A Warrior for my Monstrous Heartbreaker

And now I'll take my first real crack at creating a whole character using the uber-simplified Warrior class I wrote about a couple days ago.  He's a guy from Ravnica.

I really love the setting of Ravnica and am pretty happy that it was the first Magic: The Gathering plane to have an official splatbook printed for it.  It's a sprawling city covering the entire plane, infused with magepunk technology and perpetually caught in a struggle for power among ten guilds, each of which represents one MTG's two-color combinations.  The red/green "guild" is a loosely affiliated group of clans called the Gruul who largely oppose the trappings of civilization and often seek to preserve -- or, uh, reintroduce -- wild spaces on the plane.

Among these clans is the Ghor, who have been represented on a number of cards in various Magic sets...

And their leader is the fearsome ogre warleader Ruric Thar...

Today, though, I'm just looking at one particular Ghor-Clan Wrecker (updated image coming along at some point)...

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Sergiu Pijha

Warrior, Level 5

Wallpaper-style artwork taken from here

Human, 26 years old

Birthplace: Ravnica, Tenth District

Guild: Gruul Clans (Ghor)

STR     DEX     CON     INT     WIS     CHA
16 (+2)  11 (--)   13 (+1)   8 (-1)    6 (-1)    11 (--)

HP 30     Move 30 ft. (6 units)
Attack Bonuses: +8 melee, +6 ranged (additional +2 when attacking with chain weapons)
Additional notes: 2 attacks per round, +1 damage on all attacks, +1 AC

Proficiencies
Skills: Athletics, Intimidation, Survival
Talents: Metalworking
Languages: Common, Goblin
Saves: Strength, Constitution
Weapons: All simple and martial weapons
Armor: All armor, shields

Sergiu Pijha was born in the heart of Ravnica and began an apprenticeship as a metalworker in his early teens.  About a year in, a shady redevelopment project funded by the Orzhov Syndicate forced the closure of the metal shop where he worked.  He arrived home that day to find that his parents had been arrested and his family's apartment ransacked by members of the Boros Legion.  Those events planted a seed of distrust that eventually grew into total opposition to the corrupt set of systems that we refer to as civilization.

He likes breaking shit and hitting people with chains.

Slowly rolling out my fantasy heartbreaker: The Warrior

I've given enough lip service to the idea of creating my own fantasy heartbreaker on this blog that it's time I finally start to to officially chip away at it.  I don't want to go to my grave thinking, "One day I'll get the Monstrous Heartbreaker put together, and from that point on, I'll have my default RPG ruleset...!"  Heck, why not go to my grave with a copy of the Monstrous Heartbreaker in my hands??  And...did I just channel a prophecy?  (Anyone who reads this and sees me going to my grave, please take note of what's in my hands, just in case I've been a seer this whole time.  It'll be a bit late to capitalize on it, but cool nonetheless.)

Okay...I'm already off topic.

Hrm.

So, my fantasy heartbreaker...

No, this one isn't mine, but it's one of the first games designated as such (cover image from the Fifth Cycle Wikipedia page)

First, if you're unfamiliar with what I mean by that (and it is a fairly loose term), you might want to read this essay by Ron Edwards on The Forge.  I'm not sure if the term originated there, but I'm pretty certain that this specific essay is why the term is so widely used today.  Now...it's been a while since I've read anything substantial from that work, and I can't say for sure that I've ever actually read the whole thing.  I know that Ron Edwards is a bit of a divisive voice in the RPG hobby...but I also don't know if most manifestations of that divisiveness have been in the words of those for whom divisiveness is a key element of their presence in the community.  I guess that if you know any of the specifics I might be alluding to...cool, hopefully I'm making sense...but in general, I'm just saying that I'm not necessarily vouching for Edwards or any of his views.  But that term...fantasy heartbreaker.  It's a good one.  And while it's intended to be pejorative, I think it's time for all of us to claim it as a decidedly positive approach to the hobby.

