Shattered Heroes

A story game about powered people in a world that thinks it doesn't need them 

It is a world that looks just like ours on the surface. The same nations trade with one another and wage war on one another, the same corporations strive for a monopoly over the global economy, the same religions have waged ideological warfare over the hearts and souls of the masses...

But in the shadows there has always been another world, onethat the average person hasno idea about. Powerful figures have always made sure the masses are oblivious, but cracks in that facade are starting to show. 

In secure laboratories, scientists have dieveloped technologies that push the barriers of understanding and broken down the barriers between worlds. 

In hidden parts of the world, esoteric cults have awakened ancient gods and have brough forth demigod children who bear the power of their celetial ancestors.

In wood-panelled boardrooms, the remnants of ancient secret societies plot to retain ther power as their strangehold over the world crumbles away.

In dark sewers, mutated animals and the discarded remnants of humanity plot revenge against the surface dwellers and their decadence.

In secluded clearings, under the glowing of the full moon, and in hidden monasteries away from mundane eyes, eldritch orders of arcane mystics and gatheings of cryptds conduct the rituals they have enacted since the dawn of time.

Into this all, a new generation of heroes struggle to make sense of the world revealing itself. Yet for every ally they might find, there are a dozen more enemies with their own agendas for humanity and the world at large. Little is what it seems on the surface, and the deeper a hero digs, the stranger things become.  

This isn't a world of easy choices, nor is it a world where the morality exists in black and white, good and evil, law and chaos. It is a world in a delicate balance, where the decisions of a few key individuals can shape destiny from the shadows. It all depends who is willing to take a stand, and how much they're willing to sacrifice.

The stories of Shattered Heroes are the stories of small groups of empowered individuals who have seen beyond the veil that keeps the masses unaware of the truth. These aren't people who think they know the truth because they've listened to a rant on a social media platform, they're people who seen things that shouldn't be, and they've been changed because of it. Now they can choose to either hide away from the things they've learnt, or make changes of their own in a world that won't admit that it needs changing. 

Shattered Heroes is a multiform game desiged to be played in an episodic format by school students in half-hour lunch breaks, As a mutiform game, it adapts the way it is played according to the needs of the story...if you need fast systems that take a back seat to the drivig narrative, the game plays quickly with easy die rolls...if you need intricate strategy, the game can shift into a miniatures mode for detailed action sequences. As a game designed to tell complete stories in half hour lunch breaks, not only is the drama and investigation designed to be fast paced,but a combat scene can be often resolved in under fifteen minutes with everyone getting the opportunity to be a part of the action. 

The essence of the game derives from Freeform Universal by Peril Planet,and The Law by Vulpinoid Studios. It only uses standard six sided dice, requiring no more than four of them to play a game, along with a character sheet, a pencil and a few tokens. If you decide to play strategically, a gridded sheet of paper and a couple of figures (or even plastic army men) could help to set the stage... or you could go far more elaborate. The aim of the game is to suit the way you play.

The stories of Shattered Heroes are the stories of small groups of empowered individuals who have seen beyond the veil that keeps the masses unaware of the truth. These aren't people who think they know the truth because they've listened to a rant on a social media platform, they're people who seen things that shouldn't be, and they've been changed because of it. Now they can choose to either hide away from the things they've learnt, or make changes of their own in a world that won't admit that it needs changing.

Shattered Heroes is a multiform game desiged to be played in an episodic format by school students in half-hour lunch breaks, As a mutiform game, it adapts the way it is played according to the needs of the story...if you need fast systems that take a back seat to the drivig narrative, the game plays quickly with easy die rolls...if you need intricate strategy, the game can shift into a miniatures mode for detailed action sequences. As a game designed to tell complete stories in half hour lunch breaks, not only is the drama and investigation designed to be fast paced,but a combat scene can be often resolved in under fifteen minutes with everyone getting the opportunity tobe a part of the action. 

