Heartseeker: Traditional Adventure Game
A downloadable game
Welcome to Heartseeker, a complete fantasy adventure game on two sides of A4 paper. Whether you want to dive into haunted ruins as a dwarf warrior, walk the halls of cloud palaces as a catfolk wizard, or track monsters through an emerald forest as a ratkin pathfinder, this small ruleset packs a big punch.
The latest version has a new cover, neatened up rules and more content including gear lists, random encounter tables, more monsters, and bloodline qualities.
Inspired by games like OSE, Searchers of the Unknown and Holmes' blue book, Heartseeker has everything you need to play a classic fantasy campaign in just two pages. The game features:
- A simple d20 system
- Five classes and 7 bloodlines
- A simplified Vancian magic system
- All the rules needed to run a game
- A list of 19 monsters
- A creative commons license to create your own hacks
JOIN THE ADVENTURE CLUB
Join the Heartseeker Adventure Club to unlock new adventures and supplements for the game. By paying at least $2 for Heartseeker you will gain access to every new supplement forever in addition to exclusive members only content. If you've already paid then good news - you're in the club! You even get access to the private club house channel on the Discord where you'll get sneak peeks at upcoming projects.
JOIN THE DISCORD CHANNEL
Access the official Discord channel here: https://discord.gg/j6RpAcBu
ROCK OUT TO THE SOUNDTRACK
Find out more at https://write.as/heartseeker/
JOIN THE GAME JAM
Come create your own Heartseeker adventures, hacks and supplements in the Heartseeker Jam.
MAKE YOUR OWN HEARTSEEKER STUFF
Use the logo below on your own Heartseeker hacks, adventures, and whatnot.
WHAT THE FANS ARE SAYING
"This game is a case study in concise writing. So brilliant. I felt my imagination spark as I read it!" Boxman 214
"This is fabulous, runs great, is concise, and is laid out perfectly." Matt Jackson
"This is such a great game!" Manadawn Tabletop Games
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- Adventure Club: Magic Swords12 hours ago
- Quick patch1 day ago
- Heartseeker community news3 days ago
- New version of Heartseeker available!4 days ago
- Heartseeker SRD now availableJun 02, 2023
- Free character sheetSep 12, 2021
- Small ammo patchDec 01, 2020
- Small ammo patchDec 01, 2020
Comments
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I got this on DTRPG some years ago as part of my obsession with reading rules. I was looking for a game to run for two kids and my friend for the summer (I was leaning toward Maze Rats) and stumbled on this in my pdf collection . It hit the spot! We ran the first session last week and going again tonight using The Black Wyrm of Brandonsford. It's easy to run and the players grasped it right away. I like that it uses the whole polyhedral spectrum, because while d6 systems are great, they take work to convert B/X and OSR stuff into them, and if I am going to play "D&D", I like rolling all the dice. I dig this game and plan to use it with my nephews and to start a group in the fall of all new players.
Thanks so much and I'm glad you're getting some good use out of it. I've actually just updated it to a new version, so hopefully this gives you even more to play with.
What does forgetting spells entail? Are they lost for good? Sorry if this is a dumb question but I'd like to be certain.
No problem! It just means you can't use that spell until the next day
Oh, okay! Splendid. Thanks!
What is the mentioned Exclusive Content, and what price point was needed to obtain it? I purchased for the suggested $2.00.
Great, light weight system!
No response?
Apologies, I missed this. The exclusive content was just for the print edition. However, since you paid $2 you now have access to the Adventurer's Club.
Question about converting the B/X Bestiary for use with Heartseeker. AC seems straight forward, B/X uses Descending AC, this is Ascending so just subtract the B/X AC from 20 and call it a day (B/X Goblin is AC 6, you have AC 14 so this seems right)
Converting the Save line is what's throwing me off though. Using the B/X Goblin we have D14 W15 P16 B17 S18 (NH), whereas Heartseeker has P11 M8 A10 for its Goblin and I'm honestly not sure how to arrive at that.
Partially colored the character sheet and increased contrast for legibility, looks great printed 4 sheets to a page. Enjoy everyone.
Excellent game! I ran an old AD&D one-shot with it and new and old players loved it. Highly recommended!
Thanks so much. I'm glad everyone had fun!
it would be nice to make a Jam for this game
3 years later and a jam is now planned in!
Very tight writing, covers almost all my wants and questions. I kind of feel the mages are getting short shift but have to see how it works out in play. Will probably use a variant of this for a short campiagn I'm working on. I will post more when it happens.
This game is a case study in concise writing. So brilliant. I felt my imagination spark as I read it! So much so that I published my own RPG content for the first time ever. I made a supplement for Heartseeker adding Bard and Barbarian classes to the game. These classes can be found here.
This is fabulous, runs great, is concise, and is laid out perfectly. Thank you for sharing this excellent game!
Thanks Matt
Just created a Druid class for this amazing game and am working on two more supplements as my play group is about to start a Heartseeker campaign! Thanks for creating this system Scott!
https://manarampmatt.itch.io/heartseeker-druids-and-more-rules
out of curiosity, what fonts are used for Heartseeker. Thinking of making some supplements
The fonts are Essays173 (body) and Blackletter (title)
I’m trying to find Blackletter but can’t seem to find it online anywhere. Do you have a link to download it?
I found one close, but not quite right...
this is such a great game!
thank you!
For those who want a little more weapon diversity maybe give small/light weapons no modifier, medium weapons a +1, and large a +2.
Lovely idea
Nice looking mini-rpg, it's inspiring to me!
I have 2 questions:
First, have you thought of differentiating weapons somewhat more than looks and cost? I like that the class HD decides the damage, but I feel there is something lacking when comparing axes, swords, maces and staffs.
Second, what fonts are you using in the document? I like it/them!
Thanks!
So the weapons are somewhat different, and some of that comes out during roleplay.
The fonts are Essays173 (body) and Blackletter (title). I agree - I love them!
Great work! I find myself more gravitated toward class-less systems, however, your brief, open, and straightforward approach is a great way to handle them. Also, really digging the additions of the simplified bloodlines and monster stat blocks.
Thanks James, I'm glad you had fun and I appreciate you taking the time to comment. On deadliness, absolutely meant to be a feature rather than a bug. I borrowed a guideline from Searchers of the Unknown where it's unlikely that a PC will actually "die" but more likely be knocked unconscious or captured, which makes things a lot more forgiving.
Love it! Any suggestions for how much xp to reward for slaying monsters? I have always struggled with that.
Also there looks to be an extra "a" in "Unaarmed" under Weapons. Although this may refer to being armed with an "Una" which I am totes cool with.
Thanks for this. I've just updated the doc with xp values for these monsters. These are based on the BX system of xp to HD.
Awesome! Cheers for that. I hadn't seen that system before, it's quite handy.
This is actually good. I like it.
Thank you!
You are welcome.