An epic fantasy tabletop RPG about the larger-than-life legends and the mythical monsters that lived at the dawn of time!
HFA is a tabletop role-playing game about larger-than-life monsters and the dawn of civilization. HFA is the intersection between monstergirls, RPGs, and myth & legend. It will be delivered in color printed glory and instant PDF downloadability.
Heroines of the First Age is Powered by the Apocalypse, which focuses on the actions, reactions, and consequences of the things the players do in the game.
Inspirational Media: Utawarerumono, Nibelinglied, Maoyusha, Wintersun, The Epic of Gilgamesh, Monster Musume, Conan the Barbarian, Beowulf, Kobayashi chi no Maid Dragon, Black God’s Kiss, Everyday Life with Monstergirls, The Iliad, 12 Beast, Enuma Elish, Monstress, Myth, & Legend.
There are two main assumptions that Heroines of the First Age makes:
Monsters make up at least a portion of the civilized peoples in the world. The Player Characters are heroines and heroes drawn from these demi-humans. There may or may not be baseline humans, depending on how your group wants to roll.
This is the First Age. It is the dawn of civilization. People are just coming out of the forests and caves to create towns and agriculture. Grand armies are being assembled for the first time in history. The world is fresh, new, and exciting, and there’s so much of it that has never been explored before.
HFA is the kind of game where the GM and the players collaboratively construct the specifics of the game setting at the start of play. This is detailed at the very beginning, in the Genesis chapter. Of course, the group can also decide to let the GM handle creating the game, or you can use a pregenerated setting. We’ll be producing the Prophecy War for certain, but we hope to add even more pregenerated settings in our Stretch Goals, see below!
First, the group decides what the relationship between humans and demi-humans is, what the technology level is, and how magic works.
The group then goes on to describe what Power Pools are in play in their world. Power Pools are the metaphysical phenomenon that dictate the way the world works, what magic looks like, and what powers the gods might wield. But beware, Power Pools are far beyond the control of mortals; they are as treacherous as they are powerful. A number of Power Pools are provided for you to pick from, ranging from The Ink to the Everblood to the Restless Depths and the Screaming Sky.
Then the group has the opportunity to select a few gods or famous persons to populate the world with. Several names and titles are provided for inspiration, but it’s up to the group to decide what they mean and where they fit in their world.
Next, the group works out a rough outline of the map, what cultures and regions exist. Regions are given descriptors and environments, and culture are described with dogmas, creation myths, and prophecies.
After the world itself is made, players create their characters. Players use a table of attributes and descriptors to create Features such as Aquatic Body, Long Ceramic Antennae, or Metal Horns. There are also some “established races” which describe the features of certain famous types of monsters. As the players make their characters, the GM asks them questions about how they fit in the world, and uses that to establish further detail in the group’s lore.
Heroines of the First Age is Powered by the Apocalypse, which means it draws its mechanics and game design philosophy from the great Apocalypse World by Lumpley Games.
HFA divides the game rules between the players and the GM. The players do all the dice rolling, and the GM elaborates, narrates, and opposes the players’ actions. There are no turns in HFA, instead, the entire game progresses as a conversation, where each player’s action have consequences. When the player makes a mistake, the GM complicates the situation, then asks what the players do.
Most of the mechanics in HFA revolve around the things that the players can do. These are called Moves, and they’re usually self-contained actions that include a condition and three outcomes: Success, Tie, and Failure. Successes give the player what they want, possibly with a bonus. Ties give the player something useful, but not as good as a Success, and Failures sometimes give the player something, but always call for “Fate to Intervene,” which means that the GM makes one of their own Moves.
Player moves are separated into several groups. Basic Moves are things that anyone can do. Battle Moves revolve around physical and magical combat on a personal scale. War Movesallow players to control military units or their own characters on the battlefield. Social Movesallow characters special interactions with each other and NPCs.
Archetype Moves belong to one of several Archetypes:
We hope to be able to add more Archetypes. See our Stretch Goals for more info.
Special Power Moves represent the natural abilities of a particular monster-character/race. They include things like Biteshake, Poison, Transformation, and Evil Eye.
And then there are Tragic Flaws. Every character has a Tragic Flaw, and these moves allow players to either suppress or succumb to their flaw. Flaws are core to how characters in HFA get experience.
