Many people are Dungeons & Dragons, the original tabletop RPG game-line, but "Fantasy Heartbreaker" is not a term everyone will be familiar with. Many tabletop gamers are inspired to create their own RPGs out of a desire to refine the premise of D&D or create a distinct game systems. Some of these derived tabletop RPGs are colloquially referred to as Fantasy Heartbreakers by people in the tabletop community. So what exactly qualifies a game to fall under such a label?
Tabletop RPGs (and their computer RPG spin-offs) have been around for almost 40 years, and they've gone through lots of changes during that span. The original Dungeons & Dragons game devised by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson evolved into Basic D&D and Advanced D&D, then changed further over the course of its subsequent editions, now well into its fifth. RPGs that inspired franchises like The Elder Scrolls, such as RuneQuest and Rolemaster, introduced new fantasy world and gameplay mechanics to the tabletop RPG industry, while games like Traveller and Shadowrun told stories in wildly different settings from the classic western fantasy settings that D&D popularized.
Dungeons & Dragons still casts a long shadow over tabletop gaming subculture to this very day, particularly among game designers. There are game designers who want to design RPGs completely unlike D&D, and there are designers who want to make fantasy RPG systems with all the dungeon-crawling adventure they've come to love, but with new innovations around character classes, new takes on classic D&D character races, combat, skill checks, dice-rolling, and more - in short, "D&D, but better." Sometimes, though, these "daring new RPGs" don't quite live up to their own hype, or don't diverge as much from the restrictions of D&D as their developers think they do.
D&D Origins Of The Term "Fantasy Heartbreaker"
The term "Fantasy Heartbreaker" was first coined in an 2002 article by Ron Edwards on the indie RPG website D&D warrior/wizard/rogue/cleric class paradigm, the human/elf/dwarf race paradigm, etc.). Edwards called these games Fantasy Heartbreakers because they tried to sur D&D, but were made by designers who hadn't actually played non-D&D games and experienced the alternate shapes tabletop RPGs can take.
How D&D And The RPG Scene Changed Since "Fantasy Heartbreaker" Was Coined
Tabletop gaming has gone through a number of changes since Ron Edward wrote his Fantasy Heartbreakers article. The growth of the internet, for starters, has made it much easier for tabletop gamers to try out new game systems online via platforms such as Roll20 or Discord. The growth of the internet has also made it easier for tabletop RPG designers to publish new games, using digital "Quickstarts" and "Betas" to test their concepts with a wider audience and refine their products into something genuinely innovative. The "Old School Revival" movement of RPG design consciously embraces the core design principles of Basic D&D from the 1970s, emulating its best qualities while updating their rules for modern play - "Fantasy Heartbreakers" that don't actually break hearts, in other words.
Just to clarify: making a fantasy RPG inspired by Dungeons & Dragons is perfectly fine! Every modern tabletop roleplaying game, after all, is inspired by D&D to some degree. Rather than fixating on creating a completely "original" roleplaying game system, aspiring designers should embrace the spirit of innovation - immersing themselves in the rules and design principles of D&D and other RPGs, then using their knowledge to design a system that fits the game they want to play - Fantasy Heartbreaker or no.
Source: The Forge
