The Heroics, Expeditions and Domains System

[TheDiceMustRoll]

Hello everyone, I wrote myself a tabletop rpg during quarantine, which is mostly just my houserules for Dungeon Crawl Classics and such. I mostly wrote it for my own use and to learn how to do little layouts and use affinity publisher, and the like. I quite enjoy H.E.D.S and my home game does too. It's not 100%, there's still a couple typos and I'm very smart and didn't finish the table of contents or add an index. I don't really need to, since it's not easy to get people to play your games.

If anyone wants to take a look at a weird take on the OSR, here's the link.

What's different about H.E.D.S?

- Tiered play: Play modern style Heroics campaigns, OSR Expeditions campaigns, or go full hog with the Domain campaigns, designed around a simple Domains system.
- Custom Classes: H.E.D.S features 82 class features you can mix and match to create unique PCs.

There's other things but it doesn't really matter. Tell me what you think!

 

[Bester]

Oh nice, let me read that....

[2 mins later]

Ohhhh, ho ho hoooooo. Should you also write down all their gender-related mental illnesses? And specify if character has a bluecheck on twitter?

 

[TheDiceMustRoll]

Gotta filter out the easily triggered somehow

 

[Stormcrowfleet]

Random comments for now:

• Editing and form is not bad actually! I prefer LaTeX formating, but this is good. Some spacing errors or words appearing twice (see p. 59 "Grail" for an example)
• Judge = approved (I use Referee myself)
• I can see a lot of the DCC influence (modifier numbers, luck stat, etc.). I'm personally not a fan of DCC, but that's on me.
• Chop till you Drop: Personally I'm not a fan of this rule even if I agree with the principles because, in my experience, it only makes combat round even slower and painfull (multiple rolls all done one after the other). I much prefer alternative where you roll everything at once, using either a spillover or a one shot mechanic on lower HD creatures. But that's personal.
• I can appreciate the effort into the classes even if I'm not into it.
• I'm actually going to steal your initiative dice. I personally use phased-combat from Chainmail where each side roll 1d6, but tagging it to the actions of the PC/NPC is awesome.
• I feel some rules are missing, especially with regards to dungeon/exploration procedures. How much do you feed the horses? Do all traps trigger each time? How do you run away from combat? etc.
• In general, I appreciate what you do because it gives player the chance of having different playstyle with the same core rules and possibly adventure. But personally I opted to divide those three types into tiers of power. I play like your Adventuring for level 1-4 (or whenever they go into dangerous dungeons), Heroics with a small warband from 4-8 and domain from 8-9+.
• For the domain, I feel some aspects are too nitty gritty (number of soldiers or exact amount of GP) while others are too broad. Have you playtested this? Was the response positive? Somtimes outside look on things are false, so I might be wrong.
• I like the domain ruler responsability. I also try to add "reasons for being there" for castles and fortification: it is because it's built on top of a previous dungeon/castle? because it protects a critical point? because there is a quarry nearby? etc. Also help with the construction of the fiction.

All and all there's good stuff. There is nothing I feel cringe worthy, somtimes it's just either a different perception or a different taste.

 

[Catacombs]

And specify if character has a bluecheck on twitter?

No Twitter in a Fantasy setting. What happened to muh immersion?

 

[TheDiceMustRoll]

Random comments for now:

• Editing and form is not bad actually! I prefer LaTeX formating, but this is good. Some spacing errors or words appearing twice (see p. 59 "Grail" for an example)
• Judge = approved (I use Referee myself)
• I can see a lot of the DCC influence (modifier numbers, luck stat, etc.). I'm personally not a fan of DCC, but that's on me.
• Chop till you Drop: Personally I'm not a fan of this rule even if I agree with the principles because, in my experience, it only makes combat round even slower and painfull (multiple rolls all done one after the other). I much prefer alternative where you roll everything at once, using either a spillover or a one shot mechanic on lower HD creatures. But that's personal.
• I can appreciate the effort into the classes even if I'm not into it.
• I'm actually going to steal your initiative dice. I personally use phased-combat from Chainmail where each side roll 1d6, but tagging it to the actions of the PC/NPC is awesome.
• I feel some rules are missing, especially with regards to dungeon/exploration procedures. How much do you feed the horses? Do all traps trigger each time? How do you run away from combat? etc.
• In general, I appreciate what you do because it gives player the chance of having different playstyle with the same core rules and possibly adventure. But personally I opted to divide those three types into tiers of power. I play like your Adventuring for level 1-4 (or whenever they go into dangerous dungeons), Heroics with a small warband from 4-8 and domain from 8-9+.
• For the domain, I feel some aspects are too nitty gritty (number of soldiers or exact amount of GP) while others are too broad. Have you playtested this? Was the response positive? Somtimes outside look on things are false, so I might be wrong.
• I like the domain ruler responsability. I also try to add "reasons for being there" for castles and fortification: it is because it's built on top of a previous dungeon/castle? because it protects a critical point? because there is a quarry nearby? etc. Also help with the construction of the fiction.

All and all there's good stuff. There is nothing I feel cringe worthy, somtimes it's just either a different perception or a different taste.

Chop till you Drop is a Dave arneson special, and it's also a rule in ACKS (cleave). It can be boring, but my table plays really fast. You generally need to tell warrior players that they absolutely 100% need to play quicker if they pick that class.
Thank you for stealing my initiative dice! I don't know if I invented it, but I liked the idea. It came from a player who pointed out that it's bullshit that four goblins roasting a kobold on a spit have an equal chance at initiative as four players who were sneaking around, etc. So I came up with this.

I sort of ad-hoc the shit out of all of those dungeon procedures. It's not what most players like, but it's OSR, so vague = best.
No issues with the tiers system! That's how it's supposed to be done, but if we're doing domains, I like to start them at level 1: you're the lord of X and it's your first day ascending to the crown.
I do need to test the domain rules more. I've only run a small handful of games with them.

But thank you for the feedback, it's been very helpful!