Thursday, 3 May 2012

Overview of Heroes Against Darkness

Imagine an ancient world torn apart by primal powers. A place where magic runs through all living things and erupts from the minds of powerful magi, where humans, elves, dwarves and orcs walk the same earth, where ancient gods fight side-by-side with mortals in an endless battle between order and chaos.

Adventure is everywhere. This is the world of Heroes Against Darkness.


Heroes Against Darkness is a free, fast, flexible, and fully-featured fantasy d20 RPG system. The game is quick to learn and play, while offering progressively greater options and flexibility as players develop their characters and explore the breadth and depth of the system.

For Players:
• A game that’s fast, fun and deep
• Streamlined rules system using unified mechanics
• Eleven character classes for all play-styles
• Three martial classes: Warrior, barbarian, berserker
• Two specialist classes: Rogue, hunter
• One hybrid class that combines magic and martial: Hospiter
• Five magi classes: Warlock, healer, canonate, necromancer, mystic
• Extensive character background and skill options
• Fast character building with plenty of depth
• Martial and specialist classes get meaningful combat choices through class-specific techniques that are based on trade-offs and the unique capabilities of each class
• Anima points-based magic system with five main schools focusing on each of the following; physical, healing, protection, necrotic and controlling

For GMs:
• A system that’s easy for the GM to set up and run
• Intuitive and clear rules
• Set up unique combat encounters in minutes
• A simple ability test system for non-combat challenges
• Support for long-term campaign play
• Extensive GM’s Guide to help run the game
• Huge bestiary with over 80 monsters
• A framework for quickly making custom monsters
• A comprehensive world-building guide
• Appendix of key tables for GMs



Check out Heroes Against Darkness over at the downloads page: Heroes Against Darkness - Game Rules.

Monday, 30 April 2012

Heroes Against Darkness Version 1.0 Released!

Well, editing has taken several weeks longer than I anticipated but it's done now, so v1.0 of Heroes Against Darkness is released:


The major changes and updates for this revision are:

• Changed Stabilize to be a major action, not a full action
• Changed opposed movement to be a major action, not a move action
• Rewrote Introduction and Character Creation intro
• Updated character sheet
• Updated character creation instructions
• New art for races
• Added Smack It Off power for some monsters
• Added Shake It Off by default for all monsters
• Edit pass over entire document (kill me)
• New cover art, take that!
• Clarified that magic doesn’t stack on Attacks/Defenses
• Fixed Divine Strike anima cost
• Changed immobilized condition to be –2 to Defenses
• Clarified rogues’ Backstab Attack power
• Added ghouls, kobolds and lich to Beasts & Bastards
• Adjusted several necromancer spells to have X costs
• Clarified that allies are other creatures, not the character
• Added swooshy thing at the top of all pages
• Updated monster art
• Added cover art page
• Split Acknowledgements from Art Credits
• Moved Combat and Role-Playing Encounter sections



Check out Heroes Against Darkness over at the downloads page: Heroes Against Darkness - Game Rules.

Sunday, 29 April 2012

New Logo for Heroes Against Darkness

New logo. Up there. Nice.



Check out the Beta rules for Heroes Against Darkness over at the downloads page: Heroes Against Darkness - Game Rules.

Friday, 27 April 2012

Cover Design Preview

I'm just about done editing, so here's a little something-something to tide y'all over for a bit longer:


Cover by Trevor Smith, design by Lincoln Flynn, Esq.

http://trevorsmithart.com



Check out the Beta rules for Heroes Against Darkness over at the downloads page: Heroes Against Darkness - Game Rules.

Friday, 20 April 2012

Elements of Style: RPG Edition

Welcome to the most anal (and banal) blog post ever.

Seriously, do yourself a favor and don't read this post. Skip it. Alt-tab. Do some work. Check your email. Post a status update. Or just press page down a few times and there's some really nice art. You could be looking at that instead of reading this.

Monday, 16 April 2012

Cover Illustration Preview

I've been neglecting you all lately, but only as I polish up the v1.0 release of Heroes Against Darkness.

So, I'll make it up to you guys with a preview of the cover painting:


As you can see, there are several heroes in the foreground and the collective darkness is represented by one very angry wyvern.

The cover's by Trevor Smith, and you can find more about him and his work here:

http://trevorsmithart.com



Check out the Beta rules for Heroes Against Darkness over at the downloads page: Heroes Against Darkness - Game Rules.

Friday, 6 April 2012

Heroes Against Darkness: Beta Released Now!

I promised that Beta was right around the corner, and here it is. I've updated the downloadable Heroes Against Darkness rules to Beta (v0.255).

Those who've been checking out the previous release (v0.244) already have the bulk of this update. As ever there are a bunch of small changes, but the largest revisions have been in the Beasts and Bastards section.

The Beta release raises the question of when we should expect v1.0. Right now, I'm planning the v1.0 release before the end of the month (to qualify for the ENies). v1.0 will have the following updates:

• More monster art (there's a bit of art now in this Beta version)
• New logo for the site and the rules
• New cover art with a specially commissioned illustration by Trevor Smith: http://trevorsmithart.com/
• More editing and clean-up of terminology
• Minimal changes to mechanics, spells, powers
• Possibly more monsters in the Beasts and Bastards section (depending how I feel)



Head over to the download page to grab yourself a Beta copy of Heroes Against Darkness.