Tabletop games, weird and wonderful

Heirs of the Leviathan: Live!

Heirs of the Leviathan: Live!

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Heirs of the Leviathan is now out on DriveThruRPG and Itch.Io; “but”, I hear you ask, “I know it’s about tragedy, and drama and Heirs and all that, but what is its deal?”. And I hear you.

Heirs is my kind of campaign game. I wanted to make something that facilitated drama, where character creation was quick (and characters expendable), and where there wasn’t something binding you from what the next session will be like. One session you can play raiders from Angari, the next you delve into political machinations of the Commonwealth, and on the third session Vandir from Angari and Zandorai from the Commonwealth might meet on the field of battle. Finally, it is simple to create new material for it – I already have several more Realm Starters underway.

“What’s its deal though?”

It is a hack of World of Dungeons, and making characters is a matter of rolling some attributes, picking a class, some special abilities and some sources. Sources are the big thing about the game – you don’t really define them at the beginning, but you might know that one of your sources of power might be a Cabal (some group that supports you), and the other might be Arcane (something magical). Now, whenever you roll a miss on your roll, you can leverage a source. This is where you actually define what it is and how it helps you, and then you flip a coin to see if they can turn the miss to a hit, or if they also somehow come up short. Then you draw it on the map of sources, showing how they relate to the other sources in play.

This is (in my opinion) actually the most promising mechanic that arose during playtesting. Because you do not define it from the beginning, games do not get bogged down in extended pre-campaign discussions of who likes who and such. It also gives you the feeling of power when they are leveraged, and it builds setting (and plenty of conflict) through using these various powers.

Finally, this is not a game where only arrows and swords are dangerous. You do not have Health Points, you have Hubris Points – how much Hubris does fate allow you? While you do Hurt when you lose a battle, you also Hurt when you are publicly shown to be weak, or when your lover of leaves you. It is a game where you do not rule over mighty kingdoms, but over small fragments, that always threaten to dissolve even further.

I’ve mentioned it before, but I really think this is some of the best stuff I’ve written. Check it out – and if you like it, you can check out my newfangled Patreon, where I am going to regularly post new stuff for the game.

https://www.patreon.com/banthedith

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