When I first laid eyes on The Hero’s Journey, the cover art was a striking homage to the green, black, and white cover art of the first version of The Hobbit I read. This game was a love letter by the author, James Spahn, to the kind of adventures told in Tolkien’s work. The characters were low level, the game focused more on the story than on slaughtering monsters and taking treasure. This was a game about adventuring.
A short couple of years alter, and the 2nd Edition was released- moving further from the Old School Renaissance rules and more toward what the author intended. In this version magic itself had left the D&D mold and become something much more atmospheric. The game had moved even more toward the kinds of adventures Spahn had in mind. It does what it was designed to do, and does so with style.
Character Creation System:
THJ2 uses random character generation, and is close, but not entirely identical to, what has become called the OSR, that Old School Renaissance I referenced above. The OSR is usually entirely or very nearly compatible with various versions of D&D, usually from 1974 to 2nd Edition. The 1980 B/X is a common version for compatibility. But for this second edition of THJ, the author decided to go where the mood and tone took him, and if that drifted from the OSR, so be it.
As such, the Attributes in the game are (generally) 3-18 as in D&D, with exceptions for Lineage (replacement for the word “race”), and are Might, Finesse, Resolve, Insight, Bearing, and Weal. But to find out what we roll for each, we’ve got to choose a Lineage first.
The list of Lineage options sets up the intended tone and feel of the game from the get-go. Changeling is the first option, but it’s Changeling in the folklore sense, rather than the were-creature or skin-changer sense. A child that has been touched by magic, or the Fey, or something. They are unnerving to animals, but often hard for people to remember as they are often ignored by other folk. Dwarves are as we expect them - and yes, even the females have beards. Elves tend more toward the forest Elf archetypes, while Half-Elves carry the charisma of their Elven half and the versatility of their Human half. Halflings are quick and extremely lucky, while Humans are versatile, quick learners, and tend to have weapon skills outside their professions. Ah, there is one more lineage that is optional, and I love it. The Errant Human. Imagine you get on a roller coaster, and during the ride it explodes and dumps you, in Ren Faire garb, into a world with airborne islands of rock and chromatic multi-headed dragons. Then this little bald guy tells you to “Fear not!” Yeah, Errant is like that.
As a tip of the hat to Mr. Spahn, I’m going to create a Halfling. As a Halfling, our character will have a bonus to thrown weapons or slings (Flick of the Wrist), the ability to become silent and invisible under the right conditions (Silent and Unseen), Advantage on Saving Throws versus fear (Sout Heart), a defense bonus due to stature (Small Size), and sharp eyes and hearing (Keen Senses). We also get the following dice pools/rolls for stats.
- Might (2d6+1): 8
- Finesse (2d6+6): 11
- Resolve (3d6): 8
- Insight (2d6+1): 9
- Bearing (3d6): 14
- Weal (2d6+6): 14
All of these rolls fall into the 7-14 range, so have no die modifier. Now, we gotta roll for Profession. A quick d100 gives us...Farmer. We start with a walking stick and (2d6x10) 90 gold pieces. Nowe referring to the Halfling Archetypes table, we see that THJ2 goes back to an old school trope of “classes” that certain “races” are better or worse at, or unable to take on at all. Halflings can’t be Wizards, they can be Knights, but may only advance to 3rd level. They can make up to 5th level at Warrior, 6th as a Swordsman, 7th as Bard, Burglar or Ranger. Finally, the Halfling can advance up to the highest level in THJ2, 10th level, as a Yeoman.
We’re going with Yeoman. What is a Yeoman? We’ll, we bring Captain Kirk coffee and personnel reports. Not really. The Yeoman is an awesome archetype that is in fact mundane. How does that work? Well, if Samwise Gamgee was a class, Yeoman would be it. The Yeoman is an average commoner who takes up a life of adventure, often to support a friend or family member. The Yeoman is a support character, stout of heart, and able to lend their inner strength and protection to their party. In fact, each day, the Yeoman chooses a party member, and that becomes the person they defend, giving them a +1 bonus to their defense. If their Charge, their protected person, drops to zero Endurance (HP), the Yeoman gets Advantage on all attack rolls in their defense. Yeomen also have the ability to draw off enemies, help avoid surprise, and resisting fear.
So, our Yeoman has an Endurance of 6, since Endurance at 1st Level is a set number equal to a full Endurance die. Interestingly, classes stop rolling for Endurance at 3rd level, receiving only a set number of Endurance each level thereafter. Our Saving Throw is 13, which isn’t too shabby, and no attack bonus.
Gear? Short blade, Brigantine armor, a small shield, that’ll do for combat equipment, and it’s kinda the best mix of effectiveness and cost we can do with the lack of martial training a Yeoman has. We’ll grab a backpack, bedroll, cloak, traveling clothes, deck of cards, fishing pole and tackle, flint and steel, a mirror, 7 days of rations, a shovel, a tent, six torches, a whetstone, and 2 waterskins. This leaves 3GP pocket money.
The Character:
Jon Littlefoot the Younger was proud of his crops, raised by his father to trend their family fields from a tender age. He and his wife Mellonie took pride in both the produce and the fine, hearty meals that resulted from it, both from Mellonie’s kitchen and the townsfolk who purchased each season’s harvest. It was a good life, of honest work in the fields punctuated by occasional trips to the pub, and evenings by the fire reading to the children.
Rumors began to trickle into the village from the Human settlements- rumors of war, and worse. Forces unfriendly to the folk of the village were marching on the human town a day’s travel north, and there was no reason to believe they’d stop there. Many of the neighbors said it wasn’t their fight, no need to involve themselves in the affairs of the tall folk. But Jon had read enough of the old books in their family’s shelves to know it was probable any invader would see the village as easy pickings. When Jon’s old friend Willem the tavernkeep dusted off his grandfather’s armor and declared he would march north to help his friends, allies, and sources of one of his popular ales, Jon knew Willem would need a friend by his side. Taking the savings from the most recent harvest, Jon purchased a modest warrior’s kit of leather backed by copper pennies, a small sword, and a human’s buckler from the junk shop that was big enough to serve as a shield for a halfling. He packed a backpack with items he had read or imagined belonged in a soldier’s kit, and met Willam on the road at daybreak. With a nod to each other, they stepped off on the northern road, their long adventure had begun.
My Thoughts:
So, this game is my favorite kind of game, a game that through art and writing just drips with the atmosphere of its intended play style. Inside this rules set you will find lower level caps, lower “hit point” totals, magic that is more fantastic and mysterious and less flash-bang and video-gamey. This game wants to be in the vein of Tolkien’s tales, and in my opinion, it succeeds brilliantly. The bones are definitely recognizable as a variation on basic D&D, but the meat on those bones is the muscle and sinew of a different kind of tale than the average dungeon crawl. The tone, the story, is king here.
I had the experience of playing this game with the author, who has over the past years become a dear friend of mine. I was gratified to see that the game was precisely what the author had intended it be- we even had (from the Companion) a tree-folk character in our group, and the experience was so very different from bog-standard D&D our group was raving about it for weeks afterward. If you are looking for something that supports that kind of feel, look no further than this game. It’s affordable, simple in mechanics, and solid in theme.
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