ION Heart is a Lo-Fi Solo Mech TTRPG. Relax into your own story of interstellar exploration. Create a pilot and their mech best friend and sail the stars with. Discover planets, solar systems and cultures of your own making in the peaceful galaxy of the Astral Union. 


ION Heart is all about searching for your place in the universe. Your mech has been many things across its existence: From a weapon of war to a circus juggler, it has led many lives with many pilots. Your job as a pilot is to bond with your mech as you explore together and find a home for you both in the stars wherever your path may take you.

Stories in ION Heart take place as you explore the Astral Union. A peaceful conglomerate of cultures that spans the galaxy - one in which war had previously raged for millennia. Until now that is. All inhabitants of the galaxy united against a common foe - The Nephilim Colossi.


These creatures were an entropic all-consuming force from the depths of space set on destruction of the galaxy. After a combined effort rose up to repel the threat to their very existence the shaky coalition evolved into the Astral Union.

The fighting forces of various factions all took advantage of pioneering mech technology. Piloting giant robots into battle powered by their human bonded AI system the ION Core. Now the war is over and people have returned to their normal lives alongside their trusted mech companions. But with no wars to fight what place is there for a giant robot in a peaceful universe?

In ION Heart you'll be creating two characters, a pilot & a mech, the loveable duo you'll play as they adventure around the Astral Union together. Pilots will have their own origin and skills with a variety of different cultures to draw from. Agile and diplomatic Mo'Nau, wise and innovative Kirvae, industrious and resilient Urvon, there are many lives your pilot could have led up til now.

Much like the inhabitants of the Astral Union, mechs come in all shapes and sizes. Although most mechs were built originally with war as their primary function, most have now been modified for peaceful purposes, from construction worker to cattle herder. You'll have many choice to make when creating your mech including its previous functions, chassis size, and upgrades.

You'll also modify your mech as the story goes on. The more in bonded you become with your mech the more its ION Core can do. As you and your mech grow closer, your mech will level up unlocking not only physical upgrades but also uncovering memories of its past lives and pilots.

Once you've built your dynamic duo it's time to start exploring. ION Heart has two main story mechanics which are Settlements and Story Circuits. When you start a story in ION Heart you must create a planet, and on that planet a Settlement. This will be you narrative home base for your explorations on that planet. From the Settlement you can go out exploring, interact with inhabitants to fulfil your pilot and mech's needs, and begin Story Circuits.

Story Circuits are self contained narratives for you pilot & mech to explore. These can be anything from helping the local farmers solve their disappearing mega-sheep mystery to attending a war memorial for the fallen. Each circuit has 6 nodes (story events), 5 which can be played in any order and then a finale which can be played after at least 3 events have been completed.

The ION Heart crowdfunding campaign will create everything you'll need to explore the Astral Union with your robot best friend.

The ION Heart Pilot's Handbook is your guide to the Astral Union and all those who live in it. It contains everything you need to play including:

This will be available as both a physical A5 Hardcover book or digital pdf.

ION Heart Remembrance will expand the play experience found in the Pilot's Handbook as players are encouraged to explore the solar system in which the final battle of the great war took place.

This will be available as both a physical A5 Hardcover book or digital pdf.

You'll need somewhere to log your adventures in the Astral Union. The Pilot's Logbook is the perfect place to keep track of your journey along with how your pilot and mech are feeling. This will include character sheets and plenty of space to document your travels in the stars.

This will be available as both physical softcover book or digital pdf.

Roll with interplanetary style with the custom engraved ION Heart Dice Pack. This dice set contain 12x 6 sided dice with colours to match both pilot and mech skills in the game.

A toolkit is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar robot pilot can have. So we created one to enhance your journeys in the Astral Union and packed it full with:

This box set is going to be a limited run so make sure to grab it during the launch!

The Astral Union is an expansive place and we need your help to explore it. As more of you begin to explore the galaxy with us our ION Core will unlock more memories and more stretch goal for us to add.

Ben is an award winning artist and game designer, and the creator of ION Heart. Before working in the tabletop space he had a career as a motion graphic designer working in branding and marketing. He has a love of grimdark miniature wargames, but also wanted to create a more optimistic world in the form of ION Heart. Ben combines his background in graphic design and love of comics and anime to create the game’s distinctive art style.

Charlie is an award winning writer, game designer, and lover of kaiju. The chance to create a peaceful project all about lovely mecha was too great an opportunity not to be part of. With nearly a decade of experience in film and TV he has taken his nouse for large projects on the big screen and brought them to the tabletop.

Barney is an award winning game designer, writer and intergalactic co-ordinator for ION Heart. Having a long term love for big anime robots and sci-fi galavanting ION Heart has been a dream to work on.

He is also our Production Manager keeping a watchful eye over manufacture and logistics to make sure everything is made to the highest quality. Barney’s decade of Tabletop Industry experience at the helm of a local game store has given him key insights into the type of games players want and a passion to make them come to life!

See the map above for our current estimated shipping prices to all regions for Mech Pilot pledges. We are aiming to get lower prices for Physical Explorer pledges. Please be aware that these prices are subject to change as international shipping conditions shift. Shipping and any applicable taxes will be charged during the pledge manager after the campaign ends.

We're teaming up with a number of global fulfilment centres to get the best possible prices for worldwide shipping. Depending upon where your rewards are being shipped, you may be liable to pay customs charges on your package. However, we’ve currently secured customs-friendly shipping for the US, CA, EU, and UK.

As we're sure you all know, global shipping and manufacturing chains have become slightly more unpredictable since COVID-19 (although it has gotten alot better recently). As a result, we have been conservative with our estimation for shipping times of Physical Rewards. We hope to get them out a little faster but the world is a tumultuous place. To guarantee as accurate prices at the time of fulfilment, we will be working with Backerkit to collect all shipping fees and taxes after the campaign through their pledge manager.

Long-lasting design

The core ION Heart books are only available in high quality hardback. We know roleplaying books can take a beating if you travel a lot to play so we wanted to make sure we would make something that would last as you explore the galaxy. 

Our books are printed at an FSC supply chain certified printers to ensure that our books come from responsibly sourced and managed forests.

We work with book suppliers in the EU who guarantee to make their printing process as ecological as possible. Reducing paper wastage to make sure only what is needed is used.

We are taking steps to reduce the movements of goods as much as possible and manufacturing small batch items in country where possible. This will help us reduce excess movement of products as much as we can whilst still being able to get copies of the game to a global audience.

We wanted to give players to option to play without having to own anything physical. We have made PDF versions of all the game books, a player’s record can be entirely digital as well meaning nothing need be consumed in order to play should you so choose.