I run a whole lot of tabletop RPGs, however on account of my buddies’ availability they’re usually one photographs. Whereas I’d like to have extra ongoing campaigns, this does permit me to pattern as many programs as potential with the instances we will discover. That stated, there may be one sport that I’ve been in a position to run a number of full-length campaigns of, and that’s Coronary heart: The Metropolis Beneath by Grant Howitt and Christopher Taylor. Its wonderful mixture of fiction-forward mechanics and fiendishly intelligent world constructing makes it my favourite RPG I’ve performed.
When writer Rowan Rook and Decard introduced they had been going to be publishing their first marketing campaign e-book for the system, I knew I’d be backing it instantly because the crowdfunding web page went stay. Now that the e-book, Dagger within the Coronary heart by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, is in my arms, I’m completely happy to say it’s an exquisite sourcebook with tons of potential for an exciting and private marketing campaign.
If you happen to haven’t heard of Coronary heart: The Metropolis Beneath, it’s a darkish fantasy sport about doomed adventurers delving into an ever-changing subterranean hellscape stuffed with twisted mutants and much more twisted denizens. It’s closely impressed by issues like Bloodborne, Annihilation, and Darkest Dungeon, and it options among the most original lessons I’ve ever seen, offering flavorful variations on basic tropes. Occultists full of bees, clergymen to the god of debt, and knights with armor constructed out of practice components are simply among the wild choices your gamers may have when creating characters.
The world and monsters of Coronary heart match the creativity of the lessons, providing you with loads to discover in your harmful quest. The titular Coronary heart lies on the core of the underground space you’re exploring, and it’s warping the needs of everybody there right into a nightmare panorama. As you journey, among the locations you’ll go by means of embrace remnants of a cursed practice community, a residing inn that consumes its guests, and a bazaar that sells bodily manifestations of reminiscences. Each location within the e-book is properly sketched out, instantly getting your inventive juices flowing. Studying by means of the bestiary is equally inspiring, that includes creatures with evocative names just like the Cult of Knives or Mirror Spiders. As a GM, it was straightforward to select a location and a monster and shortly brainstorm an journey for my gamers.
The engine that drives Coronary heart is the Beats system. Along with a category, every participant character additionally has a calling, which dictates the objectives of their character. Every calling has an inventory of Beats, that are objectives the character goes to be working in direction of. For instance, a personality with the journey calling might have a beat to kick somebody off a excessive constructing, whereas somebody with the penitent calling may have a beat to transform an NPC to your order’s trigger. When a personality completes a Beat, they’re allowed to take an development for his or her character that grants them new expertise or skills. The Beats permit the gamers to speak to the GM the kind of challenges they wish to see present up within the sport, then reward them for overcoming the problem. It makes for a really participant pushed marketing campaign, in the very best manner.
One other ingredient of your character that guides the motion is fallout. When characters fail rolls, they take stress to certainly one of 5 resistance tracks. These characterize other ways your characters are affected as they journey by means of hazard. Blood stress represents your primary bodily hurt, however you too can take provide stress as you expend sources, thoughts stress as you start to lose your sanity, fortune stress as luck turns towards you, or echo stress because the bizarre energies of the land start to remodel your physique. Every time you are taking stress, you make a fallout check. The extra stress you’ve, the extra probably you might be to get fallout, which is a mechanical and narrative consequence for the injury you took. Blood fallout may manifest as a damaged limb, whereas echo fallout may imply an odd flower grows out of your chest. It’s an exquisite push your luck system that provides pressure to each cube roll, and attention-grabbing penalties to each failure. Fallouts might be cleared by spending sources, however it may be simply as enjoyable to maintain a thematic fallout as it’s to heal your self.
Given how a lot the gamers drive the motion within the base sport, I used to be barely skeptical {that a} marketing campaign e-book could be useful, however the story it tells received me over. Dagger within the Coronary heart focuses a lot of the motion on the aftermath of the Vermissian catastrophe. At one level, excessive elves from the floor tried to create a trainline into the Coronary heart, and so they by chance tapped into the harmful energies that almost devastated town above. The seven chapters of this e-book set the gamers on a chase for the Delving Machine, a tool that was used within the Vermissian undertaking that’s nonetheless boring by means of the Coronary heart, warping all the things in its path. Every chapter has a collection of landmarks that the gamers can run by means of, all with totally different connections to the seek for the machine. Particular areas give you alternatives to drop extra lore about their quest and the varied individuals which have been sucked into its orbit all through the years.
