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Heirs to Heresy: The Fall of the Knights Templar: A Roleplaying Game
You are one of the thirty Knights Templar who awoke on Friday, 13 October 1307, only to find themselves wanted criminals and branded heretics by the King of France. Abandoned by the Vatican and sent away early in the morning, you must leave Paris on a day of reckoning and try to find your way across a dark, mythic Europe to a mystical utopia where you can rebuild!Heirs to Heresy starts as a historical-fantasy roleplaying game, but is heavily influenced by Gnosticism, European Folklore, esotericism, and the myths and legends that surround the Templars. The game will ask you to craft the secrets of the Templar treasure, the enemies, and mysteries they will face, as your Knights undertake a mystical journey to the center of themselves along the road to Avallonis.The mechanics are a blend of narrative, storytelling rules, and classic adventure-gaming inspired roleplaying rules that work to create rich aspect-driven characters. As Templar Knights, your skill at arms is unquestionable, but it is the potential access to gnostic spells, unique powers, or intensely powerful faith sets you apart from your comrades.Can you tap into your potential, guarding the mysterious Templar treasure on this last quest you will take for the order and find the answer to the burning are the Templars Heirs to Heresy?
- GenresRole Playing Games
295 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 28, 2021
2 people are currently reading
7 people want to read
About the author
Alan Bahr
51 books15 followersAlan Bahr is the lead designer and founder of Gallant Knight Games. A game designer best known for the TinyD6 line of games, along with other games such as Cold Shadows, For Coin & Blood, Planet Mercenary, and many others, Alan has been working in the game industry since 2015.
He’s an avid fan of Noir films, Arthurian mythos, smooth jazz, clever role-playing games, and his amazing wife.
He’s an avid fan of Noir films, Arthurian mythos, smooth jazz, clever role-playing games, and his amazing wife.
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December 2, 2022Bought on the recommendation of Stu Horvath at Vintage RPG and I'm very curious about this book, but not yet sold on it, for a mix of reasons, some purely personal. I mean, most are probably personal, but there's some that I can clearly identify.
That is, the premise of this game is that you are Knights Templar during the fall of the Knights Templar, on the run from Paris in 1307 after King Philip IV's declaration of your order's heresy, and needing to get some of your Templar treasure into safe hands. That's kind of a bang-up premise for a game, right up there with any game based on Xenophon's anabasis of the 10000. (That is, a Greek mercenary army unit stranded behind enemy lines and needing to get to safe harbor.) You've got your limited resources (there are only 30 possible knights, so if your character dies, another can take their place -- until you run out of all 30); you've got your clear danger (you are wanted by the state and the church, such as they are); and you've got clear goals (get the treasure to safety, get to safety).
Now, what's that treasure and where is safety? Those are questions that are up for the particular GM (and potentially players) to figure out, so it could be anything from regular gold and jewels to magic artifacts, which I like -- up to a point. That is, if you give me a game and say "here's a game about resolving love affairs" but all the rules are about fighting, I'm going to think this is a game about fighting. Similarly, "you can play this in a gritty mode by just ignoring the large number of pages dedicated to fantasy/magic" makes me feel like what you really want me to play is a game of knights getting the Seal of Solomon out of France.
Similarly, the "What's the real truth of the Templars?" section offers some interesting options, but there's a big tonal difference between "you are good Christian warriors framed for a crime for purely political and venal reasons" and "you are the heirs to demon worship."
Which gets me to my real and probably very personal question about this game: I love the premise of "you are hunted fugitives with potentially great power" -- because you are trained knights so a lot of combat in the world isn't really that threatening to you -- but I feel weird about centering the experience of crusaders who have access to Faith-based powers. Or... hold on, let me rethink how I say this:
What do the PCs do in this game? What is the core activity?
The first adventure in the rulebook is "Flight from Paris", which is nicely set up to give the players a chance to interact with the rules -- here's a fight with a mob, here's a fight with a French knight, here's a contested roll to hold a door closed -- and also gives them the mission, with Grand Master de Molay giving the PCs treasure and a destination. But what comes next? There's rules about how the PCs gain or lose "pursuit points" (shades of Grand Theft Auto or Night's Black Agents gaining "heat"), and there's rules about how the PCs can travel and possibly get tracked/stumble across enemies. So is that the core activity? You travel, you stumble into danger, you fight your way out? Or is there a chance of this becoming The Incredible Hulk / The A-Team, with your hunted PCs stumbling into adventures and relationships while they try to stay ahead of the law?