To me, a fantasy heartbreaker is simply one individual's personally houseruled D&D.  It represents what its creator looks for in a fantasy RPG, and thus, to an extent, it represents its creator.  But it's also representative of that creator's specific takeaways from the meta-experience of D&D...the circumstances that have led to their likes, dislikes, and quirks.  It's about both the personality of the individual AND the ways in which they have been shaped by the community.  Is it innovative?  Maybe.  If its creator wants it to be.  But it doesn't NEED to be...D&D has been "good" from the moment it was created, and it's all about shaping it to individual tastes and needs at this point.  And so, by calling one's own take a fantasy heartbreaker, you're acknowledging that it's simultaneously a window into the soul of a single creator AND that it's not to be taken too seriously.  And personally...I like that.

I'll get into some of the details of what I want out of my own take in future posts.  For now, I'm just gonna start at the most basic point I can think of:  a fighting class.  The fighting class.  But not a fighter.  In the Monstrous Heartbreaker, it is...

Artwork for the MTG card Ghor-Clan Wrecker (taken from the wallpaper art at its Cards Realm page)

The Warrior

Hit Die: d10

Proficiencies
Armor: All armor, shields
Weapons: All simple and martial weapons
Saving Throws: Strength, Constitution
Skills: Athletics, Intimidation

What are your character’s interests and hobbies? What have they done with their life up until this point? Choose one additional Skill and one Talent to represent these.  (Talents basically work like Tools in 5E...I just think the term Tool is more limiting than it should be for what it represents...)

Equipment
Begin with a set of campaign-appropriate equipment (per DM).

Beginning Warrior Bonuses
At 1st level, you get a +1 Class Bonus to all attack and damage rolls.

Weapon Expertise
At 2nd level, you choose unarmed combat OR one class of weapon (e.g. Swords, Bows, Handguns) and gain Expertise with all attacks that fit that category. This provides an additional Expertise Bonus of +2 on all attack rolls. (This stacks with the Class Bonus.)

Self-Preservation
Starting at 3rd level, you become better at defending yourself in the heat of the action. You get a +1 Class Bonus to AC.

Ability Score Increase
When you reach 4th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1.

Extra Attack
Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.

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Hopefully I'll be back to stat out one or two class representatives before the week closes out...!

Meta Monday: Duel Masters

The Duel Masters franchise is one that I would honestly say I've been a fan of for a long time, but I've really never dug in very deep.  That may be slowly changing as it catches more and more of my attention as a decidedly meta take on a fantasy world.

It all started with a manga more than 20 years ago.  If the story I read was correct...and I'm remembering it correctly...creator Shigenobu Matsumoto was supposed to make a comic based on Magic: The Gathering.  The intention was for him to tell a story set among the fantastic planes of MTG.  What he delivered, though, was a tale of a young boy (Shobu) striving to become a Magic: The Gathering champion...

From Wikipedia

It wouldn't be until later in the series that the manga would lend its name to a completely new card game, clearly inspired by the mechanics and the five-color cosmology of MTG but operating as its own entity.  There's definitely a sort of MTG meets Yu-Gi-Oh! aura about it, and it seems to have been a pretty smart move by Wizards of the Coast.  (I realize that last statement doesn't get written very much in our hobby these days...)

From the Duel Masters Wiki

I was just observing from the sidelines as the game made its way to the States and gained a reasonable amount of popularity.  And when I saw that the second set was called "Evo-Crushinators of Doom," I could tell that there might be something interestingly self-aware about the property.  I would eventually pick up one of the GBA games, and Fr. Josh and I split a set of mega-discounted starter decks at Dragon Con one year.  (In fact, my favorite experience with the game itself is probably the time my friend John wanted to get in a lunchtime game of MTG at Georgia State, and while I found myself without a Magic deck, I did happen to have a Duel Masters deck on me.  John graciously allowed me to play the Duel Masters deck in a game of Magic...dividing combat values by 1000, of course...and it worked pretty darn well!)

While the game seems to still be going strong in Japan, it hasn't had an English release in almost 20 years.  There was an attempt to reboot/reinterpret it as Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters, but this didn't last very long.  And so, in 2025, there doesn't seem to be much of a push for the IP in North America.

Thankfully, the animated series is readily available via streaming, and the property's meta bona fides really come out in these episodes.  We eventually realize that as a Kaijudo Master in training (Kaijudo being "the way of the monster," the dueling that takes place between...duel masters), Shobu is actually capable of summoning creatures from their own realms into ours.  Before long, Shobu and his friends make their way into these fantastic worlds (referred to as "Civilizations" and bearing great similarity to the five colors of MTG).

