Burning Hearts Forever Review

Burning Hearts Forever is a Powered by the Apocalypse game created by Eva Terra. The game is about using your heart to power yourself through troubled times. It has ten playbooks, but it also has six Scenarios, which can paint your game. The Scenarios are the genre space you’ll play in. The Scenarios (pulled from the itch page) are

• Afterschool Struggle: Teenagers fight shadows with the powers of their true selves to uncover a mystery that will go deep into their city’s underground.
• Fight the Pull of Gravity: Mech pilots in space fight to decide the future of humanity, or simply spend their time flirting their way ahead.
• Highways on Fire: Racers ride across the countryside to see who wins the grand Prix, while also sporting a decent amount of drama with each other, for the fans.
• Lullaby of the Last Days: An incoming calamity places you as the hero with the role to stop it and save the world.
• Part Time Magical Kid: Magical teens employed by flawed institutions fight witches and monsters while discovering the true nature of their city.
• Rocking Tour: Play as a band going on a tour, dealing with tourist traps, faulty transportation and the unforgettable nights. So we’re covering a lot of genres where a person’s inner strength can is given an external form. We’ll have to see how the implementation works because while there is a lot of overlap in the emotional cores of these genres, a general set of rules and playbooks might not work well. Let’s see.

… OK Fine, I’ll read the next page where it says some scenarios might have unique rules and change playbook moves. Fine you win.

The four principles of the game are both for the players and the Narrator

• Play Flawed Characters: You’re not playing to win, so you should take chances, make mistakes, and don’t be afraid to hurt people close to you (but with permission if it’s another player’s character).
• Say What The Rules Demand: The rules are there to impose some sort of limitations and restrictions, which can breed creativity. Sure you may have flubbed that roll with +4 by rolling snake eyes, but sometimes that’s just how it goes. This section also points out that it’s hard to have a good engaging story where nothing goes wrong.
• Say What Honesty Demands: While your character may have secrets, it’s not always smart to keep them from the table. If you lash out at another character, for seemingly no reason, make sure the other players know why that might be. Be honest with your character’s emotions and thoughts. Also be honest with how you the player is feeling.
• Play To Find Out: The almost default principle in indie games over the past 15 years. Don/‘t come in with a fully thought out story where it’s very clearly A to B to C. You can have cool ideas, but the entire table should be on board.

Burning Hearts Forever does not have space for bigotry from the player characters. At its core, it’s a game about queer women either living through the power fantasy where race and sexuality have no impact on their day to day life, no more than being right or left handed, or you it can be used as a way to fight back against oppressive systems in a safer enviornment. Due to how this can be stressful, it’s advised to do a cooldown after the session to make sure everyone is alright, especially if things get charged.

Moving onto mechanics, Burning Hearts Forever uses the Powered by the Apocalypse 2d6+STAT system, with mixed successes on 7-9, and full success on 10+. There are 5 stats that cover your basic attributes, that the game defines and gives an example of what a high number in a stat means for your character. For example, a character with a Hot of +2 or +3 is someone unforgettable who knows how to reach people.

• Daring - Bold, adventurers, and maybe reckless, Daring is your ability to take action and Get Things Done.
• Hot - Looks, charm, and charisma run Hot. You know people and can fluster them.
• Cold - Aloof, standoffish, unreadable and always keeping their cool. You may make people second guess attempts at getting to know you.
• Sharp - Clever, bright, and calculating, Sharp is the analytical side of things, letting you get a read on people and situations.
• Pulse - A special attribute, Pulse measures your emotional state and ability to affect reality. This stat will fluctuate over play. 4 regular stats, one special one. Each of the basic stats leans directly into one strong archetype of character, so by blending your statistical strengths and weaknesses, you should hopefully be able to find delightful blends.