That latter seems to me to be the more interesting and fruitful, like a Grail / Arthurian structure, with the PCs fighting off a giant on the road or freeing a town from a fairy incursion.
But I can't help but wonder, what if the PCs try to take shelter in the Jewish quarter of Paris or meet up with some fugitive Cathars -- do these groups of people have access to Faith powers? Do other Catholics that are hunting the Templars? Or put another way: what does your power set say about the metaphysics of the universe?
I'm still thinking about this, I have some worries and thoughts, but I really like the central premise, and also, I really like how friendly this book is to new players, and also how much it rejects the hate groups that have taken the Templar iconography for themselves.
Lastly: there's a fair number of typos for such a nice little book.
That is, the premise of this game is that you are Knights Templar during the fall of the Knights Templar, on the run from Paris in 1307 after King Philip IV's declaration of your order's heresy, and needing to get some of your Templar treasure into safe hands. That's kind of a bang-up premise for a game, right up there with any game based on Xenophon's anabasis of the 10000. (That is, a Greek mercenary army unit stranded behind enemy lines and needing to get to safe harbor.) You've got your limited resources (there are only 30 possible knights, so if your character dies, another can take their place -- until you run out of all 30); you've got your clear danger (you are wanted by the state and the church, such as they are); and you've got clear goals (get the treasure to safety, get to safety).
Now, what's that treasure and where is safety? Those are questions that are up for the particular GM (and potentially players) to figure out, so it could be anything from regular gold and jewels to magic artifacts, which I like -- up to a point. That is, if you give me a game and say "here's a game about resolving love affairs" but all the rules are about fighting, I'm going to think this is a game about fighting. Similarly, "you can play this in a gritty mode by just ignoring the large number of pages dedicated to fantasy/magic" makes me feel like what you really want me to play is a game of knights getting the Seal of Solomon out of France.
Similarly, the "What's the real truth of the Templars?" section offers some interesting options, but there's a big tonal difference between "you are good Christian warriors framed for a crime for purely political and venal reasons" and "you are the heirs to demon worship."
Which gets me to my real and probably very personal question about this game: I love the premise of "you are hunted fugitives with potentially great power" -- because you are trained knights so a lot of combat in the world isn't really that threatening to you -- but I feel weird about centering the experience of crusaders who have access to Faith-based powers. Or... hold on, let me rethink how I say this:
What do the PCs do in this game? What is the core activity?
The first adventure in the rulebook is "Flight from Paris", which is nicely set up to give the players a chance to interact with the rules -- here's a fight with a mob, here's a fight with a French knight, here's a contested roll to hold a door closed -- and also gives them the mission, with Grand Master de Molay giving the PCs treasure and a destination. But what comes next? There's rules about how the PCs gain or lose "pursuit points" (shades of Grand Theft Auto or Night's Black Agents gaining "heat"), and there's rules about how the PCs can travel and possibly get tracked/stumble across enemies. So is that the core activity? You travel, you stumble into danger, you fight your way out? Or is there a chance of this becoming The Incredible Hulk / The A-Team, with your hunted PCs stumbling into adventures and relationships while they try to stay ahead of the law?
That latter seems to me to be the more interesting and fruitful, like a Grail / Arthurian structure, with the PCs fighting off a giant on the road or freeing a town from a fairy incursion.
But I can't help but wonder, what if the PCs try to take shelter in the Jewish quarter of Paris or meet up with some fugitive Cathars -- do these groups of people have access to Faith powers? Do other Catholics that are hunting the Templars? Or put another way: what does your power set say about the metaphysics of the universe?
I'm still thinking about this, I have some worries and thoughts, but I really like the central premise, and also, I really like how friendly this book is to new players, and also how much it rejects the hate groups that have taken the Templar iconography for themselves.
Lastly: there's a fair number of typos for such a nice little book.
January 3, 2023
Great premise with a very open toolset to mold to game to fit your group's playstyle. I like the idea of a focused system and campaign, it has more legs than a one-shot, but aims for a narrative endpoint before the game could become stale.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews