Voidheart Symphony To Launch On Backerkit Crowdfunding
Stylishly kick monsters to death in the dark castle that sits behind your reality–and then make sure you and your friends can still make rent.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
The Backerkit crowdfunder for an overhauled edition of Voidheart Symphony launches on Tuesday 4th of March at 4pm UTC.
The Backerkit launch page can be found here; follow the project now to get updates.
The updated book contains gorgeous layout, expanded rules, new details on cosmology and a fresh playbook to enjoy.
Voidheart Symphony (or VHS) is a tabletop roleplaying game about resistance. Players take on the role of Rebels–folks on the margins of society - who have seen through the mystic truth of the world and witnessed the Castle, an interdimensional force that empowers those who seek dominance over others.
During the day, they’ll struggle to survive in a society that wants them dead (or at least gone) using a variant of Spire and Heart’s Resistance system. They’re ordinary people with ordinary problems: bills to pay, landlords to convince, chronic illness treatment and cultural pressure to fold themselves down into a more acceptable shape. There are no easy wins. Everything has a cost, whether it’s their health or their wallets or their minds.
At night, things are vastly different. Using an adapted Apocalypse World ruleset, Rebels infiltrate the Castle–a limitless interdimensional space funnelling power to the world’s worst people–and take the fight directly to the zeitgeist with high-flying, stylish combat. Bedecked in bad magic and loaded up on guns that can destroy demons, players cut a bloody swathe through the kyriarchy’s minions en route to a Vassal: the spiritual embodiment of someone in the real world who’s inflicting real, material harm on those around them.
Both these systems interlock around the lives of the characters and their allies, crafting a dynamic, adaptive world intended to surprise the players and keep them on their toes. With the Vassal dead, there’s power to be had–and the Rebels can claim it, siphoning hope from hopelessness, shaping their city into something worth fighting for.
ABOUT THE OVERHAULED EDITION
The core text of VHS remains intact–it’s the same game about juggling the down payments on your car with the fact that you turn into an eight-winged angel after bedtime and go kick monsters to death–but the benefits of six additional years of experience, some of the best editors in the business, and having the breathing room to create a beautiful book means without running out of money means that it’s better across the board.
Firstly, Minerva’s redoing the layout on every single page. She’s pushing in all sorts of gorgeous directions with the design, and we’ve been excited to let her loose on a book she wrote herself. You can see some of the new look in the PDF previews and in our updates on Backerkit.
Secondly, crack dev editor Melody Watson (who did Lancer, which is one of the more complex TTRPGs to be printed in recent memory) has rummaged around in the text and punched it up significantly. Her incredible attention to detail has made the game more robust, more readable, and easier to play for new and experienced players alike.
Similarly, veteran producer Chant Evans (Cubicle 7, Ex Stasis Press) is taking the helm, and he’s been championing Minerva’s design chops, giving her the space she needs to excel, and also doing a bunch of complicated budgeting maths with spreadsheets that, thankfully, those of us who write press releases don’t have to understand.
Thirdly, we’re adding in some new bits. As we said, it’s still the same game, but you can look forward to:
- Fresh details on the cosmology of VHS
- Revamped moves to handle the transition of power to the Rebels
- New cover art from Marie Enger, showing a grandma type banishing a demon
- Rules for rescuing people captured and held hostage by the castle.
- A new playbook? Maybe, if we hit the stretch goal!
- Mechanics for growing and empowering your Hideout (if we hit the stretch goal)!
You can go to the Backerkit Launch page right now and follow the project to be the first to know when it goes live. And when it does, come along to the Launch Party, which consists of Minerva and Grant Howitt (who’s writing this press release) vamping on camera for an hour and a half in an effort to make themselves sound clever and maybe sell some more books.
ASSETS
