itch.io

So the short answer is not currently~

The long answer is Ver Zero represents a fairly complete "idea" of Steel Hearts, but one that suffered from dice bloat and design decisions carried over from previous projects and 4+ years of revisions, playtesting and over tuning. The game has a lot of ideas that are "smart" and "neat" but for my tastes they don't add up to the kind of fun and feel I was looking for - In the 2 (?!) years since its release I'd say my design and layout chops have all drastically improved (and are still getting better!) not to mention the fact that my art skills are also coming along (all the art costs were a huge reason this project stalled out because I was spending countless hours art directing and paying out of pocket for all of it etc etc - When I learn to draw mechs quickly this games getting so much more art). I don't think I'll return to Ver. Zero as it is for now, the problems I have with it run a little too deep for revisions to fix, but I don't want to deprive the people who like this system access to it. What Steel Hearts needs is a complete ground-up rework that'll likely look and play pretty different (various proof of concepts for which exist involving everything from combined arms skirmish warfare to hex grid where facing matters and your maneuver part determines where you can boost). Kinetics and character remain a focus, but you may not see pools of 12+ d6s and synergy and stratagem cards.

Ver Zero as a game feels fleshed out enough (and free to boot) that I'm happy to have it out there in the world for people who want to mess around with it, and I am still very proud of the game and the scale it is (esp for a hobby project) even if it's rough around the edges.

I hope that answers your question // let me know if there's anything else I can clarify!

They've made an official statement too https://itch.io/updates/update-on-nsfw-content ((and a rather cowardly one at that)) - As always it's their business so it's their right to handle it how they'd like (and mine to take my works elsewhere ~))

Yeah! It's happening to quite a few fellow developers, including the one who inspired this game Eclipse: https://bsky.app/profile/eclipse.gay/post/3luomriyy5c2b

There's also reports of payouts getting frozen - It's been a stark and cold reminder: https://bsky.app/profile/daff.space/post/3luolkqglj22c 

By bimbos, for bimbos. A masterpiece through and through. Excited to see where this goes as the classes and setting are *chef's kiss*

Unnerving, resonant and endlessly clever - This is the kind of work that'll haunt game design discussions for years to come the same way it'll haunt my brain for the rest of the month.

Endlessly excited for the finished product and endlessly delighted by its current version ~

Thank you so much for the kind words!! I'm glad it resonated and I'd love to come back to the cruel world of Paradise City some day ~

Exactingly simple and stingingly melancholic

Ahhh unfortunately Affinity Publisher still doesn't have the ability to make PDFs form fillable 3: If it ever adds that feature I'll be sure to update this!

((Also for what it's worth the Next Big Thing(TM) is low-key a test bed for some various ideas -- I've kept thinking of doing a complete overhaul of the game and its mechanics, including testing new movement mechanics, better systematizing elements of combat, and general making it scalable for a combined arms feel [[My next Steel Hearts campaign is going to start with just Jets and Tanks and then move to MECs]] so the next version might be REALLY different too - Dice bloat is a huge thing that's been killing me and my personal taste, and I've also grown increasingly fond of lighter weight games - Squaring the circle of that with Steel Hearts remains a Process(TM) but one that I am legitimately really excited to revisit eventually ((but that's a hard and long eventually)) - Getting Ver Zero out though was huge for proving the concept generally works!))

My hearts not been in it recently TBH T^T Like any creative project it'll never truly die nor truly be complete, but I wouldn't hold your breath for a while - Between work and house hunting and various hobbies and projects, I probably won't be touching this again until I feel the desire to run my next campaign of it.

I've worked through various re-iterations, but I think I want to work on another Big Thing(TM) (and similarly run another Big CampaignTM) before coming back to this one for BEEG update (especially as I continue to learn new layout and formating tricks and realize a lot of stuff needs to be reformatted, which is a lot of work for a project that [lovingly] put me down 6k)- I am curious which updates you're most anticipating because I honestly might have some WIPs I can let you in on >.>

Inspiring and inspired ~ Waste World is the perfect jumping off point to dive into impromptu trash adventures. The prose help build a solid image (and smell) of a world churning in junk and the scavenging rules are super neat too!