Another major factor is your character’s Heart. Their Heart is what allows them to change the world directly. It could be a burning sword powered by their passion, a wand that channels their magic, or a giant robot that they use to protect their people. You won’t have your Heart on hand at all times, and scenes where it’s not present should be more focused on bonds, interpersonal relationships, or simmering tensions, while scenes with the Heart should be more bombastic and for lack of a better word, Dramatic. I kind of like this, I like that specific mode toggle. If you think about a Sailor Moon or Persona or Mobile Suit Gundam, lower case d dramatic stuff happens when you’re going throughout your day, powerless to really make significant change, but once it’s Go Time, you see characters steel their resolve and get to righting wrongs.

Hearts are interesting because they’re essentially a support character. They have base stats based on the form they take, which affects harm inflicted, armor provided or other tags they may had, then you add extras to it that can add other effects. Just having your Heart on your person makes you more resilient, allowing you to take more Harm before leaving a scene. You’re also advised to talk about how your Heart feels, its flaws, quirks, and other personality traits. You can even break your Hearts, in a few different ways. If your Pulse drops below -2 it breaks, if a suitable narrative event happens, or you can break it intentionally as part of a Last Stand, to act when you had your harm boxes filled. Some playbooks even let you do incredibly powerful things upon breaking your Heart. You will need to fix it during downtime by doing whatever your playbook dictates.

Strings are a decent take on Bonds. Give someone a secret or weakness or vulnerability about yourself and they can use it to bolster themselves due to the trkust you’re placing in them or to harm you. It’s neat. You’re willingly being vulnerable in order to deepend y our bonds with people.

Status effects are more taxing than I’m used to seeing in games like this too. Each of the status conditions inflicts -2 to your stat, which is a pretty hefty penalty, but in order to clear them, you have to act in a way that sort of exemplifies the condition. For example, Angry gives you a -2 to Cold rolls, because you’ve actually lost your temper, but to clear this you need to lash out destructively, either physically or verbally. I really like the Hopeless status, which lowers Pulse by 2, and to lose that status, you need to shirk responsibility and indulge in an easy relief or vice.

The structure of the game is broken down to Scenes, Sessions, Acts, and Seasons. An Act being basically a quest/mission/arc or whatever you want to call it and is compared to an episode of a TV show. But what’s interesting about a Season is that the end of the Season is triggered by someone getting 5 XP (1 XP is earned from rolling 6 or less on any roll), and indicates that the next Act is the last one of the Season. After a Season, players can change their playbook, retire their character, take an Advancement, advance some of their basic moves, or change their Heart. I really like this formatting a lot because the way this game is structured, to me, makes that 5th XP feel like it’s some dramatic turning point. If you’re straight up failing 5 rolls, it can indicate that the big struggle of this Season is rearing its head and will be dealt with. Advancing Basic Moves is cool too because that’s how you unlock the Critical effects of the move, so rolling 12+ gives an added benefit on them.

OK speaking of moves hoooly shit these are expanded from what I’m used to. All moves have a Base and Advanced options, while some have Extra. The way it works is that moves are typically 7+, pick a Base, sometimes on 10+ it’s Pick 2 base, or Pick 1 Base + 1 Extra, and on 12+ you get a Base plus one of the Advanced options. For example, Throw your Charm is roll+Hot. On a 7-9, pick 2 from the list below, 10+ pick 3.

• Reveal a Weakness: Take a String on them
• You don’t mess it up and they don’t get a String on you
• Make them Flustered, inflict Vulnerable on them
• Force them to chose one of the following: They act awkward and embarrass themselves, they promise you something they think you want, they give themselves in to you.
  The Advanced options here on a 12+ are pick one of the following, none of the Base options.
• Choose all four options from the list above
• They are completely flustered, they’re vulnerable for the rest of the scene
• Reveal a major weakness, take 3 String on them
• They fall in love with you and will do anything you ask them. If used on PCs, they gain an XP for doing that, or take -2 on rolls involving you. Vulnerable is postent because it forces someone to lower their guard, and any harm done to them ignores their Armor. If they have no Armor, they take 1 additional Harm isntead.

