2023 Anthony Earnshaw Prize Winner:
https://www.leeds-art.ac.uk/whats-happening/leeds-arts-university-news/anthony-earnshaw-prize-winners-2023
The world has ended.
Every single human being who has ever existed now live in the city of Tamag, in the afterlife. Life is not that different here. You wake up, go to work, serve your dark celestial and demonic overlords, and you suffer.
Or if you’re a demon, you follow the rules, make afterlife as hard as you can for humans
and hope that the same fate doesn’t befall you on the whims of your superiors.
and hope that the same fate doesn’t befall you on the whims of your superiors.
Two options lie in front of every human and demon:
Make your peace, build a life, take suffering in stride and try to be happy.
or,
Risk all, change all; slay the dark gods and take fate into your hands.
BLAST HEART is a Tabletop RPG inspired by Turkic mythology and the thought "What if the afterlife was just the continuation of daily life but with no way out?". The primary tenets behind the development of BLAST HEART are:
1. Simplicity
2. Visual Clarity
3. Ease of access
4. Understandability
5. Representation
Both the system and lore were developed by me according to these tenets, the same applies to the graphic design as well. Character artworks in the handbook were done by Morrigan Bashir.
The full rulebook and characters sheets are available for download in the downloads section.
Tamag artwork by Morrigan Bashir
SETTING
A blazing wind blows through the endless red rocks of ALTPLACE and patches of bright taxi-yellow grass shimmies along to its whim. It has a purpose; it is drawn to something. somewhere in this endless swathe of NOTHING.
On the opposite side of this infinity the BLOOD OCEAN washes the red-orange shores with forbidden wine.
And between these ever-opposing forces lies the city of TAMAG. A metropolis to dwarf all of humanity’s metropoli combined. All of the 107 billion souls who have ever lived reside here, under the thumb of our infernal overlords:
ERLIK, his children the 18 DARK DEITIES and the BILLIONS OF DEMONS under them.
The red sun rises from the horizon, from beyond the crimson ocean, painting Tamag in its red light. The light bounces from the seaside skyscrapers to reach the tenements on the outer districts.
The humans wake up, yet the demons never slept at all. People get ready - some content, some missing the privileges they enjoyed back when they were alive - to work to keep up the system that keeps their demonic overlords on top.
A bustle fills the streets, of people using the massive highways to reach their workplaces in other districts. Some going to their cubicles in Southside Merkez, as big as a coffin, some to the factories of Bacık and some to places distressful to even think about. Tamag has awakened once more.
SYSTEM
A game of BLAST HEART is played by a minimum of two people. The shaper and players. The shaper is responsible for setting the scene, imposing the rules and determining the stakes, as well as every character except the player characters. In turn, players are responsible for their characters, the actions, goals and desires of those characters, as well as following and preparing for sessions. There is no winning and losing; the goal is to tell a story.
A character’s strengths and weaknesses are determined by Temperaments and Action Proficiencies. Both Temperaments and Action Proficiencies are rated out of six. When a player attempts to perform an action, they combine the relevant temperament and action proficiencies, add up the scores and roll 2d6. The addition of the dice rolls and the player’s stats, in addition to other modifiers is the final roll.
Players can distribute points to Temperaments and Action Proficiencies in one of two ways. First method is to roll 5d6 and split the 3 highest and the 1 lowest among the Temperaments and roll 6d6 and split the 4 highest and the 1 lowest among the
Action Proficiencies.
Action Proficiencies.
The probability of the players succeeding in the actions they take are represented by Difficulty Ratings (DR). The shaper determines the difficulty rating of a task before
asking for a roll, and the player must meet or beat it.
asking for a roll, and the player must meet or beat it.
DR5 - MUNDANE
DR10 - SIMPLE
DR15 - STANDARD
DR20 - CHALLENGING
DR25 - DIFFICULT
DR30 – IMPOSSIBLE
DR10 - SIMPLE
DR15 - STANDARD
DR20 - CHALLENGING
DR25 - DIFFICULT
DR30 – IMPOSSIBLE
As denizens of Tamag are spirits, either already dead or undying, they can't die. Yet the physical manifestation of the spirit can dissolve when it takes a certain amount of damage. Until the body reforms, the spirit has no conscience and is pure energy. REVelations erase spirits from existence.
Spirit integrity represents a character’s hit points. When the spirit integrity of the character reaches zero, they dissipate and reform some time later. For the purposes of a campaign, that character is effectively dead.
Tamag artwork by Morrigan Bashir
ACTION PROFICIENCY
Action Proficiencies determine how skilled a character is at performing certain kinds of actions, whether physical or mental.
HANDLE represents how apt you are at finer control of your hands, as well as your ability to use devices, tools and some ranged weapons.
MOVE represents your motor skills. Running, jumping, climbing, as well as sneaking and muscle mobility (i.e. flexibility) are represented by move.
FIGHT represents your skill in combat situations. This includes hand to hand combat and using weapons including some ranged ones.
TALK represents your verbal skills. This includes your skill to lie, persuade, present and even sing. It can also be used for charisma rolls and to influence people.
THINK represents your mental processes. It can represent planning, focus and invention. It also represents memory and knowledge.
TEMPERAMENTS
Temperaments determine your character’s approach to situations. They are more about their mentality than their skills.
MENTALITY determines your mental aptitude and can be used for a careful or planned approach to physical tasks as well as verbal or mental dominance.
GUARD determines your resilience. It can be used to resist manipulation as well as defend against outside forces or protect something or someone.
AGILITY determines your wit and ability to think quickly and outside the box. It can be used for quick and dexterous movements, as well as ingenuity and thinking on your feet.
FORCE represents a head-on approach to situations. It signifies strength in physical tasks and stands for passion and will in the mental and emotional sense.
Character artworks by Morrigan Bashir