Tense, tantalizing and tactile ~ This game captures a distinctly "New England" vibe underpinning its brilliantly mechanically realized cat-and-mouse eroticism (with just a pinch of meta-textual 'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead' vibes to round it out)

Stellar little procedure that I will absolutely be using in the future! The roll tables are truly thoughtful and great at delivering camp and crunch in equal measure ~

"How unlucky for us, to be alive in the latest end of the world…"

Bold layout, strong prose, gripping premise, with super interesting mechanics that tie brilliantly with the game's themes ~ This game rocks! (pun slightly intended)

Thank you so much!! I'm hoping to do a few more like this eventually so stay tuned >:3

OMG thank you so much for this amazing review (("When the game hits cyberpunk beats, it hits them in the same way you might apply a hammer to a kneecap." is a pull quote I'd love to use if you're comfortable with it!!)) and I definitely feel like this game is hitting all the right cords based off your reactions!

The good news is (especially because I want to run this with my less hornily inclined friends) this is just the start!! My plan (hope?) is to make a couple other of these zines over the coming months, specifically starting with a remake of Burnout Reaper (subbing in Horny for Gory) in this style, then moving on to one about delivery drivers (subbing in both the horny for pizza-lensed reflection on the samsara). Which is why it often uses "Worker" instead of "Angel" - My pipedream is you can use a handful of these zines to mash a bunch of these types of characters together in the same grim "far-future" world!

Dripping with flavor, leaking with brilliant ideas, filled to the brim with tantalizing horrors and brutally relatable writing.

Someone finally cracked the code on enticing social mechanics in games ~ ((Also emergent erotic bug gameplay is making my week ~))

Thank you so much for saying this, it's awesome to hear this got you excited and inspired to run stuff again!! :) ((And glad you enjoyed the Nexus Mods page haha ~ That website will forever be imprinted in the "RPG" section of my brain haha))

Thank you so much 🙏 I'd love to put together more aids like this together in the future ^^

Deeply funny and arrestingly sweet in its earnestness - Like all good relationships, this game doesn't take itself too seriously but has a lot of heart

Sounds good!! Absolutely adore this game and its systems BTW ~ Very very excited to own it in print at some point!

Hiya! It says the game is available for print through DTRPG, but it only looks like the PDF is available? Any chance a second print run will happen?

It's been good! Busy and lots of personal life stuff happening but good! Next version probably won't be ready for a while (doubt before 2025 with how ambitious it's gotten) - I really should post some of the preview stuff soon, but I don't want to show stuff that won't actually hit the next version.

Also I absolutely ADORE this kind of mechanic!! One of my favorite boss encounters I've run involved a fake-out death, and this is a glorious way of systemizing it to create both tension and drama!!

Slow going! I haven't truthfully touched Steel Hearts in a while - Been working tons, settling health issues, and using smaller projects to hone my layout skills / test bed ideas for how I want to do GM side stuff. It may be a long while before I touch this game again BUT given its relatively stable state I'm pretty happy letting it sit for a bit.

Thank you so much for reading! I'm glad you enjoyed it ~

Thank you so much! And you definitely should! It feels like a lot of us but a lot of love, energy and great ideas into projects that fizzle out and it felt v good to at least put those abandoned works out there in a way that can be referred back to ~

(1.1) Re; Improvised Actions (and again it's GM discretion so if you feel it adds some texture to your game to not run them like this go for it) - For me it feels like a more than worthy trade-off.

Basic ATKs are a keyworded ability that Generate Synergy for yourself and allies that can be proced by or help proc conditions on Stratagems and Parts (also to my memory each of them has an Element allowing for even more combo potential) - The "cost" Players pay in terms of Credits to get a Part usually gives them more than just a Basic ATK too.