These moves are really interesting in that they’re really flexible, which can match the various tones of the different Scenarios. I was a bit worried how the mechanics would work with the different Scenarios, and I can see how it’s supporting them now. The moves are also really flavorful and lean into the tropes of the genres they’re playing with. I also like that some of the regular moves and the Extra moves consume Pulse. It really is this thing you have to juggle being a resource that is also a stat you roll. Having to spend Pulse to heal someone else on a 7-9 on a Sooth a Heart roll means you’re actively burning yourself out to help someone else. You’re weakening your Pulse score to help them out. Very cool.

OK, I hopped ahead because I didn’t know how you actually gained Pulse, and found my answer in the playbooks. From the 3 I looked at it basically boils down to this: At the start of an Act, you and the person who holds the most Strings on you picks one of the 4 attributes. This could be an NPC too. The first time each Scene you roll that stat, you gain +1 Pulse, up to a maximum of +3. This RULES because it means that the person who has the most Strings on you, has the leverage on your mind or relationship to force a specific aspect of you to be highlighted. This is so cool, and it encourages you to use those stats at least once per scene, even if it’s a weak one.

I want to call attention to some of the Downtime actions here. Rest and Vent are really potent. They just clear all your Harm and Conditions, respectively. These don’t roll a stat, but they roll based on the number of people helping you or listening to you. On a 9-, you give a String to everyone who helps you or listened to you. On a 6-, you end up needing more care, or say something upsetting to someone present, and your Pulse is lowered by 3 because of it, potentially leading to a broken Heart. Regardless of your result, the conditions are cleared and the harm is removed, and hey, maybe the Strings you give others will be beneficial so they gain bonuses to roll later. But also, if the people present aren’t super close with you, it could be used against you so be aware of that.

Now I’m just imagining you Venting to your mom or whatever as a high schooler and she uses this later as a guilt trip to fuck you over. Very fun and on brand.

The GM principles are mostly good, but I want to focus on a specific one: Sometimes, Disdain Decision Making. To summarize this one, it’s passing the narrative buck off to your players. Not just for their characters, but for NPCs or world events too. Ask them what they think someone would do in this situation, to see how the player views that NPC and the situation they’re in.

This game relies a lot on Trust between every participant. It also seems to demand buy in. If you’re not invested in this type of story, you are going to not get much out of it. You need to want to relish the moments where the guitarist sits alone in their room, practicing their instrument, unplugged from the world and just centering themselves. You want the moment where the pilot spends time either cleaning or even just like… living in the mess they make in the cockpit of their mech. If you have a player whose just there to spectate and pitch in more when it’s time to roll dice, this game doesn’t feel like it can carry that type of player as some other games can.

Aside, well, aside, I also like the making a Villain section, and I particularly like the mention that it can be fun to make a villain be on terrible terms with one PC, but is a mentor to another. This isn’t an idea exclusive to this game, but in a game like this it feels more likely that each player can compartmentalize that instead of going “This guy is against one of us, therefore, bad”. That’s a fun dynamic!

I tried to write a closing paragraph making some neat compact summation about why I review the way I do. What has informed the things I am drawn to in these games, and what things are novel to me. The first ever game I looked at was Shadowrun. The second, Dungeons and Dragons 3.5. How different would my outlook be if I started with Technoir, or Numenera, or Stars Without Number, or Kingdom or Lasers and Feelings. Would I have kept on with the hobby? Would I have branched out to Shadowrun eventually or just stumble into The Sprawl?

Part of me is grateful though, because my bar is so low now that I can be excited by everything. I can see the swings and assumptions people are making about the groups they’ve played in, or hell, wanted to cultivate, with these games that’s been interesting to see. Seeing Numenera and go “that’s a game of being devil may care and exploring weird places”, or seeing Ascendancy go “You were a tool of the oppressors, but no more. What will you do with that?” leads to a lot of interesting thought experiments for me.

I hope I don’t lose this low bar. I hope I don’t get jaded, or start calling everything derivative or a copy or anything like that. I hope I can keep being impressed and entranced by the order in which people construct their games.