Ron Edwards' term for a type of fantasy game which he reviewed
in a series of two articles for The Forge. In the second
article, he clarified his criteria for the category:
- the imaginative content is "fantasy" using gaming, specifically D&D, as the inspirational text;
- the publishing context is independently produced as a labor of love, essentially competing directly with D&D in the marketplace;
- the rules design recapitulates either D&D or innovations made immediately after D&D, i.e. early 1980s.
The term "heartbreaker" is also more generally used to mean
"bad fantasy game that the author clearly loved" or "bad fantasy game that I wanted to love".
However, on The Forge the term generally refers to Ron's specific
category of games.
The fantasy heartbreakers from Ron's two articles are:
- Fifth Cycle - 1990, Shield Laminating, by Robert Bartels
- Hahlmabrea - 1991, Sutton Hoo Games, by Dan Fox
- Of Gods and Men - 1991, Non Sequitur Productions, by Jeffrey Konkol
- Darkurthe: Legends - 1993, Black Dragon Press, by Matthew Yaro and Colin Murcray
- Legendary Lives - 1993, Marquee Press, by Kathleen and Joe Williams
- Neverworld - 1996, Foreverworld Books, by Erin Laughlin
- Pelicar - 1996, Pharoah Games, by Lewis Nicolls
- Forge: Out of Chaos - 1998, Basement Games Unlimited, by Mike, Paul, and Mark Kibbe
- Dawnfire - 2000, Dawnfire Games/ Committed Comics, by Jason Marin
- Demon's Lair - 1997, Lasalion Games, by Dan Hensel, Al Seeger, Dave Schmitz, and Gino Holland
- Undiscovered - 2001, Eilfin Publishing, by Adam D. Theriault, Antonio Da Rosa, and Phillip Theriault
- Deathstalkers - 2001, Cutter's Guild, by Mike Whitehead
References: