Let's learn HEART: THE CITY BENEATH!

"HEART: The City Beneath" is a bleak, gothic dungeon-crawling TTRPG, with strong elements of body horror and cosmic horror. It's both mechanically and thematically very different from Dungeons and Dragons 5e, and I'm here to tell you why it's awesome!
LINKS:
HEART: THE CITY BENEATH: rowanrookandde...
HEART Directors' Commentary on Soundcloud: / heart-directors-commen...
Dungeon Craft: / @dungeoncraft1
Independent TTRPG Month: • July is Independent TT...
OTHER INDIE TTRPGs THAT DESERVE SOME LOVE:
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Fiasco: bullypulpitgam...
Jiangshi: Blood in the Banquet Hall: www.gameandacu...
My Life With Master: halfmeme.com/ma...
Velvet Generation: www.nobleknigh...

[@isaacalien]

I actually own a copy of Heart a purchase that was driven partly by seeing it as set dressing in your videos, and I have to admit I struggled with it. I didn't (don't) understand or connect with the bizarreness of the Heart or what society is doing down there, and I stopped reading before finishing the book, going from what I can see I'm a little under halfway. What this video has inspired me to do is to finally finish reading it so I can process the whole thing and figure out the reasoning

[@UnsCaraLi]

Hi! Can you explain what "10: Critical success (increase outgoing stress dice by 1 step)" means on rolling for normal actions? Im not an english speaker and this definition isnt making sense to me

[@quantumperception]

Lol, not only does this sound up my alley, it unfortunately sounds a LOT like a game that I was building. Thankfully, I think there is enough difference to make me resist scrapping it altogether, but there are a lot of similarities that we seemed to have come up with independently; I guess we liked similar characteristics from older games. A bit disappointing that it is SO similar, but I guess it is a good thing, because since I first someone mention this in a design video and looked it up, I have nothing but people singing its praises, so hopefully that means that there will also be an audience for my game when I finish!

[@cinemabaroque]

Just do your own thing and put it out! It'll be different enough to have its own standing. Best wishes for your project!

[@Rathammergames]

We actually played this in the channel, it was fun but complicated in terms of rewards and treasure.

[@ATeyken]

The dnd roll difficulty comparison is a bit misleading, -25% in dnd is not the same as 25% harder and could reduce the odds of succeeding to 0%, which would be harsher than Heart.. it's just two mechanically different systems. You can assist your friends in Heart, just like you can in DnD. (Each assisting player adds one d10 at the risk of them losing stress as well) I love how Heart has fewer but more impactful rolls that very rarely have the silly 'no outcome' you often get in dnd.

[@phdnd-drbowers]

This is a fair point, although I would maintain that, on average, disadvantage in 5e is not nearly as punishing as riskiness or dangerousness in Heart. In the former case, there are a hundred ways to cancel out the disadvantage by just using an ability that would grant advantage. In the latter case, there's no such fix. Thanks very much for the feedback! Best wishes, and cheers!

[@arsenikritchever501]

Great overview of the game. I ran a short campaign of The Heart and greatly enjoyed it. It's not everyone's jam (some might be put off by the themes or descriptions, some might be put off by the more loose approach to combat and exploration than some other dungeon delvers) but I found it to be very easy to run, really imaginative and unique, fairly easy to teach, and much more approachable than The Spire (which I also love but boy is Spire more difficult to explain and run).

[@CIFox]

Thank you for the heads-up on the link; I didn't know about the commentary, so I downloaded all of that. I just purchased Heart along with Spire (and, incidentally, a print on demand of the Stalker rpg heh). I hemmed and hawed about getting Heart when I shopping-carted Spire (which I had been looking at for some time), but I am glad I did, as I think I may like Heart better. Now I'll have to see if it can be fit into my already busy schedule =)

[@themaniacalmonotropa]

Ohhh! That sounds like such a fun system. Though…I feel like selling the idea that your character WILL die is going to be hard for many of my typical players. Still, I like the gritty style and the neat many types of different failures in place. I’ll put this on my wishlist for sure!

[@chases_squirrels]

I've had a copy of Heart (and Spire) for awhile now, and have wanted to run a game since I originally heard about it. It's pretty clear you need the right table, it has heavy themes. The "last hours of doomed protagonists" reminds me a lot of Ten Candles, though Heart seems to be intended to be a short campaign over a strictly one-shot.

[@akane-4751]

I’ve been looking for a new horror ttrpg after starting to get sick of call of cthulhu, one with an interesting stress system. This came in right in time and explained very well for someone who learns things visually. Love your videos Dr. Bowers!!

[@finnmchugh99]

Another gothic setting i love is the one from Steinhardt's Eldritch Hunt. It got theming from lovecraft, bloodborne, and other horror tropes... it may bot be out yet but the stuff looks cool especially the many eldritch moons like something straight out of Breath of the Wild.

[@sanjeevshah168]

I have this game! Very much like Torchbearer.

[@qaendelivery3636]

Super well explained, easy to follow and I feel almost familiar now with a game I haven't heard of until now

[@THEFabianValenzuela]

bump

[@msomma456]

Great overview, it was very helpful for my upcoming game

[@andrewfisher3609]

Brilliant summary of a difficult to explain game. Subbed.

[@dowellg100]

What a power: extracting debts from those around them!

[@JeremyHelm]

4:48 I guess it's some kind of kinesthetic analogy that I imagine this as like consuming a bread pudding whose inputs are not limited to breads.

[@JeremyHelm]

5:42 I'll suggest this here at our contains a personified city: Imajica by Clive Barker

[@Southgate1868]

I just found your channel, bout to run Ravenloft, but I love the look of spire and heart so excited to see you talking about them!

[@whiteycroon]

Thanks for this nice summary

[@qaendelivery3636]

New video oh boy oh boy!

[@plebula_9894]

One of the best tabletop games I’ve ever played

[@denexki]

I do like the sound of this game but I don't like how its system runs i like my generic stuff but I'd like to play a game where it carries this atmosphere but still have some semblance of pathfinder or icrpg.

[@wasaby123]

I loved this video - how perfectly explained and synthesized everything was

[@phdnd-drbowers]

Thank you so much! I plan to do a follow-up, which explains in more detail how to run a HEART campaign! Would that be interesting? Best wishes, and cheers!

[@sanjeevshah168]

Well done video man!