It's also worth noting that the English dub of the anime takes the multiversal nature of the storyline to even another level, as the characters often seem to be aware that they are characters in an animated show.  And while I haven't watched a ton of it, what I've seen has been a lot of fun.  It's clear that the team localizing the show for North America really enjoyed what they were doing with it, as the dialogue is often a rapid-fire series of pop culture references, fourth wall acknowledgments, nods to genre clichés, and good old dad jokes.  It won't all land for everyone, but I'll admit that I have laughed out loud on more than one occasion (not full-bodied guffaws, but definitely audible chuckles...).

I really think I have to incorporate something along the lines of Duel Masters into the Monstrous Matters universe.  The idea of being connected to fantastic realms via a card game is just too cool to ignore for someone like me who, gaming-wise, might be a cardflopper at heart above all else.  I did write up a Card-caster class for OSR gaming way back when in connection with the Tenkar's Landing crowdsourced hexcrawl project...so maybe I need to dust that off and see if I can work it into something that will fit into my fantasy (monstrous) heartbreaker...

Oh man, I love that art by my bud J.R. Mounts...!

Geeky SKAturday: "Walls of Jericho" by the Melbourne Ska Orchestra

Hey hey, happy weekend everyone!  Just enough time to still make this a Geeky SKAturday...!

This is an awesome new song from the Melbourne Ska Orchestra...truly one of the most immediately striking new tunes I've heard this year...

The imagery of horns bringing down the walls of a city is pretty cool in the context of adventuring ska musicians.  There must be some sort of ability that horn sections among the Agents of SKA can use to topple a barrier.  I'm thinking it should probably be some sort of spell-like ability that can't be used without limits though...?  The capability for a few folks with trumpets and trombones to knock down any wall in their way seems too powerful, but I'm sure there's something there...

Geeky SKAturday: "The Shadow of Your Smile" by Larry McDonald and friends

Larry McDonald is a well-known and highly accomplished percussionist in the Jamaican music scene.  I've seen him sit in with the Slackers (one of my favorite ska bands) more than once, as well as performing with the modern iteration of the Jamaican ska band that really defined the genre, the Skatalites.  Hailing from Jamaica, McDonald has played with many of the greats that have defined the sound of the island nation where he was born (not to mention blues legend Taj Mahal) and should definitely be considered among their ranks himself (he is a member of the Jamaica Music Museum's Hall of Fame).  And...as he was born in 1937...I'll just say that I hope I can be as active and creative as he is when I'm in my 80s.  (If you're interested, you can go here for a great article about his journey.)

(86 years young here, from a 2023 Slackers show...)

When we saw him with the Skatalites, I found out there's another aspect of McDonald's musical pursuits: He sings!  And he's great at it.  Earlier this year, McDonald released a ska version of the song "The Shadow of Your Smile," taking the vocal lead himself.  Marching forward with the virtuosic backing of guitarist Natty Frenchy and saxophonist Zem Audu, the tune even has a cool video with some scenic shots around the city.  Check it out below!

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Now, to make this SKAturday truly Geeky, let me talk a little bit about how this applies to the Agents of SKA, the time-traveling, ska-sharing protectors of the ever-branching multiverse.  I figure there needs to be at least one "elder statesman" among the SKA crew, so I think I'll make one as a little tribute to Mr. McDonald. So, let's go with...Don Lawrence...he's been at this for a while and has unparalleled wisdom not just from the time he's spent living, but all of the times he's experienced as a SKA agent.

With McDonald's history of setting a rhythmic foundation for his musical colleagues, I could imagine Don Lawrence's character class might be some sort of support role.  However, Mr. McDonald's killer vocals have made me go in a different direction...at heart, Don Lawrence (like Haruto Suzuki) is a star and probably needs to have the Three Minute Hero class.

And...it looks like I haven't even shared the details of the Three Minute Hero class on the blog yet.  It's about time for me to start logging the classes I've been thinking about for my little Monstrous Heartbreaker and its compatible games and minigames...so that'll be a post for this week...!

