Heroes of Adventure System Review 3.1: Adventurers of Heroics

​  This is part 3.1 of my review of the Heroes of Adventure free TTRPG system, this time I’m focusing on the Players’ Handbook. Parts 1 and 2 are found here and here.
  The Players’ Handbook is organized in the somewhat unusual sequence of Game Rules-> Setting/World Information-> Making a PC-> Equipment Lists-> Crafting/Alchemy-> Magic-> Setting Pantheon-> Example Characters/Sheets. Front-loading the rules makes sense in a player-facing document, as all DMs know that players have the attention spans of espresso-addicted hyperactive squirrels on a bender…they aren’t going to sit down and read a 64-page book in order. As a reviewer and a game-runner, though, I of course will be reading this thing one chapter at a time. Moving on then:
Chapter One: Rules
  To begin, after several pages of colorful and somewhat wonky AI art in title pages, there’s a 1-page introduction that explains the basics of playing a TTRPG and sets the mood slightly. We get a few signals (“games of yesteryear” and “semi-compatible with OSR”) that the author knows his RPG history, and then we’re off to the rules. Significant variations from tradgames we note immediately are that distances are abstracted to “range bands” in terminology but that are still 30ft increments, that hitting zero HP is immediate death/rolling on a wounds table, and most significantly that XP is awarded primarily through completing quests. A little XP trickles in from overcoming monsters (not killing per se), exploring sites, and finding artefacts or treasures. This means that play will be structured along a mission format, wandering around into fresh zones looking for the yellow exclamation points…which will be somewhat at odds with the hexcrawl language up ahead.
  Most of the rules are pretty standard, though, as covered in part 1…again, this is a d20 system with checks against DCs as the primary mechanic. Attributes (Agility, Command, Fortitude, Senses, Strength, and Will) are far less impactful than in most systems but get used in standard ways, and there are a few things that OSR will definitely consider sins, like social interactions leaning on Command or Guile checks. Something I always check are the combat maneuvers/grapple rules…55 words here, very simple, undoubtedly insufficient for edge cases, but I’m not going to complain. It’s a perfectly functional system. The final bit of the chapter is an example of play that shows a scenario that’ll be unsurprising to anyone familiar with a d20 system.
Chapter Two: Setting
  …and now for a sudden shift from crunch to fluff. This chapter concerns itself with the assumed setting of the Fallen Lands, a generic continent with a Standard Ancient Fallen Human Empire, the Dying Elf Race of the Woods (Wildfolk), the Stern Mountain Dwarves (Northmen), and a very normal set of factions (The Church, The Remnants, The Druids, etc). As generic as it all is at first, I do appreciate how blank the hexmap is…the game understands what’s special about a TTRPG campaign. It’s not about a weird or wild set of hooks, the stories that emerge are personal and special not because of the setting they’re in, but because it’s “us” who are in them. So generic, wish it sparked more creativity, but I don’t count that against it too much.
Chapter Three: Heroes
  So at this point we’ve finally caught up to where the players flipped forward to about fifteen seconds after cracking the book, we’re now looking at races and classes to make the Player Characters. It’s not immediately intuitive in all ways but there are helpful examples of character creation sprinkled throughout the chapter.
  First, the prospective player picks a race (or rolls for it). Nonhumans have a limit to only 1 allowed per party...they’re generally much more powerful at the outset than humans, but take twice as much XP to level as humans. Options are:

• Humans. Standard generalist, get to pick their own bonus skill and attribute.
• Northmen (dwarves). High starting health, see in the dark, one point of damage resistance, Fortitude/Will/Strength boost.
• Wildfolk (elves). Better starting health AND armor, keen senses, huge list of skill boosts. Sense of superiority mandatory.
• Wildlings (half-elves). Slightly improved health/armor, decent skill bonuses, free feat class ability. Angsty by default.

  After the race is rolled the game has random rolls to improve two attributes more (so some might start with a d6 even), and it’s off to your class. As with everything in HoA rolling is the assumed default, but I imagine most players will want to choose. The author is a little nervous about the high proportion of spellcasting classes here going against the low-magic tone he wants. That said, the options are:

