‘Heroic fantasy’ is the name I have given to… a story of action and adventure laid in a more or less imaginary world, where magic works and where modern science and technology have not yet been discovered. The setting may... be this Earth as it is conceived to have been long ago, or as it will be in the remote future, or it may be another planet or another dimension. Such a story combines the color and dash of the historical costume romance with the atavistic supernatural thrills of the weird, occult, or ghost story. When well done, it provides the purest fun of fiction of any kind. It is escape fiction wherein one escapes clear out of the real world into one where all men are strong, all women beautiful, all life adventurous, and all problems simple… - L. Sprague de Camp, in the Introduction to Conan (R.E. Howard)
J.R.R. Tolkien defines one end of heroic fantasy, Robert E. Howard defines the other. The two exist on the same genre spectrum, as it were, but still remain far removed from one another and distinct. The Demarcation of Sword and Sorcery (Joseph A. McCullough V)
The Heroic Fantasy Handbook is a rules supplement that brings the flavor of heroic fantasy to your favorite role-playing game. But what do we mean by “flavor of heroic fantasy”? What’s “heroic fantasy,” exactly? As the quotes above make clear, arguing about fantasy genres is of course a beloved pastime in our community, and we make no claim to offering the, or even a, definitive definition of genre. But for purposes of this book, we define “heroic fantasy” as what the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and Robert E. Howard have in common, once you remove what’s different.
Now these two great luminaries are usually considered opposites – Tolkien writing British literary high fantasy, Howard writing American pulp swords & sorcery – and in some ways, that’s true. But though they are opposites, they are opposite faces of the same coin; and that coin is what we call heroic fantasy. Tolkien and Howard have more in common with each other, and with the epics, sagas, and heroic elegies of the past, and with contemporary luminaries such as E.R. Burroughs, Clark Ashton Smith, and H.P. Lovecraft, than with many of their contemporary epigones.
What do these works have in common? They are set in a world like our own world, one that often is our world, in its distant past or far future. Their heroes, though men and women of extraordinary talent and drive, have none of the “super powers” that have become common in contemporary fantasy (especially games). They do not typically teleport, fly, shoot fire, or raise the dead. Magic in these works is more subtle and nuanced than in contemporary fantasy. It works with what is, rather than creating what is not. A magician cannot teleport straight to his friend’s distant castle, though his whispered dreams might reach his friend across the black gulfs of space. A magician will not fling magic missiles, but he might call down lightning from a storm, or capsize a boat with a wave. Working magic might require lengthy ceremonies, terrible sacrifices, or the power of primeval places. And those who use magic risk corruption. Even the wisest can lose their mind, body, and soul if they tamper with dark magic. That’s what we mean by heroic fantasy.
As amply demonstrated by Jeffro Johnson’s Appendix N: The Literary History of Dungeons & Dragons, the original fantasy role-playing was heavily influenced by writers such as Howard, Tolkien, Smith, and Burroughs. But contemporary editions of most d20-based RPGs draw more heavily on the tropes of contemporary fantasy, and the tropes of contemporary fantasy developed in a post-D&D world. Today’s fantasy games have drifted far from the original heroic fantasy foundations. The Heroic Fantasy Handbook cleaves away decades worth of accumulated tropes, assumptions, and expectations in order to unearth a more heroic way. It is a new supplement, but one born of old roots.
You must have a copy of Adventurer Conqueror King System (ACKS) or a similar D20-based fantasy role-playing game to use this supplement. The supplement is organized into the following parts:
Chapter 1, Introduction, details the purpose, inspiration, and sources for the Heroic Fantasy Handbook.
Chapter 2, Heroes, provides new rules for character generation and 17 new character classes to expand your Adventurer Conqueror King System campaigns, including the beastmaster, berserker, chosen, ecclesiastic, elven spellsinger, halfling bounder, halfling burglar, loremaster, Nobiran champion, Nobiran wizard, occultist, runemaster, Thrassian deathchanter, venturer, warmistress, Zaharan darklord, and Zaharan sorcerer.
Chapter 3, Heroic Deeds, adds new game mechanics designed to emulate heroic tropes such as the influence of fate, the impact of heroic funerals, and the influence of warrior codes.
Chapter 4, Heroic Adventuring, provides new rules for exploration and combat that add heroic flavor to key game activities.
Chapter 5, Heroic Magic, revised the entire magic system of the game, offering a new type of magic (eldritch magic), two new ways of performing magic (ceremonial magic and spellsinging), and over 155 new spells.
Chapter 6, Heroic Monsters, includes a dozen new monsters drawn from mythic, legendary, and literary inspirations.
Chapter 7, Heroic Treasure, updates the treasure tables in ACKS with new mundane and magical items with heroic flavor.
Chapter 8, Heroic Secrets, explains how the new races, classes, spells, and magic types of the Heroic Fantasy Handbook were created, so that Judges can use the ACKS toolkits to customize them to their taste.
To bring the flavor of heroic fantasy to your campaign worlds, we’ve jammed the Heroic Fantasy Handbook with more tasty treats than a halfling’s breakfast plate. But at Autarch, our motto is that “every campaign is a law unto itself,” so it’s up to you how you serve those morsels up.
Everything in the Heroic Fantasy Handbook is compatible with what’s come before in the ACKS product line, so you can easily use the Handbook as a sourcebook that expands your existing campaign’s selection of classes, spells, proficiencies, and items. Your players can simply select from the new classes and spells the same way that they select from the existing ones; there’s no mechanical reason to forbid having a loremaster, a mage, a cleric, and an ecclesiastic in a party if that’s what you and your players enjoy. Think of this as the “splatblook” method of using the Heroic Fantasy Handbook, reminiscent of modern sourcebooks for recent RPGs.
Where the Heroic Fantasy Handbook truly shines, however, is when it is used to launch a new campaign that embraces the tropes and traditions of heroic fantasy. You can use the Handbook to run a campaign inspired by an existing world, such as Hyboria or Middle Earth, or create your own heroic fantasy setting catered to your taste. Either way, we’ve offered suggestions for how to accomplish that – which classes to use and which to withdraw from use, what sort of treasure to place, and so on. We’ve also provided all of the information you need to customize and expand the material here – creating new eldritch spells, or new ceremonial classes.
The entire Heroic Fantasy Handbook is in a sense “optional rules” you can use or ignore depending on your preference. Here and there, however, we’ve specifically called out some rules as mutually-exclusive “Tolkienesque” and “Howardian” options. Despite what we said earlier about the unity of Howard and Tolkien, there are some distinct differences between them as well as between the other authors of pulp that were our primary inspiration. The Tolkienesque optional rules dial the game towards epic fantasy, with mythic creatures such as dwarves, elves, and goblins and a focus on a metaphysical struggle of good versus evil. The Howardian rules dial the game towards swords & sorcery, with Cthulhu-inspired cosmic horror and a focus on a material struggle between civilization and barbarism.
Occasionally we offer optional rules inspired by Lovecraft, Smith, and others as well. Gamers interested in a deeper exploration of the more “gonzo” aspects of sword & sorcery genre should be sure to check Barbarian Conquerors of Kanahu, a setting sourcebook for Adventurer Conqueror King System that adds weird monsters, ancient technology, dinosaurs, bugmen, and more.
However you decide to use the Heroic Fantasy Handbook we hope you find it a valuable and useful addition to your fantasy role-playing game campaign, and would be happy to see you join us at www.autarch.co to share your campaign, classes, spells, templates, and characters with our community.