In this, our final standard episode of the Heart Directors' Commentary, we tackle the second half of the Adversaries chapter - from the Gnoll Incursion Team to the Legendaries - as well as blundering through the appendices.Intro/Outro Music: Fearless First by Kevin MacLeodLink: incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3742-fearless-firstLicense: creativecommo…

We spent an absolute age making the adversaries in Heart - dangerous, pathetic, frantic creatures who are just doing their best to survive and maybe that means they kill and eat you. Learn about their design and where we got the ideas from (Greek mythology mainly) as we do the first half of the Adversaries chapter, all the way from Angels to Ghosts…

Our longest episode yet deals with the world of the City Beneath - all the way from Derelictus down to the Heart Itself, and then beyond to the Eight Heavens.Interstitial music from Tabletop Audio.Intro/Outro Music: Fearless First by Kevin MacLeodLink: incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3742-fearless-firstLicense: creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/…

Just a short one this time - we take a look at delving and exploration in Heart, endorse correct mapping practices, and explain how we couldn't (and didn't!) write any delves in the book.Intro/Outro Music: Fearless First by Kevin MacLeodLink: incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3742-fearless-firstLicense: creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/…

In this episode, we go into the rules at length - difficulty, fallout, and equipment - talking about our evolution from Spire, the challenges in writing the right tragedies to befall your players, and how decent equipment is basically a win button for the game that we forgot to tell anyone about.Interstitial music from Tabletop Audio.Intro/Outro Mu…

Witches are jam-packed with barely-controlled magic channeled through a magical blood disease that they picked up from scrubbing around in meat tunnels and grimy tooth chandeliers. We love 'em - and we struggled to make them work. Learn about the difficulties inherent in not killing your darlings in this, the final Class episode before we move on t…

The Vermissian Knight was the first class we wrote for Heart, and it's undergone a lot of changes since then. If you're interested in how to develop your own train-armoured spelunkers, listen along!Music: Fearless First by Kevin MacLeodLink: incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3742-fearless-firstLicense: creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/…

If the Incarnadine is Chris' class, then the Junk Mage is Grant's class. Frantic and terrified? Check. Emits gaseous MDMA in a crisis? Check. Stealing magic from beings so powerful they can't even be classified? Check. This episode also includes: playtesting a spellcasting character without any spells, which is the worst patron and why (it's the St…

We decided to give Chris full authority over a class, and if you ever wanted to see a picture of what he finds interesting, strap in for a protagonist riddled with self-loathing, guilt, debt and ready to flat-out murder anyone who so much as looks at them funny.Music: Fearless First by Kevin MacLeodLink: incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3742-fearless-…

Follow the evolution of this class that went from An Otherwise Unremarkable Ray Winstone in Wet Hell to The Most Obscure Kind of Warlock We Created In A Game All About Warlocks. And a soldier? And a cop. And a hunter? And a possession victim? Anyway. Music: Fearless First by Kevin MacLeodLink: incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3742-fearless-firstLicens…

The Moon Beneath is huge, ominous, pregnant somehow, and definitely real. Get some hot takes on religious schisms and how to make clerics interesting in this episode where we focus on the most religious of classes: the Heretic.Music: Fearless First by Kevin MacLeodLink: incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3742-fearless-firstLicense: creativecommons.org/l…

Organs? Tired of 'em? To hell with organs - just have industrious hyperintelligent bees recreate them out of efficient, translucent wax. The Deep Apiarist is probably the most Heart-centric class in Heart, so strap in for some chat about how we ripped the entire thing off from Annihilation and The Secret World.Music: Fearless First by Kevin MacLeod…

Deadwalkers died, but they got better; now a spectre follows them around, giving them a helping hand. Which is nice! We take a closer look at Deadwalkers in this episode and talk about how hard it is to write a class when you've already done their backstory but none of the mechanics.Music: Fearless First by Kevin MacLeodLink: incompetech.filmmusic.…