GM moves work differently than player moves. The GM’s moves don’t require dice rolls. Instead, they give the GM options for complicating the situation, raising the stakes, or intensifying the action.
As the players gain experience, they can use it to pay for upgrading their stats, buying new moves, increasing their wounds or willpower, or changing their Tragic Flaw.
To give you a taste of what HFA is about, we’re putting together a kind of campaign right here on Kickstarter. We’ll be writing and revealing more story and characters as we go, and at each stage, Your vote decides who prevails!
The Five Worlds have collided, nearly ending civilization before it could begin and throwing the people into chaos. Now the five worlds and their five separate Power Pools vie for control of unprecedented power.
Axolozug
Ethantar
Urach
Sasi
The Wastes
During the campaign, we’re planning a number of different types of short updates.
For the project itself, we use public Trello board to track our tasks. Get the latest news from @Voidpsiral on twitter. Help us spread the word about Heroines of the First Age!
Every social share helps! Last project, external referrers contributed almost 45% of our pledges! Even if you can’t pledge, share and like us to bring power to the Heroines of the First Age!
Want to talk monstergirls with us? Come hang out with us on Discord!
Note: To keep the core book from being delayed, we’ll be releasing certain bits of content in separate releases. You’ll still get what you pledge for, just be aware some parts will take longer to get to you than others. You can find a list of our planned releases at the end of the Campaign Goals.
We can make it happen. It’s not grand, but it’s something. The book will be in color, around 5×8 inches, with 20-30 illustrations and something like 100-115 pages depending on how we end up typesetting it and how much extra content ends up being funded.
At this level, we’ll also be producing the War of the Prophecy from all the Kickstarter updates and worldbuilding as a setting PDF.
We’ll add a new Creature Portfolio to the book for your GM to field against you. Legends await! When we unlock this goal, we’ll send out a poll to determine which we’ll do.
We’ve made it! Here’s the poll! Make sure to vote for which Creature Portfolio we should add to the book! Let’s aim for the next one!
We’ll get to spend a few hours more on each piece. This means each artwork will be more polished, professional, and beautiful! Viva la paint!
We’ll add a new Archetype to the book for you to use with your PCs. Take hold of untold glory! When we unlock this goal, we’ll send out a poll to determine which we’ll do.
We made it! Here’s the poll! Vote to pick which new Archetype will be added to HFA!
We’ll create a whole new setting and include it as a PDF. Monstergirls IN SPACE!
We’ll add a new Power Pool to the book for you to grapple with. Conflict rises! When we unlock this goal, we’ll send out a poll to determine which we’ll do.
Not only will we make 4-6 huge maps, but we’ll also include the textures, images, and tools used to make them, and maybe even tutorials! They’ll look something like this, but with more objects like trees and mountains:
3-5 fantasy fonts designed for HFA. Everyone gets em! They’ll probably come out later than the book to make sure that the core product gets delivered as fast as possible. They’ll look something like this:
We’ll create a whole new setting and include it as a PDF. Explore untold worlds! When we unlock this goal, we’ll send out a poll to determine which we’ll do.
Dice sets from Chessex, in Blue-Purple Gemini, with a custom engraving for the 6. Add a Pack of 6 to your pledge for $20! Simply increase your pledge beyond the base reward by $20.
Help us signal boost #HFARPG! Tweet the Kickstarter Short Link or #HFARPG!
When we hit one of the Social Goals, we’ll have a poll to decide which one of that type of thing we’ll do. The items will come from the lists above in Stretch Goals.
To make sure we get the core book out as fast as possible, we’re splitting non-core material into separate releases. This helps us manage the products and keep a good schedule. Obviously, the schedule is shorter if we don’t make all our stretch goals. You’ll also notice that things don’t happen in a linear way; that’s because our schedule has dependencies and resources that come and go. You can actually look at our plan here.
Here are the releases we have planned, and roughly when we think we might be done with that segment.
Here are the rewards that you can get. The heading includes the Pledge Level you’d get the reward at. In the description is the amount to add onto your pledge if you want that reward as an addon.
Availability: Some items are not available as Addons to your pledge, either because they’re included in most pledge levels, or because they’re limited in quantity.
Cost: The Addons are not worth the same amount as the Pledge Level that includes it for a few reasons: Pledge Levels include more than one thing, Addon costs include basic shipping in the US, and the prices have been rounded for easier math.
