The Hero’s Companion and the Hero’s Grimoire
The Hero’s Companion
The Companion expands on the rule book. There are new lineages, archetypes, optional rules, new equipment, new myth point options, and new heirlooms.
Lineages and Archetypes
There are 6 new archetypes to play. First is the gnome. They are another race that are known for being wizards (max level 10), with knight, warrior, and yeoman being on the lower end (level 4 max). You can even now play as a goblin. They are great burglars (level 10 achievability), but can’t play as a knight.
Next, you can play as a rover. You run around on 4 legs and weigh 15 - 50 pounds. I like the notion of being able to play as a dog, which made it worth the purchase price (as of 12/7/2022 on DTRPG, PDF $9.99, softcover $19.99, combo $24.99, with hardcover $5 more). They can only play as 4 archetypes, the main being the yeoman. Makes sense. Dogs are good for morale.
Then there’s the Scion. Your family used to be royalty. Now you want to reclaim that birthright. You can’t be a wayfarer, but are excellent at most everything else.
You can also play as a skin-changer. 7 foot tall, 300+ pounds, and live in nature and off the land. They are natural rangers, but bard, knight, swordsman and wayfarers are a no-go.
Lastly we have treefolk. It’s exactly what it sounds like. Say ‘hi’ to Treebeard.
There are about 2 dozen new professions, and a new archetype with some variant ones. The Wayfarer is called to be a hero with little training. Ability-wise, they start slow and snowball as they level up.
Before getting into the variants, let’s talk level limits. There’s a new “house” rule in the book. You can ignore level limits, and once a character reaches its “max”, they can keep going to level 10, receiving basically 1/2 XP to reflect how difficult it is to get out of their comfort zone.
Now, the variants. There’s the Anstruth, a bard variant, that specializes in songs of nature and the fey; the knave, a burglar variant, a more deceptive one; the fey sworn, a knight variant that serves the fey; the reeve, a ranger variant, an urban protector or lawman; the archer, a warrior variant; and the scholar, a wizard variant.
Optional Rules
This chapter deals with concepts like exploring underground environs (dungeon crawl anyone?), seasons and weather, more camp options, tactics, heroic legacies, and a time of rest.
There are a couple new weapons and other items included, of which firearms are one, as well as gunsmith as a new profession.
The next chapter gives new uses for spending myth points, and rules for questing for myth points. The last chapter includes heirlooms for the lineages introduced.
The Hero’s Grimoire
The Hero’s Grimoire is a collection of the spells from the rule book plus 6 new spells. It’s designed for multiple sets of the spell list to be on the table. Price as of 12/7/2022 on DTRPG: PDF $3.99, softbound $8.99, and $9.99 for the combo.
I should also add that everything except By Feather & Coop I received as PDF during the Kickstarter and decided to get a print copy of after the fact so I could have a physical copy on the table,