Burning Hearts Forever: Designer Eva Terra suggests some unlikely hearts to fight with

Burning Hearts Forever is an open setting tabletop RPG about those who wield Hearts: fate-bending emotion-powered extensions of their wielders – from giant mechs to electric guitars, to legendary swords.

Written by Eva Terra, the game will be published on Itch.io on the 18th. It’ll launch at $15, then rise to $20, and that’s good value for the 244-pages.

I asked Eva about the game;

Burning Hearts Works is a character driven game that works on the Apocalypse engine, with a focus on acquiring and using strings for benefits, with two main types of gameplay: One where you wield your Heart and one where you don’t. Characters also have a fluid stat called Pulse that represents how in sync they are with their Heart, and if falls too low their heart is broken.

Inspirations include character-driven anime like Revolutionary Girl Utena, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Revue Starlight, Evangelion, and visual novels like We Know The Devil and Heaven Will Be Mine.

Sample hearts

Intrigued by the range of potential “hearts”, I asked Eva for some more ideas.

A legendary sword as sharp as its wielder’s wit;
A magical girl’s scepter that protects her friends at her own expense;
A giant mech that burns as bright as its pilot’s bravery;
A racing motorcycle that drives forward by feeding on its pilot’s hopes and dreams;
An electric guitar that allows its user to shoot lightning while playing it;
A demon that reflects the user’s subconscious and darkest secrets;
A magic staff who has been passed down generation to generation, and with its power, enormous expectations as well;
A car made out of scrap metal. It’s not much faster than others, but it means the world to its owner

Previously, Eva had told me;

I think the origin of the idea of what a Heart is was when I was thinking about Heaven Will be Mine. It’s a visual novel about mech pilots in space, but their mechs are not just giant robots, they’re called ship-selves, and they’re meant to be an extension of their selves, a tool that they use to interact with others, to express their will.

Another example of Hearts could be things like Excalibur, a legendary sword with a will of its own. Or a racing car, or a racing *horse* like those in Jojo part 7. Speaking of Jojo a stand could also be a Heart. In the persona series each character has a persona that is an extension of themselves (except the protagonist, but that’s not the point), that is a Heart.

In Revue Starlight the actresses have weapons and transformation sequences, that is also a Heart. A magical girl’s magical form can be a Heart.

It’s a generic term meant to describe your “superpower”, but it can also be something mundane like a car. In tabletop RPG terms it’s like a signature weapon, or what allows you to use magic, it’s what makes you special, what makes you who you are. That’s why they’re called Hearts, because they’re important to the characters, it’s a part of them, like a limb or an organ, I mean, the heart is literally an organ, but your Heart, capitalized, is your medium to interact with the less mundane things of the narrative.