Meanwhile for an Improvised Action a Player has to describe and set a whole scene that's interesting or convincing enough for me the GM to start handing them comparable DMG (and the GM would have to be in an extra generous mood to pepper in some SYN for the teammates) that still doesn't interact with the system as deeply as Basic ATKs - In all my years of running Improv Actions as described Improv Actions have almost always been used as a last resort when either a Basic ATK would be impossible (usually do to Part Breaks) or when a specific Effect needs to get slapped on that no one has a Stratagem up for. ((Or when something like "Scoop Up the Tank" or "Weld Myself to the Enemy" gets brought up that I'm like "OK this falls firmly in the "Other" Category.)) I also say this as someone who did a whole "hits and kicks" Basic ATK build on the other side of the table because there are some nasty part Combos between extra dice, switching elements, comboing into Stratagems etc - I love Basic ATKs and I would honestly be bewildered by anyone who thought an Improv Action was giving them nearly as much DMG (not to mention SYN) as I was shelling out with those builds.

If given all this a Player still felt they didn't want to use a Basic ATK vs just continuing to describe unique Actions for less combo-y DMG and no SYN to themselves, I'd honestly let them just keep using Improv Actions because it wouldn't meaningfully harm any balance I'm going for and would likely just lead to a lot of flavorful descriptions from that Player. If that Player ever complained they felt their Improv Actions weren't doing enough, I'd remind them an alternative utility exists :p And if any Player felt legitimately cheated by another player dolling out basic roll DMG for describing stuff I'd probably have a sit down with them about what they're actually looking to get out of the game and why they feel someone mildly succeeding via creativity is hurting their game experience and we'd try to figure something out.

(1.2) Oh I get ya! I mean yeah Stat Scaling just /is/ just how most Stratagems with Rolls work - A flat non-rolled bonus could be interesting but yeah that's less the flavor I'm going for because it'd probably be hell to balance appropriately. ((Unless different Parts gave you Hull based off different Stats which could be interesting, but also at that point every MEC is just operating the same and only nominally different which I'm already worried the game has too much of))

(3) Yeyeyey ~ It's different strokes for different folks - I think a LOT of Steel Hearts' mechanics (intentionally) grind up against a more BattleTechy idea of system balance and equilibrium which is absolutely not going to be everyone's flavor.

So the way that I've ruled these Part Breaks ((Which will deffo be on the page that talks about Empty Part Slots)) is as follows:

When taking an Extra Part you must mark that Part as being attached to the Core. When Rolling a Part Break do so as normal, Extra Parts only become part of the equation if the Core is rolled. IF the Core IS rolled and Broken /all/ Extra Parts attached to it become inaccessible / unusable until Pilots perform a Repair.

For an even Scrappier Game: When the Part attached to an Extra Part breaks have the Pilot Call Evens or Odds for each Extra Part. If they are wrong the Extra Part also Breaks. If they're right it merely becomes inaccessible as described above.

While a bit punishing taking extra parts is incredibly powerful, so this feels like a fair trade-off. Breaks are supposed to really hurt when they start to go through putting Pilots into a potential death spiral, so losing access to all the Extra Gear you were able to bring makes sense to me.

(1.1) Yeah I think you're still not quite understanding what improvised attacks are for (which is perfectly reasonable because they need a more thorough explanation as it's a wide umbrella). On the one hand it can be as simple as "My MEC lost all its attack parts, I slam into the enemy with DUR" at which point I might rule Hit = 1 DMG. It also might be something like a player saying "I shoot down some stalactites to slow down my enemy" for which I might rule that the player needs to get 8+ hits on a FIN roll and then they can cause Stuck and deal 3 Direct Damage.

The key words here are "I might rule" though - Improvised actions is where the system goes pretty hands off and asks for GM fiat to step in (After all, if it wasn't the sort of game that needed a GM it would just be a video game). Improvised Actions (and Attacks) is an explicit rule to say "You can use your actions for things that don't have an explicit rule."

