Apologies for missing a day of design work but I've learned not to push myself when I'm out of it. I'd rather come at this from a place where I can give it some focus rather than rote interpretation.
Alright, y'all know what it is- let's keep examining the Heroes By Hearthlight playbooks!
Berserker left me needing to redesign or create a new move for it, so I wanted to take a look at the last up close and personal class: The Fighter. Back when this was a joking parody, I think my friends and I had the most jokes about the Fighter. It almost feels like the appendix of D&D, hanging on from older editions despite being unnecessary.
Which isn't true- the appendix of D&D is the adventuring gear section.
This is a stolen observation, I don't quite recall from where. But the game long since stopped being about keeping track of this level of minutiae. Maybe the single greatest thing Dungeon World gave us was having Adventuring Gear be a number of uses and you can spend one to just have a basic piece of kit.
Okay, that rant doesn't belong here but let's be real- its the fighter. What is there to say?
The fighter has never been special or particular interesting. They are the jobbers of fantasy roleplay, here to show up and do the damn thing. Their only specialty is that they get a FUCK TON of feats. In 3E and Pathfinder, fighters gain a feat every single level. People may wonder why the basic human fighter is so popular- this is why. A human fighter gets 3 feats to start with, unlocking options others wouldn't have access to until 5th. And this is where Fighter get really fun. They are for people who love to make builds. You might think oh Fighters are simple so they are a beginner class and sure they can be. But they sing when piloted by freaks who spend their time learning all the feat trees and finding crazy combos. And even if you don't go for something hyper specific and brutal to make your DM cry, its very hard to fuck up a fighter- it's forgiving. On top of that, I'd talked about my friends joking about a band of 4 bards and they can all do different things. You could make a party of fighters who are all so disparate that there's no overlap. Get a two-handed maurader, a tank, an archer, and a duelist all doing their thing. Have one or two people learn use magic device and pick up a wand of cure light wounds and you don't even need a cleric.
This is a complete aside, but speaking of weird party builds. But back in Pathfinder we had some friends cancel and so it was just our gm, me, and one other player. We did some quick math and wanted the challenge so we made characters 2 levels higher than what was suggested for the module and made characters that could fit two roles and it fucking sang. Just the right level of difficulty- we had to make our characters knowing this prompt but it was a really fun experiment.
Alright, that's my second major aside- let's jump directly into the mechanics.
The Fighter's power is PROWESS, letting you spend a charge to resist a consequence from battle. If you spend two charges you negate a consequence. I really like this one still, as it makes the Fighter the best defensive unit in the game. You can either mitigate hits, negating level one harms- and as soon as you hit 2 charges you go into each mission knowing you can just ignore something. This game can get deadly when you are facing foes with a big differential in threat and this lets you just no-sell them.
Oh, fuck this is another aside but I'm gonna bring up a bit of GM advice.
The Wolverine Principle: When you have a character who is able to survive damage, they should become the character you throw the most harm at. Watch or read any X-men story and Logan gets fucked up way more than any other character because he can take it. The fighter is this for the GM, as soon as they take an upgrade to Prowess and can negate something they are signalling you to come at them. You can spend all your doom in one big move to deal level 5 harm, and it's fine because the Fighter can just survive it- even if you target someone else they can use the protect action then activate this and it makes them feel like the coolest motherfucker at the table. Enable your players spending their powers and for the fighter that means throwing them into peril!
BATTLE CRY let's you spend a charge of Prowess to assist every party member who can hear you. I really wanted to portray the fighter as an experienced fighter, any playbook can handle themselves in a scrap, but the fighter is the one who can survive warzones. This gives a quick boost to everyone around them and makes the fighter feel like a leader. But it also is spending charges that could be spend to defend. Once again these are are both great uses of Power where you need to think about how to use them.
DIEHARD let's you ignore all harm penalties when you push yourself and gain +1d to resist consequences of actions when you push yourself. And jesus, every Berserker is gonna multiclass into this one aren't they. Again, I really enjoy how much you can still have fun building characters in this game. Still, this is a fighter move because they are GOING to get fucked up and this let's them attempt still be useful even as they are bleeding out.
BACK TO BACK gives you +1d to resistance rolls if you are protecting someone, once again underlining the kind of play we want from fighters. It also gives them potency about gathering information about threats in the current situation. I like the idea of them being able to do recon and having a gather information move... But I think I need to phrase it better: When you gather information to ascertain threats for an upcoming adventure, you have potency. Threats is a term I like better here because it means the GM can throw them info about traps, hazards, or foes. It also feels different enough from the ranger's gathering info on weaknesses. If you have both in your party you could do a fun scene of those two working together to come up with a plan of attack.