Meta Monday: Psychedelic wizards, living on Earth-Prime, and the D&D Cartoon

Fr. Josh has continued to indulge me in working his way solo through my first Monstrous Matters campaign.  At some point I'll probably get it in my head that other people want to read details about my game sessions and write up some specifics, but until then, I'll just say that it's gotten a little weird.  Which I think is something most of us would like to be able to say about our fantasy RPGs, so I'll definitely take it.  Eh...what the heck...as a small example, the MM team (Josh's character "Fingers" Watson plus less experienced agent and son-of-a-Ghostbuster Bobby Flech) found some scrolls while exploring part of a dungeon.  I decided to just let these scrolls be randomly assigned from among the full range of traditional fantasy spells, and...well, one of them turned out to be a Wish scroll.  And then it got used when Fingers was on the brink of death, but not just to get healthy, but also to fulfill Fingers' childhood dream (seemingly nourished by a healthy helping of Dungeon Crawl Classics) to become a psychedelic wizard.

So, not only did they succeed at the first mission (encountering goblins in the mountains of western North Carolina and seeking out the story behind their actions), but Fingers is now known as Tape Deck the Something, and is finding his consciousness progressively merging with that of the millennia-old spellbook for which he is the latest in a long line of psychic hosts.

It's pretty fun.

Along with thinking about the role of the Monstrous Matters team lately, I've also been reflecting on how many of my favorite comic book moments have come from those most "meta" of ideas, the ones that fully embrace the inherent silliness of superhero worlds but also acknowledge the powerful space they occupy in the human psyche.  I'm thinking about stuff like when Julius Schwartz helped Barry Allen build a cosmic treadmill to get back to his own universe, or when the Fantastic Four met God, and he looked like Jack Kirby.  And, of course, there's the story in what might be the greatest single issue in comics history (IMHO), Grant Morrison's "The Coyote Gospel," in Animal Man #5.  (The art -- by Truog, Hazlewood, and Wood -- and that Brian Bolland cover are also pretty badass, but hopefully it isn't TOO unfair that I usually think of it as G-Mo's masterpiece...)

From the issue's page at the DC Database

All in all, I'm wondering if I should take the premise of the Monstrous Matters team a bit more in this...for lack of a better term, I'll use this one a second time, complete with quotation marks once again..."meta" direction.  There are a lot of implications tied up in this.  I think there's quite a bit that changes if the monsters that are finding their way to our world aren't just similar to the ones in our stories and imaginations, but are actually shaped by our stories and imaginations.  It's one of my favorite aspects of superhero comics...and I'm wondering how it could play out at the gaming table.

And so, each Meta Monday, I hope to explore this theme a little bit, or at the very least take a look at some examples of this metatextual approach to RPG-style fantasy.  It's entirely possible I'll never follow up with a second Meta Monday, but right now, I'm feeling it.  And there's probably nowhere better to start looking than at what is in some ways the root of it all: Dungeons & Dragons itself, and its well-known '80s cartoon.  Remember, those kids didn't just haphazardly stumble upon some interdimensional portal; they took a D&D carnival ride there.  And they met a mysterious mentor/observer who happened to speak English...and they ended up with abilities they were undoubtedly familiar with from the tabletop game.  Whoa.  Meta!

These Cards Are Demonic: A quick little game of diabolical summoning

My recent obsession with the new Pokémon TCG Pocket app has me thinking about trading card games a lot, and obviously the Pokémon game in particular.  Something that has interested me at times is the idea of taking an existing TCG and using cards for it to create and play an entirely different (yet functional) game.

Somehow, all of these thoughts swirled around in my head recently to convince me that the project I'm presenting here is a game that I needed to offer to the world.  It's inspired by this alternative-game concept and follows along with the the trope of kids at school with a handful of Pokémon cards but no real idea of how to play the game (this was definitely a thing, and I assume it still is), who just want to have an easy way for their monsters to battle each other.

And obviously, I couldn't call it "Pokémon," so it gained its theme from the once-prevalent and undoubtedly persistent belief that Pokémon cards were and are a way for children to channel demonic powers and summon the denizens of Hell.

So, here is v0.2666 of the rules for These Cards Are Demonic, a quick little game that can be played with just a few cards per player:

These Cards Are Demonic v0.2666 via Google Drive

You can't see its face in this picture, but it's really cute.

I'd love it if anyone among my friends and readers (which are pretty much the same) had a chance to look over these rules and share their thoughts with me!  I'm interested in hearing from folks both familiar and unfamiliar with the card game (and the franchise in general).  For some reason, I'd really like to spread the word on this one.  Something is compelling me...