(1.2) Yeeeeah I really should nix the MOB scaling... I'm not sure what you mean by Stat contributions can be the effect of specific Parts, Stratagems, or Perks - Since there are Perks and Parts that explicitly boost your Stats though? (Be it Shields, Armor, any of the core ones etc)

(2) Hull could work too (And I definitely prefer it to Armor, and it's vague enough to feel appropriate) 

(3) I understand your argument, and were the goal of this game to have each part be more similar in utility then I might consider it, but you mostly lost me when you argue there's a bad kind of variety (To me the only bad variety is if a Part was like "Hey here's 10 billion DMG for free" not "Hey this part is hella niche" especially given there's nearly 200 of 'em having some mechanical outliers is good). The Chances aren't changing any time soon and I really don't think they need a separate keyword when their mechanics (a certain condition must be fulfilled for this side of the card to proc) all work the same. You're definitely allowed to dislike those parts or think they're too risky (heck I wouldn't feel like I was achieving my goals if people weren't split on how good certain parts were) but changing the keyword feels unnecessary TBH. [[And similarly if you feel "punished" by Third Time's the Charm, I'd advise taking another part - That Chance has a very strong anti-boss utility and the main component doubles as some nice mid-range ad clear - And at 5-2 the part is practically a steal]]

 I really like their balance and niche as they stand. They have incredibly valuable effects ((True Charge essentially giving you an extra burst of movement + an extra attack on top of the DMG+move you got last turn from Charged Slash, and Giga Blast having an incredibly generous range)) and frankly, as someone who's played the game on both sides, Charged Slash is in an especially solid place (I used the crap out of it and has honestly been worried that it's too strong - especially with how fiercely it combos with Topple [especially if you have both charges up  and Unrelenting, it's all but guaranteed] - Which trust me if you build into either of these abilities even as a single MEC you have more control than you may think - even if you have to work harder for it [[which is why they have a higher payoff]). Their Set-up to Pay-off ratio feels solid (if not comparatively generous) and if you're the kind of player who doesn't feel like it's worth it, that should be your signal to build into something else ((much like how I have players who try not to take abilities that operate off of doubles/triples instead of the ramps that scale off of dice)).

Inevitably there's going to be parts and mechanics that people want to see seasoned to their own personal taste and it's a reason I encourage GMs to make the MEC Shop their own if they feel there's something lacking, but when it comes to Chances I feel like those are in an especially good spot for how I run things at my table and the experience I was looking to craft. As always folks are welcome to mod the game to feel more "balanced" or however they want it, but for me the game feel is what's most important and all the Chances you mentioned feel like they're capturing their respective kinetics perfectly. 

As an aside, I will warn you that if you're going into this looking for a balanced war-gamey strategic experience as opposed to grid-based turn-based stylish action house rules you're going to be sorely disappointed by what's on offer here. The game is unique, asymmetrical, and (especially when you start getting into all the wild stack order stuff you can do) pretty variable in the ways it lets you build and play. There's some parts that I've had some play-testers insist are actively useless and some (including ones you're suggesting are too unreliable) that I've been told are way too powerful and too reliable to be left in the game without nerfing them. Presently (minus some potential minion tweaking) I really think the parts/stratagems available are right where I want them to be, which definitely won't be for everyone, but for the people who it is for they'll feel just right.

(1) MEC Stat Involvement (and why it got dropped)

So firstly, no one understood improvised attacks which is why it's getting a full page in 0.14 - The idea is you can use any stat, it's your reminder that this isn't a board game and you can do anything so feel free to just roll some dice and see what happens as long as the GM is cool with it.

DUR used to contribute to Armor for years and pretty much towards the final iteration I decided to cut it. Reason being it became an instant pick in a game with no healing - More Armor means more SYN you can pull for Overheats, more survivability, etc etc. Pair this with DUR usually having defensive stratagems and it was just a no-brainer. It's also why Shields got some late game counter-play.

I actually had played with COMs affecting shields for a while, but similarly the scaling felt... off. Not bad necessarily but not what I was going for. The game feels sufficiently complex as it is, so I didn't want to add too much scaling with stats (which is mostly where Perks come in to pick up some of that slack).

There were plans to strip out MOB from contributing to Max Speed which I still consider now and then, but a fair few things would need some rejiggering - It is a big outlier at this point so I honestly might do that.


(2) Integrity vs Max Armor -- So the reason here (which is hella subject to change) is the idea that people were getting confused what "losing armor" meant in the context of the fiction etc etc - TBH if I were to go through and change things I'd probably have Integrity / Damage as the two (or something to similar effect) - Or Max/Current Integrity etc - This is mainly a hold over of "Armor" having a lot of pre-existing connotations in games and why I'd honestly prefer to drop the term "Armor" altogether (Which I might!)

