Editing Fantasy Heartbreaker

A fantasy heartbreaker is what you get when an enthusiastic amateur who has only ever played [[D&D]] tries to design an RPG. Ask your GM, they probably have one. 

Once upon a time, those might get self-published and spend the next few years drifting towards the back of the game store's shelf, then the bargain bin. These days you'll find them on home-made ungoogleable websites, as unrated pdfs in online stores, and on [[Kickstarter]].

They unquestioningly copy D&D in most things, but add in a handful of original (or independently reinvented) mechanics and/or a very peculiar setting. It's seeing those nuggets of creativity buried in unsalvageable D&D-flavored shit that causes the heartbreak.

Term coined in 2002 by notorious [[Forgefag]] Ron Edwards.

==External Links==
*[http://www.indie-rpgs.com/articles/9/ Ron Edwards's original essay.]
*[http://www.indie-rpgs.com/articles/10/ A sequel essay.]

[[Category:Roleplaying]]