TLDR: Game of Heart on the 25th or 26th, who’s in?
As I said at @Kergy29 's last game of Spire, I’d like to run Heart again (it fits the theme of the game that I’m attaching myself like a parasite).
What’s this Heart-thing?
Heart is a game of exploration, horror, doomed ambition and humanity to be found despite the circumstances.
In the land of Destera, below the city of Spire that juts out from the ground like a mile-high talon, where high elves rule over subjugated dark elves, lies Heart, the City Beneath. The City Beneath is settled by heretics, mad cultists, madder sorcerers, or just those for whom there is no place in the City Above. Dark elves, high elves, humans and gnolls, who would be enemies on the surface, struggle to build communities together in a hostile, ever shifting environment.
The deeper you go, the closer you get to the Heart, the red, wet heaven, a tear in reality that changes the world around it. From tunnels haunted by the ghosts of armies that fought there, the tracks of a failed mass transportation network settled by cults devoted to summoning the fabled Last Train, over caverns lit by the light of unknown stars to forests of meaty trees, the world keeps making less and less sense.
Those people that regularly walk between havens, the candleflames of civilisation in the unknowable darkness of the Heart, are known as delvers. They are seen with a mix of awe, fear and distrust by the general population of the City Beneath.
Player characters are doomed from the start. You don’t go down into the depths of the Heart, leaving the certainty of the surface or the relative safety of a haven, if there isn’t something fundamentally wrong with you. Whether you are looking for an adventure that can’t be found anywhere else, answers to questions burned into your mind, are called each night by the wet beating of the Heart, or are on the run from your previous life, the Heart will most likely take you in the end and turn you into a story whispered around campfires.
What’s the plan?
I’d like to run a short campaign for 2-5 players in which the main objectives are determined by the characters’ motivations, not some elaborate plan I set beforehand. Since individual character progression is tied to achieving goals chosen by the player, Heart lends itself to this kind of storytelling.
What are the character classes?
Delvers can be Cleavers (monster hunters/pathfinders who turn more and more bestial the further they go), Deadwalkers (who have already died once and are now caught in the space between), Deep Apiarists (a sect that tries to impose order on the primordial chaos of the Heart through symbiosis with crystal-producing bees), Heretics (descendents of the true dark elf moon cult, forbidden in the City Above, on a search for the Moon Beneath), Hounds (protectors of the people of the City Beneath, soul-bound to a regiment that fought unspeakable battles 100 years ago), Incarnadines (who have gone so deep into debt, that the goddess of debt has claimed them as Her merchants/priests/debt collectors/executors/executioners), Junk Mages (who ride the wave of magic stolen from higher beings; they could stop doing magic at any time if they wanted to, really), Vermissian Knights (wandering the old train tunnels searching for lost knowledge and protecting the remnants of the network) and Witches (whose occult flesh-shaping powers come from a blood disease unique to themselves).
Why would my character not do anything else with their life?
Adventure: The City Above holds no more excitement for you. In the City Beneath, on the knife edge between real and unreal, you can be who you really are.
Enlightenment: Everyone said that what you intended to do was impossible, but you’ve never let “possibility” slow you down. You’re looking for secrets hidden deep within the earth. You know the Heart holds the answers to all your questions; no matter what it takes, you’ll get them.
Forced: You don’t want to be down here, but you don’t have any choice. You’re a prisoner, an initiate to a cult or someone’s blackmailing you.
Heartsong: When you sleep, you dream of the Heart. You’re half-mad with glimpses of knowledge; mad enough to go ever deeper into the undercity, looking for revelations.
Minister: You have devoted your life to the service of a forbidden goddess - Our Hidden Mistress - and sworn to dethrone the cruel aelfir overlords of Spire. Your mission has taken you into the City Beneath in search of a fragment of the Goddess’ power.
Penitent: You betrayed the trust of your order. Due to negligence, cowardice or malice, you caused them great harm. Now, wracked by guilt, you have sworn to make amends by venturing deep into the Heart and performing acts in service of your order.
Retribution: You have been wronged, and your quest to set things right consumes you. Your people, your family, your ego - something has been wounded. Taken. Extinguished. Ripped from your side without just cause, leaving a bloody gash in its place. Only within the bowels of the Heart can you find a salve: the destruction of those who have done this to you.
When? Where? Who?
November 25th or 26th either at Pickwick’s or at my place (close to U2 Donaustadtbrücke).
So, if you want to play a group of people who could very charitably be described as driven, drop me a line. Up to five players, special invitation goes to @Kergy29 @Lindt @Tea007 @Nat1 @Valzon @svn (players of @Kergy29’s group and my last Heart game)
The Heart knows what you want, and by the Goddess, it’ll give it to you or kill you trying.
P.S.: @Oh_geo_geo @Lanic I’m sorry this took so long that you are no longer in the country, I couldn’t find the time to run a game due to my new job. I would have loved to continue playing with you!
