Review: Heroes Against Darkness Gets 4E Right (Allegedly)

Looks like the release of the print version of Heroes Against Darkness has shaken out some new fans.

+John Bell - The Retired Adventurer - has posted a review of Heroes Against Darkness on his blog:

Heroes Against Darkness Gets 4e Right

"I mention all of this because Heroes Against Darkness is a 4e heartbreaker, and a really good one." 

"There are lots of little tweaks like this that I really like. The GM advice chapter is also pretty meaty, and I'd feel fairly comfortable giving Heroes Against Darkness to a new roleplayer as their first adventure game."

"Heroes Against Darkness in general has the feel of 4e done right. I don't say that as someone who hated 4e and wanted it to be fundamentally different, but as someone who played it and felt that the game didn't live up to its own promise. If that sounds like the kind of thing you'd be interested in, go check it out."

It's not all flowers and holding hands though, 'cos John has a couple of criticisms:

"The not particularly serious one is that there's some extraneous swearing in a couple of chapters. I'm not a prude, but it kind of comes out of nowhere and doesn't serve much purpose."

Now I'm a fairly conversational writer, so sometimes more colorful turns of phrase slip into my works.   As far as I can tell, in reading Heroes Against Darkness you'll get one 'shit' and one 'crap'. You've been warned!

The second criticism is more serious:

"The more serious one is the underdeveloped skill system. Skills are mentioned in a couple of places: Each class has some suggested skills they should have, and there's a big list of possible skills, but the actual rules for skills are totally missing, from how many skills characters should have, to how and when they select those skills, to what skills do or how one uses them, to how one gets more. As a quick set of house rules, I'd imitate 4e somewhat: Having a skill would grant a +5 on any checks related to that skill. Character would select say, four at the start and could add another every other level."

I deliberately left the skill system out of Heroes Against Darkness, but its absence has been noted.   But all is not lost, and we've had a few discussions about it over at RPGnet:

RPGnet thread: [Heroes Against Darkness] This is my kind of D&D clone

Thanks for John for taking the time to review Heroes Against Darkness.

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Head over to DriveThruRPG to pick up a print edition of Heroes Against Darkness:
DriveThruRPG - Heroes Against Darkness

Review of Heroes Against Darkness at Earth Alpha

Here's another review of Heroes Against Darkness, this one from Andrew Collas on his Earth Alpha blog.   I've cribbed quotes from Andrew's review here, but check Andrew's blog:

Review of Heroes Against Darkness - Earth Alpha

"...this game MADE me want to play D&D again... well this version of it anyways."

"Heroes Against Darkness... that takes the wide breadth of D&D and pieces together one hell of a fun system!"

"Justin Halliday wrote this as a labour of love, to be sure, and it shows on every page.   The writing is tight and focused, the art is evocative and exciting and the layout is excellent."

"The thing that I liked most of all was the incorporation of a pseudo-4e Power mechanic for each class as well as a hybridized almost Magic The Gathering style for spellcasters.   Together this really hits the spot for me, though it does make house creating character classes a bit of work as you need to balance out their new powers."

"Another nice thing is that while mapping isn't necessary, it is really a lot of fun with the way the rules work.   So much so that my group played out a map combat, and we are NOT mappers by any stretch, and LOVED it!"

"Best of all though is the price... FREE!   That's right, you get a FULL game that is fast and a load of fun to play with out paying 1 single penny."

"So in summation, this is worth the price of admission and even gives you more value than some games that you pay $20+ for.   Check it out, give it a read and maybe even take it out for a spin or two.   Trust me, if you like fast paced, less complicated stuff, this game does not disappoint!"

Thanks Andrew!

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Heroes Against Darkness won't disappoint, unlike its author:
Heroes Against Darkness: Downloads.

Review of Heroes Against Darkness on RPGnet

Antonios S has done a long and comprehensive review of Heroes Against Darkness over on RPGnet:

Review of Heroes Against Darkness - RPGnet

Antonios' review looks at the game in depth, and picks up on the way the game's rules are presented to ensure they are easy to find and also to make sure that no 'little rules' are buried (or hidden) in the text!

"This is a full game that costs nothing. This can't be stressed enough. It is not a demo, not an introductory adventure, not an abridged version designed to lure you into buying other, more complex products. It's a full system, free for us to check and use according to our needs. The system is contained in one single product. It isn't impossible to play because some rules might be included in future products. It's all there, ready for the taking."

"The mechanics of the game are solid, simple and unobtrusive. Being a light game it obviously won't cover all situations and the GM will have to adjudicate or outright wing it at times. That is, however, one of HAD's very strong points. It can easily give the feel of fantasy gaming with classes while remaining super simple at the same time."

