Rulebook

Hero Builder

A universal tabletop system that fits whatever you already play.

Version 1.03 · 96 pages · Tym Thatcher & Thomas J. Baker · read the whole thing free · character sheets, free

Digital edition $9.95

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Hero Builder is a universal system built to sit under the games you already run. Ninety-six pages, eleven chapters, and a character that is assembled rather than rolled and hoped for.

You build from abilities, hit points, defenses, size and bloodline — sharp of mind, swift of foot, or solid as rock. Mastery Points turn a thing your hero is good at into the thing they are known for.

Every page of it is free to read here, and always will be. What buying it gets you is the book itself: the PDF in your account for good, every future edition at no further cost, and the right to print your own copy for your own table.

It is also the licence for Hero Master, the tabletop being built on this system. Owning the book runs one campaign of your own there when it opens; a subscription lifts the limit.

What’s inside

Update log

New The Tools

The website grew the table. Hero Master is a virtual tabletop that knows these rules rather than a grid with the rules bolted on beside it: the Hearth for your character, the Forge for items, powers and creatures, the Library for everything you have made, and maps of your own to play across. The host is the Hero Master; everyone else joins from their own phone, signed in or not, and plays their own sheet. The book runs one campaign of your own, and every page of it stays free to read here.

v1.03 The Foundations

Encounters you can build to fit the party you actually have, and a difficulty scale that says what a hard check is. NPCs are gone: Hero Master Characters take their place, carrying CAMP — Characters Active Memory Points — so the people your heroes meet remember them. Factions replace good and evil. Flairs and Flaws arrive.

v1.02 Tridate

Three eight-sided dice become the system's spine, which flattens luck and lets abilities show. Movement starts at ten feet and grows with your stats, power range comes down from twelve to six, and maintenance becomes something a hero has to keep up with.

v1.01 The Armory

Weapons, armour and gear are crafted from materials rather than bought off a list. T.A.P.E. grades what a thing can take, time and hunger start to matter, hired hands can help you build, and an item can be pushed past what it was made to be — or given away.