The Shatterheart Tabletop Roleplaying Game Beta Test is Launched

Hello everyone today is the launch, after nearly 18 months full time design and development, of the Shatterheart Tabletop Roleplaying game beta test.

2024 has been the year of the independent TTRPG. There are many good and interesting games. Shatterheart is designed to fill the niche of those that want a 'full fat' rpg suitable for long term play and with highly customisable characters. It fills the same space as D&D but is for those who have become disillusioned with the ampersand game. It is not that we are haters, it is just the progress on fixing fundamental game system issues has slowed or halted in the 2024 revision with excessive management caution over breaking backward compatibility.

If you want a system fully playable levels 12-20, where combat rounds take only a few minutes, where classes are balanced and customisable without power creep or subclass complexity them Shatterheart is for your.

Shatterheart is a D20 fork, but a fork from perhaps from five years in the future as it implements changes to game mechanics and math that are long overdue. It is much more radical redesign than for example Tales of the Valiant or Level Up. What marks the system out from for example Draw Steel (MCDM) or DC20 is that the system is fully developed, with advancement all the way to level 20. with all classes, lineages, spells and monsters. It is playable (playtestable rather) from day one. It keeps key concepts from D20 games such as roll over and Squish (hit) points - it is not designed to scare the horses) but in other regards is a long overdue cleansing of the game mechanics. For example it has only 4 attributes, BEEF, JOCK, GEEK and RIZZ. It also simplifies, everything is resolved through skills and everything else is an ability (no feats) class advancement is defined through acquisition of abilities.

Shatterheart is a tense game. Time tension is prevalent. To speed play there are no multiple attacks for players. You roll once per turn for everything (including saves) but as you become more powerful you score much more damage. Combat is asymmetrical and fast to make things easier for GMs. Running monsters is simplified compared to characters. They don't crit but they do hit much harder and powerful monsters will attack multiple times much like a party. Players to defeat monsters will need to keep out of the way and look for innovative tactics to look for weaknesses and go for a decisive blow. Shatterheart is not a game of slow attrition.

This is just the first video and post. Over the next few weeks many more will follow on the key game mechanics and character creation.