinction between arcane and divine magic.
- Keep the game tight and fast-paced. Minor battles should be resolved in a matter of minutes. Tracking a laundry list of conditions and modifiers should be avoided when possible, and time spent digging through the rulebook should be kept to a minimum.
- Character creation should be a snap, and your character should fit on a single sheet of paper. Avoid a system that produces "builds." Basic competence should be baked into every class. Options should be about tailoring the character to fit your vision, not maximizing your effectiveness. To this end, I avoided stacking modifiers and derived stats as much as possible.
- Characters should have some ability to recover resources after combat, without requiring clerical assistance. On the other hand, lasting injuries should happen from time to time, and you shouldn't just bounce right back from a near-fatal wound.
- Magic-users do not utterly dominate the game at high levels. Certain abilities (long-range teleportation; resurrection; infallible divination) are carefully controlled.
- Support a shift in genre as the PCs advance. The premise of Heartbreaker is that the PCs start out exploring nearby dungeons, then graduate to journeys through the wilderness with some NPC retainers, then begin to gather followers and carve out their own kingdoms. Support for the kingdom-carving phase required breaking some new mechanical ground, since that has not historically been supported very well in the original game. The resulting system is... interesting. There are some parts I'm really proud of, and others I'm not too sure about.
- Cater to a few of my personal quirks. Okay, this wasn't so much a goal as a gut reaction, but it's why there are no elves, dwarves, or halflings. When it came down to it, I just couldn't stomach cramming those tired old Tolkien retreads into the game, and after a couple of halfhearted efforts to put a new spin on them, I gave it up as a bad job. Likewise, while I kept spell slots, I got rid of Vancian spell prep, and I went to some lengths to make sure it was possible to play a necromancer with an army of undead. Not a single zombie, not a warband of ten or fifteen skeletons, but thousands of shambling undead. If you know me personally, you'll understand why this was an absolute requirement.
Given the announcements of the past couple months, this may be as far as Heartbreaker goes. A certain other new game is soon to enter playtest and looks like it may provide most of what I wanted Heartbreaker for in the first place. Still, even if this game ends up languishing in a corner of my hard drive, I have no regrets. Creating it was a fascinating, tremendously enjoyable exercise, and taught me a huge amount about game design. You get a very different perspective on these things when you have to stop blue-skying ideas and sit down to assemble a working, playable system. You also come up with new ideas that you would never have thought of otherwise.
Everything in this ruleset is open content, start to finish. (Details in the OGL legal bits on the last page.) Anybody who wants to yoink ideas, systems, or specific wording from this system and use 'em in your own game, feel free. I'd appreciate an e-mail to let me know you're doing it, and maybe a line someplace in your credits if you use big chunks of the rules, but I'm certainly not filing any lawsuits.
Last of all, a shout-out to Raven Crowking, who sadly has departed these boards in the interim, for blazing the "personal hybrid edition" trail.
[size=-2]*Okay, so technically it's not, because it wasn't written in the 1990s and I'm not trying to naively imitate the original game's publishing model. I have no expectation of turning Heartbreaker into a going concern. But it's at least a cousin to the old fantasy heartbreakers, in that it remains very close to its source material and is one gamer's idiosyncratic labor of love.[/size]
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