A Fantasy Survival Horror Tabletop Roleplaying Game
Coming Soon
Have you ever wanted to play a tabletop roleplaying game where you can carve out a home for yourself in a fallen world? Where you can build that home into a settlement that brings hope to a dark land? Where you explore the destroyed world, looking for what you can salvage while fighting for survival against evil, corruption, and those that would take everything for themselves?
Coming soon from InCharacter Games, Of Hearth & the Harrowing is a survival horror fantasy TTRPG where you take on the role of heroes in a dark, corrupted colonial era fantasy setting. You'll fight off the corrupted, rescue survivors, and try to build up your Hearth all while pushing back against the Harrowing as it tries to tear down what you have built.
About the Game
Inspired by the OSR movement, and based on the Basic Roleplaying Universal Game Engine by Chaosium, Inc., Of Hearth & the Harrowing is a sandbox style tabletop roleplaying game set in a Colonial Era fantasy survival horror setting.
It uses a D100 system that is easy to learn and understand but has depth and plenty of ways to expand. Popularized by games like Call of Cthulhu, Pendragon, and Runequest, characters in the basic roleplaying system are made up of more than just attributes and skills.
Once your character is created you have ultimate freedom to grow them however you want, with skills, attributes, persona, and powers all getting better as you use them, not based on a level or class.
Three Phases of Play
Run in three phases the game focuses play on the heroes' journeys into the wild (Adventuring Phase), the building of their settlement (the Hearth Phase), and their fight for survival (the Harrowing Phase).
During the Adventuring phase, the heroes will journey out in the wilds on an expedition with hex crawling mechanics with adventure sites for them to fight their way through. In the Hearth Phase the heroes return to their Hearth to advance their skills and powers, build up their settlement, and interact with their followers. In the Harrowing Phase they have to protect their Hearth from the corrupted who will try to claw back the gains the heroes and their Hearth have made.
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FAQ
Of Hearth & the Harrowing is a lighter version of BRP, but fully compatible with the full Basic Roleplaying rules. It uses Personalities and Passions, made popular by games like Pendragon. Groups wanting more rules and crunch can easily incorporate their favorite rules from the BRP ruleset.
The ORC License.
Like Basic Roleplaying: Universal Game Engine, we plan to release the rules under the ORC license. All rules in the core rulebook will be free for anyone to use and publish their own books with. Attribution would be lovely if you do so, but is not necessary.
You will also be able to write your own worlds or lands using targeting the Of Hearth & the Harrowing system.
The land of Eragion, our house setting will not be open licensed upon release, but if there is interest lets talk!
When it is ready.
Sorry, but we are deep in art and layout (playtesting is going great) so we do not have a firm date yet. It all depends on how fast the art comes together really. Don't worry, we want it out as much as you do!
Not yet.
It is awesome that you want to help, and we want your help! But we need to be a little further along in our internal playtesting before we give it out for external testers. Soon though.
Yes!
We have a Discord server. It is currently invite only, but you can grab an invite by signing up to our newsletter (see above).
About the Author
Jared Twing hails from the far flung suburbs of sunny Austin, Texas where he lives with his wife, child, and three less than sane felines. A video game designer and roleplaying game writer, he is always found running, playing, planning, or making games.
From RPGs to wargames to video games and board games, gaming is infused in most aspects of his life. Growing up an army brat, Jared used his love of games to connect with others around the world. He knew at an early age that gaming was his passion, but credits his family for the support and encouragement that has allowed him to turn his hobbies into his professions.
His credits include Call of Cthulhu: The Order of the Stone, and contributions to Imperium Maledictum: Voll Adventures, Imperium Maledictum: Inquisition Player’s Guide, Imperium Maledictum: Inquisition GM’s Guide, Dune: Masters of Dune, RuneQuest: Weapons & Equipment, RuneQuest: Starter Set, and many other to be published projects.
Published Credits
