Showing posts with label POD. Show all posts
Showing posts with label POD. Show all posts

Saturday, 17 June 2023

Monster Compendium Refresh

This Hero Kids Monster Compendium refresh has taken way longer than I hoped, but it's almost done. 

The Monster Compendium is increasing from ~130 monsters to almost 180 monsters!  This includes over 20 pieces of new and refreshed art, now in full color.

Hero Kids Monsters Contact Sheet

One thing for youse all, I'm redoing the Monster Stand-Ups PDF for printing, and I'm reducing the number of stand-ups on each page for the 'tougher' monsters, on the grounds that you should never need 8 tough monsters!  Let me know if this might be a problem. 

Monster Stand-Up Print Page


Saturday, 16 April 2022

Thursday, 1 August 2019

Hero Kids review round-up

What better time for a round-up of the latest Hero Kids reviews than... RIGHT NOW!


"This whole rule system is a perfect way to introduce younger children to tabletop RPGs. I have played 3 seperate sessions with my son and my nephews, and they absolutely love it. I forget the rules for damage sometimes, and railroading sometimes comes into play, but with younger kids it is best to keep the game moving on and Hero Kids provides a great way to do that.

Not only does this system have a great starting base with the Basement O' Rats adventure as well as several other follow-on modules, the author is allowing for a ton of additional content to be written and published as part of the Hero Kids label. Kudos for that! And the price just cannot be beat!

Another awesome perk of this is that you can go ahead and purchase the hardcopies if you want, but for me the digital works just fine. I just print what I need for the adventure, and keep the rest on my computer or tablet.

Overall, I love this system, and am currently using it to build a campaign for my son for when I return home. Highly recommended!!!"

How 'about this one:

"I genuinely like this better than expensive competitors like Mice and Mystics (and even HeroQuest). 

Paper minis enable Hero Kids to have a larger variety of creatures to encounter, and creatures of many different sizes. 

The stories in this are better (the prose is more concise), and the rules are cleaner. This means you get to play faster without spending much time in the rulebook. It's a game I like to bring to the table with kids."

More-ish:

"I'm afraid I've not played a roleplaying game for years, but my 9-year-old daughter found my old dice, asked me how they worked, and she was entralled with the idea—so I poked around the internet to see what there was nowadays and i settled on HERO KIDS. 

My two younger kids were hooked from the beginning of Basement o' Rats. My 11-year-old, initially disdainful, got interested and asked to join in—we had to contrive a way for her to join in partway through. 

The combat was exciting enough, and they got into it, but their favorite part was the side trip to the chamber with the pool, where they had to figure out how to extricate a small treasure chest from amidst magically frozen rats, without getting trapped and frozen themselves. I also decided the mushrooms there would be useful magical ingredients and were safe to eat, but made the characters glow blue the remainder of the adventure, which tickled the kids. 

In all, you've roped in three kids, 7 through 11, who had a blast with their first RPG and one dad who had a blast with them, and got to roll some serious dice for the first time in ages. I highly recommend the bundle for grownups whose professional life doesn't leave lots of time for creating—the adventures are a lifesaver."

Finally:

"This product as a whole, Hero Kids, is an amazing investment. 

My 5 year old son and I have played over ten times in the first few weeks of owning it. I love how imaginative he gets. My D&D group has a few dads and we got together to all play. Each adventure is unique and has many options to increase the replay factor

It's flexible enough that we can go rules lite and really let the story be the focus, or play it straight up and work on his math and counting! And the narration is wonderful, putting the kids as the heroes to do what the grown ups can't! 

I have recommended this product and all of its adventures and expansions to all of my friends with kids."

Friday, 2 June 2017

Hero Kids Fantasy Adventure Compendium

The Hero Kids print trilogy is (partially) complete!


The Hero Kids - Fantasy RPG and the Hero Kids - Monster Compendium print books are joined by the Hero Kids - Fantasy Adventure Compendium.


The Hero Kids - Fantasy Adventure Compendium includes seven classic Hero Kids adventures ideal for novice players.