"The writing is concise and to the point. I am trying to imagine what Justin Halliday's background is, since the presentation of the rules is by far the cleanest I have seen in RPGs. Effectively each rule is inside a square preceded by the world 'rule'... It adds however greatly to the concept of the game's minimalism and lightness, since it's quite obvious at any given point where the rules are in any given chapter. I am not sure whether this type of presentation has been used in the past, but even if it has, kudos to Justin."

Note: I haven't seen this presentation of rules elsewhere, and I used it to force myself not to add little rules, elaborations, and exceptions to the game. Any rule I wanted to employ had to be worthy of inclusion in that boxed area, otherwise I left it out of the game!

"Most importantly, it appears that all of his choices are based on a particular principle or idea that he had concerning game mechanics. He doesn't necessarily strive for realism, mind you, but he appears very knowledgeable of game mechanics and how systems and sub-systems interact with each other, how rules mesh and stack up and what tools one should use depending on the goal to achieve."

"Heroes Against Darkness deserves to be in your library and merits to at least be tried a few times. Its mechanics are intuitive, solid and easy-going and the game has an air of friendliness to newcomers."

"HAD is now by far my game of choice for the one-off demos to the uninitiated on what our hobby is about. Something tells me I will not be disappointed."

Antonios S, I salute you!

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Heroes Against Darkness is intuitive, solid and easy-going, just like its author:
Heroes Against Darkness: Downloads.

EN World Review of Heroes Against Darkness!

My new best friend Mike from Neuroglyph Games has posted a lengthy official review of Heroes Against Darkness over on EN World:

DnD Review of Heroes Against Darkness by Justin Halliday

This is another great review of Heroes Against Darkness, and the $0 price tag really appeals. Mike also picks up on a few of the common elements in Heroes Against Darkness and D&D Next (developed in parallel, I might add), as well as the extensive GM support that's offered in the game.   Finally, although Mike pegs Heroes Against Darkness as a retro-clone and OGL game, it is not released under the OGL and it is a totally original work (aside from the fundamental D&D mechanics):

"Justin Halliday's own take on the evolution of the fantasy role-playing games.    He set himself the task of designing a game system which could appeal to a wide range of D&D gamers, regardless of which edition they favored, and has released the rules free for the download!"

"While the author does not consider his work a retro-clone, because it draws on all editions including the current 4E, it does seem to draw most heavily from OGL, with some of the simpler features of AD&D and 2nd Edition to keep information needed to play a character down to a two page character sheet."

"The production quality of Heroes Against Darkness is overall good, but with aspects which are very good..."

"The artwork in Heroes Against Darkness is quite good, and most of it is simple line art or concept-art style charcoal sketches, which again give that old school feel to the rule book."

"Heroes Against Darkness turns out to be a pretty cool retro-clone, which manages to bring together facets of all four editions of D&D..."

"And given how much content is packed into this game system, it should really be priced in the ten to fifteen dollar range – but it’s actually FREE – and you can’t beat a price like that!"

"Overall Score : 4.1 out of 5."

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You can't beat free, can you?:
Heroes Against Darkness: Downloads.

More Niceness About Heroes Against Darkness

The Boulder himself over at the Impossible Boulder blog took a look at Heroes Against Darkness for his series of posts about beginner-friendly free RPGs:

Heroes Against Darkness: Beginner Friendly?

Once again I shall take quotes out of context to increase the appeal of the game (J/K):

"Heroes Against Darkness is a free fantasy role playing game wrapped up in an attractive package and stuffed with style."

"The choice to strip feats and skills from d20 is really the first place that the game starts to move into more old school territory."

"The real beginner-friendly jewel of Heroes isn't found in the rulebook at all. The Sundered Tower is a solo adventure done in a choose-your-path style that teaches the basics of the system."

"Heroes Against Darkness is one the of the slickest free RPGs I have seen yet. Don't let the $0 price tag fool you, this is the full package."

"This is a game that feels like 0e/1e D&D with a more robust tactical framework and a unified system. I get a feeling that Heroes Against Darkness will appeal to fans of the E6, Fourthcore and people that subscribe to the OSR ethos, but not necessarily the games."

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You heard the man, don't let the price tag fool you, feel the quality:
Heroes Against Darkness: Downloads.

Review of Heroes Against Darkness on The Free RPG Blog

Rob Lang's just posted an awesome review of Heroes Against Darkness on The Free RPG Blog:

Heroes Against Darkness by Justin Halliday

I'm not too proud to cherry-pick quotes:

"It is breathtaking."
"Most remarkable of all for a free RPG: It's finished."
"It's an unmissable Post-Old-School fantasy RPG."

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Check it out for yourself at the downloads page:
Heroes Against Darkness: Downloads.