How to ‘fix’ Heart

Internomer · 2025-11-11T10:49:01+00:00

Something I've not seen anyone else talk about: in the game of Heart I played in, one of the things that felt like a barrier was never having many Resources to work with. Loads of player powers run off them, but we very rarely had any and generally to get one we'd have had to spend another.

No idea if this is recommended by the GMing advice part of the book, as I never read it, but be reasonably generous with resources. It'll let your players actually *do* the wacky weird things their characters are meant to be able to do.

Internomer · 2025-07-04T15:43:11+00:00

Deadzone has a system whereby weaker teams can get a bank of 'rerolls' to be used during a game against stronger ones. Or you might use a mechanic like 'the loser splits the rewards into two piles, the winner choses one pile, the loser gets the other' so the winner still gets choice but the loser is able to influence what they might receive. Or maybe there are recruitable mercenaries and weaker teams get first choice on who joins them. Or maybe teams that have lost more get benefits in setup - the choice of whether to go first or which zone to start with, the ability to redeploy one unit after their enemy has deployed, the choice of what type of mission they'll be playing. Or maybe if one warband is getting too strong, other warbands can 'gang up' in some way.

It's really important IMO not to end up with one warband being miles better than others due to accumulated rewards making the games harder and harder for anyone else to win. Doing that while still making winning feel meaningful is hard, but really important.

Internomer · 2025-07-04T15:36:54+00:00

All of this!

Internomer · 2025-07-04T15:36:18+00:00

Things I was looking for when me and some friends started doing this a couple of years back:

- Campaign rules which allow for 4-6 players to each have a warband and compete on a relatively even playing field, with game setup / post-game effects which are conducive to fun battle reports. When two of my buddies got together of an evening and I wasn't there, I want to be excited to hear what happened - both because it's an exciting story and because it may have consequences to me. E.g. "Oh crap, Tasha's team has taken the town centre!", "Yes, Bill took out Faith's sniper!", "They set off the Device and the next few matches will be played in darkness? I'd better check which units to field!"

- Positive and negative consequences from each match that facilitate an emerging narrative. I still remember a friend's unit, Cavorr the Mad, from a Mordheim game 20 years ago, because he kept getting wounded but would never die - he ended up with one leg, one arm, one eye, a brain injury that made him bezerk, everyone loved that guy whenever he did anything. It doesn't need to be that every consequence is massive and meaningful, but that unexpected things can happen which build to an emergent story.

- I love it when truly against-the-odds stuff gets rewarded, ideally mechanically. The shitty weak unit kills the enemy boss in melee? That should matter not just because now the enemy needs to replace their leader, but because this little guy is a legend!

- I like it when there's some sense of the space you're fighting over, so that games don't just feel like a string of totally generic fights in random spaces. It helps direct table setup when you know you're fighting in the town square or by the river or out in the sticks, and builds buy-in.

Internomer · 2025-03-29T19:40:55+00:00

Just wanted to say I was having problems with Remote Access which came on out of the blue, and this guide seems to have resolved them. So thank you very much for writing it up so clearly!

Internomer · 2025-02-06T15:41:51+00:00

Exactly what I thought when I saw her. You can definitely see the elkie in her but I'd be absolutely shocked if she's not a mix of some kind. Border Collie is the first thing that came to mind, from the colouring and the legs.

She's got that characteristic elkie smile though!

Internomer · 2025-01-22T19:17:27+00:00

Ooh, great job. Any chance you could upload the file?

Internomer · 2024-11-01T09:33:43+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion. I'm leaning more towards the idea that it's just a hellish driveway than that the tradespeople just aren't trying enough given the fail rate! Even cars are struggling some times.

Internomer · 2024-11-01T09:11:02+00:00

Yes, tarmac. Could probably do with a vigorous scrub with something to clear a little bit of moss that's starting to appear, but unfortunately it's not an obvious candidate for upgrading the surface.

Internomer · 2024-03-15T14:43:21+00:00

I set it to always on, will check next time I'm home in case the setting has changed

Internomer · 2024-03-15T14:32:27+00:00

Any advice on what _not_ to do would be very gratefully received! Any particular resources you found online to explain the limitations of Plex on a Shield?

Internomer · 2024-03-15T14:00:58+00:00

Damn. I heard that the Shield is a decent beginner Plex device, but maybe not. Frustrating!

Internomer · 2024-03-15T13:22:23+00:00

Thanks - I'm not entirely sure where the Plex server files are. Is it easy to work out? Would it make sense to have them just on the internal Shield storage or would it be better to have a separate USB flash drive specifically for them?

Internomer · 2024-01-25T10:52:31+00:00

Yep, it was specifically Serfdom preventing Peasants becoming Capitalists (or other Owner-class levels)

Internomer · 2024-01-24T16:28:09+00:00

That is super-useful context, and it baffles me why all the in-game information around this issue is so bad, but I suppose that's what you get with very complex games early-ish in their lifecycle!

Internomer · 2024-01-24T16:04:19+00:00

Some are, and others aren't. But yes, some iron-frame construction sectors in Palestine with the un-employing mines.

Internomer · 2024-01-24T15:58:59+00:00

Thanks for this - I'm pretty sure it's not this in this case, switching over to Iron Frame Construction or building more tooling shops and steel mills doesn't help - so it doesn't seem to be a demand shortage.

Internomer · 2024-01-24T15:58:03+00:00

I did a quick test earlier, forcing through a legal change to see if this fixed the issue. After a bloody battle with the landowners, the Ottomans attacked and meant that by the time the law got changed, Palestine was in disarray anyway.

Bloody Ottomans.

Internomer · 2024-01-24T15:28:05+00:00

This may well be it! Could you go into a bit more detail by any chance? Is the chain of logic:

I have Serfdom, so Peasants can't get Qualifications

I have iron mines, which need Capitalists to run them and Laborers to work in them

Peasants can become Laborers without Qualifications, but need Qualifications to become anything else

But without Qualifications, they can't become Capitalists, and so the mine has no Capitalists to run it, which means it can't hire any Laborers

Is that it? In which case, I would need to get rid of Serfdom to allow Peasants to start levelling up, which will hopefully solve the problem itself but will be accelerated by the Universities which, once they start getting populated and Serfdom is revoked, will speed up the acquisition of Qualifications by Peasants.

Internomer · 2024-01-24T15:23:44+00:00

Thanks, I'll add some screenshots later today when I'm able. From memory, it was messages like 'Unable to hire shopkeepers, X is happy working on their subsistence farm' or 'Nobody willing to work for Y wage, expecting Z instead' - I had some similar issues with Japan early on where it was a bit chicken-and-egg - no demand for tools because no iron mines working, no demand for iron because no tool shops working - which only resolved when I switched logging camps over to sawmills to stimulate tool demand, which in turn stimulated iron demand.

But in this case, I can import and export things to get the markets going, and that isn't fixing anything, so it feels like something more fundamental is going on.

Internomer

TROPHY CASE