Introduction
Heroic Adventures is a tabletop roleplaying game that mixes modern mechanics, fast paced combat, and engaging story driven roleplay. From card based initiative to apposed attack roles, this is a new take on tabletop gaming with a classic feel. The rules encourages a dynamically evolving storyline and tactical combat.
Character creation is simple and characters remain easy to play even at higher levels. At the same time, the simple rules come together in an elegant mixture that requires preparation and strategy to succeed. Additionally, the outcomes of combat and the preparation for adventure will require players to contribute to the arc of the naturally developing stories.
Heroic Adventures uses a unique initiative system that is based on a deck of cards. Each character and monster will have an initiative of one through fifteen. The higher initiative you are, the more cards you get in the deck, and the more actions you can take each round. When the encounter starts, the deck is shuffled and the game master starts drawing cards.
Each chard is either a character card, in which case all the characters with the shown initiative get to take an action, or a monster card, in which case all the monsters with the shown initiative get to take an action. Your action can be a minor action that you can do as often as you like during the encounter. This is often small movements that help strategically position your character during combat. Major actions can only be done once per round and include bigger movements and attacks. Heroic actions can be done once per encounter and are often provided by race and class features.
Included Components
Heroic Adventures comes with the core rulebook and a deck of initiative cards, along with all of the free resources which includes printable character sheets, and the Hero App.
Game Sessions
One person takes on the role of game master while everyone else takes on the role of players. The game master will prepare for each session of the game by creating an adventure that includes locations, other characters, and various monsters and challenges. In the first session the players will create characters and the game master will introduce the game world that the players will be playing in.
The main aspect of every character is their race, such as human, dwarf, elf, and so forth along with a class, such as a fighter, wizard, or one of the 16 classes in the game. These two choices along with a set of number based attributes and features will define who a character is and what they can do.
In each session the game master will describe the world that the players are in and the players will take actions. Sometimes the players actions will put them in conflict with the characters and monsters of the world that the game master has created. When this happens, a combat encounter ensues. Miniatures are placed on a battlemat, dice are rolled, and fate will have it's way.
A campaign is a series of sessions, maybe played on a weekly or monthly basis, wherein everyone gathers together to play the game. Over the course of a campaign players level up their characters and a story unfolds in the world that the the game master and players have both helped create. Characters might even meet their doom, in which case that player can create a new character so that the story can continue.
Initiative
Heroic Adventures uses a unique initiative system that utilizes a deck of cards. Each character and monster will have an initiative. When the encounter starts, the deck is shuffled and the game master draws one card at a time. Each time a card is drawn, one or more characters or monsters will get to take an action. Your action can be a minor action that you can do as often as you like during the encounter. This is often small movements that help strategically position your character during combat. Major actions can only be done once per round and include bigger movements and attacks. Heroic actions can be done once per encounter and are often provided by race and class features.
In addition to those action types, there are also bonus actions. The higher initiative you are, the more cards you get in the deck, and the more actions you can take each round. Each initiative also has a bonus action card. If the bonus action card is drawn, and your initiative is higher than the previous card, you get to take a bonus action. This means that quick and nimble characters can often make multiple attacks per round, whereas slow and plodding characters not only get less actions per round but also do not get as many attacks.
The Story Continues
Characters in Heroic Adventures are simple to play, only having six stats and two abilities at first level. This makes the game easy to learn and teach while allowing the nuances of the initiative and combat systems shine through. In addition, characters remain simple at higher levels, making the full 1-10 level range easy to play without a dramatic increase in complexity.
Every creature, including player characters, non playable characters (NPC), and monsters has 6 stats: Skill determines the bonus to your attack roll. Agility determines the bonus to your defense roll. Arcana is use by many spell casting classes to determine mana and the bonus to spell attack rolls. Willpower is also used by a lot of different classes but is also the target of some attacks. For example, when surrounded by zombies, their attacks target your willpower instead of agility. Strength determines the damage bonus to your melee attacks. Finally, initiative determines what cards in the initiative deck you act on, which in turn determines how many attacks you can take per round and how often you get bonus attacks.
All attacks in Heroic Adventures are apposed rolls, which means that the attacker and the defender each roll a d12 and add their relevant stats. If the modified attack roll exceeded the modified defense roll, then the attacker hits and rolls for damage. Damage dice also "explode", which means when they roll the maximum value for the dice type, you roll the dice again and add the two results. A single dice can also explode multiple times. This means that every combat is dangerous. While at midlevel you might easily dispatch a dozen goblins, the next arrow or spear always has the potential to be deadly.
Characters can protect themselves in various ways. First, increasing your agility makes you harder to hit. However, your agility will no longer help if attacks target your willpower, such as when you are swarmed by zombies or attacked by spells. You can also use a shield, which reduces your initiative but means that when you roll a 1 or 2 on your defense roll, you block the attack completely. Be careful however, because some attacks such as great axes or ogre clubs ignore shields. You can also wear armor, which reduces your agility making you easier to hit, but gives you toughness that reduces damage. Good armor can make a character nearly invincible to small attacks. Once again though, there are offensive measures to get past armor, such as fire attacks or rogue abilities that ignore armor.
In Heroic Adventures, players will collect different types of currencies for different purposes. Coin is a general purpose currency but is primarily used to save up for artisan and master crafted weapons, shields, and armor. These higher tier variations of equipment provide major enhancements to a characters capability, providing more damage dice, the ability to retaliate while defending, and more toughness.
Eather is found while adventuring and can be spent at the Alchemist Guild as an alternative currency to buy potions and other consumables. These potions can provide healing, give extra heroic actions, or provide a number of other benefits such as ward stones which reduce spell damage.
Finally, fragments are collected while adventuring and can either be turned in right away to gain a level 1 spell scroll or can be saved up and multiple fragments can be turned in to the Mages Guild at the same time to potentially gain a higher level spell scroll. When you turn in fragments you roll a d100 to determine what spell scroll you gain. However, on each attempt there is a 50% chance that you gain nothing. This gamble means that the more scrolls you turn in at once the more powerful scroll you could get, but you could also lose them all!
When a character dies, usually in the midst of a tough encounter, the player create a new character. Mosty likely, however, the player will have a protégé, which is a lower level character that they have ready and lined up to play. A player may create a protégé when their main character reaches third level. Any time their main character levels up, their protégé levels up. In this way they always have a new character to play that is close enough in level to the rest of the group that they will not be severely disadvantaged. Also, their new character can continue the story where their main character left off.