Cleavers are tilting headlong towards the red wet heaven of Heart, filling their guts with delicious discoveries to grow ever more powerful. We take a closer look at the class that puts both the "body" and the "horror" into "body horror"Music: Fearless First by Kevin MacLeodLink: incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3742-fearless-firstLicense: creativecom…

In this week's episode, we really get into callings - the reasons why delvers have decided to die in the chaotic meat dungeon beneath the earth, and not at home in bed or something.Music: Fearless First by Kevin MacLeodLink: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3742-fearless-firstLicense: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/…

Welcome to episode one (of many) of our Heart Director's Commentary podcast! Chris and Grant are doing a close read of a book that they just wrote, talking about the design decisions and limitations that lead them to end up with Heart: The City Beneath.In this week's episode, we talk about putting together the bare bones of the mechanics and the se…

STONEGRAVE is an exhibition session zero of Unbound where the creators and their game designer friends (Becky Annison, Keiron Gillen and Sharang Biswas) created characters, a world, and a campaign in a single session of play.In this final episode we round out the characters and world by choosing fates, twists and scars to make Stonegrave complete.…

STONEGRAVE is an exhibition session zero of Unbound where the creators and their game designer friends (Becky Annison, Keiron Gillen and Sharang Biswas) created characters, a world, and a campaign in a single session of play.In this episode, we start creating characters and pick out their Core, Roles, Traits and Foundations.…

STONEGRAVE is an exhibition session zero of Unbound where the creators and their game designer friends (Becky Annison, Keiron Gillen and Sharang Biswas) created characters, a world, and a campaign in a single session of play.In this episode, we use Touchstones to come up with the core concept of the city of Stonegrave.…

Producer and genius Mary Hamilton, the third third of Rowan, Rook and Decard, joins us for an interview about what went into actually making a physical roleplaying rulebook exist in the world. Turns out it's quite complicated.Von Rowan, Rook and Decard Audio

We enter the appendices, and ask: what's the deal with all the goats? We also interview Adrian Stone, our artist, on his visions for Spire and how he helped to define the setting.Von Rowan, Rook and Decard Audio

In this episode, we delve into the (understandably long) Religion section, dealing with:- The creepy and insidious Ministry, who you work for- Proscribed faiths and the worship of Hallows- The wind-whipped, bone-strewn towers of New Heaven- Pilgrim's Row, a multistorey high street for religions- The Solar Basilica, and the attached anti-Ministry pa…

In this episode, we look into:- The glittering halls of High Society- The wet, sweltering mess of Low Society- The many different areas of the Occult domain, including the grand cursed train network known as the VermissianVon Rowan, Rook and Decard Audio

This episode, we examine:- Combat (all four pages of it)- The Academic districts, featuring details on demonology, the Infinite Library and the uplinked crystal-brain-surgery-practicing Brazacott Institute- The North Docks, obviously our favourite district, with the gangster knights and their pub/knightly order-focused organisation structure- The B…

We round out the third and final part of the classes section in this episode, looking at the Midwife and Vermissian Sage classes and going over the Extra Advances.Von Rowan, Rook and Decard Audio

In this episode, we look at the following classes:- The fearsome Firebrand, who can transform into an idea- The beautiful Idol, bleeding-edge artist and occultist- The cocksure Knight, member of one of a hundred sacred orders that just so happen to be run out of pubs- The mysterious Lajhan, moon-priest of the drow, clinging on to what remains of th…

In this episode. we discuss:- The savvy Azurite, faithful to the god of gold, who can buy miracles for coin- The shadowy Bound, who wears their gods on their body and bound one into their blade- The bestial Carrion-Priest, devotees of Charnel, the hungry god of corpses and deathVon Rowan, Rook and Decard Audio

Join us for a monumentally in-depth look at our design process on Spire, our fantasy-punk game of dark elf rebellion in a mile-high, high elf-controlled city. In this episode, we cover everything from the start of the game up to the end of the Durance chapter, talking about our multiple rules revisions, the worldbuilding that led to the creation of…