Explore the wilds of the Brecken Vale in these adventures:
•  Basement O Rats
•  Curse of the Shadow Walkers
•  Escape from the Ghost Pirates
•  Wizard's Tower
•  Fire In Rivenshore
•  Yuletide Journey
•  Tomb of the Lost King

The adventure compendium contains print-specific versions of these seven Hero Kids adventures. This book does not contain printable maps or monster cards, which are available in the Hero Kids PDFs.


The DriveThruRPG: Hero Kids - Complete Fantasy PDF Bundle includes a 50% discount coupon for the softcover print version of Hero Kids - Fantasy RPG, Hero Kids - Fantasy Adventure Compendium and the Hero Kids - Monster Compendium (the coupon is emailed to you when you buy the bundle).

So if you want the whole lot (PDFs and print version of the rules), buy the bundle then use the coupon to buy the softcover print version of Hero Kids - Fantasy Adventure Compendium for half price!

You can get the Hero Kids - Fantasy Adventure Compendium here:
DriveThruRPG: Hero Kids - Fantasy Adventure Compendium

Grab the complete Hero Kids PDF bundle here:
DriveThruRPG: Hero Kids - Complete Fantasy PDF Bundle


Thursday, 29 September 2016

Monster Compendium 50% off in print!

Alrighty-then.  The new Hero Kids - Fantasy Expansion - Monster Compendium softcover book is DONE!  Here's proof:



Let's take a look inside:





Use this link for 50% off the softcover Hero Kids Monster Compendium:
Hero Kids - Fantasy Expansion - Monster Compendium

Friday, 1 July 2016

Hero Kids Print Book Version 2.0

I've just updated the print version of Hero Kids to 2.0 (and the PDFs for the core rules), so now is a great time to grab a copy of the Hero Kids print book:


The new edition includes:
• More monsters
• New Advanced Combat section
• New Role-Playing section

Over the next week I'm also updating the PDFs for all of the adventures to incorporate the latest monster cards.

If you're paying attention, you can use this link to get a 50% discount on the print book: Hero Kids - Fantasy RPG Softcover B&W Book

Saturday, 23 April 2016

Hero Kids pipeline...

People often come up to me in the street and ask, "Justin, what's next for Hero Kids?"

It's a great question, so here's a list of the things I'm working on:
•  Update all of PDFs to the new format monsters
•  Update the core Hero Kids PDF and print book
•  Write Reign of the Dragon
•  Create a Hero Kids monster compendium
•  Update the pirate monsters

Update the PDFs

I've been progressively updating all of the PDFs to reformat the monster standups into the new landscape format.  This horizontal format allows me to put more monster and hero stand-ups onto each page, more monsters cards fit on each page, and DMs don't need to cut the 'boss' monsters off the pages that include the monster cards.

Update the Core Rules

In the background I've been working on some minor updates and refinements to the core rules.  These updates include:
•  Expanded glossary to better define key game terms (such as 'engaged')
•  Added section on Equipment and Items
•  Added Advanced Combat section
•  A couple of new monsters, as explained below

I still have a few more bits to do:
•  Role-playing section with guidance for DMs
•  Update the print version

The hold-up with releasing the updated core rules is the print version.  I don't want the PDF to get out of sync with the print version so I need to update the print files and then get new proofs from DriveThru before I can release this updated version to the public.

Reign of the Dragon adventure

This is likely to be a premium adventure, and is taking a while...

Pirates

I recently received this comment over on DriveThruRPG:
"Are the skeleton archer, skeleton swordsman, and skeleton warrior supposed to have exactly the same stats and special abilities as their pirate counterparts?"

The answer is 'no'.

These are some of the very first monsters that I created for Hero Kids, and not even I realized they were identical!  So I've redesigned the pirates with a new bonus ability (Timid instead of Rattled):

Old:

New:

So these new pirates will be included in the updated core Hero Kids rules. There's also a couple of new pirates included:

The Pirate Recruiter amuses me... :-)

Monster Compendium

The monster compendium (maybe Hero Kids - Fantasy Expansion - Threats to the Brecken Vale) is where most of my efforts are going at the moment.  Before I started the compendium I had released about 40-50 monsters across all of the fantasy adventures.  For the compendium, I'm working towards over 100 monsters.

To achieve this, I've been working on all my unused unique monster artwork and my mannequin monsters.