(3) So the whole idea with Chances is that they're gambles, and there's a reason those two Stratagems are exceptional (we like some ~variety~) - They're heavy set-up with heavy pay-off, but require a level of commitment that changes how you have to play (or requires you to wait for the right opportunity to strike / teammates to assist) - Both heavily favor actually using "Stuck" and other enemy movement manipulation stuff which is why I really like them!~ [[Plus in the case of Charged Slash you still get an attack out of it either way, you just get an extra damage blast and some movement if the enemy is close at the start of the next round -- Might need to clarify that better in the text]]

As for multiple Action Cost abilities I think that could be very neat for new MECs! (Though I'd have to consider balance and such) - There's a cool potential with 3-4 Action Cost abilities because (depending on how your cycle works out) you could theoretically do those in one phase buuuuut that lands in a realm of sufficiently fiddly that I probably wouldn't jump for it ((Similarly I'd require both Action Points to be spent at once to proc a 2 Action Cost Stratagem - Could be cool to combining a Flash Action and Normal Action to do one when you only have one Action Point))

Thank you again for all this awesome feedback!!

Ahhh yeah there's a few parts that have errors / vestigial bits of what their old Stats used to be ((So Guided Spear would just be TOR/COM across the board) - The reason I dropped splitting things out too much was to hone in on a level of simplicity that felt more approachable (and evened out Stat balance across the parts). In the case of Beast Tamer I think the whole MEC used to be DUR/MOB before getting switched a few months before 0.1 released - And yeah I definitely want to add a Focus Glossary of some kind. 

Re; Stat Boost, I was actually thinking about that last night! (So that's very good feedback that it might actually be worth changing) Tuning might be a good replacement word too, might even use it! In terms of certain Stat Boosts being In-Line with each other and others not, the main thinking there was the desire to split off boosts to your DMG Stats vs Basic stuff like Speed/Soak/Armor etc - Generally I find it a little better for readability ((Often the only time these things will go in-line with each other will be to save space if absolutely needed)) - I'll definitely do some thinking on that presentation though.

Re; re; any feedback pre-01.4 I'm pretty open to any feedback! (Just know it may take a while or as you said may already be on the docket) - If it's balance tuning a LOT of stuff is still subject to change and rejiggering (and also as I've had to clarify in the past, the game's balance favors feel over any degree of wargamey-fairness - The big thing I try to avoid is any "instant pick" parts that are just too good not to go for, but most (most) of those have gotten stamped out - especially because so much of the game's difficulty comes from familiarity with systems and moment-to-moment choices even a "beginner" encounter could wipe one party while being a breeze for another- I think it's why I'm really hammering home that these are house rules and every GM is going to need to season to the taste of their party. What I build for it is appropriate for the skill level of my tables and the way I run the game, so your mileage may vary - By my estimation the game is relatively easy and about building a super cool engine, then getting into combat and having to improvise when that combat/enemy's gimmick comes into play or when something unexpected happens... and then being a super fragile human for the rest of it that can only solve so many problems with a giant war machine...))

There's a whole laundry list of typos that need going through. Additionally (as I think was posted in one of the updates?) the main rules are getting a few extra pages to cover things like empty part slots, two-handed part breaks, going point by point on what each MEC Perk does AND on top of all that Biomes/Units and Data Packs are getting fully reworked to be more drag-and-drop friendly (Since the game works best when you're making your own bespoke encounters). But if there's rule bits you feel could use some fleshing out or more explanation let me know and I'll add it to my list!! ((And thank you again for some of (if not) the best feedback I've gotten on this game outside of my playtesters))

Sorry to triple post on your awesome work here but it got my mind absolutely buzzing - Technically the MEC Shop's layout was done waaaay long ago and desperately needed an update (especially to improve the gutters at least a bit) - So taking in your feedback and some aesthetic flares I've been wanting to try out here's a before / after of what I'm working on (ignore that I forgot to update the Knight Core's title)

Additionally - I absolutely adore the focus Glossary you put together! It feels all-at-once accessible, but also covers a lot of the most important bits!~ ((Also I need you to know I just kept saying out loud "This is so fucking cool" as I was exploring how you organized all the parts and did the glossary just ahhhhh spectacular work on this!!))