• Adventurer. Jack of all trades, master of none. Can take Arcane Magic as an ability.
• Assassin. Roguish stabbity type, can dabble at thievery.
• Barbarian. Martial type with some nature abilities added, big on hit points and extra attacks/damage.
• Bard. Jack of all trades, master of diplomancy. Can take Arcane Magic as an ability, plus magical feats.
• Beast Master. Martial type with some nature abilities added and a pet supported.
• Bounty Hunter. Roguish shooty type, and dabble at tracking and inquisitorial duties.
• Cleric. Caster class with Divine Magic by default, can take Arcane, Form, Light, Psionic, Radiant, or Rune Magic too.
• Crusader. The Paladin. Good melee martial combat, shield feat by default, has auras/holy abilities.
• Druid. Caster class with Earth Magic by default, can take Air, Arcane, Fire, Light, Nature, Totem, or Water Magic too.
• Knight. Martial type with some leadership abilities added, can take a pet squire.
• Mage. Caster class with Arcane Magic by default, can take Air, Earth, Fire, Form, Ice, Matter, Rune, Time, or Water Magic too, can take a pet familiar.
• Mercenary. Martial type with some leadership and mobility abilities added.
• Monk. Pretty standard karate guy. Can take Divine or Psionic Magic.
• Ranger. Martial type with shooty focus, can take a pet and Totem Magic.
• Rogue. Roguish generalist jack of all trades.
• Swashbuckler. Martialish stabbity type, likes exploding damage and reactive combat stuff.
• Warlock. Caster class with Arcane Magic by default, can take Air, Earth, Fire, Form, Ice, Psionic, Matter, Shadow, or Water Magic too. Some melee abilities as well.
• Warrior. Martial type with a pure combat focus, generalist.
• Witch. Caster class with Totem Magic by default, can take Arcane, Chaos, Dark, Rune, and Shadow Magic as well, can take a pet familiar.
• Zealot. Caster class with Dark Magic by default, can take Arcane, Chaos, Matter, Psionic, Rune, or Shadow Magic too. Necromancer, makes skeletons per encounter.

  So that is twenty classes, with exactly half of them capable of casting spells. It’s not hard to see why, because spells are one of the easier content niches to expand. As the summary shows there’s also a lot of conceptual slosh between the classes, but that’s not the same as saying there’s no customization or character design here…a level 5 barbarian can be built to look identical to a level 5 warrior, but two level 5 barbarians could also look and play very differently. The classes are more convenient buckets to group a list of abilities that provide the real customization in the game system. Don’t hate the concept.
  This is a game built for the current year, so of course there are also rules for creating a character’s background, but more interestingly there’s also a fairly involved set of rolls in the backgrounds to have a history that gives benefits or detriments to the character at the outset, up to gaining a level or dying, in a nice nod to Traveler.
  Alright, let’s try this exercise and make ourselves a character, shall we?

• -Race: I roll a [2] on a d6, so I’m human. I’ll choose my bonus attribute and skill later.
• -Attributes: I roll [3] and [2] on 2d6, so I get a d4 in Fortitude and Command.
• -Class: I roll [2] on a d20, so I’m an Assassin. So I get a d4 in Agility and Senses attributes, a d4 in Melee Combat, Guile, and Open Locks skills, and the Sneak Attack ability (double damage on a surprise attack roll).
• -Skills: I get to choose two skills, plus my human stuff, so I’ll take Ranged Combat, Athletics, and plus up Melee (to d6). Let’s also plus up Agility, because that’s both stealth and initiative.
• -Ability: I get another ability from my class list, let’s try Quick Throw, lets me toss two daggers at once.
•  I’ll call myself Dave, Dave the Assassin. I’m going to hold off on the buying equipment part until we get to that chapter, but why not try out a background?
• -Place of Origin: [3] on a d6, so New Sentra, the settled area.
• -Home Settlement: [1] on a d6…Nomadic, Travelling.
• -Background: [1] on a d6, which is “Orphan, Urchin, Rogue, Nomadic”. Dave was a thieving tinker’s son.
• -Background Events: [4] and [2] on 2d6, “Negotiation, Persuasion” with “Family Member”. Dave tried to get his rich uncle’s favor…
• -Event Outcome: [6] on a d6…Great Success, two boons on the next table:
• -Boon/Bane: [1] and [2], so “Ally, Companion, Friend, Mentor” and “Enemy, Monster, Faction”. Uncle Gor is actually a master assassin the secretive Brotherhood of the Sable Poniard, Uncle is Dave’s mentor.
• -First Quest Event: [6], [4], and [2] on 3d6 so that’s “Solve, Learn”, “Object, Treasure”, “Deep, Dungeon”…Dave set himself to master the fiendish Ninefold Lock deep within the fallen Undercity…
• -Quest Outcome: [6] on a d6, which is LEVEL UP, gain a level and add 5 years to the age. Wonderful, but now I need to determine initial age (humans start at 20-40), so…[11] on a d20, start at age 31, then I guess Dave’s now 36. Also need to level up more, but let’s first do our…
• -Second Quest Event: [5], [2], and [2] on 3d6 again, which is “Rescue, Protect”, “Knowledge, Secret”, “Deep Dungeon”, naturally Dave has to protect the Secret of the Undercity’s Layout, now that he’s past the Ninefold Lock…
• -Question Outcome: [1] on a d6, which is “Death, hero dies.”

  Well, then. RIP Dave, I’m glad we didn’t figure out your equipment. You died as you lived, never actually played on a table. This began to feel a little like solo-RPG “play”, but it’s a good exercise to show because these books are loaded with tables like this. It’s doable enough, but I don’t know how it’d work if someone struggled with writing from these very high-level prompts. Of course, nothing stops a player from choosing something at every step of the way, and there is a nice level of complexity here upon first blush. Next time as I tackle the second half of the Players’ Handbook, we’ll look at how those characters customize even more, with equipment, alchemy/crafting, and of course magic.

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