The current mannequin monsters are usually the humanoids to which I can mix and match equipment and weapons to create variations of the base monster type.  This includes the goblins and skeletons, as well as these nefarious brigands:

I have a few unique monsters I haven't used yet, like this crone, wraith, and zombie:

I've also commissioned a bunch of new monsters from Eric Quigley, so here's a preview of these new baddies:


That feels like a lot of stuff.  So here's a sneak peek at the developing list of monsters for the compendium:

Phew!  That seems like a lot!

Sunday, 1 June 2014

Hero Kids review from Engaged Family Gaming...

Dustin Crewell from Engaged Family Gaming has just posted a review of Hero Kids:

Tabletop RPG Review: Hero Kids

Quotes:

"Like any good roleplaying game (RPG), there are plenty of supplements available: extra adventures, new characters, the ever-important loot, and even pets. Or, for those feeling adventurous themselves, you can create your own material, using the information that comes with the basic rulebook as a guide. This will likely come in handy later, as some kids may chew through the available pre-made missions faster than new ones come out."

"The most critical skill, though, is imagination and problem solving. Beginners can be guided and prompted, but there’s a good chance that parents will find themselves surprised by how fast kids pick up on this form of make-believe. As gameplay progresses, concepts like tactics and teamwork can be stressed, helping the young heroes face ever more difficult challenges."

"As with many independently published RPGs, Hero Kids does have some grammatical and spelling issues that you might need to watch out for."

Hmmm. I wish people would actually tell me what these errors are, 'cos I'd fix them! :-)

"For gamer parents wanting to introduce their kids to tabletop RPGs, at $6-$15 ($6 gets you a PDF rulebook, while $15 gets you a PDF rulebook, coloring pages, extra features & 9 pre-made adventures), Hero Kids is a fantastic stepping stone to future gaming."

"For non-gamers looking for a good outlet for their kids’ imagination, this system requires very little additional investment (just a couple of standard dice), and will give your kids hours of creative entertainment!"




Check out Hero Kids and its adventures at DriveThruRPG:

Hero Forge Games at DriveThruRPG

Tuesday, 29 April 2014

Hero Cards III - Heroes from out of town!

Hero Cards III - Heroes from out of town is now out on DriveThruRPG.


This expansion adds ten new heroes for your Hero Kids game:

•   Arbalest - The dwarf arbalest's powerful crossbow can shoot right through enemies
•   Blade Dancer - The scything blades of this dragon-kin can attack two enemies
•   Blade Dancer - With two blades, this drow blade dancer is a fearsome attacker
•   Brute (Male) - This unstoppable dragon-kin trades off armor for a heavy blade
•   Druid - This eld druid's magic allows her to entangle foes and protect herself from attack
•   Knight (Male) - This dwarf knight is dangerous with his shield and even more dangerous without it
•   Mancer - The halfling mancer's magic can topple enemies like leaves blown by the wind
•   Rogue (Female) - The halfling rogue's tiny frame deceives her enemies, to their surprise
•   Stonemaster - Dwarves are masters of stone, and this one uses magic to shape the world
•   Woodswalker - Raised in the forests, this elf is the master of the longbow

Get them here:
Hero Kids - Expansion - Hero Cards III



Check out Hero Kids and its adventures at DriveThruRPG:

Hero Forge Games at DriveThruRPG

Monday, 26 November 2012

Hero Kids print version out now!

The softcover print version of Hero Kids is now available from DriveThruRPG for a low-low price of $11.99 (this includes the PDF of the game and the introductory adventure Basement O Rats):

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/106605/Hero-Kids---Fantasy-RPG

The 6x9 inch softcover book is 72 pages and features the core rules, plus heroes, and a bunch of monsters.   But I know you're only here for the pictures:








Wednesday, 14 November 2012

Hero Kids print version underway...

I've been slaving away on the annoying process of converting Hero Kids to a POD (print on demand) version.

Tonight I submitted the converted files to OBS (One Book Shelf, which encompasses all of DriveThruRPG, etc) to be approved!


With any luck, there'll soon be a print version of Hero Kids available here:

DriveThruRPG: Hero Forge Games