I’ve mentioned Dustin DePenning’s work on the Synthicide RPG and Heroic Dark in passing (here and here). His RPG creations speak to me and I’ve played in both a Synthicide campaign and a Heroic Dark playtest session at Gen Con. After reading Geek Native’s article about the Kickstarter for Heroic Dark core rules and a setting (Death Divers: A Heroic Dark Setting), I was inspired to set up this interview.
EGG EMBRY (EGG): Dustin, thank you for taking the time to talk with me about your latest Kickstarter. What are you crowdfunding?
DUSTIN DEPENNING (DUSTIN): I’m crowdfunding Death Divers: A Heroic Dark Setting. It’s a demons and carbines tabletop RPG inspired by the Expanse and Doom. The campaign funds will also go toward making a deluxe version of Heroic Dark, a free game engine I released an early version of last year.
EGG: This is for two books, the core rulebook and the setting. Let’s discuss the Heroic Dark Deluxe rule book first. What will it cover?
DUSTIN: This project will take the early edition of the game and finish/upgrade it. All the speed paintings inside will be turned into crisp full color artwork, and additional illustrations will be added. The core rules will get a slight tweak, and brand new campaign management rules will be introduced to help the GM craft a compelling story. There will also be new pre-written micro settings included in the deluxe book to help inspire your own campaigns of Heroic Dark.
EGG: How does the HD system work?
DUSTIN: You start off with a session zero where the GM and players build a game setting together piece by piece. You choose thematic elements and answer interesting questions, and in about thirty minutes you have a one of a kind game setting on the edge of oblivion. The players then use open-ended archetype rules to design custom characters, and the GM uses streamlined NPC rules and conflict planning to generate dangerous missions for those characters. Everything is tracked by a world health sheet where the players’ actions are measured to result in a thrilling conclusion: do the heroes save the day? Or does darkness reign supreme? As far as comparisons to other systems, Heroic Dark is inspired by the genre flexibility of games like Fate, but wants things harder on the players, situations to be more dangerous, and make failure a real possibility.
EGG: The other book that’s offered through this campaign is Death Divers. What does it cover?
DUSTIN: It details setting information for a campaign world that I made with my own Heroic Dark play group. Death Divers talks about a solar system where humanity depends on a rare metal found in another universe that is guarded by demons. But worse yet, those demons have found ways to attack us and come to our own universe and wreak havoc. But the big governments of Earth and Mars are downplaying the threat and not officially recognizing the conflict, so groups of retired mercenaries and concerned citizens are teaming up to protect the colonies. The book will have location and cultural detail for 9 main hubs of civilization (including Earth), PC backgrounds and starting builds, 27 short mission ideas to keep the players busy, tons of NPC mini-bios to weave into your stories, and much more.
EGG: The campaign offers both books bundled together with PDF and POD options? Why does it make sense to offer both books as opposed to creating each one separately?
DUSTIN: I wanted to make a deluxe version of Heroic Dark, and also wanted to sell an awesome setting to play with it. Getting both together demonstrates what’s possible using the Heroic Dark system, as well as ensures you’ll have the best experience when playing Death Divers. The two books combined are a really good amount of content, so it just made sense to Kickstart them together rather than run two separate campaigns. And making tiers to buy them individually within the same campaign seemed too complicated. *shrugs*
EGG: At Gen Con 2019, a few of my friends including author, John McGuire, and I had the opportunity to play Heroic Dark with you. It was a good time and we appreciate you running the game. What’s evolved in the game since those sessions?
DUSTIN: Most of the work has been going into the Death Divers setting. However, there have been tweaks and new sub systems introduced to Heroic Dark that have not made it into the free version available now. For example, our very session at Gen Con inspired me to add a couple more options to the NPC creation process to give the GM more flexibility.
EGG: The Heroic Dark (Early Edition) is free at DriveThruRPG. What’s different between it and the Deluxe edition offered through this campaign?
DUSTIN: The deluxe version will have finished, full color art in place of all the monochrome speed paintings currently used, and will also have new art. Some more equipment examples will be added to help the GM stock their game worlds. NPC rules will have the tweaks mentioned. Two new GM subsystems will be added to spice up the drama in the game, called the “Nemesis” and “Catastrophe” systems. And there will be a minimum of three micro settings to further inspire groups to make their own settings using the Heroic Dark session zero rules.
EGG: Let’s switch to Will Power Games other RPG, Synthicide. First, for those that don’t know it, what is this game about?
DUSTIN: Synthicide is a tactical RPG about a dark future where humans have no rights and robots are worshipped like gods. Players take on the role of sharpers, which are interstellar criminals who go on heists or commit murder for meager pay. Everyone is being crushed under the bootheel of the Tharnaxist Church, a galaxy-spanning tech cult that places no value on human life. What little of society is outside the influence of the Church is divided among mega corporations, vicious pirates, and lowly street gangs.
EGG: Can we expect more Synthicide in the future?
DUSTIN: I’m working on a second edition of ARC (Actions Rule Codex), which is what Synthicide was built on. Like I did with Heroic Dark, I plan to release the ARC Second Edition in a free, early version with no official setting. We’ll see what happens with Synthicide after that! Synthicide, as it stands now, is a rather complete experience. I highly recommend it to fans of gritty sci fi and tactical combat RPGs.
EGG: Any other projects coming in the near future?
DUSTIN: I’m staying focused on Heroic Dark and Death Divers for now! I always have ideas, like other Heroic Dark setting books, or an expansion that lets you change the Heroic Dark story format to some other archetype than good vs. evil. But there are only so many hours in the day!
EGG: Thanks for talking with me. For fans interested in following you, what are the best links?
DUSTIN: The absolute best way to keep up with me is follow me on DriveThruRPG. You’ll get hit with announcements for deals of the day, or when I release a new product. You can also follow or back the Death Divers Kickstarter to get updates there! You can also follow my Twitter: @depenningdustin, though I post there less often.
Death Divers: A Heroic Dark Setting from Will Power Games
End Date: Tue, November 10 2020 10:52 AM EST.
“A Demons & Carbines TTRPG inspired by the Expanse and Doom.”
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