Ooooooo this is all spectacular food for thought! (And actually has me really thinking about re-designing the visuals of a few a few things) - There's definitely some vestigial design after 3+ years of dev (a good example being how big the prices are even though that's all but standardized) and focuses in general kinda fell by the wayside in favor of just getting the game done ((and I still really need to do that 0.14 editing pass cause woof the typos)).

This honestly has me wanting to repurpose that "Cost" spot for the specific "Stat" focus of each part, then replace "Focus" with like "Utility" and pick like 9 keywords that there's a glossary for and each part would likely have 2 ((Though TBH I've been considering getting rid of the "Focus" spot altogether cause I question its ultimate utility vs listing the Element and Stats the part uses for quick ref)).

It can't be said enough how cool it is to see someone deep dive into this game like you are, and this feedback is the kind of sublime "fresh eyes" constructive criticism that I really treasure ((and seriously it's amazing you got through all 180 parts - Heck writing descriptions for all of those was a huge part of why I needed to take a looooong break after getting the beta out)). Honestly this is helping motivate me to keep plugging away at 0.14, so thank you fr.

I'm speechless!! This is absolutely stellar work and I will 100% be using this if I ever run another online campaign >.>

Thank you so much for making this and I hope your Mecha adventures have been rad!!

Immaculate vibes, spectacular layout and truly exciting design all tied together with some radical prose - This game really has it all! 

I have not! Truthfully I've been hella busy with my day job and other ventures (and also am still waiting on a bit of art before I drop 0.14) - The big thing that's taking a while is I've probably scrapped and reiterated the formatting for how I want to handle data packs 2 or 3 by this point (especially in the map department) - Namely because I'm trying to figure out what utility they serve and the kind of game I want this to be (and ironically I'm finding story and map data will probably be wildly more useful than enemy data, so I want to really get that right in the same way the mechanic shop was).

For some inside baseball: In many ways Steel Hearts is house rules designed to run for bespoke campaigns customized for each table down to the enemies. As a result it's kind of tricky to release general purpose enemies and content when the best experience you'll get as a GM would be something custom tailored to your players ((and worse yet, I don't want to release a data pack that accidentally puts a GM in a position where they wipe a party due to mismatched expectations of the system and how to use a data pack etc)). However I would really like to add a whole bunch of enemies, so I may fully abandon the idea of "threat levels" and simply say "Here's a bunch of enemies that I've run in the past, how I stated them out, what they were used for" etc with the very big caveat that GMs will need to custom tailor stuff for their play groups instead of expecting enemies to work out of the box with an easy way to tell if your party is ready for it. It's simply not that type of game considering how wide the build variety can get, and how much player strategy and gameplay "skill" can turn an impossible scenario into a trivial one and vice versa.

Steel Hearts Zero was always about getting all the player functionality done,  (relatively) polished and out in the wild so that I can tell people who want to use the system (re; many of my friends and colleagues who wanted to and ended up running it) that all the player stuff is readily available! ... How the GM stuff aught to manifest is still a mystery to me because it needs to feel like something I would personally use, otherwise I'm stuck tailoring to an audience I don't understand which is a lose for all involved. 

What I should do is write another big update about all the stuff I've been tinkering with, buuuuut that'll probably wait til February when that sweet sweet cover art is done.

Thank you so so much!! Honestly your videos have been what kept my love of this project alive when I was having my doubts! I'm also chomping at the bit to dive headlong into Steel Hearts Black but I gotta get 0.14 out the door and give some other projects some love before that haha ~ Can't wait to get it done tho! (Hopefully before Monster Hunter Wilds totally takes over my free time.....)

Thank you so much for saying so!! Art can mean so much more when you're not doing it for an audience but for the love of a vision you have ^^ I'm excited for you to bring your vision to life too!

The way that this film just shot to the top of my "Watch Next" list is difficult to understate - The soundtrack is absolutely beautiful too!! Thank you so much for sharing ~