So as to add complexity to the story, there are three foremost antagonists that can oppose your gamers. Every of them brings their very own taste and themes to the story: a spooky cult chief, a brutish arms seller, and a conniving excessive elf who was a part of the unique Vermissian undertaking. There’s nice recommendation about how you can introduce them into the marketing campaign and weave them into the story you’re telling, ultimately prioritizing certainly one of them for the ultimate chapter. They every have an inventory of objectives included, in addition to strikes they’ll make towards the participant, which helps provide you with inspiration if you’re caught on how greatest to make the most of the distinctive parts they convey to the desk. Brokers and allies of those enemies are additionally out there, offering some NPCs you possibly can drop into any location to assist them shut in on the participant.
To be able to deliver that very same participant pushed feeling to a marketing campaign like this, you’re additionally offered an inventory of Beats which can be related particularly with sure sections of the journey that every one gamers can select from. It’s an ideal approach to put together the gamers for the forms of issues they’ll be operating into throughout Dagger within the Coronary heart, whereas giving them the chance to inform the GM what components they’re most curious about. On the GM aspect, there’s additionally just a little worksheet you possibly can fill out about every participant that may assist maintain their objectives and motivations in line, permitting you to tailor the narrative to their needs. The occasions within the e-book particularly define a number of moments that are supposed to closely mirror the participant characters, which is such an ideal concept that helps make this prewritten marketing campaign nonetheless really feel deeply private.
Even should you didn’t wish to run the marketing campaign that’s outlined right here, Dagger within the Coronary heart comprises over forty new landmarks for gamers to go to, which is definitely worth the value of admission. One necessary factor I’ve at all times appreciated about Coronary heart is that it doesn’t overly dictate each little element about these areas, however as a substitute provides you necessary details that convey the vibe of the place whereas nonetheless leaving you room to make it your personal. For instance, there’s a landmark referred to as the Scabbery that lists a location referred to as the “Camp of the Bone-Needle Individuals.” It by no means says who the Bone-Needle Individuals are, however the title alone will get my neurons firing about how you can flesh them out. This may very well be irritating for some, however I like that there’s nonetheless house inside a preconceived world for me so as to add my very own aptitude as a storyteller.
Identical to the principle e-book, there’s additionally new creatures and NPCs so that you can unleash upon your gamers. These vary from body-snatching insect swarms to an adventurer on the lookout for a treatment to his personal immortality. Many characters or monsters have origins that tie immediately into the wake of the Delving Machine, however not a lot that they’d be unusable exterior the context of this particular marketing campaign. Whereas the variability right here isn’t fairly as sturdy as seen within the unique Coronary heart rulebook, there’s loads of nice new additions right here that may very well be helpful for any sport you’re operating on this setting.
Artwork was at all times a spotlight of the bottom sport, and I’m completely happy to say that the illustrations by Sar Cousins in Dagger within the Coronary heart stay as much as the excessive bar set by Felix Miall. The moody photographs deliver the horrors to life vividly, providing you with ample route for how you can current them to your gamers. I notably beloved the illustrations of the three adversaries, which effortlessly conveyed a lot character.
GMing video games might be intimidating, particularly when it’s a sport that could be new to your gamers, however Dagger within the Coronary heart concurrently outlines an exciting story whereas nonetheless providing you with room and steerage on how you can make it mirror your distinctive group. It’s a difficult stability to strike, however this e-book manages to information you thru the method with ease. It’s an exhilarating chase plagued by menacing antagonists, treacherous landmarks, and terrifying creatures that also stays deeply private to your social gathering. What extra may you need from a tabletop marketing campaign?
Dagger within the Coronary heart is on the market in hardback and PDF format from the Rowan Rook and Decard retailer.
