Introduction

Heartlines: The Board Game is based on the Heartlines storyworld, and is intended to serve as a way to extend the folklore of that world.

How to Play / Setup

This is a one-player storytelling game, where the goal is to get from the starting tile to the ending tile on the map below. You may only progress to the finish tile once you have collected all three artifacts and at least 250 time-energy points.
You may choose to procure a piece of paper and pencil to keep track of your time-energy points.
Print out the maps, choose one and place the others upside down in a pile, then place a token on the Start tile. The decorated heart motif tiles represent where the three artifacts are. Keep your holding tiles in a pile next to the weapon cards.

Print out Keegan’s character sheet and place it to the side of the map. Place the individual heart pieces on top of their designated spots; you will take them away as you lose health later. Also fill in 0s for the dexterity (DEX) and constitution (CON) modifiers for now. The “1, 2, 3” boxes are for your convenience to check off the artifacts as you find them.

Print out the weapon cards and take out STARTING LAVA BLASTER and UNARMED STRIKE. These will go in the spot on the board. You can place the rest in a pile off to the side— you may or may not collect them as you progress.

Player Turn

To begin, turn to the Storybook section below and read the Start passage.

The player can move once per turn, to any tile next to it (forward, backward, side, etc.). Once you move off of a tile, place a holding tile on top of it to indicate you have already been there. You may not move back to a tile you have already stepped on.

Upon moving to a BLANK tile, roll a D12 and read the corresponding passage in the ‘Events’ section of the Storybook to determine what happens. For example, if the player rolls a 6, read passage 6 in the Storybook. If the player rolls a number for a passage they’ve already completed, choose to either reroll or complete it again.

Upon moving to an ARTIFACT tile, start from the first passage in the ‘Artifacts’ section of the Storybook to determine what happens. For the second artifact tile, you will read the second passage, and so on. You must collect all three artifacts and at least 250 time-energy points to unlock the FINISH tile.

Systems & Types of Events

Artifact tiles have their own symbol corresponding to the artifact type of event. The rest have a chance of occurring if you land on a blank tile. Additionally, TIME BLIPs occur asynchronously— please remember to keep track of these!