Heart campaign post-mortem

21 Oct, 2026

While it would be flavorful to say that this was a Heart: the City Beneath campaign I am playing after my demise - and I therefore am reporting it in Machadian fashion - it is only a collection of living thoughts regarding our game that ended this week, after around a year of monthly sessions. I'm going to try to focus on my experience as a player, but I couldn't help but think about the GMing experience as well, having read part of the book and having discussed with our GM some takes and comparing notes.

So, bullet list, main takeaways...

• Heart is very very very cool, like, the vibes are impeccable. It feels really unique while also being weirdly familiar if you've ever engaged with any macabre dark fantasy fleshy hellscape kind of scenario.¹ I knew I probably wouldn't be able to take it all into a dark, somber tone, so I chose to play a completely crazy Witch that would revel in the pain and the gore and I think it worked out well, even though I felt a little conflicted in moments where I would want to show some deeper emotion, but my character clearly just wanted to laugh and let loose. Towards the end, I kept thinking how I would like to play some other class in the future, I'm in a skeleton vibe recently and my thoughts linger on the Deadwalker.
  • Obvious addendum, using character abilities is always such a joy in this game. Everything is so full of weird and unpredictable consequences! I loved showing up to places and saying "oh my house made of meat had been here all along" and the Cleaver's guiding scarab was one of the silliest and most memorable moments of our games.
• As I mentioned before on this here blog, the main dice roll procedure of the game is just so juicy. Not only that, the fact that your capabilities are split into skills (things you're good at doing) and domains (things you know about) that can be combined² completely rewired my brain and I really want to design something around it.
• Our GM came from a more tactical-trad gaming culture, so they were very used to running tense situations and combat by shifting the spotlight in a turn-based manner. I'm not sure if they adjusted the creatures' resistances, but I wonder how that could have made enemies easier or harder.
• Zenith Beats are weird. The whole Calling/Beat system worked as intended, helping the GM prepare and the players guide the story quite neatly, but the final beats seemed to be a bit complicated. Having some players with Zenith Abilities while some others were still seeking their final Beat felt a bit confusing for me as a player, and if I was GMing I also don't think I could have handled it any differently.
• Inventory has some fun mechanics, but it took a while for me to really start engaging with them. I like how it uses the different dice sizes and encourages trading things, but I wish the starting items that characters get had mechanical info attached to them, to give a better head start in understanding how it all works. It was a bit weird having uhhh a mumified cat and a bone mandala that didn't really have die sizes, skills or tags attached to them, when that's part of the fun of having items in Heart.
• While I did read the starting chapters, I didn't read all the GM sections of the book. During play, it felt like a game that leads itself to a linear story, but from glancing at those GM chapters now, it seems like it wants to be more sandboxy...? We had some chats about it, but I'll probably read it all later and try to figure out what exactly Heart would want from me if I ran it.

Well, that's about it. Trying out a new system is always fun and the campaign lasted quite a while, even having a real ending - which is not something I've been able to say about most of my recent games. I think despite a lot of the rough edges (or maybe thanks to them?), I still feel very inclined to either run Heart or play it again. What a lovely, lovely game.

anb

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#heart #post-mortem