Open Hearth Gaming Community

I thought I should probably post about what Open Hearth is. Open Hearth is an online gaming community focused on indie RPGs, storygames, and other TTRPGs—with a commitment to safety and inclusivity.  I’m edige23 and I manage this channel for our community (that’s why there’s a lot of my stuff here).

To be a little more specific, Open Hearth Gaming Community is dedicated to supporting TTRPG players and event facilitators. We have a dedicated calendar app which we use to organize events from one-shots to series spanning months.

You can see our website here. 

We have a ton of free resources for online play, including character keepers you can use. 

We have a Community Code of Conduct (which you’re welcome to use and modify)

This is supported by a Patreon. Folks at the $4+ level have a 48-hour priority sign-up window from when events are posted. After that, anyone is welcome to sign up for sessions. Some sessions are run specifically for new players and waive that window. Full sessions have waitlists, and folks who sign up for those often end up in games.

You can check out our community gaming calendar at Playabl

All sessions are run using a layered set of safety tools and adhere to our community code of conduct.

We have a dedicated Slack for discussing and planning events on the calendar. Anyone who plays in a session with us or supports our Patreon is welcome to join.

We also have one of the largest collections of AP ttrpg videos out there, including several ttrpg talks and panels. 

There’s a lot more to what we do: we offer free gaming weekends to introduce folks to online play and new games; we have free game facilitator camps; we have regular talks and seminars on gaming; and we’re working on a relaunch of our podcast. These are all freely available to everyone and made possible by the generous support of our patrons.

A Different Kind of Hex Ep. 9 - Character Interiority

Ian, José, and special guest Elle discuss the inner worlds of our characters and of ourselves! How do we as players express interiority and why would we want to, anyways. Along the way, there are guilty confessions, moments of uncertainty, and unexpected plot twists.

Open Hearth Podcast Ep 20: Planet Raygun, Embers of the Void, A Land Once Magic

In this episode of the Open Hearth Podcast, host Tea talks with a couple of community members about their gaming. This time Amanda (Sprigs and Kindling) and Cale discuss things they recently played, cover three RPGs in more depth (Planet Raygun, Embers of the Void, and A Land Once Magic), and then the group finishes up with some things they've been digging recently.

Roll for Mutation: Post-Apocalyptic TTRPG History: Ep. 7 The End of the World

In our seventh episode of Roll for Mutation, we look at a game series originally from a Spanish publisher, translated and released in English by Fantasy Flight. We talk about mechanics, how each book is structured, and the presentation of "mid-" and "post-" apocalypse. We then talk about cross-company publication history and Fantasy Flight's swingy history with TTRPGs. Lastly we talk about some media touchstones, the five scenarios in each book, and our thoughts and impressions of this line-- including our favorite concepts.

Open Hearth Podcast Ep 19: Raccoon Sky Pirates, Capers, Traveller

In this episode of the Open Hearth Podcast, Lowell (edige23) talks with a pair of community members about their gaming. This time Chrys Sellers (Defy the Gods) and Jolene discuss things they recently played, cover three RPGs in more depth (Raccoon Sky Pirates, the Masks hack Capers, Star Wars Citizen for Mongoose Traveller 2e), Lowell worries about complexity, and then the group finishes up with some things they've been digging recently.

Talking PbtA

Powered by the Apocalypse games still remain a strong force in the indie TTRPG space and heavily represented here on the Open Hearth. For this talk we're going to consider where PbtA has been, where it is now, and where it could go. We'll talk broadly about PbtA as a system and specifically about folks' experience with different PbtA iterations. Lowell has ideas and he'll be leading this discussion group– relying mostly on the participation of folks who join us and desperately filling dead air in between points. This is part of our Open Hearth series of community RPG talks.

Shadowrun: Carrying Capacity (Transverse Noir #1)

Briefly hijacking the community feed here to promote my own stuff. The Shadowrun novella I co-wrote with Cat Rambo just released. It is the first of a planned four novellas, all with a Lit RPG spin on things.

IT’S MORE THAN JUST A GAME…

The virtual universe of Transverse Noir was Cevher’s escape from her mundane life as a low-level adept, until the game was abruptly shut down years ago when its creator, Copernicus Dusk, disappeared. So, when she awakens to find herself in the game—not as the player and fan writer SeverZ, but as herself, for real—Cevher has a lot of questions and not much time to figure out what’s going on.

With no way back to realspace, SeverZ accepts the ultimate quest: finding out how and why she ended up in the game. Now all she has is her knowledge of Transverse Noir and a smart-ass tutorial program to get her through a world where everyone and everything is trying to kill her.

But when fanfiction comes alive before her eyes, can she get out of Transverse Noir alive? And does she even want to?

Carrying Capacity is the first in a four-novella story arc that takes Shadowrun into the LitRPG genre. Written by acclaimed fiction and comic book authors Cat Rambo and Lowell Francis, this story of a game within a game is sure to delight and surprise Shadowrun fans.

Open Hearth Podcast Ep 18: Paint the Town Red, The Last Caravan, & Midnight of the Century

In this episode of the Open Hearth Podcast, Lowell talks with a couple of community members about their gaming. This time Dominik and Donogh discuss things they recently played, cover three RPGs in more depth (Paint the Town Red, The Last Caravan, & Midnight of the Century), Lowell waxes rhapsodic about a recent TPK, and then the group finishes up with some things they've been digging recently.

Roll for Origin: Supers TTRPG History: Ep. 9 Aberrant