What Lurks in the Mines of Martek?

What foul beast has taken residence in the Mines of Martek?

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I reckon that whatever lives here can be found in the Heroes Against Darkness Bestiary:
Heroes Against Darkness: Downloads.

Hero Kids Setting: The Brecken Vale

Last year my art buddy Josh Sacco and I spent some time developing a Photoshop map template that people like me (semi-artists) can use to put together decent maps without having to spend years and years actually learning how to art...

I've finally gotten around to using this beautiful piece of PSD action to put together this map of the setting for Hero Kids: The Brecken Vale, which is described thusly:

You live in a small village, Rivenshore, which is nestled in a tight valley beneath a range of towering mountains. Rivenshore would be a beautiful place to live, if it weren’t beset by an endless series of calamities. The village is on the eastern shore of the Camarva River. The river runs fast and crooked from the mountains, down through the valley, The Brecken Vale, and out into a small bay. To the east of the village are the dark and wild Darkenwold Woods, which have claimed many foolish travelers. The Brecken Vale is bounded by the Druinhowe Mountains, their snow-covered peaks cloaked in cloud. The vale should be a haven for its civilized inhabitants, but instead it keeps them in close proximity to no end of threats that offer boundless opportunities for adventure.

And here's the end result, which should give the GM and kids something to get their imagination going:

Probably the most difficult part of this map was the research for the etymology of the place names:

Brecken Vale: Valley of the crooked river
Druinhowe Mountains: Ridged mountains
Darkenwold Woods: Holy woodland
Rivenshore: River-shore, but without any great etymological basis!

Considering I do most of my research late at night, don't sue me if my derivations are erroneous (or crazy).

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People keep telling me that Heroes Against Darkness needs a setting, so this is a start:
Heroes Against Darkness: Downloads.

Maze of the Minotaur Adventure Playtest

Playtester 0 (Violet, aged 4) and I spent an hour last night playing through the Hero Kids premium adventure Maze of the Minotaur.

I've mentioned Maze of the Minotaur briefly before, but this adventure deserves some attention because it's quite different from the game's normal adventures.   Maze of the Minotaur is different because it features a randomly generated maze and randomly generated encounters in the maze.

The maze is generated from a set of over 30 random cavern tiles, so each time the heroes move off the edge of a tile, the GM takes the top tile from the pile and (if it fits) puts it down to extend the maze.   If it doesn't fit, the GM puts it on the bottom of the tile and takes another (rinse, repeat).   The tiles include straight tunnels, t-intersections, crossroads, and corner pieces so there's a huge amount of variety on offer for junior adventurers.

The GM also rolls 3d6 to generate a random encounter for each new tile that the heroes enter.   For example, a roll of 3 (three 1s) gives a rock-fall trap, 11 is an encounter with giant rats, 12 is an encounter the titular minotaur, and any total of 15+ means the heroes discover the minotaur's lair, which is the actual goal of the adventure.

But enough this talk, here are some photos from the session.   Enjoy.

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A maze with a minotaur, that's almost as original as Heroes Against Darkness:
Heroes Against Darkness: Downloads.

Hero Kids Adventure Maps

While I'm waiting for some of the artwork to get done for Hero Kids I've been spending my time working on adventures for the game.   So far, I've made two 'normal' adventures (one of which will be included with the game), one premium adventure (which will be a stand-alone product), and I'm currently working on some more standard adventures to create a number of separate adventure packs.

One of the things I've had to do with the adventure maps is make myself a library of bits for caverns, caves, and mines.   The caverns and caves are used in the free adventure that comes with the game (Basement O Rats), and in the premium adventure (Maze of the Minotaur), but I also want to do an adventure in a mine so I spent tonight working on modular rail sections for the mine maps.

Here are a few example maps that I've thrown together from all the bits to make sure they fit together properly:

Anyway, back to the coal face (literally)!

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A maze with a minotaur, that's almost as original as Heroes Against Darkness:
Heroes Against Darkness: Downloads.

Hero Kids alpha playtest complete

After several weeks of thorough testing, the alpha playtest of Hero Kids is now complete.   I've gotten back a whole bunch of useful feedback from the various testers and their tiny helpers.   Thanks guys and girls!

I'm currently working to implement the changes and suggestions that have come up in the testing, I'm designing more adventures for our pint-sized heroes (including an randomly generated minotaur's maze), and finally I'm working with Eric Quigley to complete all of the artwork for the monsters and the heroes so that we can get Hero Kids finished early in October (what a perfect holiday activity it will be!).

Here's a quick look at some of nasty humanoid monsters in the game:

Eric Quigley Art

Lookin' good boys!

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The monsters in Heroes Against Darkness are much less cute:
Heroes Against Darkness: Downloads.

D&D Encounters at Games Laboratory

Tonight I GMed my first ever session of D&D Encounters at Games Laboratory here in Melbourne, Australia.

We had four players, two who hadn't played 4th Edition at all, but they picked it up pretty easily.   I managed to KO two of the characters and had them on the ropes, but some judicious use of healing checks got them through the fight.   We also had two spectators, one of who has promised to come back next week and play.   The only downside was trying to pronounce all of the damned Drow names!

Next time I need to remember to take some minis and maybe even the my Pathfinder stand-ups, because the generic tokens are a bit mundane.   Oh, I should also remember to take my DICE, although the d20 I used did roll pretty well!

It's definitely a great program to allow new players to try to D&D (in any flavor) so if you're in the area and want to play some casual D&D feel free to join us on Wednesday nights:

Games Laboratory Role-Playing Games Facebook Group

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Alternatively, check out this game:
Heroes Against Darkness - Game Rules.

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.