Demand: Some things are limited in availability so that we can focus on doing the job of making the book itself as awesome as possible. However, if demand is high enough, we may also add new levels at higher prices for popular limited rewards. Better to get in soon!
Be included in the Kickstarter Pantheon section of the book. Pick a name and get a random divine portfolio!
You can opt out if you want. This will be handled by survey at the end of the project.
This comes with all the character sheets and campaign sheets too, because we’re generous like that.
A PDF of the completed project, delivered via DriveThruRPG!
This comes with all the character sheets and campaign sheets too.
We’ll probably be using DriveThruRPG to distribute proofs for people to look over before we go to press as well, using the same system.
All Pregen Settings, Fiction, and additional content items in PDF!
You’ll receive the Prophecy War pregen setting and the fiction anthology in PDF form, as well as any Pregen Settings we unlock from Stretch Goals or Social Goals. This also includes the Pregen Maps and Monstergirl Fonts, if we manage to unlock those Stretch Goals.
Unlocked Archetypes, Creature Portfolios, and Power Pools will be added directly to the core book and will be in the PDF and Print versions.
A real live printed color book printed by DriveThruRPG!
All illustrations as transparent PNGs or matte JPGs!
This will include the final art from the book, and maybe some extra stuff if things get cut for space reasons, as well as any odds and ends we come up with, like chibis or useful Kickstarter art.
Your copy will be shipped to the author and signed, then sent to you!
Don’t assume you can read my handwriting. It’s why I type the books.
We’ll work with you to insert a character or idea of your choice into the book’s epigraphs!
These are short, like tweet-short, but they’re surprisingly evocative!
The World’s Greatest Screen by Hammerdog Games!
If you get this as an addon, you’ll probably want the Printed Inserts too.
6 illustrations and 6 chart pages for your GM screen!
Inserts for TWGS. 6 and 6 is more than TWGS can hold, so you can customize it to be your very own!
We’ll work with you to create a portrait of a character of your choice and include it in the book!
Chances are this will be a portrait, rather than a full-body character.
We’ll work with you to create a new Archetype and include it in the book!
Since people will play this, we’ll make sure that it fits with the game theme and doesn’t mess anything else up.
We’ll work with you to create a new character and add them into the War of the Prophecy, illustration and character sheet included! This only guarantees that your character will appear, not that they get any benefit against the other competitors.
Note: We reserve the right to revoke the character’s status in the final product if the pledge cannot be properly collected. Please make sure your information is current prior to the end of the campaign.
We’ll work with you to create a short story about a character of your choosing! It will be included with the PDF of the game.
This will start after the Kickstarter campaign, so don’t forget about it! The Fiction will end up a separate anthology from the core book, but will be sent to everyone who pledges for PDF and above. We’ll even send you a printed copy of the anthology, once the whole thing is done.
Our nearly 400 page flagship RPG in color hardcover!
The first anthology of Oubliette fiction!
Tales created during the Oubliette Second Edition Kickstarter Campaign.
The Multimode Tabletop Lovecraftian Horror boardgame!
The Anime & Manga RPG set in the faraway land of Kyokutou.
We’ll design, sculpt, and 3d print a statuette of the winner of the Prophecy War and send it to you!
Size, shape, and material will depend on which character wins the Prophecy War, but we’re aiming for about 6 inches tall. Here’s an example of what we used for pricing it out.
Your name. Included in the front of the book. As associate producer.
You’re an honorary member of the team. You’ll be invited to meetings, get to see the unfinished product early, and we’ll try to take into account any feedback you give us, as long as it makes the product better.
On our last project, we overscoped for what we had budget for, and the project went long. This time, we’re not doing that. For one, HFA is a less complex project than O2E was. Additionally, we don’t need near the amount of rules, the bestiary is a completely different format, and there’s no specific cannon lore to include.
With that reduction in complexity comes a reduction in time. And on top of that, we’ve got the book mostly nailed down already, we just need to get the art done, lay it out, edit it, test it some more, and ship it.
Finally, we’ve scoped our schedule for accomplishing ALL of our planned stretch goals, and on top of that, we’ll be releasing the products in discrete segments. The Core Book itself depends on very few of the stretch goals, so that will come out soon. Pregen Settings, Statuettes, Story Commissions, and Dice will be released at separate times, to make sure we get the Core Book out to people as early as possible.