In this, our final standard episode of the Heart Directors' Commentary, we tackle the second half of the Adversaries chapter - from the Gnoll Incursion Team to the Legendaries - as well as blundering through the appendices.Intro/Outro Music:

Heart Director's Commentary Episode 15 - An Adverse(ary) Reaction Part 1

Jan 19th, 2021 34m 1s

We spent an absolute age making the adversaries in Heart - dangerous, pathetic, frantic creatures who are just doing their best to survive and maybe that means they kill and eat you. Learn about their design and where we got the ideas from (Gre

Heart Director's Commentary Episode 14 - I Can Show You The World (of Heart)

Jan 11th, 2021 1h 18m

Our longest episode yet deals with the world of the City Beneath - all the way from Derelictus down to the Heart Itself, and then beyond to the Eight Heavens.Interstitial music from Tabletop Audio.Intro/Outro Music: Fearless First by Kevin

Heart Director's Commentary Episode 13 - Delving Deeper Into Delving

Jan 5th, 2021 18m 2s

Just a short one this time - we take a look at delving and exploration in Heart, endorse correct mapping practices, and explain how we couldn't (and didn't!) write any delves in the book.Intro/Outro Music: Fearless First by Kevin MacLeodLink

Heart Director's Commentary Episode 12 - Advanced Dungeons And Dragging Yourself To Safety

Dec 23rd, 2020 56m 35s

In this episode, we go into the rules at length - difficulty, fallout, and equipment - talking about our evolution from Spire, the challenges in writing the right tragedies to befall your players, and how decent equipment is basically a win but

Heart Director's Commentary Episode 11 - Hex Appeal

Dec 14th, 2020 28m 35s

Witches are jam-packed with barely-controlled magic channeled through a magical blood disease that they picked up from scrubbing around in meat tunnels and grimy tooth chandeliers. We love 'em - and we struggled to make them work. Learn about

Heart Directors' Commentary Episode 10 - Vermissian You Already

Dec 14th, 2020 30m 23s

The Vermissian Knight was the first class we wrote for Heart, and it's undergone a lot of changes since then. If you're interested in how to develop your own train-armoured spelunkers, listen along!Music: Fearless First by Kevin MacLeodLink:

Heart Director's Commentary Episode 9 - Junk (Mage) In The Trunk (Mage)

Dec 7th, 2020 32m 32s

If the Incarnadine is Chris' class, then the Junk Mage is Grant's class. Frantic and terrified? Check. Emits gaseous MDMA in a crisis? Check. Stealing magic from beings so powerful they can't even be classified? Check. This episode also include

Heart Director's Commentary Episode 8 - The Incarnadine, A Spire Class That Snuck In

Dec 7th, 2020 25m 32s

We decided to give Chris full authority over a class, and if you ever wanted to see a picture of what he finds interesting, strap in for a protagonist riddled with self-loathing, guilt, debt and ready to flat-out murder anyone who so much as lo

Heart Director's Commentary Episode 7 - Heart Is Where The Hound Is

Nov 30th, 2020 23m 42s

Follow the evolution of this class that went from An Otherwise Unremarkable Ray Winstone in Wet Hell to The Most Obscure Kind of Warlock We Created In A Game All About Warlocks. And a soldier? And a cop. And a hunter? And a possession victim? A

Heart Director's Commentary Episode 6 - How Exactly Is The Moon Fecund, Grant

Nov 30th, 2020 19m 57s

The Moon Beneath is huge, ominous, pregnant somehow, and definitely real. Get some hot takes on religious schisms and how to make clerics interesting in this episode where we focus on the most religious of classes: the Heretic.Music: Fearless

Heart Director's Commentary Episode 5 - Oh, Bee Hive!

Nov 30th, 2020 17m 15s

Organs? Tired of 'em? To hell with organs - just have industrious hyperintelligent bees recreate them out of efficient, translucent wax. The Deep Apiarist is probably the most Heart-centric class in Heart, so strap in for some chat about how we

Heart Director's Commentary Episode 4 - Dead(walker) Reckoning

Nov 23rd, 2020 18m 36s

Deadwalkers died, but they got better; now a spectre follows them around, giving them a helping hand. Which is nice! We take a closer look at Deadwalkers in this episode and talk about how hard it is to write a class when you've already done th

Heart Director's Commentary Episode 3 - I Think You Should Cleave

Nov 23rd, 2020 27m 23s

Cleavers are tilting headlong towards the red wet heaven of Heart, filling their guts with delicious discoveries to grow ever more powerful. We take a closer look at the class that puts both the "body" and the "horror" into "body horror"Music

Heart Director's Commentary Episode 2 - Calling All Callings

Nov 16th, 2020 47m 29s

In this week's episode, we really get into callings - the reasons why delvers have decided to die in the chaotic meat dungeon beneath the earth, and not at home in bed or something.Music: Fearless First by Kevin MacLeodLink: https://incompet

Heart Director's Commentary Episode 1 - (Under) Groundwork

Nov 9th, 2020 52m 51s

Welcome to episode one (of many) of our Heart Director's Commentary podcast! Chris and Grant are doing a close read of a book that they just wrote, talking about the design decisions and limitations that lead them to end up with Heart: The City

STONEGRAVE Part 3: Unbound Actual Play

Oct 12th, 2020 34m 2s

STONEGRAVE is an exhibition session zero of Unbound where the creators and their game designer friends (Becky Annison, Keiron Gillen and Sharang Biswas) created characters, a world, and a campaign in a single session of play.In this final epi

STONEGRAVE Part 2: Unbound Actual Play

Oct 12th, 2020 33m

STONEGRAVE Part 1: Unbound Actual Play

Oct 12th, 2020 22m 38s

Episode 9 - Rowan, Rook & Decard

Dec 17th, 2018 42m 59s

Producer and genius Mary Hamilton, the third third of Rowan, Rook and Decard, joins us for an interview about what went into actually making a physical roleplaying rulebook exist in the world. Turns out it's quite complicated.

Episode 8 - Rumoured Goats Of Spire

Nov 20th, 2018 45m 9s

We enter the appendices, and ask: what's the deal with all the goats? We also interview Adrian Stone, our artist, on his visions for Spire and how he helped to define the setting.

Episode 7 - Our Glorious Lady

Nov 10th, 2018 1h 7m

In this episode, we delve into the (understandably long) Religion section, dealing with:- The creepy and insidious Ministry, who you work for- Proscribed faiths and the worship of Hallows- The wind-whipped, bone-strewn towers of New Heaven

Episode 6 - Train Hell

Nov 2nd, 2018 1h 17m

In this episode, we look into:- The glittering halls of High Society- The wet, sweltering mess of Low Society- The many different areas of the Occult domain, including the grand cursed train network known as the Vermissian

Episode 5 - Guns, Drugs and Money

Sep 7th, 2018 1h 1m

This episode, we examine:- Combat (all four pages of it)- The Academic districts, featuring details on demonology, the Infinite Library and the uplinked crystal-brain-surgery-practicing Brazacott Institute- The North Docks, obviously our fa

Episode 4 - Mass Transit Warlocks

Aug 17th, 2018 56m 44s

We round out the third and final part of the classes section in this episode, looking at the Midwife and Vermissian Sage classes and going over the Extra Advances.