Today in our Ways and Means dev blog series, we take a look at the first of three new classes we're adding to Heart — the freewheeling bardic Witness. Better watch yourself! They've got a typewriter-accordion and they're not afraid to use it!
Here’s something we don’t talk about often: making new classes for a game like Heart is bloody hard.
It would be nice and easy if we could just pick a specific flavour of magic (like fire, or lightning, or ice) or a special way of killing things: like a guy who can use a sword AND cast spells, or a guy who uses swords to cast spells, or hell maybe even a guy who’s sword IS a spell (all of which are absolutely different and interesting enough concepts to build an entire character around thankyouverymuch).
Alas, Heart classes have to go and be all about themes, archetypes, and an inevitable downward spiral of self destruction leading to an explosive climax of world-altering self actualisation and annihilation… Plus there’s got to be a few jokes in there?
Makes them a bit of a headscratcher, if we’re honest.
So it’s safe to say, when we first sat in the writers room with the task of conjuring up three new classes for Ways & Means, there was a palpable sense of concern around whether we could dredge up new classes at all.
Turns out we shouldn’t have been so worried.
The first of our new classes leapt from the depths almost instantly once we started thinking about iconic dungeon delving archetypes which we hadn’t explored yet, namely the idea of what a bard would look like in the world of Destera, and not just any bard, but one willing to dive into the Heart specifically.
From that seed, the Witness was born.
The Visuals
We reached out to Felix Miall to reprise his role of bringing the Heart classes to life, as he’d done in the Heart corebook years ago. Thankfully, he accepted, and set to work developing a unique aesthetic for the Witness. We leaned heavily on the idea of the Witness as a grotty love child of a musician and a reporter – someone who’s mad enough to stand around gawping and recording all the insanity on display during the average delve, and capable of spreading the stories they collect (to varying degrees of authenticity).
Here’s some extra insight from Felix on the creation process:
Felix Miall:‘Honestly, during the rough stage I drew the dumb concertina typewriter accordion thing before the actual character. I'd like to try to make one in real life to work out how it actually functions (prediction: it won't).
Lots of little details just happen as I go - I kinda like the idea that he tried drawing scrying eyes on his glasses and camera lenses and it granted them unexpected inquisitive properties. Definitely got his gold tooth from getting smacked, too, or from falling in a pothole trying to get the perfect shot.’
The Abilities
Of course, it wouldn’t be a Heart character without some bizarre abilities to call their own. So here’s a sneak peek at the core abilities the Witness has at their ink-stained fingertips, with some commentary from Grant, who is the mad genius behind the lens.
Hell, we’ll even throw in an example minor, major, and zenith ability for you to chew on. We’re nice like that.
Grant Howitt: “Bards record and recount things. That’s the way I see ‘em, anyway, pulling on the historical context; you’re part of a culture that exists without much writing, so the best way you can hope to remember it all (and to teach it) is to put it down in a poem or song or similar. Having a Bard tag along with your party feels like it should be a shortcut to greatness cause you’ve effectively got your own hype man coming along for the ride (with deliberate and loving reference to the representation of Chaucer in 2001’s A Knight’s Tale).
Given that Heart already has Beats as a means of measuring a character’s progress through their own story, it felt sensible to key those to the Witness’ core ability - when they see a player character achieve a Beat, they get stuff. They power up. They’re kind of a cheerleader for everyone else, pushing them to roleplay and tilt towards their inevitable doom.
Inspirational is a catch-all attempt to round up “Inspire Competence” and all that low-level, almost ambient bonus stuff a D&D Bard has. You can support your team (assuming you have a broad range of skills or domains to do so) and you don’t have to faff about with the visual of singing a jaunty tune to help someone sneak or intimidate or whatever. You just pick it at the start of the session and get on with it.”
Grant Howitt: “Felix put some cameras on the class art and I decided that I had to make something of that. The Daguerreotypist ability undercuts Observer, which is all about helping people achieve their aims, and instead offers the chance to earn just as much out of it when you help them as when you stand back and take a picture. It’s a joke, effectively; the Witness runs off from the fight and sets up their big old-timey camera on a tripod and struggles to get the perfect shot. I didn’t want them to be too subservient.”
Grant Howitt: “I’m into Commedia dell’arte. Or rather: I’m into the concept of it, the whole “improv theatre along a set path with pre-prepared goofs and gags and everyone’s a stock character,” because that’s a pretty good description of most roleplaying games. (In practice it’s quite hard to find any, given that it fell out of fashion about two hundred and fifty years ago. But the idea is great, right?)
Given the often lonely nature of Heart games (when compared to the bustling metropolis of Spire), I wanted a way to bring in a recurring character. And I figured that the Heart probably has improv theatre, given the lack of a central authority to disseminate plays, so maybe the Witness can do a bit of magic and pull one of those stock characters out for a scene to help. (Is it a real person? Is it just the stock character in the flesh? Both? I dunno.)
It was fun to come up with six archetypes that threaded between a) existing commedia characters b) the average members of a delving party, because that’s most players’ frame for the fiction c) people who could scheme against one another and make an interesting story and d) someone who might be able to help out in any given Heart situation.”
Grant Howitt: “Okay so I said I was into Commedia dell’arte but I’m REALLY into memetic viruses. I love ‘em. (See: The Carnival, the Labyrinth Curse, the theatrical Arrival cult in Sin, my ongoing obsession with the King in Yellow, etc, etc.) I like how creepy they are; it’s an aspect to body horror that rarely gets poked at, but the idea of an infohazard turns my stomach in the most fascinating way. Imagine a song that could stain your consciousness so utterly that it consumes you! That’s some aelfir shit right there. And it felt natural to include one.
Anyway, this is kind of the villainous Zenith; your life is transmuted into a play that spreads like a virus. And while everyone in every future campaign can sing your title track and get some healing, it’s more that you get to transform part of the City Beneath so it’s about you. It contrasts with the other Zeniths which range from selfless (play a song so sweet you can enchant the flood and lead it away from the settlement) to cheeky (set up an interdimensional boozer). There’s some overlap with the Firebrand High Advance from Spire where you become a song of revolution, but THIS one has some rules in it. Because I’m a better designer now.”
The Witness is just one of the three new classes coming to Ways and Means. The crowdfunding campaign launches soon, so don’t forget to spread the word! Next time, we’re going to take a look at the next class – the fungus infested Blightborn.