INDOMITABLE and JUGGERNAUT are both gear related moves. The fighter always conjured to mind the image of link carrying all his gear or how Wayne Reynolds draws the Pathfinder iconics with belts laden with miscellaneous gear. Indomitable lets you destroy gear to aid yourself, you can shatter your shield to add +1d to a resistance roll in battle, or destroy your weapon to deal 1 harm to a nearby foe. Shields have always been strange in FitD games because they are gear and not armor, and I wanted to give Fighters another use for them. The weapon use is particularly fun to me because it doesn't require a roll- it's a great way to get that last bit of damage through. Juggernaut removes the negative tags fro carrying a heavy load and makes heavy armor cost one less. You also get +1d to charging through foes and obstacles while wearing armor. This unlocks the Fighter and lets them go for a heavy loadout without repercussion, keeping all their options open on the adventure. The bonus to charging through is circumstantial but I like it as a little cherry on top.
Damn, MAN-AT-ARMS, is also gear related. Any weapon you wield counts as fine and you get +1d to resist your gear being broken. Destroying weapons is a personal favorite consequence of mine, as well as being a reason why heavy vs light weapons matter, heavy weapons take more to shatter. Still, this is worth it just for making any weapon you wield fine, you just know how to fight. This includes your fists, but why be boring- go pick up a chair or a fan and beat someone up, channel your Jackie Chan. Great fighter move that again speaks to experience, but also is a good multiclass option for classes that don't get fine weapons as part of their gear- a Rogue assassin could have so much fun with this.
HONEST DAY'S LABOR is one of my favorite moves I made for the game. When you complete a long-term project you roll as though you indulged your vice, with no overindulge chance. I really like what this says about the fighter and giving them a chance to find peace by doing projects. My fighters have big dad energy. It's also one a lot of other classes can use, Wizards in particular can make use of it with their focus on spellcraft and ritual.
LAST STAND is the kind of move my friends would joke about being a "me" move. I try to pull back when designing games for a crowd like this, but I love my stories fatal. If you take fatal harm, you can take one last action at extreme effect before succumbing to your wounds. If you trigger this move you die- there is no getting out of it. I debated making this something where you can just automatically succeed but I love the tragedy of failing here. Still, this doesn't have to be an attack and extreme effect on other types of moves can shift the tides. Make an athletics check and charge the foe over a chasm with you. Look you rival in the eye and give on last charm check to sway them as you die on their blade. Hell, make a lore check and come to a last minute realization that you whisper to the party as you've figured out the Overlord's weakness in fighting them and it's too late for you but not for your friends. Go off.
Maybe the best feedback I've gotten from HbH is that people want to play the Fighter, they see it and it looks fun to them. I'm also really proud that is not just the Cutter from Blades in the Dark and has it's own identity. Comic recommendations could potentially be broad though. I wanna say Dungeon Meshi and Berserk also work well for fighter, Berserk's Golden Age in particular is focused on warfare in a very fighter way.
Dungeons & Dragons: Fell's Five - If you know me, you've heard me talk about this book. Before Honor Among Thieves, this was hands-down the best adaptation of D&D, and maybe still my favorite. This launched during 4E and is about a group of adventurers just falling from disaster to disaster and I love all of them. The only downside is the series got cancelled far too soon, still worth a read if you like this style of fiction... which, you're here aren't you?
!(Sigh, I'm never gonna learn about Adric's pirate past.)[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/757514626178089072/1143536132659871814/image.png]
Mouse Guard - Remember what I said about a party full of fighters? I grew up loving Redwall and Mouse Guard rekindled that love in my adult life. I think it's mostly known for the RPG nowadays and the comic pretty much died out beyond some anthologies. But I really recommend the first two volumes. The sense of scale is magnificent and when all the mice have are their blades- a snake or owl truly is as daunting as a dragon.
The Autumnlands - Fuck yeah, I get back some of my indie cred with a book I'm sure none of you have read. By Kurt "Astro City" Busiek, this absolutely gorgeous series is set in a magical world of animal folk. However, magic is dying and in the hopes of restoring it, their wizards perform a ritual to bring back The Champion. A hero who brought magic into the world and has become enshrouded in myth and legend. But when they do manage to grab someone from the past, they instead find themselves face to face with a human. Some sort of strange hairless ape with no magic to speak of. But the man can fucking fight. We only got a few volumes of this series but Busiek has announced he is working on it again.
I just have to show you some of the art from this series.
My favorite trick they do is everytime they get to the title page, they do a two-page spread with incredible art and written prose as though you were glimpsing into the pulp novels that the comics were based on.
