A frankenstein amalgamation of my interests in furry characters and inspiration from Wanderhome, Humblewood, and all the animal books I read as a kid has been rattling in my head for years now. I’ve taken to calling the world “Hearth” and here are some ramblings about that.

Bas

With help from Stonebound.

The Old World

The sun grew angry and hostile. The herds died in empty riverbeds. We cast our fate to distant lands and left behind the cracked ground. A new world. A fresh start.

Stone

The stone of this land has been called sacred ever since your people were able to shelter in its caves at their arrival.

Legacies

Another human walks this land. They speak a different languages and are shorter and stronger than us. We have taken to calling them the “bearfolk”. Some of them tolerate us, trade with us, or even live with us. Others have decided we are no longer welcome here.

Communities

We live in communities called circles. These are groups ranging in size from a single families to around 40 individuals. Some powerful circles might include a cluster of groups over a range, up to 800 people. We trade (and sometimes feud) with other circles.

Leaders

Leadership is as varied as the people. Some communities are governed by the head of a powerful family. Or, they have a council of elders who make decisions and settle disputes. In others, the priests hold sway. For some, it is duels in the circle that decide.

Beliefs

Our gods are of the land. They take many shapes and forms: animals, beasts, to other aspects of the natural world. They make themselves known through manifestations and miracles. Some say they even secretly walk among us.

Defense

Supplies are too precious, and the lands are too sparsely populated, to support organized fighting forces. When a community is threatened, the people stand together to protect their own.

Mysticism

Magic courses through this land as the rivers flow through the hills. We call on mystics to divine the fortune of our newborns, or ask them to perform rituals to invoke a bountiful hunt. Others act out of fear against those who they suspect of having power.

Horrors

We are wary of dark forests and deep waterways, for monsters lurk in those places. In the depths of the long-night, when all is wreathed in darkness, only fools venture.

Quotes

1. “This is another beautiful thing about solo roleplaying: you have tremendous control over how you play, not just in the narrative of the adventure itself but in the meta aspect of what rules you use and how you use them.”
2. “How often you choose instead of roll is your choice as well. If you want to have more narrative control over your adventure you may choose frequently or always. If you want a game with more surprises you may choose rarely or never.”
3. “My advice is to listen to your gut and trust yourself. Open your mind, and don’t treat the prompt like it defines your interpretation. Instead, see the prompt for what it is: a starting point from which you can take your interpretation anywhere that’s fun and makes sense to you.”
4. “In the end, deciding what should be an active element in your adventure comes down to expectations and your own desires.”
5. “One way to tell whether your Question builds on the narrative or kills it is whether you’re interested in the outcome. Does the answer to the Question interest you, or are you only asking it because you feel like you have to?”

Fate Questions

1. Ask exciting and interesting questions.
   • Chaos Factor tunes up “Yes” responses, so focus questions on the content that makes the game more fun.
   • Chaos Factor is a track of “character control”, so phrase questions so your character must respond when they hear “yes”.
2. If it feels like cheating, it probably is.
3. But just ask the questions in the most natural way. Not every question follows the control/action order as expected, but on average they do. The kinds of questions you ask are self-regulating depending on character control.
4. The numbers can be read like ranges: 1-Exceptional Yes-Yes-No-Exceptional No
5. “Be careful not to fall into the trap of asking for more detail than you need. […] The goal is to gather just enough information to move things forward.”
   • The goal is at most 2, and at the very best 1!

Random Events

1. “Whatever Event Focus you roll is not meant to limit you; it’s simply meant to be a starting place that helps you interpret the final result.”
2. “The Positive or Negative Event can be something storyshifting and important, or it can be something minor, as long as you think it’s the most expected interpretation of your results.”
3. Don’t over do it, but feel free to say “I dunno” and drop a random event if its getting tiresome to include.

Scenes

1. “No matter what time frame you’re dealing with, the Scene is about something specific.”
2. “Let yourself be guided by your interests and the main action of the Scene. Your adventure should be a string of interesting Scenes, with each one leading to the next.”