Fantasy Heartbreak Workshop

Wasting time is a thing I do well. Prior to having kids I wasted time like a pro, not even managing to do the things I really wanted with my time (i.e. designing and playing RPGs).  Objects at rest tend to stay at rest. These days I have significantly less free time, but manage to pack a bunch more productivity into it.  Still not showing utmost productivity, but an improvement.  The problem now is not the amount of time, so much as other constraints (e.g. stringing small bits of free time into big chunks, the need to be home at night for child-care purposes, meshing free time with friends' schedules). Not so easy to schedule playing, but plenty of tinkering around with designing gets done.  Still, even designing takes some time when trying to piece together a full game from a lot of small pieces.  So, while Wyrms & Warrens/Crude Simulation Engine is still in the works, I've turned to Luigi Castellani's Dangers & Dweomers (official site w/download...

Since this is a place to collect and annotate the various projects I have in the works, and maybe give them some focus, now seems like a good time to actually outline what the cellars currently include. But first a little background as to where this stuff will be coming from: Old School D&D - I'd always liked the aesthetic of old school D&D related games,  for most of my life generally chalking it up to nostalgia and a love for low-brow fantasy art. Gamma World 4th Edition - (no, not Gamma World D&D 4th Ed., which is actually Gamma World's 7th Edition) is my favorite iteration of the post-apocalyptic genre, though several of the others have their moments (e.g. 7th Edition's two-background system). 3E - I liked a lot of things about how 3E and it's relatives cleaned up and standardized things.  Also my little freeloading communist* heart finds the open game movement a thing of joy. 4E - D&D 4th Edition may have a few interesting elements he...

For those of you who've stumbled across this blog somehow and aren't aware already, a "Fantasy Heartbreaker", is a home-brewed pen-and-paper role-playing game inspired by Dungeons & Dragons, but which tries to one-up the original in some regard.  The term is generally intended in a negative way, implying a wannabe game that fulfills certain whims of the author but is less playable than the game it is trying to ape. But it's always been my wont to repair things that don't need fixing.  And as the years go by the urge to really nail down the perfect gritty-yet-high-fantasy game only grows stronger within my breast.  Hence this blog. Fantasy Heartbreak Workshop is intended to contain musings, mechanics, and links to material I find inspirational.  Heck, one day it might even include examples of actual game play. And as certainly no man is an island (nor women neither from what I can tell), I'd ask that you please add your thoughts to the mix.