First things first, untitled dungeon game is dead. Behold:

The title is something has been known to me for quite some time and had been shared with some of the playtest groups. I am really happy with the logo PrimeRoxas made for the game which also gave us a fun little H/Hearth logo element which works on its own like the Dungeons & Dragons ampersand or the p in Pathfinder.

Originally I had wanted to have this design/title release come with the next big update on the book. But I've decided to reveal it for two reasons:

1. It's better to get the actual name in people's mouths before the get too used to UDG and I am forced into a title like a certain goose game.

2. I need to stop pushing things and just update. This is a living development and I should just share what I have instead of hoping to surprise people with something perfect and whole.

I have had a hell of a time working on the game and have been having a horrific workflow that I can summarize as "ignoring what I need to work on to make something shiny and new", "fixate and flesh out this new element", "burnout". I do think that everything I've been adding has been good and worthwhile and I am really happy with what the project is shaping up to be. I just need to find a workflow that works for me. I really appreciate people's patience.

So what have I been working on?

1: Updating the SRD of Blades in the Dark to work for this game. This is the source code of the game and making sure it runs is very important... but I also find it all highly tedious work because I know all this and my brain just wants to focus on the new. However, Hearthlight isn't a straight up Blades hack and has just as much dna shared with Band of Blades and other rpgs so I can tend to deep dive into research for what systems I've used that work best for certain elements and then running those choices by others.

2. The Settlement. This is the big new system with the game. For the most part you could just snag the playbooks I've made and throw them into most forged in the dark games and just have fun. The Settlement phase is the part that makes this game what it is and not just a D&D sendup. The idea is that players have a home where they live and and wish to protect. So they go out and adventure and defeat monsters and get treasure and bring that back to the town where they level up and get stronger. Its this cycle where the players protect and care for the town and the town returns it. I finally figured out the mechanics for the town and while I won't be explaining it all here I can share the mockup from its page.


3. The Bestiary. Unlock most forged in the dark games, Heroes is going to have a dedicated monster section. This is obviously very time consuming to write everything up and also, for some reason, I decided to doodle up some funky guys.


Above is my art for the Goblin and Fungoid section. Like everything else in the game, the Bestiary is setting agnostic. These are meant to be one way of seeing these creatures rather than me simply saying, here is what a goblin is. Instead a monster's entry will have 3 adjectives to set a base tone for what type of enemy they are as well as base assumptions. Whether you want to flip those assumptions on their head is up to you but it lets you know where I am writing the monster from. Each entry also includes questions you can ask your players so they can fill in the blank spaces about them. It is always fun to turn to players and ask them to help you figure out what a Troll means in your world. From there you will find moves the foe will commonly use as well as tactics for playing them. I'll do a future devlog showing off a few different entries so people can see what these look like but this one is getting pretty crowded.

A Note about Pricing: For the time being I am keeping Heroes by Hearthlight as pay what you want. But with the next big update the price will be increasing to $15, a fair price for the amount of work going into it. Once it is finalized, I will be increasing the price one more time to its final pricing. But it's me so I will definitely be including it in future charity bundles and will make community copies available. Still, I feel its important for people to know that eventually the game will not be free to play but those who have already claimed it are free to continue enjoying it. I do hope that those who are happy with the final product and didn't pay will throw some cash my way though.

The Future: I've got a lot of projects bouncing around in various shades of completion but I am committed to finishing this game before anything else. I am also planning on adding to it after it's finalized. Like I said I have a lot of ideas and not all of them need to be present here. Currently, the plan is for two expansion books, what will be present will be subject to change but I can give the general ideas now.

Expansion 1 is full of additional components and optional modules. As of right now it will feature two new playbooks, the Artificer and Psion. It will have rules for six new heritages and entries for serving gods and gaining new abilities from them. I am toying with the idea of having a setting or two for the groups who aren't interested in building a world from whole-cloth, that's the part I'm most unsure of so definitely let me know if that's interesting to you.

Expansion 2 flips things over and lets you play as the villains attacking rather than defending against them. Again we are going to have 6 more heritages letting to take on some of the classic villainous archetypes like playing and undead character. I'm keeping this one under wraps for the most part but I think a lot of people will have fun causing mayhem.

So yeah, that's where we are right now. Not a lot of deep progress but some progress on a wide field. I hope that transparency and communication of what this is becoming will make people excited for what this is becoming, because from what I've seen in the playtests so far, this is really something special.