 

To make it easy for new players, the setting in a Shattered Heroes game is designed to be close to the real world so players don't have to learn chapters of new information about an exotic land. Instead, groups can play in their home cities, and players can just use the information they already know about the real world. 

Characters are described by four basic attributes (Physical, Social, Mental, and Paranormal) and a range of benefits that improve their rolls or provide advantages in specific situations. Their benefits and attributes come from four areas that progress through their lives, and give rough stereotypical descriptions of how the character fits into the world.

Heritage: This is what makes the character's genetic legacy. Were they born as a regular human, a genetic experiment, a descendent of gods or aliens, or some kind of mutant? 

Upbringing: This defines the type of culture and environment the character was raised in. Were they confined to a laboratory, a military training program, the wilderness away from regular folks, or did they live a regular suburban life?  

Occupation: This was (and probably still is) the character's first job when they begin their life of adventure. Are they a reporter, a lab assistant, an investigator, a retail employee, a street thug, or something else? The odds are that a character won't remain in this job for long, and there are many more options to choose from. 

Upgrade Source: This is the method that the character used to transcend their former life and become aware of the supernatural worldaround them. Maybe they were injected with a special serum, became enchanted when they held a magical weapon, were infected by an alien symbiote, awakened a level of mystic insight, or built a suit of powered armour. 

While these ideas start as stereotypes, they can be mized and matched intothousands of combinations, and serve as starting points to develop truly unique and individual characters. Power in the game also start as basic and small effects, but can be customised and improved in ways to make them suit the character and the story they are a part of.

Shattered Heroes is presented in a series of heavily illustrated 32 page booklets to reflect the comic bok medium that the tyocal story of super powered heroes deries from. This is the first of the booklets, and it serves as a general primer on how the hobby of roleplaying works, and specifically how the Shattered Heroes system can be used to tell a variety of story forms. These books will all have the same standard cost of $5, but will become available in themed sets at a discounted cost. 

The first few booklets in the sequence include:

• this core rule booklet
• a guide for narrators who plan to run stories for their players
• a selection of sample starting charracters and antagonists
• a character guide for players (and narrators) who want to make teir own characters
• a guide to developing characters and enhancing existing powers, and developing new ones
• a guide of equipment, tools and weapons
• a sample setting 

Some of the later planned booklets include:

• a guide to playing legendary heroes
• a guide to converting the system to a fantasy srtting
• supporting charaters for the players to meet on their travels
• story ideas
• other variant setting guides 

Each of the booklet in the Shattered Heroes game line has been developed and playtested by the Peel High School Gaming Club, in rural New South Wales, Australia. This club is a multicultural group with members of Indigenous Australian ancestry,as well as those from various European and Asian descent. All profits from the game are going into the gaming club, to encourage a new generation of game desigers, artists and and storyellers.

The entire Shattered Heroes system is designed to be modular and customisable, with players able to create their own ideas that remain balanced and fun in a variety of story contexts. To these ends it is written in plain language,explaining why certain rules are placed where they are, how they work with other rules in the game, and what has happened in the past when rules have been changed in different ways. There is no specific right or wrong way to play Shattered Heroes, but a year of regular playtesting with a range of students from an asortment of backgrouds has shown us that there different groups require the game to work in different ways, and sometimes a game needs to be modifiable for a wider groupof people to enjoy it. Rather than leaving players to sort things out on their own, the game provides examples of what has happened during the testing process, and how changes in the rules can be balanced out through good storytelling opportunities.

The resources of a few experienced teachers and game designers, and the enthusiasm of over thirty students, have provided us with a product we're proud of, and a game that has an amazing potential. We're glad we've finally got the opportunity to share it with the rest of the world.

Vulpinoid Studios hopes you have as much fun playing the game as we've had designing and testing it. 

All text in this core book written by Michael Wenman, with the text in remaining Shattered Heroes books written by Michael Wenman and the members of the Peel High School Gaming Club. All layout work and illustrations produced by Michael Wenman and Erin Gumiho, inspired by characters and events found in the sessions run by the gaming club.  Shattered Heroes is released under a creative commons license.